Two videos of E-Lead's Noahpad in action

If our description from CES of the perplexing (and frankly inconvenient) navigation associated with E-Lead's Noahpad wasn't enough to truly depict what is going on with this thing, then perhaps these videos will help. Sure, they've gotten a British guy to do voice-overs, and the company is playing some interesting angles with the multi-use concept, but we're not sold that anyone could really get used to that keyboard. Take a look for yourself... you'll see what we mean.

[Thanks, Tom]

[senorbelly @ Feb 1st 2008 2:54PM]

Why the English so unusuals?

[senorbelly @ Feb 1st 2008 2:55PM]

Why the English so unusuals?

[Michael LaFramboise @ Feb 1st 2008 2:57PM]

While I can't really picture myself using this; I must admit, this is actually pretty darn cool :)

[Tanker-X @ Feb 1st 2008 2:59PM]

This computer sucks! Um, if I change my resolution beyond my monitor size, it does the same thing. I actually try to avoid this function where they are trying to make it like the next coming of Christ. And what is with the lame flat keyboard. Stupid.

[Drew @ Feb 1st 2008 3:09PM]

This is terrible on so many levels, please, just make an eeepc with high resolution 8.9" screen, I'll pay the difference gratefully...

[Jerry @ Feb 1st 2008 3:10PM]

Just watching this makes me want to cry... Window scrolling is the worst thing ever... next to Vista.

[Ghen @ Feb 1st 2008 3:11PM]

Thats pretty much ridiculous. Ok, sure. you have a virtual 10" screen. Thats a good idea, but why do you have to destroy the keyboard to do it? Just use some of that extra white space for two eraserheads to work like analog sticks on a PS or Xbox. One controls the screen, the other controls the mouse cursor. Problem solved without dicking up the keyboard.

[Gremlin @ Feb 1st 2008 3:11PM]

Switching between the keyboard and the mouse would be such a pain. I like the creative juices, but this is a pass imo.

[Stewart Dean @ Feb 1st 2008 3:15PM]

For user bad experience. Breaks my of usability guidelines. User experience not good.

[Nick @ Feb 1st 2008 3:21PM]

I think I'm going to throw up. Seriously. These guys lose. Design? Ease of use? FAIL.

Also, so much for any kind of application that requires using the mouse and keyboard at once.

[sinerasis @ Feb 1st 2008 3:23PM]

It's got some really cool ideas, I just don't think that they will overcome the overal weirdness of the thing.

[Dean @ Feb 1st 2008 3:24PM]

not gunna lie, the whole virtual screen thing is kinda rediculous. instead of having pages load to mathc your screen size (like some websites can do) it will think you are on a larger screen and you have to scroll around your desktop. not my idea of a good time

[Jason @ Feb 1st 2008 3:25PM]

The same old line ...

"Those aren't limitations, they're FEATURES!"

This is such complete rubbish. I can't imagine anyone spending good money to use one of these mini craptops.

Simple question: If you have a small form factor, why not adapt the UI to suit your device, rather than try to shoehorn the same (weak) UI into a device that clearly can't support it natively?

[Drew @ Feb 1st 2008 3:29PM]

At the start of the video I thought he had come up with something revolutionary, but as I watched, I just realized in the latter half of the actual demo that this is just a MishMash of stuff. Utter clutter of Fail all over it. Kinda thick to be a Ultra portable... This thing looks like a cheap compact car tricked out with all parts from the auto section in Wal-Mart...

[dave @ Feb 1st 2008 4:01PM]

If Steve Jobs pulled a concept like this it would look soooo much phatter. I think that is the worse laptop design I have ever seen. I think I'd choose the OLPC laptop over this 80's throw back. It's got Back to the Future keys though, nice touch.

[Eddie W @ Feb 1st 2008 4:09PM]

This isn't going to fly. There are much better ways of approaching this type of windowing for people who want it. I'd rather see a touch screen where you can navigate around by dragging and change the resolution on the fly, like a bigger Nokia tablet (yes, I know there are lots of people who don't like it, but that doesn't mean the concept is bad). Then you could integrate an on screen keyboard (perhaps with a thin hardware keyboard built in for when you need it).

