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."

Comments

Like so many alternative keyboard, it will have

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

- 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

Re:Like so many alternative keyboard, it will have

[killjoe]

"zero chance to make any sort of dent in the entrenched PC-104-type keyboard market"

Why?

Because most people are not touch typists. They want to see the keys their are hitting.
Most people don't want to learn a new layout and then become flustered when they attempt to use their computer at work/home/friends house or whatever.
Most people end up needing to press weird control sequences of their favorite program and unless the keyboard is very carefully designed these types of two and three letter combos are harder on fancy keyboards.
Most people have no real desire to pay over a hundred for any keyboard no matter how revolutionary.
Most people have occation to type one handed. Whether it's because you have a phone in your hand, or otherwise :).

Why would touch typists switch?

[msblack]

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.