Logitech’s Worst Nightmare
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- Опубликовано: 18 авг 2022
- SideQuest: The secret story of the Touch Screen: nebula.app/videos/lowspecgame...
As an Italian inventor tries to pull his life back together, he finds myself mixed up in a commercial and technological war that would change laptops forever.
Previous video about Federico Faggin: • Intel’s worst Nightmare
#touchpad #synaptics
Big thanks to Matt for his cameo: / extracredits
Corrections:
8:35 We intentionally used the incorrect term "flashed" here and beyond to refer about writing ROM or OTP memory. Did was done in the interest of clarity to a younger audience but technically this term is only for flash memory.
Credits
Research and Writing: LowSpecAlex
Voice over: LowSpecAlex
Editing: Henrique von Buren, LowSpecAlex
3D animation: Windy, Divye
Art: Maiku no Koe
Spanish Translation, Audio editing and QA: Henrique von Buren
Camera work: LowSpecAlex, F4mi
Thumbnail design: Maiku no Koe
Social media:
/ lowspec_gamer
/ thelowspecgamer
Sources:
Federico Faggin (2021). Silicon
Music by Epidemic Sound: epidemicsound.com/creator
Stock Footage from Getty 
Наука
NO FRIGGIN WAY you actually interviewed Mr. Faggin himself!! Beautiful doc, Alex!
I think you mean to say... No Faggin way!
I'm so sorry
Epic!
I also said, no friggin way when Mr Faggin appeared, lol
It's so cool when the people you're trying to write a documentary about are chill enough to agree to an interview. You get the story from first person perspective.
I screamed like a school girl when Federico Faggin appeared on screen.
My wife asked what is wrong and if everything is ok.
I'm ok just excited to watch an interview with one of the most influential people in the IT industry.
YO this is a step UP! Going out and actually interviewing someone this important just because your source ommited the details you wanted? OUTSTANDING! This is absolutely craz! Your channel just leveled the hell up
I am hoping to start making more interviews in the future. Flights are expensive, so I might not be able to do it for every video but this is the level I want to get to
Yeah, people are so used to gatekeeping, mass establishment censorship, and propaganda that any real journalism is breathtakingly refreshing.
@@LowSpecGamer it's not optimal but if you can't afford a flight a remote interview is acceptable.
Is incredible how many times engineering superstars want to talk and do interviews... But because the engineer superstar aura surrounding 'em (we think they will say "I can't attend you, I'm busy" if we ask them), and because many of them aren't as known by people as their company CEOs and public relation people... They just get forgotten, in the shadows of time.
@@LowSpecGamer Nick Robinson for advice!
Logitech cheaping out and ruining a product? Some things sure don't change!
Almost like most laptops with synaptics pads don't suck ass to use 😅
Anything to save money making parts cheaper
The brand new Lenovo Thinkpad I got this year had its touchpad stop functioning within a week (did receive a firmware update though)
You forgot the part where they overprice the product.
It's annoying too, since they used to make hard-wearing mice, heck, my 2nd G9 still works despite all the abuse it's suffered (aside from no extra buttons due a broken ribbon cable), but my G502's middle mouse button broke a month after the warranty expired. I unfortunately had to go with another once, but next year I'll replace it with probably an ASUS one.
I'd love to watch a full cinema-worthy work about a touchpad war
It is worth that
@@LowSpecGamer yes
it would honestly be great
This is what youtube was made for, highly detailed, recently produced, extremely niche, informational videos.
And the L button.
Whenever I've previously seen the Synaptics logo, it's usually with annoyance because something is wrong with my touchpad sensitivity. I'm going to look at it a little different now.
It’s one of those tiny things one takes for granted but actually has a a lot history behind it
for me its mainly input lag, their drivers usually add a crapload of input lag that drives me nuts, am also going to look at it a little different now.
@@thegeforce6625 Ehh anyone that cares about input lag uses a mouse
@@NavinF I’m not talking about gaming, I’m talking about how the amount of input lag was so extreme it made moving the cursor quickly and accurately in basic windows desktop usage very difficult to borderline impossible, I mean, the basic Microsoft PS/2 mouse drivers on the same touchpad hardware have orders of magnitude less input lag, to the point I couldn’t detect any.
Someone at Synaptics really needs to clean up and streamline the codepath for translating finger movements and gestures to operating system actions.
@@thegeforce6625 I’ve had the same thing (not sure if it’s a Synaptics touchpad or not) though it’s intermittent and happens under Linux too, so it can’t be the driver unless they use the same drivers on Linux, I think it’s a hardware thing (maybe I got water in it or something)
You a lucky man Alex, meeting the father who make the foundation of modern technology.
