The only conceivable reason I can think of for this is to put an animated gif of a cat to stroke on it. And is it worth it? Sort of yes, mostly no though let's be real
A fun bit of trivia about this touchpad btw is that it's manufactured by Toshiba and not Asus. Toshiba knew better than to add it into their own laptops it seems
@Shrigglepuss wouldn’t that be used for ads?
@Shrigglepuss Does it act like a regular monitor or how is it used?
@phantom It acts as a regular multi-touch touchpad and external monitor in a mechanical sense, but has a bit of software that can switch it into a sort of touchscreen mode with buttons and gestures which is particularly cursed because then you can't use it as a touchpad as well
@Shrigglepuss you're forgetting artists, who make frequent use of the ability to touch directly what they are modifying...
@jakimfett this laptop already has a touchscreen
@Shrigglepuss so you're saying it has two potentially usable surfaces instead of just the one?
@jakimfett potentially, but what use is an extra 6" surface for drawing on with worse colours and a surface finish that a stylus would probably scratch over time? I don't get it
@Shrigglepuss maybe doing an art looks different for some than you are imagining here.
Maybe you could ask an artist what they would use it for instead of prescribing your not getting it as the only way or perspective.
Literally different strokes for different folks.
Were this mine...
...I would avoid using something that scratches my interface for art, and have zero problems with the fact that the color bits aren't perfectly matched because nobody else has a display that perfectly matches anyway, now I have two points of visual perspective instead of one.
...I can put my palette on it, and rely on my trackball for pointer input.
...I could use it for seeing the way it looks on a tiny screen without uploading it to my phone or resizing it, helping me determine if it's worth spending extra hours getting something to look just right.
...I would use it for my to-dos, so the entire main screen could be the piece of work instead of cluttered by tiling my tertiary stuffs.
...and I would have key ccombos to swap between these modes, because I know my workflows, and although most of them are not art, the use case of something like this is broad enough to appear obvious to me.
But then, I design hardware...not everybody thinks about all six million details of physical kinesthetic stuffs.
@Shrigglepuss this looks like one of those tech concepts back in the early 2000s where people would post a strange ass console 3d model and say "this is what ps4 will look like"
no really this feels like something straight outta fever dream
@tillianisafox There was a similar thing in some high-end Windows Vista (or maybe 7?) desktop PCs. They could play Solitaire and that's about it. Totally pointless
@Shrigglepuss ...you're telling me someone made an entire new function just to play solitaire. what
@tillianisafox It did other stuff, but that was mostly it yeah
@Shrigglepuss @eichkat3r Wow, this is… just stupid.
@Shrigglepuss they also sell another version where the keyboard is moved to the bottom and the upper half of the lower area is some secondary screen with touch/pen input
and I actually think this might be a good idea
not "great", but still usable - at least as long as it's just a generic touchscreen I can use in linux
@drazraeltod They would be even worse for me because I'm left-handed and they moved the regular touchpad to the right of the keyboard
@Shrigglepuss looks designed to get scratched and damaged with normal daily usage, increasing the frequency of replacement.
I have decided I need one.
Long experience has taught me there is a strong positive correlation between how cursed I think something is and how hard and how quickly it will be taken up on its way to lucrative ubiquity.
@Shrigglepuss I say this is what we needed all along
@Shrigglepuss lol oh god... And I know people already push the stickers on the left instead of actual buttons on the keyboard so this won't help.
@creator close enough
@Shrigglepuss alexa enabled? DISABLE!
@Shrigglepuss run Linux on your track pad
Gonna open my password manager on it and then make sure it's in-frame for the cam.
@Shrigglepuss I need some alexa DISABLED stickers.
@Shrigglepuss indeed, not alexa in my notebook
@Shrigglepuss e-
how to make it ? o.O
my touchpad doesnt do best.... could actually do...
@Shrigglepuss but looks cool
this is kind of cool actually i was doing something similar with my phone as second display, worked great during distance learning
@Shrigglepuss I need this
@Shrigglepuss I’m not sure how I feel about this. Do I love it or hate it?
@Shrigglepuss I mean, Angry Birds would be pretty cool on that.
@Shrigglepuss Apple put on the touchbar, now everybody else has to get in the really stupid idea
@stacyharper tbf, an emoji keyboard might be cool down there... Would have to plug an external mouse in to use the cursor though. Nothing about this thing makes any sense
@Shrigglepuss This actually seems pretty cool? I'd use it for drawing.
It's like a DS!
@Shrigglepuss what and/or why the fuck
@tobi Who even knows
@Shrigglepuss the logical next step is to put a tiny screen in each key on the keyboard
@tobi That's already been done in a few keyboards, there was a Russian company making them years and years and years ago and I've seen some Kickstart and DIY things since. I sort of get it, but it's much cheaper and less tech-wasteful to just remember the keyboard shortcuts or print them out or use stickers right
@Shrigglepuss need? No. Want? Maybe.
@Shrigglepuss Imagine if that R&D was put into building good keyboards and tougher machines.
You can't even see that screen if the laptop is higher (which is totally possible if you use an external keyboard) so it's not even good as a status display.
Well... at least the owner will have a spare screen if either breaks?
Actually on that note, what does the screen do before login? What does it display when you're in UEFI?
@Shrigglepuss the wii u gets a bad rap but it has some of the best games of that generation
@Shrigglepuss
why does this.... make me feel....sad?
It's like, ok, I get why it MIGHT be put there....but I don't WANT to understand it. Take me back to when I hadn't seen this
@IridisSparks There's a nice big touchscreen above the keyboard that works perfectly well, I don't get it either =p
@Shrigglepuss If anything, I could see it if maybe there *were* no bigger touchscreen above it, and the small touchscreen were switched with the keyboard, so that you could see what you were typing into it...maybe then?
It'd be weird, but I could see it if space were at some kind of limit and you needed to be able to type at an odd angle due to an odd setup or something idk
@Shrigglepuss@godforsaken.website does that thing at least support pen input?
@Shrigglepuss oh this could get real recursive, real quick