Having Windows 8, the one keyword you hear most often is "touch." That means touch-screen tablets and slates, touch panels added to traditional clamshell laptops, and touch-enabled all-in-one desktops. It also refers to Microsoft's new emphasis on touch gestures for touch pads, as well as the ambitious plans component companies such as Synaptics have for touch input in Windows 8.
Computer mouse had transformed, with its left and right buttons, scroll wheel, and single optical sensor (or trackball, for the old-schoolers) has changed little over the years, aside from shedding the USB (or earlier PS/2) cable for a wireless dongle or Bluetooth. A handful of models have added touch sensors along the top or extraneous side buttons, but the basic concept is the same, and increasingly far removed from how we interact with the rest of our high-tech devices.
HP Spectre had just-announced one all-in-one. This $1,299 desktop with a 23-inch 1080p display doesn't have a touch screen, but has standalone touch pad, which matches up with an also-included wireless keyboard. Together, the pair looks an awful lot like the Apple wireless keyboard and trackpad combo sitting on my desk right now.
Apple, HP, and Vizio know now, with other PC makers and accessory companies set to join the chorus before the year is out, is that the touch pad is here to stay, and the mouse is looking more archaic than ever.
Computer mouse had transformed, with its left and right buttons, scroll wheel, and single optical sensor (or trackball, for the old-schoolers) has changed little over the years, aside from shedding the USB (or earlier PS/2) cable for a wireless dongle or Bluetooth. A handful of models have added touch sensors along the top or extraneous side buttons, but the basic concept is the same, and increasingly far removed from how we interact with the rest of our high-tech devices.
HP Spectre had just-announced one all-in-one. This $1,299 desktop with a 23-inch 1080p display doesn't have a touch screen, but has standalone touch pad, which matches up with an also-included wireless keyboard. Together, the pair looks an awful lot like the Apple wireless keyboard and trackpad combo sitting on my desk right now.