Highlight of this series so far for sure.
@@LowSpecGamer Had he seen your Zilog vid before you contacted him? Is it part of the reason he agreed to the interview?
Yes. Someone from his family saw the original video and sent it to him
Father of windows laptops disaster. After 40 years all windows touchpads are still crap compared to Apple.
@@nnnnnn3647 found the Apple fanboy!
Synaptics being able to deliver the touchpads in one week for such a large request reminds me of how IBM kept making machines avoided firing staff during the 1920's depression, and when the US government needed tabulation machines to work the social security entries of the entire population, IBM just showed up with a surplus stock of machines ready to send out, guaranteeing the extremely profitable contract.
Yes, IBM is that old, and yes, I had to do a work on their timeline of business practices. The number of things IBM's engineers were behind the creation of makes me think Alex here will eventually talk about the company in future videos.
One example is a scale for pricing and cutting wheels of cheese.
If you read IBM and the Holocaust, you will discover that IBM continued to deal with Germany throughout WWII. Remember that Europe recovered from the great depression fairly quickly so even if machines weren't selling well in the U.S. they were selling overseas. IBM has hid this part of their history however if there was anything untrue in the book, IBM would have taken the author into court.
@@denawiltsie4412 I had to look them up when studying the processes they had to do through the years to be in business, and most of my source was through their own publicly accessible archives. I can say at the time I checked they did not deny still running the German branch during that time
@@OfficialDJSoru You are correct about them not denying it however their archives have been sanitized. They were very careful to remain isolated at least in the public view but there are questions about back door communications. When IBM and the Holocaust was being written, the author was denied access to the IBM archives. The information had to be gathered from other sources that IBM didn't have direct control over. Many of these records involve government records such as purchases and day to day business. The amount of research in the book is huge and it tells one of those stories hidden in history.
Rule of acquisition #9: Opportunity plus instinct equals profit.
You actually got an interview with signore Faggin! As a nerd who's followed IT history since the mid-90s, your videos are top notch -- much because you always manage to dig up tidbits that complement the stories that I thought were done told already. Awesome work.
01Qa
What a tragedy ... the inventor of touchpads , touchscreens and the first microporocessor to market ... and barely anyone knows his name
Is he an inventor? He's just a businessman
@@Ubeogesh Wrong. Faggin was an engineer not a businessman. In fact, his lack of business knowledge was what almost drove Zilog into the ground.
@@Ubeogeshamericanoid detected, opinion rejected
The production value is off the charts! Can't believe you actually got an interview with Mr. Faggin!
Synaptics touchpad was so bad that everybody have to use logitech mouse.
@@nnnnnn3647 troll lmao
@@kovyvuri user/
Alex, i am so happy for you today!... It's amazing to see the quality improve on your products and also bring the involved people itself to the video it's like seeing a titan growing!
Thanks man. This is quality content here.
Greettings from Colombia!
🙌
@@LowSpecGamer your quality improves and you are hitting a niche very few others properly cover, and you cover it well. Love the new content, maybe one day we will see a return of the old style content, but we love what you do so keep doing it :)
Synaptics touchpad was so bad that everybody have to use logitech mouse.
**Flies all the way to Italy for confirmation** "Oh well they asked me" Classic!
Of course it goes without saying, Mr F.F. himself is a legend and I'm glad that the Exxon takeover wasn't the end of his very influential career.
Dang, not only did he help kick off Intel's dominance with the x86 microprocessor spec we use for most desktops and laptops today, he also gave us Zilog and the Z80 that is still powering low-power portable devices today and for over 30 years such as the Gameboy & Gameboy Color, and worked with two of the biggest mouse/touchpad/trackpad creators in the market... AND you got to interview Signore Faggin!
And on top of that he's one that helped bring touchscreens to dominance for portable device interfaces, such you can hardly find a handheld device in the past 10-15 years that *doesn't* have some form of touchscreen input!
Pretty much every laptop i ever owned that had a touchpad had a Synaptics pad in it
Was half expecting them to be responsible for Logitech's bug, like some sort of sabotage. Feels good knowing that quality wins in the short term sometimes, and in the end it always does.
The interview with Faggin was the golden point of this video - and it was super-unexpected! I am so happy to see that the man is still going strong.
LowSpecGamer's vids are getting better and better. The actual interview was an unexpected but pleasant surprise.
Also, turning the Logitech logo into a mask was inspired.
This was probably the coolest series of videos I've ever seen. Linus be fucking damned. Dude. This is QUALITY content.
