The concept looks impressive and promising. However, what's with the phyical keys? Why not just have a fully virtual keyboard? You would have much more flexibility, and would be able to accomplish so much more. I strongly believe that innovation around virtual keyboards, can render them far more productive, flexible, effective, and aesthetically pleasing than physical keyboards, making most people abandon the latter in the future. People are emotionally attached to physical keybards the same way people were emotionally attached to typewriters and buggies. Eventually the technical advantages of newer technologies overwhelmed typewriters and buggies, and I believe it is just a matter of time the same thing happens to physical keyboards.
@PDouglas Typing on a flat surface is a nightmare, that's why the keys are physical. But I'm pretty sure they are working on some kind of tech to make it possible for touchscreen keyboards to have some sort of tactile feedback - didn't Apple file a patent for something like that?
With a virtual keyboard, you can get tactile, visual, and also audio feedback. Plus there are tons of innovations you can do to make your interactions with programs more productive. I think the physical keyboard keeps us back. Practically everything we improve over its physical counterpart using software, turns out much, much better. Word processors, video playback software, etc. In fact the appeal of the smartphone, is that you can take a phone, and use software it to transform it into a million different things. It stands to reason that using software to transform the physical keyboard, will lead to much more innovation and greater productivity. As far as I'm concerned, the physical keyboard has to go.
@PDouglas I agree with you. I prefer a virtual keyboard rather than this. I tried typing on an iPad and I have found it to be pretty quick. I can do 56 wpm on my iPhone, 71 on the keyboard, but I'm not sure how quick on the iPad.
The why the keyboard is quick(est) is because there are physical buttons that help keep hands aligned, thus eliminating the need to look down.
In terms of physically pressing the button, the virtual keyboard must be faster because less effort is required to input a character. The user is only required to lightly touch rather than press a button.
Having the sensation of tactical feedback is merely a preference that we are all use to.
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The concept looks impressive and promising. However, what's with the phyical keys? Why not just have a fully virtual keyboard? You would have much more flexibility, and would be able to accomplish so much more. I strongly believe that innovation around virtual keyboards, can render them far more productive, flexible, effective, and aesthetically pleasing than physical keyboards, making most people abandon the latter in the future. People are emotionally attached to physical keybards the same way people were emotionally attached to typewriters and buggies. Eventually the technical advantages of newer technologies overwhelmed typewriters and buggies, and I believe it is just a matter of time the same thing happens to physical keyboards.
P. Douglas
@PDouglas Typing on a flat surface is a nightmare, that's why the keys are physical. But I'm pretty sure they are working on some kind of tech to make it possible for touchscreen keyboards to have some sort of tactile feedback - didn't Apple file a patent for something like that?
@Fenrir007,
With a virtual keyboard, you can get tactile, visual, and also audio feedback. Plus there are tons of innovations you can do to make your interactions with programs more productive. I think the physical keyboard keeps us back. Practically everything we improve over its physical counterpart using software, turns out much, much better. Word processors, video playback software, etc. In fact the appeal of the smartphone, is that you can take a phone, and use software it to transform it into a million different things. It stands to reason that using software to transform the physical keyboard, will lead to much more innovation and greater productivity. As far as I'm concerned, the physical keyboard has to go.
P. Douglas
@PDouglas I agree with you. I prefer a virtual keyboard rather than this. I tried typing on an iPad and I have found it to be pretty quick. I can do 56 wpm on my iPhone, 71 on the keyboard, but I'm not sure how quick on the iPad.
The why the keyboard is quick(est) is because there are physical buttons that help keep hands aligned, thus eliminating the need to look down.
In terms of physically pressing the button, the virtual keyboard must be faster because less effort is required to input a character. The user is only required to lightly touch rather than press a button.
Having the sensation of tactical feedback is merely a preference that we are all use to.