[DGthe3]

I agree with that article completely.

I find touch screens more annoying than anything. First, you can't tell by touch that your hand is in the right spot. I can glance at a dash, move my hand towards it, then look away and still get my hand pretty close to where it needs to be. If I don't land my hand on the button, switch, knob, or slider I want I can easily find my way by feel to the fan control or whatever I wanted from there. With a touch screen, if I tried that I might end up in the wrong menu. So to compensate, I'd have to watch my hand as I try and manipulate the controls. This is made even worse by the menu system that is employed in most of these things. Each time you want to do something, you have to stare at the screen. This isn't bad if you're stopped, but its a huge problem if you want do these things on the fly.

Another thing I hate is the lack of feedback. I can feel when a knob or slider goes to the next detent. But with a touch screen, unless they use a little ding or chime, you have no way of telling that it recognized that you cut the heat back.

I've never understood the fascination with touch screens, for any application. Until there's something better, I'm perfectly happy with my flip-style cell phone and regular old laptop (I even prefer my TrackPoint nub to the TrackPad down below). Nobody is going to convince me that I need an iPhone or iPad. I only wish my Sansa MP3 player didn't come with a touch pad. My next MP3 player won't have one, thats for sure.