I do like the idea of building a touch pad into the keyboard, but I'm not sure how you could switch back and forth easily. I have a hard enough time not clicking the touchpad mouse while typing on an unfamiliar laptop.

[ventivent @ Feb 1st 2008 4:44PM]

Just say Noah.

[Solidstate @ Feb 1st 2008 4:54PM]

This is a joke right?!

No one can be serious that this is a usable navigation/input system.

[Noah @ Feb 1st 2008 5:10PM]

They shamed my name!

[Ellianth @ Feb 1st 2008 5:33PM]

Gawd. "just press W." It's like that stupid VI lecture all over again ;'(

[John @ Feb 1st 2008 6:00PM]

You'd think that with a gap in the keyboard THAT big they'd call it the MOSESPAD! Amirite? Anyone?

[Ramces O @ Feb 1st 2008 6:33PM]

I want to throw up...how are you ever going to be able to touch-type on that thing? Oh yeah and the "oh-so-innovative" virtual display has been there on my Vaio Picturebook for like 5 years. Ok it doesn't use a dedicated touchpad for that but do you really need one when you can go round the "virtual display" just by moving the mouse pointer?

[Reginald @ Feb 1st 2008 7:51PM]

FINALLY I CAN TYPE WITH A HAMMER!

[RichardBronosky @ Feb 1st 2008 8:04PM]

I love it. I think it needs some work, but I think that virtual screen space is our future.

Linux has been doing this for decades, and Leopard just introduced it. The iPhone does it and everyone thinks it is amazing. I agree that the one button keyboard idea is tough to swallow. I would like to see each (or maybe most) button(s) on the keyboard become touch pads.

The Apple Mighty Mouse has two touch pads in it. Did you know that? Probably not, because Apple worked the paradigm out well.

I like the idea of mousing with one hand and screen shifting with the other. The paradigms need to be figured out. But, make no mistake. This is where our obsession with miniaturization will lead us. We are all shocked at this "rough sketch" of the future. If we were to see the prototypes of Apple, Dell, microsoft, etc. we would be pretty shocked too.

This video is the equivalent of thinking out loud (and probably seeking investment capital).

[af241 @ Feb 3rd 2008 5:51PM]

""rough sketch" of the future"!!! this "innovation" sucks 10 years ago.

[SOOPERGOOMAN @ Feb 1st 2008 8:15PM]

I'm with you, the separated keyboard would be nice as I often have to correct what I wrote due to keys being too close together, also getting rid of track pads and mice is a great idea. I like the hybrid keyboard pad part. That got my attention. About time someone dared to step away from the norm/boring.

[LocustPlague @ Feb 1st 2008 9:31PM]

With a split in the keyboard like that, maybe they should call it the Mosespad?

[Keith Hearn @ Feb 1st 2008 11:16PM]

Oh gawd no. Way back in 1981 I had an Osborne II that had a screen that was only wide enough to display 54 columns, but it had a "virtual" 80 column screen. So whenever you were reading something wider than 54 columns (which is almost everything), you had to constantly scroll the screen back and forth every freak-ing line.

Osborne did it back then in order to make the '80s version of a UMPC. Of course, back then that meant it was only the size of a small suitcase, but that was ultra portable for the time.

It was a bad idea 27 years ago, and it's not any better now.

Those who do not study history are doomed to repeat it.

Keith

[Dragonlord Warlock @ Feb 2nd 2008 12:42AM]

IMO This Sucks...
Virtual Screens exist, and are annoying... the few times I got to one when switching monitors, I quickly adjusted the resolution to get rid of it. It an annoying feature.
The keyboard on this is just crazy. Having experience with many touch pads, they can never replace a mouse. Making the keyboard act as a touch pad is also a bad idea, it means to change mode from keyboard to pad an extra step that can be annoying. It even worse if you sometimes play games on your laptop, as this would be impossible without getting fragged.
Grand vision but stupid idea... Expect sales to be low...

