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I have an enormous amount of respect for a group of people who band together and see an idea into the marketplace. That deserves a huge congratulations. But t

I have an enormous amount of respect for a group of people who band together and see an idea into the marketplace. That deserves a huge congratulations. But there's a reason Apple doesn't make these. It's ugly. It doesn't work in portrait mode. It doesn't hide itself when I don't need it. It isn't fluid. Overall, I think it deteriorates the entire experience of using an awesome tablet device. Sure, it's good for a single use case -- but that's not why the iPad is awesome. It's awesome because of how much it can do across use cases. This doesn't fit that bill.

patrickod 15y ago
Agreed. If you really need to improve your typing speed while using the iPad then you should invest in a wireless keyboard. Having this hanging off the side of the device will in no uncertain terms come to irritate users greatly.
zmmmmm 15y ago
Never underestimate people's willingness to hideously degrade something beautiful to attain a small amount of practicality. I'm always fascinated by people who buy iPhones because of the design and then slap the most horrifically ugly cases onto them. They would never have bought a phone in that state but are more than willing to transform it into that state having bought it. > It's awesome because of how much it can do across use cases. I'm not sure I'd agree with that. The iPad is exactly good because it does a number of specific use cases extremely well but it is not really good at generalizing from those. In many ways Apple has gone out of their way to stop that. Eg: if you really do a lot of typing and have to have a tablet, I'd think something like an ASUS Transformer is a better device, not just because it has a keyboard but because the whole ecosystem is better for that (eg: the device has a file system shared between apps, you get a mouse cursor, happily accepts external media, etc.). It was meant to be used in a huge number of different ways not anticipated by its makers. But it does not do the things that the iPad is meant for as well as the iPad does.
- megablast 15y ago
  As someone who has dropped their iPhone and smashed the back up (thankfully it was not the other side), I can understand people buying ugly cases.
  - RandallBrown 15y ago
    The difference there is that you made your phone look shitty on accident. They did it on purpose. If you're putting a shitty case on your phone to prevent it from looking shitty in the first place, you're doing it wrong.
h34t 15y ago
If this means I can type on the iPad without looking at the keyboard, that's an awesome use case. It means I can type 100+ wpm while taking notes in a meeting or class, just like with a laptop. I can leave my external keyboard at home.
steveis99 15y ago
Actually, TouchFire does hide itself when you don't need it. It quickly retracts when you want to use the entire screen, and you can easily pop it back up when you want to type again. All use cases are equal, but some are more equal than others. Being able to touch-type fast without looking at the iPad's screen is a pretty big deal...
ibisum 15y ago
There are other options for this technology - for example custom overlays for apps, like drum machines, synthesizers, effects units, which have real needs in the "have to be easy to access and use" interface usability department. If these guys can make a keyboard overlay, they can make a drumpad overlay, a piano-keys overlay, and so on - for some markets, this would be most welcome.. (disclaimer: iOS synth developer here. I'd love an overlay like this with sliders..)

patrickod 15y ago

Agreed. If you really need to improve your typing speed while using the iPad then you should invest in a wireless keyboard. Having this hanging off the side of the device will in no uncertain terms come to irritate users greatly.

zmmmmm 15y ago

Never underestimate people's willingness to hideously degrade something beautiful to attain a small amount of practicality. I'm always fascinated by people who buy iPhones because of the design and then slap the most horrifically ugly cases onto them. They would never have bought a phone in that state but are more than willing to transform it into that state having bought it. > It's awesome because of how much it can do across use cases. I'm not sure I'd agree with that. The iPad is exactly good because it does a number of specific use cases extremely well but it is not really good at generalizing from those. In many ways Apple has gone out of their way to stop that. Eg: if you really do a lot of typing and have to have a tablet, I'd think something like an ASUS Transformer is a better device, not just because it has a keyboard but because the whole ecosystem is better for that (eg: the device has a file system shared between apps, you get a mouse cursor, happily accepts external media, etc.). It was meant to be used in a huge number of different ways not anticipated by its makers. But it does not do the things that the iPad is meant for as well as the iPad does.

megablast 15y ago
As someone who has dropped their iPhone and smashed the back up (thankfully it was not the other side), I can understand people buying ugly cases.
- RandallBrown 15y ago
  The difference there is that you made your phone look shitty on accident. They did it on purpose. If you're putting a shitty case on your phone to prevent it from looking shitty in the first place, you're doing it wrong.

h34t 15y ago

If this means I can type on the iPad without looking at the keyboard, that's an awesome use case. It means I can type 100+ wpm while taking notes in a meeting or class, just like with a laptop. I can leave my external keyboard at home.

steveis99 15y ago

Actually, TouchFire does hide itself when you don't need it. It quickly retracts when you want to use the entire screen, and you can easily pop it back up when you want to type again. All use cases are equal, but some are more equal than others. Being able to touch-type fast without looking at the iPad's screen is a pretty big deal...

ibisum 15y ago

There are other options for this technology - for example custom overlays for apps, like drum machines, synthesizers, effects units, which have real needs in the "have to be easy to access and use" interface usability department. If these guys can make a keyboard overlay, they can make a drumpad overlay, a piano-keys overlay, and so on - for some markets, this would be most welcome.. (disclaimer: iOS synth developer here. I'd love an overlay like this with sliders..)