This doesn't work for me. It would be very difficult to get used to typing while holding something with my hands in a non typing position. Besides, hitting "space" might cause you to drop it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ulfoaf
Input for gaming does make sense. Holding the phone in one hand and operating a small mouse pad with your index finger might work for other applications, including starting apps.
Still, I am seriously doubting we will see this any time soon.
I think a lot of cool things can be done with a backside touchpad, and I think it’s coming shortly, but typing does not look to be one of them. Without being able to properly test my theory, I’d say that thumb typing, like on the iPhone, will still be the best method for a tablet. However, the size of the device makes a large end-to-end keyboard impossible when holding with two hands.
Perhaps the backside touchpad knows you are holding with two hands and where they are placed so it can create a virtual keyboard that is curved and placed right where your thumbs can travel to every key on the display.
Typing on the back cover would definitely require some rethinking of the typing process. For instance, I doubt it would involve placing your fingers in upwards of 50 different places to simulate all the different keys on a standard keyboard. It might be more like chording, but I fear that chording requires too much memorization.
Here's a simple possibility: The back cover recognizes each of the 8 fingers separately and records their individual taps. The left thumb chooses between sets of 8 keys. The right thumb activates, space, return, shift, etc. The screen display is not a Qwerty layout, but instead customized for this form of typing. Note that most of the screen display of the keyboard can be very small, since you don't have to touch it. In fact, once you've mastered the technique you should be able to turn off the display.
Obviously any new system will require some learning, but once learned this method could approach standard typing in speed. One of the holy grails for a truly useful tablet is rapid, natural text input. Back-typing would address this issue.
Pick up a small hardback book and hold it with thumbs in front and fingers behind. Try it both landscape and portrait. You grip the book with your palms. It's somewhat unusual, but so is anything new. What's important is that it's not uncomfortable, and that it allows a firm grip on the device while leaving all 10 fingers free to tap. Note, on the suggestion I describe the fingers don't have to hunt for letters, all they do is tap, so this could actually turn out to be easier than normal typing.
Undoubtedly the tablet will also ship with a standard touch keyboard, but for those people who need rapid text input this would be outstanding.
Comments
This doesn't work for me. It would be very difficult to get used to typing while holding something with my hands in a non typing position. Besides, hitting "space" might cause you to drop it.
Input for gaming does make sense. Holding the phone in one hand and operating a small mouse pad with your index finger might work for other applications, including starting apps.
Still, I am seriously doubting we will see this any time soon.
I think a lot of cool things can be done with a backside touchpad, and I think it’s coming shortly, but typing does not look to be one of them. Without being able to properly test my theory, I’d say that thumb typing, like on the iPhone, will still be the best method for a tablet. However, the size of the device makes a large end-to-end keyboard impossible when holding with two hands.
Perhaps the backside touchpad knows you are holding with two hands and where they are placed so it can create a virtual keyboard that is curved and placed right where your thumbs can travel to every key on the display.
Here's a simple possibility: The back cover recognizes each of the 8 fingers separately and records their individual taps. The left thumb chooses between sets of 8 keys. The right thumb activates, space, return, shift, etc. The screen display is not a Qwerty layout, but instead customized for this form of typing. Note that most of the screen display of the keyboard can be very small, since you don't have to touch it. In fact, once you've mastered the technique you should be able to turn off the display.
Obviously any new system will require some learning, but once learned this method could approach standard typing in speed. One of the holy grails for a truly useful tablet is rapid, natural text input. Back-typing would address this issue.
Pick up a small hardback book and hold it with thumbs in front and fingers behind. Try it both landscape and portrait. You grip the book with your palms. It's somewhat unusual, but so is anything new. What's important is that it's not uncomfortable, and that it allows a firm grip on the device while leaving all 10 fingers free to tap. Note, on the suggestion I describe the fingers don't have to hunt for letters, all they do is tap, so this could actually turn out to be easier than normal typing.
Undoubtedly the tablet will also ship with a standard touch keyboard, but for those people who need rapid text input this would be outstanding.