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Hesseldahl is out of his league.

This is a war he cannot win.

Surrender now, Arik.

MDN is pwning your ass.

pwnag3!!

Nov 19, 08 - 06:13 pm Comment from: Judge Bork

Hesseldahl pwned. Again.

Arik must be a masochist.

Nov 19, 08 - 06:20 pm Comment from: HolyMackerel

I agree with Hesseldahl. He clearly stated he was talking about the screen, not Multi-touch in general. For goodness sake MDN leave the fella alone and go after real fish to fry…

I don't care about all the bickering. To me, the real argument should be whether where multi-touch is appropriate, not who was first.

I personally don't want a computer with a smeary screen. On a cell phone, it's easy to wipe it clean on your clothes, but not so much with an iMac or a Touchsmart. Now, if they come up with a surface that doesn't show the oils so much, maybe there's a place. To me it just seems gimmicky right now.

Like I said this morning:

"MDN toys with Hesseldahl like a cat toys with a mouse: with complete and utter dominance."

Now they've put poor little Arik out of his misery.

Nov 19, 08 - 06:33 pm Comment from: Randian

Has Mr. Hesseldahl never heard of "gorilla arm"? It's a real workplace malady originally defined as "the discomfort experienced by people who had to use light pens on vertical monitors."

Truth is that the human arm - remember humans? - isn't designed to be held horizontally away from the body for any length of time while making tiny, precise movements. Tasks that take any time to complete, including navigating through menus, soon result in aching muscles, stiffness and a swollen feeling--that is, gorilla arm.

Add the multi-touch interface to this uncomfortable interaction and let the lawsuits begin. Apple understands this. Mr. Hesseldahl does not, nor does HP.

Nov 19, 08 - 06:44 pm Comment from: Jamie

I reckon Apple's answer will be just a really clean, simple Multi-Touch™ slab. Like a giant iPhone, a couple of essential buttons (all multi-functional), but the focus is the giant screen, about the size of an A4 piece of paper (210mm x 297mm), 25-30mm high and loaded with OS X 10.6 with Multi-Touch.

Like the MacBook Air, it will be designed to be a compliment to another Mac (not really intended to be used as your primary computer), but something to sit on the couch and browse with, or design your wedding invites in iWork Touch (for text input, think of Jef Han's 'stretchy' keyboard [4:10 into this clip] that adapts to your hand shape on the screen) or have a giant CoverFlow iTunes Library...

It will happen, soon. If Hesseldahl thinks Apple haven't got a kick ass prototype MacTouch cooking in the labs at Cupertino, he's even more myopic than I previously thought.

MDN is right. First, Arik invented a silly, nonsensical "criticism" of Apple. Now, he pretends that he has been misrepresented. The funny thing is that even in his original article, he pointed out the problem with multi-touch on a normal computer screen: your arm gets tired from reaching out to touch it constantly. So this entire thing is contrived. Arik must not have been able to think of a real topic for his column, so he threw out this garbage and hoped no one would call him on it. Good work, MDN!

Nov 19, 08 - 06:45 pm Comment from: Journo

Love it, MDN!

Brilliant - every bit of it!

Nov 19, 08 - 06:51 pm Comment from: John

Sweet, I'm Ivy League educated too. Can I make bogus arguments and become irate when people disagree??

I knew I could

Hesseldahl's first article was headlined " Hewlett-Packard Out-Touches Apple" and subtitled "Apple watchers assumed Jobs & Co. would be the first to offer a multitouch laptop, but Hewlett-Packard has beaten them to the punch."

That bullshit was plastered all over the Web today.

MDN was right to take issue with their rebuttal this morning and then to totally dismantle Hersseldahl here.

Excellent work, MDN!

Nov 19, 08 - 06:58 pm Comment from: Fred Mertz

Hesseldahl is upset that he got schooled by MDN this morning and tried to wiggle out of it this afternoon.

Arik, MDN is like quicksand. You can't wiggle out of it. And, if you come armed with an especially weak argument, you're doomed -- as you can see above.

I love MDN!

What a fun read!

"For example, certain industry ties we have would be hampered if our faces were also the faces of MacDailyNews"


Huh? I always thought this was your employee photo gallery below.

