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Wednesday 22 August 2012

Keyboard Evolution

I recently mentioned that I have returned to a conventional Microsoft curvy keyboard, as I was tired of the flat low-bounce keys of the Mac board. I've always had a thing about keyboards. My first experience with a keyboard was in the form of a ZX Spectrum. It was terrible. The rubber keys gave so little feedback you could never tell if the key strike had registered.
Then came word processors with their clacky keys and infuriatingly tiny screens. Next was the age of the PC, where a keyboard fell under the heading 'peripherals', and could be changed to suit individual tastes.
Now we're in the era of the tablet, where a keyboard is an image on the screen - no feedback beyond an annoying synthetic click and a constant uncertainty about its position. But someone has already moved the game on again, or perhaps more accurately, they've moved it backwards. According to the Daily Mail website, someone has devised a peripheral keyboard for the iPad which has the appearance and feel of an old fashioned typewriter.
The accompanying video could be an entry for the slowest and most incompetent typist competition, which makes me wonder if the designer is not entirely sure that the little hammers striking the screen of his iPad are really such a blinding idea:
iPad Typewriter Article
I'm just going to check the date on my calendar. I'm pretty sure it's not April 1st, but ...

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