Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2017 November 20

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November 20

Delicate touchscreens

Are all laptop touchscreens always less resistant against impacts, like falls, etc? It seems to me they are always made of glass. And contrary to a smartphone, at this size, one fall and it's toast. --B8-tome (talk) 02:05, 20 November 2017 (UTC)

There are two types of touchscreens. Once commonly uses a mylar overlay. Mylar overlays won't crack, but they can be punctured or creased. The problem with mylar overlays is that the common design can only register one finger, not two. The more expensive ones can register two, but not three fingers. Two is required for many common tasks, such as pinch and zoom. The expense of two-touch mylar (or similar overlays) gets to the range of cheaper touch-glass. Glass can register many touches, but it cracks. So, there are a lot of companies working on making the glass so it won't crack. Similarly, there is work on making mylar overlays that can handle three or four touches at the same time. I recently worked on a radar control system that had a mylar overlay that did three touches at once. It was part of the control. You could touch your left finger on an aircraft and, at the same time, select controls with your right hand, including pinching and expanding menus with two fingers. If you want to compare the two side by side, I would look at tablets. Children's tablets tend to use a plastic overlay (not mylar, but similar). Adult tablets use glass. You can see how they look and feel different, but you can also see that a kid won't crack the plastic screen. 209.149.113.5 (talk) 14:21, 20 November 2017 (UTC)

I'm sorry, but this is completely wrong.

The resistive screens (that you're calling "mylar") are more delicate than a well-made capacitive touch-screen like you'd find on a modern phone. [1][2]. The only reason they were used on toys (like the Nintendo DS, or WiiU), is that they were cheaper.

You seem to be of the impression that "mylar" screens don't have glass in them. This is wrong. They do have glass. And it can absolutely crack. [3]

ApLundell (talk) 16:42, 20 November 2017 (UTC)

(To clarify, 209.149 is trying to describe the difference between Capacitive touchscreens,which usually have a hard glass top layer, and Resistive_touchscreens, which have a flexible top layer.

However, 209.149 has badly misunderstood the advantages and disadvantages of the two technologies.) ApLundell (talk) 17:13, 20 November 2017 (UTC)

Even resistive touch-screens will have a layer of glass that can crack if you drop it.

Probably what you're seeing is 1) Laptops are less likely to have "gorilla glass" or other high-impact types of glass. 2) The greater weight means it's more likely to crack when dropped.

However, you can buy rugged laptops. They're mostly used by construction workers and similar. here is an example a model with a touchscreen. (Not an endorsement. I've never used one.)

ApLundell (talk) 16:42, 20 November 2017 (UTC)

Sign in With Google

Hi everyone. I am an Android user and habitually log into apps using the sign in with Google option. I have recently downloaded the APK for the Splitwise app on my Kindle but the sign in with Google option is greyed out. I've tried logging in the normal way with my Google details but it didn't work. Is there any way around this? Thanks. 2A02:C7D:A0E:4100:CC1D:A868:E1AC:8A13 (talk) 23:26, 20 November 2017 (UTC)

I am pretty sure the answer is "no", at least not without rooting your device and installing custom Android. Android-based Kindles use an Amazon-produced fork of Android, which does not include Google's proprietary software such as Google Mobile Services and Google Play Services. These are what provide things like support for Google Accounts; they are not part of base Android. This is also why you don't have the Google App Store on the Kindle, but Amazon's own store. Amazon wants to keep you in their ecosystem. As aforementioned, you can root your device if you want, but it will void your warranty, and may cause some Kindle features to not work properly. If you are interested, try a Web search for others' experiences doing so. --47.157.122.192 (talk) 05:07, 21 November 2017 (UTC)