When Alex uploads both english/spanish videos at the same time and I can’t decide wich one to see
Both of them
Interviewing people like this is so important! This is primary source creation that history and research runs on! Thank you for doing it
I know I’m a softball and it’s so random but I actually felt emotional seeing you interviewing Mr Faggin. I’ve been following your content for some years now and to see how you keep growing and improving your channel is really inspiring and moving
A very interesting piece of history that you've unearthed! I really enjoy learning technology history in this kind of fashion. Keep up the great work!
One clarification on the OTP parts: those can be flashed once at the factory. They're blank before that. So running changes are much easier than with masked parts, but you can't ship an update to customers like is common now.
That part could have been clearer, the masked parts (as used by Logitech) are programmed at the chip manufacturer (Zilog), and if something goes wrong, you had to order a new batch with revised programming (after doing and validating that - typically on OTP versions). With OTPs you programmed them on your (Symantec's) site, maybe even mounted on the production board. When I worked in embedded electionics (at the end of the last millenium :-) we did development on EEPROMs, the first 3 months of production on OTPs, and only then went masked.
This is straight up AMAZING! I remember watching your channel so I can get every frame out of my iGPU and now, I just love to watch your videos even more. Those illustrations, animations and now.. a documentary. I praise you, LowSpec! 10/10 RUclips content creator and much, much more! Thank you for pushing the boundaries even further with your creativity !
I love learning about the history of tech especially through your high energy animated videos! It's also so cool you got an interview with Faggin!!
I really love how the quality of your videos has risen again! You're one of the best people to watch about stuff like this
Alex your content has always been great, but my man this is a whole new level! From the good old days of running doom on athlons to interviewing unsung legends of the computing industry. Keep it up dude!
Great work! Such an engaging story to tell - it's been impressive to watch your transformation from tweaking games beyond recognition to being a full blown story teller.
Really interesting to see how this all went out. The production of these video docs hadn't failed to keep me engaged. Simply great work from everyone involved
Man, I absolutely love how you've been evolving the channel with each video. Keep up the awesome work!
Absolutely love the new direction of the channel. These docs are awesome! Keep up the great work man! 👍
Its been a pleasure to watch your videos so dramatically improve in scope, scale and presentation over the last 2 years. Well done!
Amazing storytelling AND illustration! What a madlad Faggin was for letting you interview him. Fantastic vid
Amazingly well done video! Loved LSG for years helping my potatos run video games. This video gets an A+ more of these please.
I just discovered your channel a month or so ago and it’s immediately taken precedent over everything else. Amazing.
Nice documentary and editing! Thanks to bring us this great piece of history.
What a high quality content! I've never been this tempted to subscribe to Nebula. There's not a lot that I want to watch there, but ALL of the Side Quest contents sounds really amazing.
This is close to being my favorite channel. I actually subscribed to Nebula/Curiosity stream mainly because of you. Amazing content, incredibly engaging production
NEW VIDEO OMG, i was boringly scrolling my recommendations and seeing your video up there brought a huge grin to my face. Loving your videos!
Great video.
Its always nice to hear developers talks about their projects and Mr. Faggin seemed really excited about it.
Imo Logitech's worst nightmare is decent plastic, because I have owned multiple products from various price ranges from the company and they can't make a decent piece of plastic that won't completely fall apart in less than 6 months to save their life.
This channel just gets better and better, excellent work on this doc!
Thanks for making this, the quality and dedication is impressive 🌟
The Quality of your newest Videos is amazing. Keep it up
This dude did better research than most of the docuseries I've seen. I've never been more tempted to get a nebula subscription.
Nebula is worth it IMO. Lots of great creators on it.
Curiosity Stream is sort of meh... but whatever.
Fascinating story and great win with the interview. Your nebula is also the first reason I've seen to actually sign up! Thanks ❤
Outstanding work! I love getting behind the scenes insight into tech.
Alex, I'm beyond impressed of your videos! Everytime they manage to do the unexpectable, and always they are interesting and entertaining. Keep them coming!
Your videos are always amazing, but this time you threw it out of the park!!! Amazing content! As soon as I can I'm signing to nebula. Thank you for your work
Love it! The story, the twists, the stock footage for illustration, and of course... the effects! You're killing me, man!
The moment I heard Synaptics mentioned in the video, I instantly remembered seeing that name in the context of Windows drivers hundreds of times, and yet I had almost no idea what the company actually produced. Well, now I know.
Amazing video! Love the visuals as always and super cool to see you interview Mr. Faggin as well!
I LOVE that you were able to do this! Please keep making videos like this. I loved your channel to start with but it is mind blowing that you took a idea and made it better. You're a mad lad!
