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Timothy Lord Checks Out Keyboards & Tech At CES
Slashdot's Timothy Lord is at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. There is no way any one person can take in the whole show. It's just too big for that. But on Timothy's first day, he spotted an overlay keyboard for the iPad that's been mentioned on Slashdot before, an invisible keyboard for your smartphone or tablet, and a crazy-interesting all-in-one computing device with a built-in projector and built-in virtual keyboard. Watch the video and join Timothy as he learns about these three devices. (Before you ask: Yes, we'll have more videos from CES over the next few days.)"
I have no interest in any of these products but I do find them interesting. Touchfire looks like a good product for someone that has decided to use an Ipad (though if you really need a keyboard that much why not use a laptop?) The virtual computer is neat just for the way it handles mouse and keyboard inputs without actually having a keyboard/mouse. The last product they talked about, Snapkeys, would irritate me since it would force you to learn an entirely new way to type in order to use it. It's another case of forcing the user to change his behavior to accommodate the lack of a keyboard on a tablet.
I personally find the "All in One" computer there the most intersting. It reminds me a bit of Sixth Sense wearable gesture interface from ted talks a few years back.
"A keyboard. ... How quaint."
I am officially gone from
How many different sizes of screw does it use?
Yes, that is the same technology, completely stripped of everything that made it awesome. To compare the TouchStream to the Magic Trackpad is to completely underestimate the TouchStream. I recently sold my original TouchStream for 50% more than I paid for it, a decade ago. It boggles the mind that Apple isn't in the business of selling $500 keyboards to users who desperately want to buy them.
Having toyed with the demo, I think the idea is that at first you need to sort of visualize the letters as you type, but you quickly develop muscle memory for that because there are only four keys and the mnemonic is easy and visual. It's not something like Dvorak where you would have a steep learning curve before payoff... But I'd sure be interested to know how non-dictionary words are handled - this is where those alternative keyboards usually fail.
They're aiming this product at hipster tossers (*) who bought the iPad and gushed about it to their friends. Now "no keyboard" is no longer "underground", (**) which gives them an excuse to admit to themselves that it's actually really fucking annoying trying to use one without it, and rush out and buy the latest iOverpricedAccessoryTat.
(*) Seriously, *look* at the guy- he's the archetypal odious hipster twat if ever I saw one. It's the bloody hat that does it- he deserves to be beaten to death with his obnoxiously-angled self-consciously hipster headwear, if that was physically possible. Sadly it's not, so we'd just have to settle for choking him to death by shoving it down his throat. >:-(
(**) It never was, but when every man and his dog has an "exclusive" iPad, you really can't pretend any more.
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