[Klaustrophobia]

i recently had to sign with my finger to pay for lunch at a place that used an ipad as their cash register.  nevermind not looking ANYTHING like my signature, i didn't even manage to stay inside the box. 

[Mongoose]

Without a proper stylus, I can't stand touchscreens.

[Dragon]

i recently had to sign with my finger to pay for lunch at a place that used an ipad as their cash register.  nevermind not looking ANYTHING like my signature, i didn't even manage to stay inside the box.

As if they couldn't just take your fingerprint...
That would seriously make "signing" things much easier, one touch and you're good to go. Not to mention it's rather difficult to counterfeit.

[Kolgena]

There may be privacy issues and such if everyone's fingerprint were so readily available like that.

Have to agree about finger touchpads. I hate my fingers when trying to do work on my iphone. They're way too fat to be accurate, and they also block out all of what I need to look at when clicking something.

[Dragon]

There may be privacy issues and such if everyone's fingerprint were so readily available like that.

Well, as I understand it, one's fingerprint is just like a signature, except more reliable. I don't know what privacy issues would be there (afterall, if you signed something, then your signature is also readily available).

[BloodEagle]

There may be privacy issues and such if everyone's fingerprint were so readily available like that.

Well, as I understand it, one's fingerprint is just like a signature, except more reliable. I don't know what privacy issues would be there (afterall, if you signed something, then your signature is also readily available).

Law enforcement databases.  Fingerprint forgery.  Etc.

[Klaustrophobia]

a fingerprint is a hell of a lot more personal and identifying than a signature.  it would be kinda like using your SSN to "sign" for things.  (i said KINDA, don't go shooting holes in that!)

[Scotty]

It's also relatively trivial to lift a fingerprint from something, if slightly more difficult to actually do anything with it.  Still possible, though.

[z64555]

Retinal scans FTL.

[Kolgena]

Also, with signatures, you have to have volition to leave one behind. With fingerprints, you don't have control over when you "distribute" them, which is pretty much all the time. It'd be like if your shoes were dipped in ink and stamped your signature wherever you went.

[Mikes]

Without a proper stylus, I can't stand touchscreens.

Using any stylus on any capacitive touchscreen is an outright horrible experience in my eyes. Touchscreens simply do not have the sensor coverage to allow any kind of precision pen input...  nor do they need to, as they are built for fingers, not pens. As a result thoese "styli" that are sold are sadly just ridiculous novelties/toys and simply unsuited for getting anything done.



What you want is an activice digitizer (i.e. WACOM tech). Then you get a proper precise pen that works like a proper pen should.

[Klaustrophobia]

stylus.. es(?) worked quite well in the brief era of PDAs.  we could just go back to whatever kinds of screens those were.

[The E]

Those were called resistive screens. To be perfectly honest, I don't see how going back to them would be an improvement, giving that capacitative screens are much less susceptible to damage, and that good capacitative screens are quite accurate.

[Mongoose]

Without a proper stylus, I can't stand touchscreens.

Using any stylus on any capacitive touchscreen is an outright horrible experience in my eyes. Touchscreens simply do not have the sensor coverage to allow any kind of precision pen input...  nor do they need to, as they are built for fingers, not pens. As a result thoese "styli" that are sold are sadly just ridiculous novelties/toys and simply unsuited for getting anything done.

I'm not talking about using a stylus on a normal touchscreen designed for hands, but sytems that are designed for styli from the get-go.  I'm mostly thinking about the Nintendo DS from personal experience, but on the tablet side of things, I've seen ads for some model that incorporates one.

[Scourge of Ages]

I'm not talking about using a stylus on a normal touchscreen designed for hands, but sytems that are designed for styli from the get-go.  I'm mostly thinking about the Nintendo DS from personal experience, but on the tablet side of things, I've seen ads for some model that incorporates one.

I think the DS touchscreen is resistive. And it shows, if you've used Pictochat to draw, or games where you do stuff like that, like Brain Training. No matter how careful you're being, the lines always come out pixelated and wobbly due to the limitations. Active digitizers like in a Wacom tablet or tablet PC work so much better and smoother.

[Mongoose]

Well yeah, but that's also because the original DS has a pretty low-res screen, so even with a better input method, you're still going to get a case of the jaggies.  I'm all for pairing styluses with awesome hi-res surfaces.