Redstone Build supporting Touchscreen on Continuum wireless display!

[snakebitten]

How did this sneak up on me? I do remember reading that touchscreen support was "coming soon" to Continuum, but I use Continuum everyday in all kinds of scenarios and have not actually witnessed this feature yet.........until a minute ago.

I was experimenting with using the Surface Pro 4 as the wireless display for using Continuum with my Lumia 950XL. (It requires both devices to be running Redstone Preview, of course)

So that is exactly what I did. And sure enough, the SP4 was immediately listed as an available wireless display from the 950XL. I chose it and the SP4 quickly launched a window with a "pairing number" to type into the 950XL. Succeeded almost instantly! And the first thing I noticed was it appeared that the 950XL scaled beautifully on the ultra-high resolution SP4 display.

Then I launched our in-house corporate universal app that we are developing and it rendered in all its "desktop" UI glory.

But what happened next was an accident...........

I instinctively touched the SP4 screen with my finger to point out something to our software developer. I was stunned when the app responded to my touch as a command.

I don't know why, but I thought Continuum touchscreen support would require a hard-wired connection. I thought that because the touchscreens we put on everyone's desk (at work) requires both an HDMI connection and a USB connection to become a Windows 8.1\10 touchscreen workstation.

I'm stoked!

I'm fixing to install a Touchscreen in the Double-Din opening in my truck! You see where I'm going with this?
Yea, my truck will have a entertainment\navigation system that is agnostic to what brand my device is. The 950XL IS the head unit!
My passengers will have LTE internet (950XL hotspot) and my music, email, texting, GPS, ...etc are all driven from a device in my pocket.

Also, if someone were to break into the truck and steal my "stereo", all they got was my touch-screen.

We live in remarkable times. Every night I go to bed and wake up and they invented some new capability. I live in a Cracker Jacks Universe. lol

 

[daelumia]

I was playing with continuum on a Surface Hub and the touchscreen works there as well. Very cool!

 

[kkaykaykay]

I had almost the same idea of installing a double din touch screen to my car, but my familiarity for cars audios are limited. But the I couldn't find ones that had an input for touch screen (like usb cable sticking out so the computer can recognise touchscreen), wasn't too sure how to go around it. I just have to stick my stock radio haha.

Also, since you were about to connect your surface and phone together, a quick question, is wireless the only route to connect or are there other measures?

Sent from space.

 

[gtbuzz]

I've been thinking about replacing the head unit in my truck. Has Microsoft published any info on what protocols are required for touchscreen over Continuum? I've been looking at this head unit:

https://www.amazon.com/Jensen-VX402...ag=hawk-future-20&ascsubtag=UUwpUvbUpU3519567

It support HDMI/MHL, so in theory I can at least cast the screen over there. Would be nice to just dock the phone and not worry about touching it though.

 

[hawaiiantech]

I too was wondering about a head unit for the car. I did find a startup in Montana that makes 'extender' type products.
prodock

They have something similar to nexdock. But they also have a touch screen 'tablet' that works with continuum. I was thinking of mounting this to my dash and just aux cable the sound into my existing head unit. But interesting blurb in their future concepts page about a touchscreen head unit...

 

[gtbuzz]

I too was wondering about a head unit for the car. I did find a startup in Montana that makes 'extender' type products.
prodock

They have something similar to nexdock. But they also have a touch screen 'tablet' that works with continuum. I was thinking of mounting this to my dash and just aux cable the sound into my existing head unit. But interesting blurb in their future concepts page about a touchscreen head unit...

Hm, that head unit looks really intriguing. If it every materializes I may have to check it out.

I tried out the Jensen VX4022 and unfortunately it doesn't look like it's a go for Continuum. Bought an MHL->HDMI USBC cable for the 950xl and it doesn't appear that the 950xl supports MHL. Tried just a straight up USB OTG HDMI cable and while it seems to work with pretty much every device I could find that will accept an HDMI cable, it doesn't work with that head unit.