The Touch Screen Revolution

It seems like touch screens is the way forward. Nowadays there are touch screen phones, computers and even GPS systems and also media players. People are finding touch screens easier and fun to use. In the case of mobile phones touch screens have almost totally taken over. Big phone companies like HTC, Motorola, Samsung and Apple are only making touch screen phones. Nokia is the only big phone company which is still making the kawaida phones although they have a range of touch screen phones.
Touch screens are slowly creeping into the computer world. In this area fully touch tablet computers are the way forward. The Apple Ipad was already launched earlier this year and its reception has been good. The giant computer company Hewlett-Packard (HP) is yet to release a tablet computer although there are rumors of HP Slate in the works. Mobile phones are also expanding their service range such that they can function as computers a good example being the dell streak which was released a month ago. The dell streak has a 5 inch capacitive touch screen and it runs android OS. That brings us to some important issues about touch screen devices. You have to consider the screen type, screen size and more importantly the operating system of the particular device.
With regard to screen type there are two types, capacitive and resistive. Capacitive is more responsive and is the preferred choice in most devices. It allows for using the touch screen with your fingers hence no need for stylus. It also supports multitouch which allows for pinch to zoom and other interesting things which I won’t go into. The negative side is that capacitive is very delicate and has a short life span. Resistive touch screen as the name suggests is resistive meaning it is mostly used with a stylus although you can still use your fingers but it won’t be as responsive as you may have to tap on the screen a couple of times. Resistive touch screens are mostly used by Nokia and earlier tablets. Resistive screens last longer and pretty decent to use the only disadvantage being that it doesn’t support multitouch.
Screen size is a matter of preference really. With regard to phones, 3.2 inch or 3.5 inch is a good size considering the use of the on-screen virtual keyboard. 2.9 inch screen is really too small for a touch screen and 5 inch screen may be considered too big by some although for me the bigger the screen the better. 4 inch screen phones are becoming common with the HTC Evo 4G leading the pack. In the case of tablet computers 7 to 10 inches is the norm.
The other issue was to do with the operating system. Android OS is fastly becoming the choice in most smartphones with HTC, Samsung and Motorola plaguing alliance. The reason for this is that with touch screen phones you need a user friendly operating system with easily accessible menus and android does just that. In the computer world it is really surprising that Microsoft has to battle it out with Android and Meego considering Microsoft is the ruler of the computer industry. Currently there are more Android tablets than windows 7 and the much hyped Meego OS by Nokia and Intel is on the way.
So basically that is all about touch screen devices and in the end it all depends on an individual. Whether we like it or not touch screens are here to stay. The best we can do is to be prepared and finally we can choose the right devices. If you want my opinion on the right choices I would go for the yet to be launched Nokia N8 and for a tablet computer I would go for ASUS Eee Pad 101.

USB OTG (On-the-go)

Oh yes! Mobile phones have taken another major step forward in trying to edge out notebooks. It has been argued that smartphones can completely replace notebooks but in the real sense that is not entirely true. An evidence of this is when you seamlessly connect your smart phone to your PC in order to transfer media files or update your phone or simply back up your files. It was also argued that smartphones are more mobile than laptops but mini netbooks had the last laugh (and then tablets came along). But USB on the Go has greatly improved smart phones.
So with USB on the Go one can connect a flash disk to a phone and access the contents of the flash disk on the phone just the way it would be done on a computer. This makes it easier to transfer media files between phones and also between phones and computers without the need of annoying data cables. With USB on the go you can for example play videos saved on a flash disk and you even have the option of copying the video files to the phone. Cool indeed. But what really amazes me is that you can connect your portable hard drive and therefore memory will never be an issue.
So far Nokia is leading in this venture and this will go a long way to help them recover from their slump. Nokia N8, Nokia C7, Nokia C6-01 and Nokia E7 support this feature. Nokia C7, Nokia C6-01 and Nokia E7 were announced last week during the Nokia Mobile World Congress in London and will be released by the end of the year. And Nokia even went a step further. They have new specially designed headsets that act as DVB-H receivers and they work on Nokia phones with USB on the go. So basically that’s the phones I have named above. In case you still tryna swallow and digest that DVB-H thingy I have mentioned above then you are in luck. Well, it’s just what we refer to as DSTV mobile. And if you think that phone screen is too small for watching Arsene Wenger and Alex Ferguson lash out at referees then you can just connect the handset to a television but that’s a story for another day.
USB on the go will definitely change the way we view phones and at the moment we can’t possibly know what exactly will be achieved but I have a good feeling about this.