[skulldriveshaft @ Feb 2nd 2008 3:52AM]

Interesting design concept - would like a more hands on experience though.

The video is a little overboard - and the british guy chiming in doesn't help either - wake up - the empire has left the area - you are free.

A straight forward video of it being used without music and effects would do wonders.

[Sean @ Feb 2nd 2008 4:15AM]

Makes a great paperweight or a door stop.

Just an overall bad idea. Packaging junk as the next best thing.

And notice how the British voice sounds like he is reading a badly translated script word for word.

[Fred @ Feb 2nd 2008 5:05AM]

I was hoping to see the operation when the keyboard was flipped behind, and becomes "virtual transparent keyboard." Making each keyboard side like one big touchpad/button seems very akward -- I thought they were actually independent keys from the stills. LAME!
Did they actually pay that Brit just to speak the lines written in bad Engrish verbatim? Throughout the second video, he sounds like a malfunctioning robot. That would only be cool if it were the computer itself talking. I want my PC to have a Brittish accent, and talk like someone who both failed grammar school, AND just got kicked in the nads. Screw Turing -- that would be teh awesum.

[Pretol @ Feb 2nd 2008 5:24AM]

Ya all gotta be on crack.

It's bad enough to have to scroll up and down a page on a small screen, but now you'll have to scroll around the virtual desktop to find the buttons to scroll around the text the small text... I suggest they invent a virtual device which is a size of a matchbox, and you have to scroll around the "virtual device" on which you can scroll around the "virtual desktop" so you can scroll around the text.

the word DUMB doesn't begin to describe this "invention" (which has been implemented in a much better fashion into windows for a decade now).

[Quito @ Feb 2nd 2008 8:44AM]

Steve Jobs just pissed himself laughing.

[j.pickens @ Feb 2nd 2008 9:41AM]

Looking at the demo, I see that if they just extended the LCD to within 1/8" of the edges, they'd get 90? of the pixel size and 100% of the screen without the stupid scrolling bit.

[gary_7vn @ Feb 2nd 2008 11:03AM]

All your screen are belong to us!

How thick is thing anyway? Looks like about 6 inches.

Membrane keyboards are for cheap calculators, the haptics suck. It's like a bad web page where you have to move left to right to read it. Also someone should tell the CEO that there is a reason normal fucking people hire actors.

The thing I find puzzling though, is where did this guy get his funding? What kind of nitwit would invest in this monstrousity? His old grandma maybe...

[R @ Feb 2nd 2008 2:51PM]

The voice-actor has done a disservice to this company. I *know* they told him, read what's given, don't change it, but they weren't being *literal* about it. I work with Chinese people, and they're really open to changing the script when it's grammatically horrid.

[wickedpheonix @ Feb 3rd 2008 1:28PM]

Virtual screens with 2 sticks could be a good idea - the reason why virtual monitors suck in Windows is because you're using the same input device both for moving the cursor and adjusting what part of the virtual screen is showing. However - that keyboard looks like CRAP. Besides the fact that it's going to be ridiculously difficult to type at any sort of speed when it's on a desk, the learning curve of typing on it when it's folded back is impossibly high. I think I like the idea of 2 trackpoints (aka eraser heads, what you see on a lot of Thinkpads, not touchpads) a lot better than this idea.

Furthermore, the idea nowadays is to make interfaces MORE intuitive, where you can use a device without having to look at the manual. Tell me, how is that possible with this?! Also, this redefines "thick", at least in how it looks in the video.

From first glance, I'd have to say I'm gonna wait for more details. If it's under $200, less than 2 lbs (preferably one), and can fit in an oversized pocket, then I'll think about it. Otherwise, it just makes more sense to either go with an EeePC or some other 2-3 lb laptop - just how much mobility do you really need?

[WonTonFooey @ Mar 10th 2008 11:55AM]

Rooks rike a road of clap to me.