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Two Videos of E-Lead's Noahpad in Action
Engadget has a couple of great videos depicting the new 'Noahpad' laptop offering from E-Lead. This laptop offers a new kind of touchpad that is integrated with the keyboard. An interesting idea to be sure, but I doubt I could ever get used to typing on something this strange.
Ok, I know its not the point of the article, but if you want to make a serious product demo video (which it seems like they did), wouldn't you first want a native English speaker to massage the copy a bit before the British guy reads it? Excellently dictated British Engrish (Britgrish?), its a first!
I'm fairly sure I saw that same design on a recent list of 'worst keyboards of history'--I'm getting carpal tunnel just thinking about typing on that abomination. Not to mention it's one of those flat things of the same type as your typical McDonald's cash register of late '90s vintage--and the chief difficulty of that kind of keyboard, besides the anti-ergonomic layout, was that frequently used keys would wear away, and the contact would become exposed--and shortly thereafter, break.
The designer should be either shot, or forced to use it.
In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure dome decree
Interesting concept for sure, and I like the way virtual resolution is implemented.
This is the most interesting, original, mobile computing idea I've seen in at least six months.
As a result, the blogtard noise machine has already swung into action to shut it down.
I can only assume that the "wisdom of crowds" is that we can best be served by tiny incremental changes to the vast bleak landscape of utterly useless Origami crap.
Add this one to the heap... http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/01/10/1316255
My question is why? The video seemed to emphasize the idea of having a 10" screen on a 7" device. Where is the great application for this? I mean where is it you are needing to bring a portable that you have room for this but not a 10" version? It's not like it will fit in your pocket.
Experience teaches only the teachable. -AH
why would you want this on an origami PC which is just totally useless. I wouldn't mind having that built into my full size laptop keyboard though. no more reaching for the mouse just move your hands around the keyboard. wouldn't be good for gaming but how many plan hard core games with a track pad anyways?
Something like that even a desktop could be useful too, you don't need the resolution focus so much but you could use the other side to implement other functions.
It is at least something different.
i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
Finally, using a point-and-click interface will resemble using VI. The beard-suspender set rejoice !
> The designer should be either shot, or forced to use it.
That's WAY too harsh a punishment for the poor keyboard designer. I mean, all he did was design a hard-to-use keyboard, so he can't possibly deserve a punishment that awful.
Better just to shoot the poor guy.
They will only sell these in groups of 2.
There was a product line that combined keyboard and mouse pad (well, more of a Star Trek alike gesture pad to be honest.. programmable and all) in this way years ago already - there is nothing really worth a news item in the today presented product. I used to own one. Typing was not easy because of the lack of feedback to the fingers but not having to move the hands to be able to use "mouse" was really handy. Not exactly alike but the idea of combining those two functionalities and enriching them with multi-point sensing, gestures and such was similar.
Summary: they are using "Virtual" screen option, available since years in X11. Throw in two touchpads (one for mouse, second for scrolling on virtual desktop) and totally DESTROY the keyboard layout.
Two touchpads are nice. I don't mind the lack of per-key response when typing, probably could get used to it. But the keyboard layout? C'mon, that will be the next PCjr of "dual-touchpads". PCjr inveneted pc101 keyboard layout, see?, so I bet that they just invented "two touchpads" thingy.
If this is ever gonna work, it will be touchpads overlaid on a classical keyboard, and the border frame between them will be just to fit between the keys.
#
#\ @ ? Colonize Mars
#
Isn't it going to be a pain in the ass to play Duke Nuke Em Forever on it?
Why not just make it a single rocker button instead of two? ouch
... Which will be approved by my local church!
All hail Noahpad!
Reminds me of that other abomination of usability, the ZX80 keyboard. Also, I once saw someone use a PC monitor the same way, scrolling around different parts of the screen. It was painful just to look at it. I imagine it's like reading a vandalised web page where you have to scroll horizontally to read every line.
Drill baby drill - on Mars
I love how the voiceover - done by someone who's clearly a native English speaker - sticks exactly to the fractured English script. You've got to wonder if it just wasn't part of his job to point out all of the errors, or if the non-native speaker who wrote it had too high an opinion of his own language skills to listen to him.
Why force buyers to purchase two? Customer satisfaction, that's why! Because, when that keyboard pisses you off for the last time, merely throwing one Noahpad across the room might not be enough to soothe your rage.
Think about it. Wouldn't the *crunch* or that thing hitting a masonry wall at 40MPH with all those little *$(@#$# keys spilling onto the floor be really satisfying? You know it!
Thanks, E-Lead, for putting the customer first!
For the lazy (and in case it goes offline), quoted here: Attention: John B.!
