About the graphic editor you obviously are worried about, i think it wouldn’t be difficult to implement also a wacom-like tech so we would use a pen for precision tasks.
In the coming years we’ll also have better writing recognition sw, so it would be possible to use that as an input. we’re faster with a keyb but that could be intersting in given environments (taking notes at a school lesson with a current laptop is a nightmare), and finally signing a pdf invoice could be done without printing anything and scanning it back

However, I don’t see how this application/window juggling is any more efficient than tabbing through. It actually seems MORE tedious. The finger number designations go down a road of increasing limitation that just doesn’t align with intuition. I am not looking for a way to manage windows faster – I think most of us heavy users have that down.

However, the fingers on the desktop on a pad scenario answers so many problems that always come to mind when touch screen comes up in the conversation.

I’d also like to see electric pulse shape switching (what’s the proper term for this – it’s where a current passes through a medium, changing the shape?) to toggle the surface texture between small depressions or bumps for keyboard and perfectly flat for full-screen manipulation.

I must add that I think MODO would be a mind-blowing design experience with this interface.

Working with a ton of open apps just divides your attention to the point where you lose productivity compared to doing everything one by one. When I really need to get something done, I log out of chat, kill the twitter app, minimize Mail and when possible, use the fullscreen option of the App that I need. Switching windows and issuing menu commands is already fast enough. it’s the brain that lags behind. Without concentration, all I produce is crap anyway.

These hyper-multitouch ideas won’t get flight before they become implemented inside a range of apps (where you do the actual work) and work consistently across them.

Until then, I will be happy to remain rather keyboard-centric (I don’t do much drawing)

But. I like my windows scattered around the desktop(s), so why try to change that? Why can’t I use the same type multitouch commandos to greatly enhance my control over my current OS? I don’t want your engineer-approach to computing.

So, I think the winning formula won’t try to enforce a new GUI on you, but rather empower your existing OS. Multitouch FTW!

Ultimately, I’d like to be able to crawl into my monitor and warp to do my searches on Planet Google.