Nov 19, 08 - 07:33 pm Comment from: Jay of DC

AHH and I actually got into an email battle over this. (Read up)

On Nov 19, 2008 at 10:52 AM, <JHH> wrote:

Whenever I touch my screen, I then need to clean of the fingerprints. Touching a screen is a bad idea for those devices that have a keyboard and trackpad. It is inefficient and makes the screen unsightly.
JHH


On Nov 19, 2008, at 10:09 AM, Arik Hesseldahl wrote:

You’re splitting hairs. Can you touch the screen on a Mac? Negative. AAH


On 11/19/08 10:08 AM, "<JHH> wrote:

That is not what your article states: "But as of Nov. 19, Hewlett-Packard) has beaten Apple (AAPL to the punch, announcing the first multitouch-enabled notebook PC, the tx2. I can't help but wonder whether Apple just lost an important race."

Apple has had the "first multitouch-enabled notebook" for almost a year and a half. The "tx2" is NOT the "first multitouch-enabled notebook." Your article is rampantly misleading.
JHH


On Nov 19, 2008, at 9:58 AM, Arik Hesseldahl wrote:

No retraction necessary. It’s correct. Apple has no touch-screen notebooks. Thanks for writing. AAH


On 11/19/08 9:22 AM, <JHH> wrote:

I think the MacDailyNews site says it all regarding your recent article. When do you print the retraction?
JHH

Nov 19, 08 - 07:49 pm Comment from: shawnpetriw

"Who better to figure out how to solve these problems then Apple?"

They DID figure it out - it's called NOT DOING IT!

I know there are problems but personally, I'd like to see a charging cable that doubles as a monitor cable for my iPhone, use a bluetooth keyboard and use the iPhone as a track pad. Is it super powerful, no, but it would be good enough for a lot of people out there.

Seems that Arik (or his publisher) don't even know that in French, you don't put uppercase in front of every word. This is so an English way of writing.

When MDN say "He also knows some French.", MDN is right. Arik know some but that's it. In fact, he may need more French courses to prentend writing in French.

Hesseldahl continues, "Who better to figure out how to solve these problems then Apple?"

Mr. Hesseldahl, you are being issued a warning for improperly using "then" where you should have used "than." This is a common error among the internet masses, but a journalist should know better. "Then" is a timeline word meaning "next," as in "We went to the store, then the theater." "Than" is a comparison word, as in "greater than, less than, better than, worse than."

Your next offense will result in a citation. That is all.

Nov 19, 08 - 08:11 pm Comment from: qka

MDN blew it. The B W article was clear, MDN can't read.

Good one, qka!

Funny stuff.

What's next? The sky is green? The Earth is flat? Ballmer's svelte? Don't leave us hanging.

From Hesseldahl's defence:
"What’s stopping Apple from making both the trackpad and the screen multi-touch capable and allowing the user to figure out what works best for them?"

From Hesseldahl's original article:
"Given the current physical attributes of desktops and notebooks, a touch interface would be awkward. Sitting here in front of my desktop and notebook displays, I imagine that repeatedly reaching up to touch the screen a few thousand times a day would make my arms and shoulders tired. Ideally, touch-based computers would be built into the surfaces we sit at."

By his own words Hesseldahl agrees with Apple engineers that the horizontal trackpad is better suited as a touch interface than a vertical screen.

From Hesseldahl's defence:
"This writer, who doesn’t make their name or contact information readily available would have you believe that I’m willfully ignorant of the fact that the MacBook line sports a multi-touch trackpad. Actually I’m intimately aware of the multi-touch trackpad."

From Hesseldahl's original article:
"Hewlett-Packard has beaten Apple to the punch, announcing the first multitouch-enabled notebook PC."

Hesseldahl did not write "multitouch screen equipped notebook PC." He wrote "multitouch-enabled notebook PC." "Multitouch-enabled" and "multitouch screen" are not the same thing. A multitouch trackpad certainly fulfills the grammatical requirements of the phrase "multitouch enabled". For everyone claiming he meant "multitouch screen," that could very well be what he meant but it's not what he wrote.

Hesseldahl can neither reason or write. I hope he's not truly Ivy-league educated, because that would be pathetic. Though not much more so than his being a professional columnist.