Would you like to go to Winter Formal with me? Love, Claudia
Did you know that "FTW" ("for the win") is a direct translation of "Sieg Heil"?
This would _dramatically_ decrease your typing speed. On a normal keyboard, once you depress the first key, before the key has even traveled back to its starting position you've struck the next key. This is possible because the keys aren't physically linked. The key press isn't signaled once the key has returned to it's starting position, but after it's depressed completely. For you to type any two letters on the left or right hand side you have to wait for the "key" (the whole side) to return to the starting position.
"I love how voiceover - done by someone who clearly native English speaker - stick exactly to fractured English script. You got wonder if just wasn't part of job point out all of error, or if non-native speaker who wrote had too high opinion of own language skill to listen to."
There. Translated it for ya.
Agreed. The first time or two the speaker left out "the" I thought it was a mistake. "Wait, did I just hear that?"
After the third, it was entertainment.
I did notice the Kaffeine icon on the desktop in one of the shots. Forgetting the keyboard for a moment, the whole thing looks like a big brick. And the "virtual display" is nothing new... I had a Pentium 166 laptop running Windows 95 that did the same thing.
I don't really think this embodies any culture's mindset - I think that this is just bad design. I really cannot imagine why 1.) you want this "virtual" screen - it is just annoying to have to pan around to see the whole window. It is like walking around with a ski-mask on and constantly having to adjust your ski-mask - you'd rather just take off the masks. 2.) why have the touchpad and the keypoard one and the same - they seem to have a fair amount of real estate in the middle to use.
I think it is just really bad on many levels - I imagine their target audience is people with limited experience on a computer.
There is quite a bit of audio, clearly spoken by a native English speaker, but not WRITTEN by a native English speaker. He reads exactly what is written though, without correction. But he obviously KNOWS that what he is reading is completely wrong. It's like a horribly racist comedy routine.
Don't put advice in your sig.
There is lots of video of someone scrolling around a virtual screen, but no one types more than three letters on the thing. I want to see it being used properly, not being held and stroked smugly by a Japanese guy in a turtleneck. (I already own enough Apple stuff, thank you!)
In fact people are shown typing on regular keyboards several times in close up. You'd think the CEO could be shown typing on one at last, but no, he's typing away on a traditional 101-key keyboard. (And a full-size display).
One thing that would drive me nuts is not being able to touch type. You can't even rest your fingers on the keyboard without causing trouble. Never mind there appears to be no tactile indicators for the home row. (And don't get me started about the vertical key alignment. Z is not below Q, it's below W...)
... looks a little too much like Papyrus. Therefor, will not buy. Anything assiciated with Papyrus generally sucks.
Look, I know everyone is saying the same thing, but sometimes, you know, you've just got to express yourself.
This has got to be the absolute worst computer I've seen since the Adam. That keyboard is insanely ill-conceived -- the key layout, the split, the two big buttons idea. The display is horrendous. I've seen that sliding window idea on laptops and it really just completely sucked. Horrible. And it's just about the ugliest laptop I've ever seen.
An abortion.
Dreck.
Awful.
How sad that someone devoted all this time and money to such a piece of crap.
Whoever invented this is the anti-Steve.
Take it back! *sob*
Schrödinger's download is slow.
It would probably be better to just install an OS with multiple desktops. Possibly even use Metisse to have somewhat the same effect, but without having to scroll around to see an entire maximized window.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
This is fricken retarded. The keyboard ergonomics are crap. The screen, wtf? Why limit it to 10" on a 7" display, you might as well make it 100", I'm still positioning all windows within the 7" area so I don't have to scroll around like a bxtch. I hate it when I remote into a machine and the screen resolution is larger than what I can see on my screen. It's a pain in the ass and as mentioned before, I just end up positioning everything into the area I can see and using alt+tab to switch between windows.
Perhaps I'm not the target market, but who is? I hope they didn't spend too much money on this, if I were ever subjected to something as asinine as this I would probably start killing...
the part about geographical restrictions had me flummoxed - yes, I confess to have actually WTFV.
See that long UID - that's what you get for lurking too long
This is really the worst and most annoying laptop I have ever seen. On top of that, the guy seems to have dual 20 in monitor in the beginning of the video. I really can't imagine him thinking he would better with scrolling 60 times per minute to type is freaking word document. I would prefer investing in high risk mortgage...
It's just a butt-ugly brick. I pity the poor Mums and Dads who have persuaded to invest in the company which produced this hunk of stupidity. I don't think I have ever seen such a absolutely stupid thing in all my days. Boat anchor material!
...that British men sound smart regardless of the words coming out of their mouths.
