iq816?

[snousle]

I've been keeping my eyes out for some sort of touchscreen computer for use in the commercial kitchen. I'm planning on writing some custom software for time and task management for catering events, and a touchscreen would be really nice.

The HP IQ816 caught my eye. Kind of spendy but kind of sexy, too:



Also, we have no practical, operating TV right now and watching DVDs on a desktop computer is a bit of a drag, so we're also looking for something that can be put onto the coffee table for a film and taken away later.

I'm wondering if this thing, along with an extra power supply, would fit the bill. Would hauling it from one room to another when we want to watch a film be practical? It has only the one power cord, so it's not like there's cable spaghetti to deal with, but it weighs 35 pounds and lacks a handle.

I had a godawful HP computer about ten years ago and swore I would NEVER buy another. HPs software at the time was uniformly cruddy. I hear the special touchscreen interface HP provides for this unit is actually not all that bad, but that it's loaded up with crapplets that would be a pain to uninstall. (I have no problem with it using Vista so long as it works as well as it does on my current desktop!)

Comments

[winstonthriller.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure if it is this model, but I read about one of the HP Touchsmarts having problems running some Windows Office applications under Vista 64.

[snousle.livejournal.com]

Really? That's pretty lame. I'd be curious to know which models/apps are involved.

[bluebear2.livejournal.com]

It looks pretty neat. I like the rounded flat sides. And it's nice to see the colour brown used in a computer.

[kevynjacobs.livejournal.com]

35 POUNDS?!?!?! Geez.

[furr-a-bruin.livejournal.com]

Yeah - remember, it's something like a 26" widescreen display - it's not a small machine. The PC part is probably only about 5 lbs of that, the rest is the monitor.

[furr-a-bruin.livejournal.com]

Hm. I don't know how much you guys watch (or might watch) TV/DVDs but you might consider the idea of a regular TV in the living room, a touchscreen monitor in the kitchen - and a compact computer like the Dell Studio Hybrid that can move back and forth. I suspect that for the same money you could probably wind up with a setup that leaves the displays in place and just moves the small, light PC back and forth - though then you would have to deal with some cable spaghetti. Not sure how offputting that is to you (and there are ways to minimize it) - but moving something the size and weight of the HP model you reference at all often would (for me) rapidly become far more annoying than connecting power, video & usb cables.

[urbear]

I hear the special touchscreen interface HP provides for this unit is actually not all that bad, but that it's loaded up with crapplets that would be a pain to uninstall.

http://pcdecrapifier.com

[furr-a-bruin.livejournal.com]

If one can get any necessary extra drivers or apps - I'm a big fan of just installing a clean, non-crapified copy of Windows. That's what I did with my EeePC, as Asus made all the drivers and custom Eee apps available on their website.

[urbear]

I agree, but sometimes there's valuable stuff that's not on the standard OS disc, or the provided recovery disc has all the crap on it already, or they just give you a recovery partition that's pre-crapped-up for your convenience.

[bigjohnsf.livejournal.com]

I guess my question is is it designed to withstand the abuse of a working kitchen?

There must be touch screens that are designed for 'industrial' use.

[furr-a-bruin.livejournal.com]

Excellent point.

I was listening to a recent MacBreak Weekly netcast today, and one of the hosts was talking about a new kitchen/recipe program that used OS X's built-in voice recognition system to avoid the whole problem of using a touchscreen, touchpad or mouse with messy hands.

Now - I know Vista (or some varieties of it, at least) have a similar vorec capability, though how accurate it is I don't know. If Tony's going to be writing his own custom kitchen software - I would imagine he could access that system and thus avoid having to touch anything while he's in the middle of cooking.

[snousle.livejournal.com]

It's going to be on the dry side of the kitchen, away from any grease or water. Clean hands will be helpful but not hard to maintain. So I think a regular screen will be fine.