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Two Videos of E-Lead's Noahpad in Action

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the headed-for-the-circular-file dept.

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.

6 of 114 comments (clear)

  1. They call that a keyboard? by KublaiKhan · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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
    1. Re:They call that a keyboard? by ceoyoyo · · Score: 5, Insightful

      From the look of the video it was something a bit different... the trackpad appears to detect where your finger is (what letter you want to type) but to actually type it you seem to have to press the WHOLE half of the keyboard down for some reason. Watching the short bit where the guy was "typing" looked really painful. You can't type properly when the whole keyboard has to depress and then return for every keypress!

    2. Re:They call that a keyboard? by Qzukk · · Score: 4, Insightful

      that frequently used keys would wear away, and the contact would become exposed--and shortly thereafter, break

      It looks like this design is different. It looks like two gigantic "keys", that are actually touchpads with a keyboard printed on top that have a switch underneath to tell the difference between just touching it and pushing down on it.

      The keys would eventually rub off, but then you're down to a blank touchpad. Anyone know how long it takes for laptop touchpads to wear out? Most likely, the switch underneath each side would break first.

      The virtual desktop thing is what amuses me most. I remember the bad old days when XFree86 defaulted to allocating the largest screen possible whether your monitor could handle it or not, leading to endless streams of newbies on IRC asking how to turn the damn screen scrolling thing off.

      --
      If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
  2. Old skool ease of use by El+Cabri · · Score: 4, Funny

    Finally, using a point-and-click interface will resemble using VI. The beard-suspender set rejoice !

  3. Re:Blogtard Noise Machine by mevets · · Score: 5, Funny

    Mod -1, Investor

  4. Slow typing speed by jon3k · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.