Windows 8 Touch Laptops Bad For Your Health?

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Windows 8 touch laptops and tablets will kill you. If you somehow avoid being killed, you will be maimed or crippled for life.

While essential for slates, and offering greater functionality for any device, touch-screen notebooks are raising eyebrows among health care professionals. In short, Windows 8 could be called ergonomically challenged, and prolonged use of touch for input could even lead to serious injury.
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We'll know when heatlesssun reports (though speech recognition software) that he no longer has the use of his arms or hands.

Seriously though, just about any series of movements can be harmful to one's health.
 
This is why touch screens on desktop systems generally don't make sense, and why the Windows 8 UI is such a massive FAIL on the desktop.

I find it interesting that even amoung the people defending Windows 8, many of them use a third party app to make it look more like Windows 7.
 
Much as I loathed Steve Jobs, the one thing he was absolutely correct on is that vertical touch doesn't work, the ergonomics are horrid. It makes for great demo but in practice its just gimmick. And people certainly aren't willing to pay extra for it. That's why Apple doesn't waste their time on touchscreen macbooks or monitors.

Touch for vertical displays is the same old marketing fad its always been - its come and gone a few times now in the last 10-15 years, each time selling itself as here to stay, just like the 3DTV of two years ago that everyone bought because it was promised as the future, and now barely a peep and not even mentioned at this year's CES.
 
And the keyboard and mouse are supposedly bad also. As are gamepads. As are touchpads. As are tablets.

So just F technology and lets go back to living in caves and grinding wheat with mortar and pestle... oh wait... that might produce repetitive motion damage too.

Never mind, just curl up and die because MOVING might be harmful.
 
Sorry Steve, I must say Kat Cole is the hottest CEO. She is the CEO of Cinnabon.
 
odditory said:
Much as I loathed Steve Jobs, the one thing he was absolutely correct on is that vertical touch doesn't work, the ergonomics are horrid. It makes for great demo but in practice its just gimmick. And people certainly aren't willing to pay extra for it. That's why Apple doesn't waste their time on touchscreen macbooks or monitors.

Touch for vertical displays is the same old marketing fad its always been - its come and gone a few times now in the last 10-15 years, each time selling itself as here to stay, just like the 3DTV of two years ago that everyone bought because it was promised as the future, and now barely a peep and not even mentioned at this year's CES.
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yep, I remember seeing touch screen all-in-ones ages ago, they were stupid then, they are still stupid now
 
Well, might be something to this: Just look how ipad touch screens cause brain damage in Apple users. Or, do I have that wrong...maybe Apple users are just brain damaged from the start?
 
BBA said:
Well, might be something to this: Just look how ipad touch screens cause brain damage in Apple users. Or, do I have that wrong...maybe Apple users are just brain damaged from the start?
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Yes, yes we are. :)
 
CreepyUncleGoogle said:
We'll know when heatlesssun reports (though speech recognition software) that he no longer has the use of his arms or hands.

Seriously though, just about any series of movements can be harmful to one's health.
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LOL! I have long said that I don't see a lot of use in vertically mounted touch displays. Indeed most of the large Windows 8 all-in-one PCs have the option to fold down. As for conventional touch laptops, again I've said for ages it's the kind of thing that one would use touch here and there were it just kind of flows with the action. Where touch makes sense a lot of is on convertibles and hybrids. No mention of them in this article beyond the generic reference to tablets.
 
Oh for FUCK SAKES

Prolonged -SITTING- is also fucking bad for your health, we don't see people putting warning labels on fucking chairs now do we?
 
Actually it is recommended to stand a couple minutes per each sitting hour, and the level of being bad for the health is totally different between sitting and using those touchscreens for prolonged times.
 
Revdarian said:
Actually it is recommended to stand a couple minutes per each sitting hour, and the level of being bad for the health is totally different between sitting and using those touchscreens for prolonged times.
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Hasn't prolonged sitting been linked to blood clots?
 
yay! More asinine declarations from an industry that is desperate for your attention.. *sigh* Anyways.. last time I checked, all laptops were 'touch', since you need to touch those pesky little keys and the pad anyways :rolleyes:
 
These are probably from the same people who think running is bad for you. :rolleyes:
 
That would be a big "no shit" right here. RSI is serious business, and the way touch screens are setup is just asking for RSI issues if you use them all the time. Now just having a touch screen and using is occasionally isn't likely to be problematic, but if you have your hands up all the time on it, that is going to be issues.

With regards to sitting, ya that isn't good for you either. Best idea ergonomically is to take a break, or barring that get an adjustable desk. Those motorized desks aren't for show, they are so you can dial them in to the precise height for you, and so you can move to standing when you wish.

As a side note if you want an adjustable desk, check out Geekdesk. They are damn awesome and not too expensive. Mine has for sure been one of my better buys for my computer setup.
 
It's not going to be unhealthy if the industry stops trying to REPLACE the PC with this stuff. This is not meant for every day constant use, it's meant for occasional use. Keep the traditional keyboard/mouse/monitors style PCs around and it wont be a problem. These touch devices are meant as accessories, not computer replacements.
 
heatlesssun said:
LOL! I have long said that I don't see a lot of use in vertically mounted touch displays. Indeed most of the large Windows 8 all-in-one PCs have the option to fold down. As for conventional touch laptops, again I've said for ages it's the kind of thing that one would use touch here and there were it just kind of flows with the action. Where touch makes sense a lot of is on convertibles and hybrids. No mention of them in this article beyond the generic reference to tablets.
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Outside of large format presentation screens which are a niche market, touch really doesn't make sense on conventional desktops and laptops. I do agree, it works best on convertibles and tablets where it integrates into device usage. That said, I don't see it as overly bad for someone's health and no worse than anything else we do to ourselves on any given day.
 
As much as I hate W8, I feel this article is going a bit too alarmist. As all things, moderation is key. Taking timely breaks and cut down the hours spent consecutively on a single device will take care of RSI.

You know, like not playing World of Warcraft for 20 hours straight. Where when you finally stop, your right hand's fingers are frozen in the shape of the mouse and your whole right shoulder and wrist are in excruciating pain for the next few days. Things like that. Most people are pretty intelligent and once having experienced something that painful, they won't do it again.:rolleyes:
 
Windows 8 Elbow from using it on desktops where it doesn't belong. I can see it.

I can also see a marked uptick in the number of accidental liquid spills.
 
Advil said:
And the keyboard and mouse are supposedly bad also. As are gamepads. As are touchpads. As are tablets.

So just F technology and lets go back to living in caves and grinding wheat with mortar and pestle... oh wait... that might produce repetitive motion damage too.

Never mind, just curl up and die because MOVING might be harmful.
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The article covered all those too. But yes, he's blaming everything on technology rather than blaming humans for not moderating their use or using them in an ergonomic fashion (posture, position, etc).
 
Thats why I loathe touch screens, it just makes work harder and more annoying. I prefer a mouse and keyboard, things get so much done faster with it.
 
The warning label is getting pretty long...

Warning; Windows 8 may cause:

- Nausea from ugliness
- Mild to severe annoyingness
- Mild to severe anger
- Death of Windows
- Gorilla arm
- Mild to extreme cases of Heatlesssun ranting
- Delusions
- Annoying adverts containing sporadic bouts of dancing
- Bunch of other stuff
Click to expand...
 
Didn't all the nuns say that touching was bad and causes blindness? Maybe there's truth to this, after all. :p
 
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