I LOVE TOUCH

Without talking about specific manufacturers, I'd like to encourage you to check out some of the combination active/touch screens available.

I've been using a tablet with that capability for about a week and a half. It has been a really enjoyable way to interact with the screen and I've found myself trying to scroll with my finger and tap on icons while using my everyday tablet.

While it's not for all applications, I've found that having to hold the pen is not nearly as convenient as simply dragging my finger on scrollbars, tapping to switch between screens and even more complicated tasks like updating our webstore. I've used a couple of the onscreen keyboards with reasonable success. These programs allow one to tap on the screen using a semi-transparent QWERTY keyboard and it is a workable alternative if you just need to tap out a few words or enter a URL.

I haven't used the touch feature with the Vista OS. I'm very interested in doing that because Vista has tools built in that makes tapping on the screen more accurate and, while the accuracy is very good now, if it were better that would encourage me to use it even more often.

With both Lenovo and Sahara offering a touch and pen screen that also has outdoor viewing capabilities, I think this could be a real boon to anyone who uses their tablet outside the office.