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On-Screen Keyboard Maliit Demoed With Gnome 3
Developer Jon Nordby has posted a video demo of the on-screen keyboard Maliit — intended "to be the input method project for MeeGo and other GNU/Linux-based embedded/mobile platforms" — working on a tablet running Gnome 3 under Fedora. Nordby mentions that Fedora packages are in the works for those who'd like to try it out. The keyboard looks impressively smooth and flexible (including language-specific character sets); I only wish it had the smooth-swiping predictive ability of keyboards like Swype.
Try using it to write anything that is not in the dictionary. It totally sucks for everything outside maybe text messaging. On a tablet it would only be worse.
But the fact it kept resizing the window instead of overlaying seemed very un-smooth to me. I would think you'd want to determine the location of the text input field and overlap the part of the screen not in use when possible instead of forcing the user to re-maximize their app every time they type something.
All that said, I can't help but to feel these tablet fanatics are screwing up the UI for laptops and desktops for the sake of touchscreen in pursuit of the misguided goal of a 'unified' UI.
XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
I guess the global namespace is getting full, and no more good names are left.
If Pandora's box is destined to be opened, *I* want to be the one to open it.
I prefer to use a mallet to interact with my computer...
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Having to hold it with one hand while hunt-and-peck'ing with the other hand doesn't look comfortable. I'm almost getting cramps in sympathy. Why not just attach a keyboard?
I was at a conference recently watching a fantastic speaker who spent his life's work on elucidating the pathogenesis of antiphosholipid syndrome, and next to me was someone attempting to take notes on an ipad. Clearly somewhere in her distant memory were ideas of happiness and bliss, of form and function coalescing on the future of technology that would be her companion for the conference. The reality was somewhat different. The 20 wpm typing speed was particularly hampered by the visual presentations, which frequently interrupted her fervered hunt and pecking of the keys and word suggestions. I dare say all the effort involved precluded any understanding of the speaker, but I can't besure of this. I can be sure that it proved finally to all who noticed that data input will never be a strong talent of a tablet.
Without any kind of (force) feedback, I think the normal keyboard paradigm sucks, even if it allows using multiple fingers at once.
Maybe they should make a kind of transparent rubber mat that one can overlay onto a screen, where the rubber mat contains small tangible edges, so that you can feel where each key is.
If Pandora's box is destined to be opened, *I* want to be the one to open it.
This is the most disappointing virtual keyboard I have seen in ages. It's not even big enough to let you hold your fingers over the home row.
Maliit is the Tagalog (Filipino) word for small. Do I win a prize?
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I've had the same experience trying to take notes with a laptop. There are too many equations, graphs, diagrams, and characters not on my keyboard for me to possibly keep up with just a keyboard. I have ended up going back to pencil and paper every time.
Which is what really makes me shake my head about these new tablets. They completely ignore all the potential strong points of the tablet form factor. I would love to have something lightweight that I could take free-form notes on that were at least somewhat searchable (I can live without perfect handwriting recognition). I'd love to have an eBook reader that can handle standard size PDF documents (journal papers), and let me easily annotate them. I'd love to have something lightweight to draw on like a Wacom Cintiq that isn't tethered to a computer.
No instead they provide a glorified smartphone whose only input method is pointing and grunting. Which has to be tied to the Cloud to transfer any data to another computer, or preform half the functionality. Which can't use calender/contacts syncing standards that even my Nokia dumbphone supports. The MS tablets have their share of problems, since they insist on reusing applications written with keyboard and mouse in mind, but at least they try to take advantage of the unique capabilities of the form factor.
In order to get a low-end Android device as a test platform, I recently bought a cheap little tablet (Flytouch / ePad / MID) from China. Don't get me wrong, the implementation was horrible. I think this thing was a fifth-rate knockoff of a third-rate knockoff, and the stats (RAM, clock speed, installed Android version) were all lies. It is too slow and clunky, with too miserable a battery life, to use for almost anything (except testing software you really, really want to be fast and efficient, so yay).
But the neat thing is that it came with a very light little protective folder with keyboard. When you pop the tablet in the folder, it's just like a little laptop. I can't help but look at that and say that tablets and netbooks will converge.
What I'd really like to see is a little folder like that with the tablet with iPad-style capacitative multitouch screen, the keyboard module optionally with extra batteries, possibly a hard drive, optical drive, usb and other ports, and tiny mouse, and maybe a Kindle-style e-reader with a Cintiq-style high-precision pen input, so you could take notes on it or it could work as an auxiliary input. A nice little kit for all of your bag-not-pocket portable needs, that all works together and separately, and also adds two highly convenient interfaces to your desktop machine.
I think something like this will happen eventually (at least, without the e-reader/pen tablet -- one can dream). People love the tablet interface for lounge-and-browse stuff, but often need the keyboard and ports to get stuff done. There's little reason you can't provide both together. Right now, I think the keyboard/case is being left out more for stylistic than practical reasons (if, say, the iPad came with a keyboard/case, people would have seen it more as a crippled laptop with a gimmick than something new and exciting, even though it would be a more capable device).
Learn Japanese RPG -- lrnj.com
What tablet keyboards really suck at is writing Slashdot comments in HTML.
(< and > are two shifts away on the iPad...)
In a survey of 100 programmers, 111111 thought that duck-typing was a good idea.
Without any kind of (force) feedback, I think the normal keyboard paradigm sucks, even if it allows using multiple fingers at once.
Some keyboards have haptic feed back on each key entry, which use the handset vibrator to indicate key press. Other simulate a click sound, which can substitute for the force of a key press.
How well this scales to a large device, such as a 17 or 24 inch screen is anyone's guess at this point.
There is also this problem of on-screen finger prints and smudges, which is likely to be more of an annoyance than actually having a keyboard at a desktop setting. Constantly wiping my tablet is pretty annoying. I've gotten in the habit of running my fingers over my trousers or shirt prior to touching the tablet. (At last a use for a Tie?).
All in all, its not clear to me that there is any reason for on-screen keyboards on the desktop. Hand held, certainly. But the whole ergonomics of the desktop computer screen need to be reworked to switch to on-screen keyboards and mouseless pointing.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
All in all, its not clear to me that there is any reason for on-screen keyboards on the desktop
Sure. Gnome and others such as Enlightenment are trying to prepare themselves for running on touch screen devices. Whether the hardware manufacturers will ever allow this is another question.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
Im thinking it could be a bit slow but if you got good at it you might come close to typing on a touch screen. I don't have the phone tablet to test it?
I can purchase a mother board and build my own system, which by the way I do. I would like to eventually buy a nude generic tablet onto which I install my own OPSYS and applications. When do you think this hardware is going to be marketed and with good availability. There is a large desire for roll-your-own devices.
Leslie Satenstein Montreal Quebec Canada
Yay! Hindi pa ako nakapunta sa pinas pero ang asawa ko'y galing alamada, cotabato. Ilonggo/Hiligaynon ang unang wika niya pero maliit lang ang mga Ilonggo ko na diksiyonario. Maraming pilipino dito sa Brussels at nagka-kareko ako ng tagalog sa lahat ng party :-) Diyan ako natuto.
Gudlak sa project mo!
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The "Asus Eee Pad Transformer" is (minus the e-reader/pen tablet fantasy) is basically exactly what I described, although the keyboard/folder/battery-pack is sold separately (I can't imagine getting one without the other, though). And it's selling faster than they can put them on the shelves.
I think we're going to be seeing a lot more of these, at lower and lower prices.
Learn Japanese RPG -- lrnj.com