HP's Touch Still a Bit Clumsy

Hewlett-Packard’s revamped TouchSmart PC, a one-piece desktop computer with a touch-controlled user interface, improves on its previous, bulky iteration, with a sleek case, big 22-inch screen, and wireless keyboard and mouse, personal-tech guru Walter Mossberg writes in the Wall Street Journal. But the touch-screen software is still in its nascent form, simple and somewhat rough around the edges.

"It's attractive, more versatile, and more practical—and fun to use," Mossberg writes of the machine, due out in mid-July with models priced at $1,299 and $1,499. "But this is still a Vista computer," he cautions, "with all of the disadvantages that entails." But, Mossberg concludes, "if you're intrigued by the idea of a quick and simple interface on a handsome one-piece Vista machine, the TouchSmart might make sense." (More touch-screen technology stories.)