I recently got a new Tablet PC. This one is a Lenovo ThinkPad X60. (My first ThinkPad ever!) Besides all of its cutting edge capacity (Core Duo, Vista Aero functionality, screen that can be used outdoors) it has an extra feature that I got just to satisfy my curiosity: a Touch Screen.

However the touch screen has become my favorite feature of the computer. I can't believe I have lived without it for all of my computing life. While it adds yet another "arrow in my quiver" of how I can interact with my machine, it is the simplest and most natural way of clicking on the screen.

I tend to use my right finger (I'm right handed) and also my left thumb (for things on the left, like the Start button).

In a scenario where I just want to look something up - read email, open a website that is on my favorites list and I am standing, oh .. in an airport or a hallway, I have three options:

1) Open up the computer into laptop mode, try to hold it up my left arm (or find somewhere to sit or rest it on*) and use the track mouse and keyboard with my right hand
2) Open up the computer in tablet mode; cradle it in my left arm; extract the stylus; then use the stylus to click click click
3) Open up the computer in tablet mode; hold it with both hands; use my thumb to open up the software; hold the laptop with my left hand for a moment, point with my right index finger.

Believe me, #3 is the best!!

My husband played Solitaire on my computer using just touch. (I remember Chris Sells blogging ages ago that he was writing the WPF version as a way to learn WPF. I wonder if this is his app?) That is a little more intensive since it requires a lot of double clicking and dragging. It was pretty good but not 100% satisfactory to him. But I thought it was very cool.

I have been using the tablet now for over a month and have taken it on two trips and I just keep thinking "I LOVE THIS TOUCHSCREEN!"

There is also more to it than just my ability as an end user to use this feature. There is also some programmability involved. Hilton Locke from Microsoft wrote an article for the recent CoDe Focus Mobility Issue called "Introduction to Windows Touch Technology in Windows Vista". It's a great start to getting a look at implications (and opportunities) for developers with Touch Screen technology.

* I did this in the airport in Sofia Bulgaria last fall. I needed to look up the name of my hotel. I found a place to put the laptop down (because I was holding my backpack and pulling my suitcase) and looked up the info. Then I got distracted and WALKED AWAY from my laptop. TOTALLY FORGOT IT. Until 20 minutes later while I was sitting in a car outside the airport and realized. Bolted back into the airport (leaving all my stuff in this wide open car), through security, rambling in English (nobody understood me) finally communicated the problem to someone who looked official and then just walked IN the OUT door to the immigration area, past people with guns and found it. I can laugh now because a) nobody shot me for ignoring all security and b) my computer was still there.