Worried about my future touch experience.

ksdixon

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Fooling around with Splashtop Remote Desktop on my wife's android phone to get an idea of what Win8 is like via touch controls, as I'm interested in getting a Microsoft Surface Pro. A little discouraged, but maybe I'm doing it wrong? I was using "Win8 Touch Mode" as the control type.

1. Using the modern IE app swiping-in from the left and right worked to switch between apps and pull-out the Charms bar respectively. But trying to drag an app down from the top to close it did not work at all. Nor did swiping up from the bottom 'or' long pressing with one finger to initiate the right mouse button menu to bring up the URL bar and the tabs menu.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 8
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
I'd been running Splashtop myself to test Windows 8 long before I had a touch device back in 2012. You have to have a really good Wi-Fi connection between the Android device and the Windows 8 machine. In fact I've tested using both Android and iOS versions of Splashtop. It works pretty good at home but at work the bandwidth is such that it's almost unusable.

As far as closing an app by swiping from the top to the bottom, you have to get it just right. Sometimes I have difficulty doing it on a real Windows 8 tablet. Also there is more to IE than swiping in from the right and the left to switch apps, but try swiping from inside the edges to go forward and backward between pages. I haven't seen any touch based browser do that on any OS.

Don't depend on Splashtop as a guide to know how a Surface Pro might work. Go demo one yourself. Splashtop has to have the best bandwidth and the best hardware on each side to work well with Windows 8 gestures.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8 Pro
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Sony Vaio Duo 11
    CPU
    i7
    Memory
    8 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel 4000
    Sound Card
    Realtek High Definition Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    11.6" touch screen w/ digitizer & Asus 27" external monitor
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    256 GB SSD
    Cooling
    Internal fan
    Keyboard
    Slider keyboard
    Mouse
    Logitech T650 Touchpad & Microsoft Touch Mouse
I'd also advise trying it in the store rather than through a remote desktop-like scenario.

it's very easy to close an app on the real thing. you start with your finger completely off the screen and then just swipe downward in a continuous motion. as you pull your finger downward, the whole app will pull off the top of the screen and follow your finger. so if you then move your finger to the side, it'll snap the app to the side (like window snapping in windows 7). if you drag the app to the bottom of the screen, it'll close. if you let go before you reach the bottom, the app will snap back to the top of the screen (kind of the replacement for the confirmation dialog box).

people with certain touchscreens (screens not certified for windows 8) have had edge problems which was corrected by adjusting the screen so it was further away from the physical edge to ensure that the finger starts off the screen. it also affected people who had a raised bezel surrounding their touchscreen.

i bet if you can shrink your screen on the top and bottom edges so that it's away from the edge of your screen, your problem will go away. since you're having problems with the top/bottom edges, you won't be able to bring up the context menu (the right-click menu) either.

and you'll like closing apps in windows 8 versus Android. It's one quick motion rather than multiple button presses. I was on the toilet awhile back on my Android tablet (still with ICS) and I did the swipe to close the Tune-In app, somehow not realizing at that moment that it wasn't my Windows 8 machine. It's three taps to close the app in Android (top right corner, then Exit, then confirmation OK) versus 1 quick swipe in Win8.

but Windows 8 apps also suspend in the background when not in use (unless the app requires constant activity like music or email) so closing them is really only a formality/tradition to keep the task manager clean as they don't take up resources while suspended.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
Can anyone confirm how FireFox on Desktop works in Win8's touchscreen environment? Will I be able to scroll down the the page simply by dragging anywhere on the page, or will I have to specifically scroll the vertical scrollbar, simillar to a mouse-click?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    windows 8
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
the current general release of Firefox does have touch support like IE10 but it's really slow and laggy. practically unusable (you pinch to zoom and wait a couple of seconds).

they are currently developing a Windows 8 Modern/Metro/Immersive/whatever version (the nightly builds). you can try out the nightly build. it has the windows 8 UI. however, the touch hasn't been implemented yet.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
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