MDN ought to take over BusinessWeek's "Byte of the Apple" column.

It'd be way more accurate, edgy, and they wouldn't have to concoct ludicrous competitions and imaginary theories in order to generate columns.

They'd also get more hits.

Nov 19, 08 - 08:31 pm Comment from: Jay of DC

Hi Passerby. Good points. Hesseldahl called this "splitting hairs" when I pointed out that he had not limited the "multi-touch" accolades to the screen. In fact, it is sloppy journalism. He got caught. Instead of admitting it, he splits hairs.

JHH

Arik, meet your new asshole.

New asshole, this is Arik.

There was a very simple solution to the problem. After the piece had been published with the unclear phrase "multitouch-enabled notebook PC"—and it is unclear because in the original article Hesseldahl not only acknowledges the existence of non-screen touch interfaces but muses they may be preferable—he could have responded to the kerfuffle with a simple statement thus; "I was unclear in my original article on this subject. What I meant to write was that HP has beaten Apple to market with a touchscreen notebook PC."

Instead he's holding his breath, stamping his feet, and whinging that all the cool kids are picking on him. If they don't stop he's going to take his toys and go home.

Please do.

HP actually introduced a touch screen PC back in 1983!

See http://hpmuseum.net/display_item.php?hw=43

I remember our HP sales rep loaning us one for a couple of weeks. The novelty soon wore off as stretching out one's arms to reach the screen got tiresome in very short order.

The machine did not last very long in the market because it wasn't fully IBM PC compatible - remember when that used to be important?

Does he really think anyone cares what weeds grew on his campus? And speaking French? That's spectacular! That puts him on par with most 7th graders in Canada. It's pathetic to throw your education around to justify ignorance.

P.S. I finished my engineering schooling this year with a 4.0 GPA, and I'm fluent in pig-latin...therefore take my opinion as written law.

Nov 19, 08 - 09:45 pm Comment from: Jubei

It's like he's bending over and asking for more!! LOL

I, too, know some French.
I would never use it on Hesseldahl.

Additional confusion may come from Apple, suggesting that 'Multi-Touch™' should be described with the generic term 'touchscreen interface'.
http://www.apple.com/legal/trademark/appletmlist.html

"The list also includes one or more suggested generic terms for each trademark. For all publications, include an appropriate generic term after the trademark the first time it appears. Thereafter, the generic term should appear frequently with the trademark."

I hate fingerprint smudges on my screen and I can't imagine wanting a computer with all that glop covering it. And what about situations where you share a computer with another person? I'd go nuts if I had to clean off the greasy finger swipes off my workstation screen every day from the person on the shift before mine. And what if they don't wash their hands after using the bathroom? Horrors. HP is losin' it.

/that BW guy is a tool.

Axiotron Modbook has Apple's permission to make a computer with a touch screen. Maybe not as good as Apple could do, but it's been around a while.

I think HP is missing the boat by not selling computers based on the holo-touch interface, like those seen in "Minority Report".

Nov 19, 08 - 11:43 pm Comment from: LordRobin

This seems familiar. Hasn't Hesseldahl pulled this crap on multiple occasions before? You know, spout BS about Apple, deliberately provoking angry reactions from Apple fans, then writing a followup bitching about all the email he gets?

------RM

Nov 20, 08 - 12:03 am Comment from: Krioni

I wonder if they'll approve the detailed comment I left pointing out how he didn't address the misleading nature of his original article?

Nov 20, 08 - 12:23 am Comment from: breeze

Hesseldahl is one of the better writers out there that covers Apple, he has a brain and a real hands on understanding and admiration of Apple and Jobs. That does not mean he's not entitled to a subjective point of view. it does not mean that MDN needs to get stupidly and overly rabid over a technicality that is perfectly clarifying and self explanatory in the context of the complete article.

Hess specifically in the first paprgraph , makes iit clear that he's talking about a multitouch-enabled screen but macdailynews is so rearing to go and chomping at the bit that it seems they are not only making themselves look dumb to anyone who bothers to actually read the article and see for themselves, but also they are just dumping on a good long time Apple writer, who has always brought refreshing thought, perspective and responsible commentary that is usually more than casually researched.

macdailynews is a really good Apple news site and do a great job , but when they go on a tantrum sometimes they miss their own goal and also don't quite do themselves a good service by making a mountain out of a moehill...

