Does Touch on Leopard Stack Up to a Good Experience?

Warner posed an interesting question today regarding the oft-rumored Apple / Mac Tablet, touch, and Leopard: Is Apple Stacked Up for Touch on a Mac?

I’ve never been shy of the fact that I enjoy using a MacBook, and have written about my frustrations with the MacBook Pro. Like many people, I’ve also been waiting impatiently for Apple to enter the market with a tablet, and for the much-delayed ModBook. Nobody can accuse me of not being fair and balanced in my writing when it comes to Microsoft, Apple, and others. I just want a good mobile tablet experience, and I don’t care who comes out with it.  I’m actually tablet pc-less right now, as I’ve loaned my Vista-based tablet pcs out to friends to try, with much success I might add.

So, what about Leopard and touch? Is it primed and ready? Well, I’ll be honest, there are many aspects of the OS X user interface, as currently implemented in Leopard, that just frighten the heck out of me when I think about navigating it with my finger. Things like resizing, dialog controls, closing / minimizing / maximizing windows, scrolling, etc; and, don’t even get me started on Ink Well. However, there are features like Cover Flow and Stacks that feel like Apple is showing us a little bit of their hand. Navigating Cover Flow feels a lot like flipping through album covers on the iPhone.

I’ll create a short video within the next day that will demonstrate my concerns about touch being implemented on a Leopard based Mac, as well as those things that seem to pave the way for some interesting user experiences.

Stay tuned.