AlphaUi Back-Type keyboard for tablets will never catch on, but we wish it would
You know, traditionally we try to be thankful for stuff like slim device profiles and innovative touch UIs, particularly with Thanksgiving coming up soon, but every once in a while we shake a fist against the aesthetics of our time and wish for an alternate history that had rerouted us to a 2010 full of IBM-built keyboards and buttons galore. AlphaUi's Back-Type, which has been making the rounds for a couple weeks, is just such a technology, with 24 anachronistically tactile keys on the back designed for a bit of blind typing that engages eight fingers instead of the typical two thumbs. It's not an entirely new idea, Grippity's been talking about rear mounted keys for a while, and Microsoft Research just put out a clunker of a prototype, but AlphaUi's version seems the most mature and usable. Right now the keyboard is being demoed on the rear of 7-inch Archos tablets, but AlphaUi will be showing off the tech at CES and probably courting a hardware partner if they haven't found one already. Check out a video of the tech after the break.
