When are we going to see backside input on the ipad?
With the upcoming ipad refresh there is alot of talk about resolution, slimmer profile, and minor detail refreshes which are expected, but what about addressing the elephant in the room concerning data input with tablets.
Tablets today are mainly consumption devices since they do not fair well for productivity due to limitations with the keyboard design.
Apple, Google, and Microsoft have all filed patents for backside input on tablets, though there has been no official implementation of it yet, other than the TrewGrip.
The current solution for increasing the data input on tablets is basically by converting them into laptops which is a pretty taped together solution that makes buying a tablet pretty redundant when you can just buy a touch-screen laptop.
The rumor that Apple might be releasing an ipad/macbook air hybrid is pretty sad considering they would just be copying Microsoft Surface and not really solving the inherent design flaw with the tablet.
Apple was the inventor of the tablet so naturally they should be the ones to continually innovate its design.
Also, its worth noting that the ipad would probably require some kind of Haptic Feedback for a rear input to work properly, which Apple has just unveiled with their Taptic Engine, so it could be soon before we see ipads with localized haptic feedback on both sides.
Comments
The rumor that Apple might be releasing an ipad/macbook air hybrid is pretty sad...
There is no such rumor.
rear input?
No Thanks.
I doubt Apple would even consider it since they KNOW that MOST iPads live in a case that would render rear input unusable anyway.
Haptic feedback is a joke!
Well, there is such a thing as too thin and considering at one point apple did increase the thickness of the ipad to improve functionality it does not render the idea of doing it again to add new features impossible.
Whats the rate of data input with 2 digits vs 10? Any application that requires you to input characters (which is pretty much every app at one point or another) would benefit from that.
Using a 50 year old peripheral to operate a touch device is "taped" together solution. Laptops were the first mobile progression of computers which brought trackpads to replace the mouse, tablets were next; however data input rate has a serious bottleneck at the moment.
Really? Than why did Microsoft do it first? Apple would have done that years ago if that was the way tablets were intended to be used.
Because its a blatant copy and the hybrids have being on the market for years now, they are already becoming outdated.
If its a joke then why are companies spending so much money on it? Just because you don't see it with an apple product doesn't mean they are testing it behind closed doors.