Eliminating Notebook Keyboards

Wordman writes "A story on Yahoo indicates that Apple (working with Wacom) has plans to provide pen-based computing in place of/in addition to keyboard input on future power books. The story quotes an unnamed source saying "The idea is to do away with the keyboard." The scheme would include the handwriting recognition system from Newton OS 2.x (which, contrary to popular rumors, is excellent). The "erase" abiliy of Wacom tablets would also be supported." I dunno - I really do find a keyboard a wonderful way to get things done - better than my handwriting, that's for sure. Thanks to Matthew for pointing out the original article at ZD-Net.

Simple observations from experience.

1) The Newton's handwriging recognition is the coolest thing I've ever seen. It's excellent.
2) Pen based computers can be really cool.. and do a great many things for you.. in many ways, being better than a computer.

3) A laptop, however, is not what I have in mind.
I bought a laptop so I could do the *same* things I do on my desktop while on the road. I can play games, code, do everything.. I *want* a keyboard.

From a tablet, portable application point of view, pen-based is great.

Working Link...

is here [yahoo.com].

Obvious Problems

It sounds great, and would be for word processing, but consider applications that are mapped to use keyboards... 3d Modelling, Spredsheets, hell even games, all would have to be re-written if there wasn't a keyboard. Heck even your OS, web browser and email client would need re-writing... no Slashdot surfing for one.

Still a good idea, and one step closer to having the Newton back.

Why would you want to?

Seriously, the only advantage I can think of to get rid of the keyboard in favour of pen-based entry is space.

But if you do that, you lose the advantages of a keyboard:

you can enter data faster

easier to enter data if you don't have a stable surface - ie. you only have to concentrate pressing a key as opposed to forming a stroke

you can look at the screen while you type on a keyboard as opposed to looking at a small section on your screen where you are scribbing a letter, then checking the main screen to make sure that it correctly identified what you typed.

you can't lose your keyboard like you can lose your pen :)

Re:Mole Hunt?

It depends on what the user uses the computer for.

Geeks use their computers for everything. We even sleep with our computers and sell the pictures to.. oh wait, never mind. But we use 'em for hacking, web surfing, keeping track of our Babylon 5 Action Figure collection, or whatever. You know when Brooke Shields said no one gets between her and her jeans? Well, that's us and our computers.

Some people aren't like that. I suspect that was the whole point of Apple's "For the Rest of Us" slogan. I know people who use a computer all day just for one single application. They bought it to run that app, and that's all they do with it.

Now, are you telling me you can't think of any applications where pen or voice control would be appropriate? A lot of people thought the Newton was pretty cool, and I know some people who use Dragon's speech recognition software for transcription. Um, maybe, just maybe Steve Jobs wants a piece of their wallets? I hardly find that to be in FUCKING MORON territory.

Do you think he won't be able to sell it? Do I have to remind you of the fact that the "five fruity flavors" angle actually worked?!

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My next PC will be keyboard-less, here's why

Basically, you can use a pen-based tablet standing up without a flat surface - try that with a clamshell portable. Of course I'll still use a keyboard and a mouse, but only when I'm at my desk. I'm hoping that a tablet system with built-in Bluetooth isn't much further than 18 months away as I intend to simply have a wireless keyboard and mouse.

I spend most of my time with one hand on my mouse and the other with my chin on it. Sure, when I'm typing this response I'm using the keyboard, but the periods where I'm typing stuff are getting smaller and further apart

I'm not anti-keyboard. I bought the wonderful folding keyboard for the Palms. In fact, that's where I decided that a pen-based system with a removable keyboard is particularly convenient...

Don't be silly; they're not replacing it

If there's any truth to this story, then you can rest assured that Apple won't replace all keyboards in their powerbook lines. Far more likely is that this is just the product that'll fill the 6th slot in apple's hardware plan, separate from powerbooks. For years, there've been rumors about apple producing a tablet device, and the technology and the prices are finally getting to the point where they just might do it.

Re:Apple keyboards

> was that a Haiku?

No, a Senryu
A Haiku's first line must reference a season.
Senryu is a general poem that follows the 5-7-5 format.

Eat up martha?

In the auditorium, Skinner speaks to the children.

Skinner: Children, the times they are a-becoming quite different. Test scores are at an all-time low, so I've come up with these academic alerts. [hold stack of cards] You will receive one as soon as your grades start to slip in any subject. This way your parents won't have to wait until report card time to punish you.
Martin: How innovative. I like it!
Kearney: Hey Dolph, take a memo on your Newton: beat up Martin.
[Dolph writes "Beat up Martin" which the Newton translates as "Eat up Martha"] Bah! [throws Newton]
Martin: [being bonked on the head] Ow!



-j

I think you all are missing the point

As I read through most of these comments it seems to me that most of them are things like 'who can't type faster on a keyboard then HWR?' and 'the keyboard will never die!!'

I think you are all missing the point here. Apple isn't going to stop including keyboards with all of their products, they just might come out with something that doesn't have a keyboard (like the newton, or the palm, but bigger) is it possible that there are people out there that might want to buy somehting like that? yes there is. maybe you don't but, who cares?

I think the ibook screen is too small and it is not expandable enough, so you know what I did? I bought the computer that was right for me, a powerbook. I didn't write Apple (or slashdot) and bitch about the ibook not being right for me, cuz they have products that do cater to my needs. I know people who love their ibooks, and they dont want anything more. I guarantee there are people out there who do not like the keyboard, who don't need that extra functionality for whatever they are using their machine for, and would get along just fine with a tablet-based system.

perhaps whenever apple leaks (or announces) something that sounds like change (oh my gosh!) you can all sit back and think; 'well, i dont htink I would like that, but someone might' instead of assuming that everyone on the planet is like you and would rather drive a six-inch spike through their foreheads then give up their keyboards...

sheesh..

(BTW I used to have a newton2000 and the HWR rocked)

No keyboard doesn't mean no text entry

No keyboard doesn't mean no text entry - it just means that the character input device isn't a mechanical keyboard, it's something else, typically stylus-based, which the operating system uses to hand characters to a device that wants them. It can either use a handwriting recognition program like Palm Graffiti or a hunt&peck stylus keyboard like Textware's [twsolutions.com] FITALY [fitaly.com] keyboard or a QWERTY stylus-pecking keyboard (which would be slower than fitaly, which is optimized for 1-finger use.) It does require some adaptation for applications that want Escape-Meta-Alt-Control-Shift-Double-Bucky-F10, but there are ways to set stuff like that as well.

At the gym I go to, there are computers with touchscreens over some of the exercise bikes, and you can 1-finger type on them. It's a dog-slow way to enter anything, but fine for web browsing once you're past the first real URL, at least given the speed you read the web while biking.