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-- See?
first thing that came to mind after viewing that video http://website.lineone.net/~sobriety/
I see those two big pads and can only think of one thing for it.
Track & Field!
With 1.3 billion people in China, their sewers must be overflowing with shit, but does that mean they should wrap a turd in plastic and try to sell it to America? It's innovative, but the concept fails because it relies on an unsustainable level of stupidity in the market to function.
I had a ****mouse thinkpad.
The video clearly demonstrates why Apple got it right - we can't keep shrinking the keyboard and screen. They become too unusable. Better to simply make it thinner, but still have a normal sized keyboard and screen.
This is all a software issue, though.
I'd like to see the keyboard driver put open to redevelopment, because two touchpads is more than enough for almost any typing. But if you're going to go to a smaller layout, you'll have to relearn the keypad anyways. So at that point, it makes sense to get rid of the qwerty mode.
I'd like to see some interesting new drivers, such as
(1) quick-select typing (the one where the most probable letters and letter combinations fly from right to left at different heights, and you select which ones you want)
(2) probablistic combo-keys (similar to quickselect, but memorized and still typed, with left-right key combos, and "pre-select" function keys, and preselected app-specific keyboards)
(3) finger-writing
(4) standard numeric/symbol/alpha keys
(5) standard qwerty, as shown
or as is on the palm computers, a selectable set of all of the above.
Correct Horse Battery Staple: 72 bits of entropy. Enter "Correct H" into google. When it generates the phrase, that's
while holding the Ctrl key.
Let me assume you're right, regarding this keyboard.
I'm not sure you are.
Quite simply, since the keyboard is also a touchpad, there is no need for you to actually depress the button to record a keystroke. A simple touch will do it. The depressing of the keypad is good for other functions, such as:
(1) Mouse button. No different than a mouse.
(2) Function keys/shift. Hit your key lightly, and it's a key. Hit it and depress, and it's a function key.
I imagine that you could even select a function key with one hand, temporarily redirecting the other hand to an alternate usage. For example, select "c" on the bottom row, and you immediately put the other hand into greek (or hebrew, or math) characters. Select "Z" on the bottom row, and the other hand is shifted. Select "B" on the bottom row, and the other hand is mouse.
For a greater extension, imagine that you have the same four "function" keys across the bottom of either keyboard. Then you essentially have four full keyboards of functions.
In other words, even if this laptop were in Windows and completely unusable, it would be great to get this little gadget into Linux, and rewrite the interface.
Now, my only other concerns are (1) uploading/downloading ease (does it have USB for a USB drive?) (2) expandable usability (printers, cams, etc: USB would be fine) (3) Power concerns (how long does the battery last? Does the battery feature pyrotechnic surprises?) (4) Durability.
Correct Horse Battery Staple: 72 bits of entropy. Enter "Correct H" into google. When it generates the phrase, that's
I almost feel bad for the engineers on this project. This type of system really looks like something you would have seen a few years ago. Even then you would likely come to the same conclusion. No one is going to use this. There may be a market among the disabled where motion is limited but the masses just won't give up seeing the whole screen at once. Not to mention the fact that generally split keyboards haven't done well. I've always loathed even the so-called ego-keyboards.
Here's the product spec http://www.noahpad.com/product-umpc-spec.php It has usb, bluetooth, and an external backup battery. In other words, it'll handle whatever I need.
Correct Horse Battery Staple: 72 bits of entropy. Enter "Correct H" into google. When it generates the phrase, that's
At one point laptop designers got this great idea to use the "j" key on the keyboard as an integrated mouse. Press it like a key, and you get the letter j. "Mush" it about and it acts as a mouse. Neat, eh? Not so neat when you need to click anything, or you are using a window manager that requires mouse focus in the fields you're typing into...
I like the idea of two giant touchpads, but I really think that it could have been implemented better, say with 2 oled or sturdy lcd touchscreens so that you could customize interface- as it is you have to rely on "virtual mapped hotkeys" which makes you have to remember- oh yeah this is mapped to this and this is mapped to that, if you had say, a selector that would be able to have multiple stored interfaces when you change the mapping of the pads you would physically see the mapping change which would make it easier- also with two seperate pads you could build 2 separate custom interface functions which would be awesome for gaming, audio work, film work, 3d, etc since you could not only be using an interface similar to a multitouch screen, but also be able to hot swap half of that screen without losing the interface of the other half eg: controlling volume faders on the left side and moving while switching the right half of the screen to post effect faders or switches.
I can imagine seeing this in use with soft synths and plugins in a studio environment .. finally!
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
Remember the FingerWorks TouchStream and iGesture, which also allowed both typing and mouse/scroll/zoom/etc. on a single surface, only without sucking?