I pride myself in being somewhat knowledgeable about PC history, and this whole topic is one I was completely oblivious to. Amazingly well-put-together, and sealed with a teaser that is probably the best damned ad for Nebula I've seen so far.
Really excellent video - outstanding research and story telling, with your interview with the man himself absolutely nailing it. First class all the way. Genuinely interesting as well as enlightening - you are telling many of the "war stories" of key technological break throughs that none us have heard until now.
I always look forward to your videos! The new direction you took your channel is the whole reason I found it, and I've enjoyed every single one you've released!
wow! never know there is such an interesting story behind synaptics! I am a heavy trackpad user and i basically couldn't live without it so thank you Mr. Faggin!
I love these history/explainer videos so muchhh!!
A few months later and I'm watching this video again. So well made. This guy is so interesting to watch in an interview. I could watch more videos on his story for sure
Alex my mate, I am honored to see your Chanel going into a seriously growing direction. Good job mate! I was here just for record when you started off !
Strange to think Logitech would've made touchpads. The only ones I was able to see were: Synaptics of US, Alps of Japan and Elan of Taiwan.
My first laptop had a Cirque-designed touchpad and from what I can tell most of these were manufactured by Alps. Later on Alps would completely take over Cirque.
Excellent video, and very informative! My one nitpick would be in the interview part: if your interviewee is facing to the left, on the cut it's better if you face the other side. It presents a more spatially coherent image for the viewer.
Yep. We had to improvise the hell out of this one because the apartment was small and we had a very limited time window, so we spent most of the time setting his camera and then had to absolutely rush mine so the angle is all wrong. It has been bugging me for a month while editing, but it was the best we could do at the time
@@LowSpecGamer That's cool! The video was pretty clear, so that was just me being nitpicky. The editing is spot on, no complaints at all! And of course the research, interview and presentation are top notch. Thank you for your work!
Incredible video Alex! It's incredible to see the amount of dedication you put into this video!
I look forward to all of your videos ever since you pivoted. You have never dissapointed. Keep going man
I've been subscribed to you for ages, and your channel has really started to remind me of LEMMiNO. He started out as doing top 10 lists, but he eventually turned around and started doing documentaries. I just really hope you'll find your audience like he did -- seeing videos on this channel with fewer than 100k views is just insane. Not just because this kind of quality content warrants way more attention, but also because the production value can afford to reach even greater heights once you start earning the big bucks. Keep it up!
Wow, this is such an amazing piece of journalism. Keep it up!
What a phenomenal video!
It's so nice you took the time to visit Italy and interview Mr. Faggin in person. The production quality of this video is incredible!
Will definitely check out the rest of your channel.
this was such an interesting watch! im gonna watch the rest of your videos for sure now!
The drawings in these videos are so good!
Straight up some of the best content on RUclips, great job Alex! Can't wait for the next one!
These videos are absolutely incredible. Some of the best content on RUclips, keep it up
Great video!! Amazing and so brave to completely change your format.
Interesting how both Alps(Cirque) and Synaptics ended doing Trackpoint/Touchpad combos for IBM(Lenovo) and Dell Latitude and Thinkpad series of laptops, because touchpad couldn't cut on customers who type lots on their laptops. Once you are used to it, trackpoint is insuperable when you have to use the cursor while keeping the hands in the keyboard.
What's the trackpoint? Is that kind of red joystick on Thinkpad notebooks?
@@rising_fredo_pixel exactly, though it was on almost all competitors too in the 90s
How people get used to it though?
I have one on my ThinkPad laptop and never gotten used to it because I can reach the touchpad easily with my left thumb.
Also you can't press on it so I think it was pointless since your thumb must reach the touchpad's button anyway.
This is one of the things I don't understand about the ThinkPad lineup, where they have this nipple thing in the middle of the keyboard, and also Fn and Left Ctrl button is switched which is bad in ergonomically speaking.
@@n_core Trackpoint? Easy. If you type properly (using both hands and your five fingers on them, instead only 2 or 3), Trackpoint fits the configuration just naturally (any of your index fingers to move the track, thumbs to press the track left, right and middle buttons (DON'T CONFUSE THEM WITH TOUCHPAD BUTTONS, trackpoint have their own set near the spacebar)), and you can move cursor while typing with no extra move to search the touchpad with you thumb (and this also reliefs a bit of thumb stress). IBM/Synaptics one was specially nice to use. Lenovo ones have a bit less quality depending on the batch(some use Synaptics one, others use Alps one, less good), but Dell one is a bit of trashy (Many of them use Alps/Elan trash combo, how the nerve). People also disables touchpad, specially big ones, because them interfere in the colocation of both hands in the laptop palmrest. At least while being in a long typing session.
