[Phillip Beall]

All,

I was slow to adopt on an iPhone.  Well, it seemed like I was slow.  Lots of my copilots had the first generation, but I waited until like 2010-2011 to buy my first, the 3GS.  Probably my favorite for size was the 7 (here is a link to the models by year if you are interested), but with the recent elimination of the home button I more and more feel my arthritis while trying to stretch across the screen.  And the capacitance method that the touch screens use; I don’t just find myself having a bit of trouble with them at times, my poor mother just flat cannot get them to work.  So, when I saw this Wall Street Journal piece Touch Screens Are Over. Even Apple Is Bringing Back Buttons.  Product designers are embracing how users actually feel after years of pushing flat and sleek I was super-happy.

With volume manufacturing touchscreens are cheaper to produce than things with buttons and knobs, so we have seen them sprouting up everywhere.  The dumbest place I have seen them being implemented is in vehicles.  Let me get this right, head down and touching screens instead of feeling for a familiar knob and all of that INSTEAD OF KEEPING YOUR EYES ON THE ROAD.  What idiot would think that is smart?  One of the big briefing items between the pilot and copilot is to make sure and let the other pilot know if you are “going head down” to update a flight plan or other detail.  That is warning so the other pilot knows he/she is the only one looking outside and to therefore be more vigilant.

It may just be a sign of my getting old, but I for one think that tactile control feel is of paramount importance in a lot of settings, a vehicle being just one.  On my phone being able to easily discern the difference between the volume up and down buttons in the dark or while driving; that is important.  Going to everything being touchscreen is a mistake and I am glad industry is starting to wake up to this fact.

Enjoy,

Phillip Beall (W5EBC)

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