Chill out macdailynews and all the blind followers - read the article and see that it's not justifying of all the vitriol the. Don't lump Hesseldahl in the same bag as the slime balls that deliberately write FUD on Apple to hurt them - Know the enemy - Hesseldahl is a true fan and a refreshing article writer. Jobs himself has sung his praise in the past.

Nov 20, 08 - 12:24 am Comment from: MacMan

I STILL don't understand how HP can come out with multi-touch laptops if Apple has "over 200 patents" in the iPhone which, presumable, cover multi-touch. Or do they? DOES Apple have a patent on Multi-touch or not? Interested minds want to know...

Nov 20, 08 - 01:48 am Comment from: Rip Ragged

Please don't pick on Arik. He is a valuable source for me. When I have exhausted every possible idea for a post, and I need something to make fun of, a quick "ARIK" into Google always gets me something pompous to snicker at.

He knows less about business than he does about tech, which makes it even funnier when he tries to combine the two into a single post.

Apple, can't just slap a multitouch screen on a laptop and release it in the wild. It requires a whole new interaction paradigm to be invented or it would just become a gimmic - a fancy way to launch your applications and scroll in the browser...

No, take your time Apple and get it right...

Hesseldahl
"What’s stopping Apple from making both the trackpad and the screen multi-touch capable and allowing the user to figure out what works best for them?"

Conversely ...

What is stopping HP from making both the trackpad and the screen multi-touch capable and allowing the user to figure out what works best for them?

MDN = 31337
Hesseldahl = n00b

Nov 20, 08 - 04:23 am Comment from: John Crawford

@breeze

Read SKY LARK above and you will get an inkling as to why MDN are right to take issue with Arik Hesseldahl.

Sheesh, maybe I should send a CV over to business week, they're obviously going to have a vacancy soon.

Nov 20, 08 - 07:48 am Comment from: twilightmoon

@ breeze

Any way you could point out some of the articles besides this one that you've read by him that were good ones and not bias against Apple and worth reading?

Either links or at least examples would be nice.

I think his point about HP is flawed but I'm not sure I'd jump all over him over it.

Microsoft came out with the BigAssTable. Do we see a lot of articles about "why doesn't HP make a table-sized laptop with multi-touch"? Just because something is technologically possible doesn't mean it has to be done.

Well, now that HP has had a touch screen desktop computer on the market for awhile, what are their sales figures for that product ? I
don't think they are flying off the shelves, are they ? If you spend 20 minutes with one, you'll realize that the concept is flawed. Perhaps the answer is a touch screen keyboard ?

I'm suddenly curious to know if Michaelangelo suffered from Gorilla Arm.

Nov 20, 08 - 10:40 am Comment from: NCIceman

MDN nailed it, the article speaks from a point of view assuming Apple should be in a technological area they have chosen to not yet enter. Don't fault them for losing an imagined race that they have chosen not to participate in. Trust me, when or if Apple does decide to make a touchscreen desktop, it will be done right and for the right reasons. After all, one of the reasons Apple is doing so well is because they choose to innovate rather than just chase competition. Meanwhile, who is the competition HP is chasing here?

Nov 20, 08 - 11:11 am Comment from: MacSmiley

Do any MDN readers besides myself ever check the primary sources??

The TX2 is a TABLET PC. In the tablet hardware format, say with the tablet sitting on your lap or in front of you where a keyboard normally would be positioned, gorilla arm is not an problem. As for fingerprints, the question is whether one should have a choice as to screen or touchpad interface. (Just ask our matte vs glossy debaters about choice.)

Go after Hesseldahl when there's a real issue at hand, MDN.

The real answer to Arik's "challenge" is that Apple will get this done when it can get it right.

Hesseldahl's the one who said, in the primary source, "Given the current physical attributes of desktops and notebooks, a touch interface would be awkward. Sitting here in front of my desktop and notebook displays, I imagine that repeatedly reaching up to touch the screen a few thousand times a day would make my arms and shoulders tired."