About the Fn - Ctrl thing... Well that's an unrelated topic for other day. But TL;DR speaking, has to do with the position of the combination of Ctrl-(x)(c)(v) keys and your pinky. Maybe that was relevant to some big IBM customers back then, and it isn't anymore, but they still do it as brand distinction (Lenovo isn't IBM, they just keep using what they bought from IBM).
@@n_core It's easy to get used to the Trackpoint when it's your laptop's only pointing device. On top of that you can move the cursor with both speed and precision. With older Touchpads it would either be hard to make precision movements or you would need to swipe multiple times to go from one side of the screen to the other.
And by the way, you can press on a Trackpoint. Starting with the revision released in 1998 you can enable tap to click in the options if you so desire.
Love the build up of all these videos with how Faggin worked in the industry here and there and NOW THIS! you are a legend! I'm glad I signed up for Nebula~
I still love the new direction of your videos! Keep up the great work!!
This was incredible, Alex and team!
Now, to go rewatch this and Sidequest on Nebula... I could listen to Federico Faggin talk about his stories for hours.
the thumbnail is top-notch quality and the whole video actually
This is real content. Love it! And you earned 1024 XP for meeting Faggin!
man i really love the direction your channel is taking keep making great content man
This is incredible :o and the interview is brilliant, you can tell how passionate federico is, excellent work !
LSG, you're one of the best tech investigative journalists now, these videos are amazing!
Love the Naoki Urasawa inspired drawing there.
Man, your content has evolved so much, props on this video man, great watch!
RUclips is really blessing you today, firstly by telling me to rewatch this, and then every single video under this, bar about three, are yours!
People don't give touch pads enough credit. They made the all in 1 computer device very much a reality without having to need a flat desk surface and drag jumble of tangled wires and cables to simply get started.
Kind of get it but for me they will never be great because i see them as just emergency use to do the most basic since i still find them awkward to use. Even when i take my laptop outside i always have a wireless mouse in the bag.
I actually think is a struggle to get things done on a touch pad. So for me yes they are important to a certain degree but they are not a technology that made anything better, is just a technology that allows a device to be sold as one piece.
Even when i have a laptop on my legs i can find using the mouse on my leg easier than a touchpad.
@@SIPEROTH using a mouse on your leg easier than touchpad lol
I usually never comment on videos, but man content like this deserves to be shared, one of the best quality content out there
Thank you
Great that you made an interview. Also, I'm really tempted to sign up for Nebula or wherever you have that interview. I'll try to keep it in mind.
Keep on making such videos, I wish you a ton of success!
My guy! This channel is a true delight! Discovered by accident and subed immidiatly. Keep up the good work!
This is fantastic. First-hand statements are solid gold for this kind of reporting. I've been watching for a while now, and I can't wait for your next release.
It is so sad to see the technology behind the perfect touchpad, by Synaptics, being killed by the new generic driver from Microsoft. My new laptop has a Synaptics touch pad but it is nearly unusable as I can't load the Synaptics control panel, relying instead on the Windows 10 driver.
the Zilog video successfully build the momentum preparing us before we face the Boss himself.
This is pretty awesome documentary. Didn't know you do this kinda longer content.
I just love this new videos you are making, liked the channel before, now I love it
Your artist is GOAT.
Honestly, touchpads (and certainly touch screens these days) are taken so for granted, but the tech behind them is insanely complex when you think about it. Likewise with a normal mouse.
This is an amazing documentary that I'd expect to see on TV, not RUclips.
This was awesome! Professionally executed, informative, and entertaining : )
been loving your new style dude! long time fan! can't wait for more ❤️ awesome narration!
Meanwhile Elan touchpads really suck and most laptops that aren't premium build(like Microsoft Surface, Dell XPS, top gaming laptops) haven't got any alternative to Apple flawless tracking.
Even premium touchpads suck compared to the apple trackpad. I dunno why exactly, but the latency is still too high for truly comfortable use. Same goes for non-iDevice touchscreens. Rather annoying, since I'm not an Apple fanboy.
It is usually just drivers. The hardware is all the same from Symantics. But yes, for some reason windows drivers are all crap. I can only live with touchpads in Linux.
Quality work! It must take a lot of effort to make such entertaining and interesting videos. I look forward to your next one!
¡Bravo Alex!
En verdad que el trabajo está extraordinario. Me gusta mucho la evolución que ha tenido tu canal.
¡Siga pa'lante!
This is one of the most entertaining document I have ever watched. Great work! Never knew how such small laptop piece could be that essential and critical in the tech market.