3 ms·

You won’t need a keyboard.

by svnt 3y ago

dbmnt 3y ago
Eventually, maybe. In the keynote, there was a vague outline of a virtual keyboard, but (unless I missed it) we never saw that virtual keyboard in use. Instead, the demo pivoted to using a paired Magic Keyboard.
kaba0 3y ago
You do. I’m 100% sure that flickering your fingers in the air simple (besides looking like an absolute moron) doesn’t have enough information to accurately type. Also, your arms will fatigue immediately.
- svnt 3y ago
  If you can position things in AR, you can put keyboard keys down on wood grain and the device can tell where your fingers land. If you can escape the skeuomorphic trap, many things are possible. A mechanical keyboard is certainly not the universally optimal means of character entry. Maybe not in this rev, probably not at launch based on the video, but keyboards as we know them are due for an overhaul.
  - kaba0 3y ago
    > A mechanical keyboard is certainly not the universally optimal means of character entry. Funnily enough, I think that this is basically the ultimate limit of touch based systems — humans rely very much on touch, and touch screens’ smooth surface removes every physical hint from the system. Just remember back to how we could compose a whole message blindly in our pockets with feature phones, yet I can’t write a sentence correctly nowadays without constantly looking at the screen. Now you would even take away that? Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think that the keyboard layout or anything is the optimum, but it is sure as hell closer to it than randomly hitting the table. The mechanical part is funnily being the key part.
    - svnt 3y ago
      It does seem to me there are strong parallels with the iPhone/Blackberry keyboard conversation. Some people will hang on bitterly until the end. I can thumb touch-type on a cap touch screen with the help of autocorrect. With continued improvement of predictive text and new input methods I think all kinds of things are possible. Maybe with another technology iteration of haptics you would get positional feedback?
  - tsimionescu 3y ago
    > If you can position things in AR, you can put keyboard keys down on wood grain and the device can tell where your fingers land. You'll get carpal tunnel syndrome faster than the battery drains if you're actually doing that. One of the main points of keyboards is actually the fact that they absorb some of the shock of typing. It's actually extremely plausible that the keyboard is the best possible text input method - at least until we find a way to read brain signals non-invasively and decode those into text directly.
    - svnt 3y ago
      My (unchecked) understanding is that carpal tunnel comes about because of the angle of the wrist and the repetitive pushing itself. If there are no keys to press wouldn’t you have no reason to exert force, and no need to angle your wrist or brace your hand?
tsimionescu 3y ago
How exactly would you replace a keyboard with anything even slightly as productive?
- pzo 3y ago
  Just lay down in bed and put physical keyboard with touchpad on your legs. Many times I work from airbnb or hotel that doesn't have proper chairs or workdesk or from coworking hotdesk when travelling.
  - tsimionescu 3y ago
    The GP was claiming a keyboard won't be necessary at all.
- svnt 3y ago
  I probably won’t, but someone probably will. Productive might look quite different.

You won’t need a keyboard.

by svnt 3y ago

You won’t need a keyboard.

Eventually, maybe. In the keynote, there was a vague outline of a virtual keyboard, but (unless I missed it) we never saw that virtual keyboard in use. Instead, the demo pivoted to using a paired Magic Keyboard.

kaba0 3y ago

You do. I’m 100% sure that flickering your fingers in the air simple (besides looking like an absolute moron) doesn’t have enough information to accurately type. Also, your arms will fatigue immediately.

svnt 3y ago
If you can position things in AR, you can put keyboard keys down on wood grain and the device can tell where your fingers land. If you can escape the skeuomorphic trap, many things are possible. A mechanical keyboard is certainly not the universally optimal means of character entry. Maybe not in this rev, probably not at launch based on the video, but keyboards as we know them are due for an overhaul.
- kaba0 3y ago
  > A mechanical keyboard is certainly not the universally optimal means of character entry. Funnily enough, I think that this is basically the ultimate limit of touch based systems — humans rely very much on touch, and touch screens’ smooth surface removes every physical hint from the system. Just remember back to how we could compose a whole message blindly in our pockets with feature phones, yet I can’t write a sentence correctly nowadays without constantly looking at the screen. Now you would even take away that? Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think that the keyboard layout or anything is the optimum, but it is sure as hell closer to it than randomly hitting the table. The mechanical part is funnily being the key part.
  - svnt 3y ago
    It does seem to me there are strong parallels with the iPhone/Blackberry keyboard conversation. Some people will hang on bitterly until the end. I can thumb touch-type on a cap touch screen with the help of autocorrect. With continued improvement of predictive text and new input methods I think all kinds of things are possible. Maybe with another technology iteration of haptics you would get positional feedback?
- tsimionescu 3y ago
  > If you can position things in AR, you can put keyboard keys down on wood grain and the device can tell where your fingers land. You'll get carpal tunnel syndrome faster than the battery drains if you're actually doing that. One of the main points of keyboards is actually the fact that they absorb some of the shock of typing. It's actually extremely plausible that the keyboard is the best possible text input method - at least until we find a way to read brain signals non-invasively and decode those into text directly.
  - svnt 3y ago
    My (unchecked) understanding is that carpal tunnel comes about because of the angle of the wrist and the repetitive pushing itself. If there are no keys to press wouldn’t you have no reason to exert force, and no need to angle your wrist or brace your hand?

tsimionescu 3y ago

How exactly would you replace a keyboard with anything even slightly as productive?

pzo 3y ago
Just lay down in bed and put physical keyboard with touchpad on your legs. Many times I work from airbnb or hotel that doesn't have proper chairs or workdesk or from coworking hotdesk when travelling.
- tsimionescu 3y ago
  The GP was claiming a keyboard won't be necessary at all.
svnt 3y ago
I probably won’t, but someone probably will. Productive might look quite different.