Slashdot Mirror
AlphaGrip's 3D Keyboard Ready For Pre-Orders
bic2k writes "AlphaGrip has opened their doors to pre-orders this past week. (Previously mentioned here.) Press release can be found here. They look a lot like an xbox controller, but contains 42 buttons and a analog stick. Shows up as a standard USB keyboard and mouse. Has a USB expansion slot, which will possibly be used for wireless connectivity. They claim typing speeds of 50 WPM or better after a month or so. They're waiting for 5000 pre-orders before going to manufacturing, so it may be awhile before they actually ship these."
It's hard to see from the image, but shift-drag looks like it could be a b*tch.
- a great design
- very clever shortcuts
- decent to great keying speed after training
- a real potential to help people with RSI
- a manual to teach the user to "key fast in less than xxx weeks without effort"
- an absolutely insane retail price
- zero chance to make any sort of dent in the entrenched PC-104-type keyboard market
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
"Those with large hands may not achieve the same typing speed as users with small to average sized hands."
Some of us have large hands. Will someone please build a keyboard for us!
"To those who are overly cautious, everything is impossible. "
If I can type 50 wpm without taking my hands off the keyboard to get to the mouse i'd be very very happy.
"Up to 50 WPM!" Wow!
With a standard keyboard, I can type 65+ and some people can go to 100+ WPM. And QWERTY was designed to slow people down!
The good thing about the standard keyboards: you can type one-handed or even one-fingered. 50wpm is fine, but I could care less. I want a keyboard that lets me do my work while I'm drinking coffee and eating my donut. With these other keyboards, I must use both hands. Worse, this one makes me use the mouse with my right hand only, sometimes I like to switch to my left hand, to relieve some stress.
god google is making people lazy google is not the sum of all human knowledge, searching google for 2-3 terms does not constitute "everywhere" maybe I'm just pissed because I see this every time another assignment is due and someone disputes their grade because I marked them down for missing something important to the topic and they give as their excuse "but that wasn't in the results from google"
I already type over 50wpm on a QWERTY keyboard. Why would I want to switch? My desk is already equipped with an under-surface keyboard try to prevent RSI problems. For /. readers and techies, the best keyboard change would be returning the CONTROL key where it belongs: next to the A key. How many people use the CAPS LOCK key more than the CONTROL key? At least DEC got that right with the VT-100. I'm still using an old Keytronic keyboard because nobody manufactures keyboards with a DIP switch to swap the CAPS and CONTROL keys. It still drives people nuts when they use my keyboard.
signature pending slashdot approval
If I can type 50 wpm without taking my hands off the keyboard to get to the mouse i'd be very very happy.
There's no way you can type and move a mouse at the same time. Anyone with a trackpad on a laptop can attest. My right thumb doesn't do anything when typing, but I cannot possibly use it to move the mouse while typing.. even though I can reach it just fine.
It seems like with this "keyboard" you'd have to have your fingers curved and somewhat tensed to hold the controller at all times. This would seem to me to cause more discomfort than a regular keyboard where for the most of the time, most of your fingers are relaxed.
This seems to be a recurring problem with many "alternative" keyboards like chording keyboards and such. Particularly it seems to be a problem with keyboards intended to be more "mobile". So a tip to you keyboard tinkerers out there: design your keybaord so that your fingers are lax and fully extended while no keys are being pressed.
Typically, after hunting and pecking for years, users remember where each key is and can develop consistently quick and accurate typing skills (all the while glancing at the keyboard). 90wpm may be stretching it, but I don't doubt that the H&P method can be perfected after awhile.
Then again, years of practice take the 'hunt' out of it, so you should just call it pecking.
* In my experience, joystick/joybutton mouse is almost as bad as a touch pad for doing CAD.
* In practice, my hands are not constantly on the keyboard. I'm referring to documentation, looking things up, drinking my coffee, etc. This looks like I'd have to carefully put it back in its stand everytime or else wind up hitting unwanted keys.
It's a good try, but I don't think it suits my needs. Keep trying though, I still want something I can use on an airplane.
A goal is a dream with a deadline