Every time I think of an instance where it could be useful, other solutions already exist and are easier to use. That initial shock of delight at something new quickly replaced with a lingering sense of doubt over its long-term utility. The ScreenPad is one of those gee-whizz advances that looks great during press conferences but may have little real-world utility. In retrospect, all of the head-scratching about why Apple did what it did made more sense when seeing how other companies tackled the same problem. It's far simpler to see the OLED strip while keeping your eyes on the display, and it's easier to reach, too. If you don't know that Ctrl+B emboldens the text, then there's a benefit there, but you'll lose precious seconds taking your hands away from the keyboard to do so.Īnd the longer I spent trying to navigate the complicated space between my wrists and the ScreenPad, the more I forgave Apple for the Touch Bar. Then I tried to use the contextual menus in Word, but it seemed like everything I could do was better suited to a keyboard shortcut. Because my hands (and wrists) hover over the chin of the laptop to reach the keyboard, much of the screen is obscured. The first major roadblock came when I decided to type while using the ScreenPad to watch a YouTube clip. Instead, the best and most obvious use for the technology, right now, is as a numeric keypad for when you're doing some serious spreadsheetin'. Although I wouldn't recommend you moving a full-sized Word document or browser down to the 5.5-inch pad. It can also be used as a secondary display, letting you drag any window from the primary to the smaller screen. For the YouTube player, meanwhile, the playback controls are pushed to the ScreenPad to avoid cluttering the video itself. You simply have to stretch your thumb down to the trackpad and select the relevant option. For the new ZenBook Pro, there are only four apps that can take advantage of ASUS' new hardware: Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint, as well as YouTube for Chrome.įor the former, you can use the contextual shortcuts to, for instance, alter the font size or select Bold, Italic and Underline, to what you're writing. There, the company replaced the Function Row keys with a 2,170 x 60 OLED display that can offer customized buttons for specific applications. The contextual shortcuts will be familiar to anyone who's seen and used the MacBook Pro with TouchBar. It can also go in place of the Start menu to launch Windows Apps or let you goof off by sneakily watching TV at work. In the first mode, the pad can run a day-to-view calendar, control music playback and run a calculator. Or Razer's Switchblade UI on the early Blade Pros, or the Acer Ethos, or MSI's GS70 Stealth Concept from 2013.ĪSUS intends the ScreenPad to be more than just a notification window: It can run its own local apps, offer contextual commands and span the primary screen. Those with long memories will remember Windows Sideshow, Microsoft's long-dead attempt to do a similar thing with external hardware. Of course, it's worth saying that ASUS is not the first company to have tried this. Potentially, it's very useful if you want to offload tasks from your main screen to another display. The inclusion of a secondary display inside a laptop's trackpad is pretty exciting, and ASUS' engineers should be proud of achieving this feat. (This is also why I have little time for the other device ASUS announced today, a dual-touchscreen concept laptop called Project Precog.) By turning the touchpad into a touchscreen, ASUS adds another interface option - but is it a persuasive one? There is, after all, a reason the iPad Pro is only touted as a productivity machine with the addition of a real, physical, touchable keyboard. The mission to make the keyboard more malleable pretty much died with the advent of ubiquitous touchscreens, however.Īnd yet, for all the hope of abandoning real keys in favor of fingers on glass, the humble keyboard has proved hard to kill. It's why so many people lusted after the Optimus keyboards created by Russian designer Art Lebedev. The tech world has always had a fixation with making keyboards more flexible and customizable. These two technologies mean that people can both push their cursor around and interact with their laptops in a whole new way. The ScreenPad uses a Windows Precision Touchpad floating over a 5.5-inch FHD IPS display. ASUS' new ZenBook Pro has launched with one big new standout feature: a touchscreen in place of the traditional laptop trackpad.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |