Will Touch Screens Mean More Bad Pixels?

[TheArTcher]

Some monitor manufacturers say turn off the LCD before cleaning to avoid damage to the screen. So what does that mean for touch screens?

I saw several LCDs at school with fingerprint size bad pixel groups. Thought it was from people poking the screens. No?

Are iPads developing bad pixels as people use them? And what about all of those fingerprint smudges? Anyone been using an iPad for a while? What is your experience?

Are touch screens the new "excuse" for having a box of Kleenex next to the computer?

 

[livefastdieyoung]

ipads have glass over the screens, so no.

 

[vonmolk]

Never had any bad pixels on the ipad and been using constantly for 2 years. Has tons of fingerprints on it which drives me crazy, but at least I have a cleaning cloth always readily available. I like having an invisible shield screen protector on them which helps with the fingerprints.

 

[TheArTcher]

I looked at some of the touch monitors on Newegg and none of them said anything about a glass cover on the screen, but that doesn't mean it isn't there. They don't even say how the touch signals get from the monitor to the computer. So it must be through the vid cable?

For the first time I'm starting to think that Win8 touch capability is going to be completely ignored on everything except tablets. Tablet and phone screens are protected and everything else appears to be irrelevant.

 

[cvgd]

There aren't a lot of decent multitouch monitors on the market. When you look at Newegg, the vast majority of what you see are resistive panels, They are durable, but aren't glass-covered, as there's just tapping, no sliding. They are usually used in POS systems and the like, not for home use, and would barely work with Windows 8.

There are a couple of relevant multitouch technologies. Surface acoustic wave (SAW) and Optical technologies are generally available and cheaper, but only generally allow two touch points. That works with Windows 8, but limits your gestures and can cause some problems. They also introduce a bit of imprecision and lag into the interface.

Tablets, phones, etc, use capacitive touch screens. They are far more accurate, responsive, allow more touch inputs, and work best with a glass screen. Until very recently (2011), it has been extremely cost-prohibitive to use that technology on larger screens -- the 11" tablets are about as big as things got. 3M produced a capacitive variant, called projected capacitive, that apparently works really well -- but their monitors still cost upwards of $1k. It wasn't till the Lenovo A720 that a decent panel using the technology was rolled out; unfortunately, it's connected to a computer, and they haven't introduced a standalone monitor.

Acer and Planar have announced <$1k touchscreens in the last few weeks, but I don't know of anyone who actually has one in hand, either a consumer or review site.