HP launch multi-touch tablet PC - where is Apple's version?

Hewlett Packard quietly gets on with the business of selling an awful lot of laptops. Today it has beaten Apple to the punch with the first multi-touch laptop aimed at consumers. The HP TouchSmart tx2z tablet looks pretty impressive (although the fancy design on the casing makes it more of a coffee-shop machine than a business one). The swivel touchscreen supports a wide range of gestures including pinch, rotate, arc, flick, press and drag, and both single and double tap. The basic model costs $1,149 in the US and I am told it is also launching in the UK. For HP's demo go here. And for a review and more details go to Engadget.

Comments

[Attomole]

The technology to do this has been around years, I don't think the lack of a similar product is anything to do with a failure to innovate, I think Its more a case of a Key board and a mouse work better ergonomically, think about it.

[Ting]

Didn't know Apple were competing against HP in this space... or was it an expectation on the writer's part?

[Bruce Tingey]

Moving my finger fractions of an inch on a touch screen for hours at a time is fine. Lifting my entire arm off the desk and moving my hand through the air to operate a computer hours and hours at a time is the stupidest thing I have ever heard of. They didn't beat Apple to the punch. They just copied someone else's idea, and then got it wrong. Anyone who buys this computer is an idiot. I'm surprised your stupid enough to think it's a good idea. It's an advertising gimmick to sell computers. The stupidity of which will be apparent one hour after using it when the pain in your arm becomes worse than the embarrassment for buying it in the first place.

[Paul Howland]

Apple has had multitouch on its MacBooks for several months. The difference is Apple has chosen to implement the touch on an enlarged touchpad rather than directly on the screen. This is presumably to avoid greasy fingerprints all over the screen and arm ache from reaching out horizontally.

[Tom Taylor-Duxbury]

I have a touch screen from Apple, called the iPhone, that's about the best use of touch screen technology I can figure because it's hand sized and not intended for intensive use.
This is a dumb idea, meanwhile I wish HP would sort out it's mega glitchy printer drivers!

[juan martinez]

i want to know what do i need to pay this laptop credit card or cash and what kind of credit card do you take