The New 12” MacBook Will Have an iPhone-like Interface
Imagine Apple releasing a 12” MacBook pro in June.
Now imagine opening it up only to find the keyboard is missing.
It has been replaced with a sheer black surface strangely similar to the iPhone.
You press the power button and the screen lights up, then your virtual keyboard lights up.
Oh, and there is no trackpad. The keyboard is the trackpad.
Does that sound too far fetched? Really? I don’t think so. Now, this might not happen in time for June, but tell me why it won’t happen eventually. Tell me why Apple can’t (or won’t) one day replace the conventional keyboard with a digital replacement?
Think of what you could do with a laptop with such an interface. You wouldn’t need a trackpad because the entire virtual keyboard’s surface could be converted into a trackpad. All of the gestures supported in the iPhone would translate directly to your laptop. You could zoom in, crop a picture, save it, move it around and then switch programs all by using simple finger motions. Of course, in addition to using that surface for input it could also double as a secondary display. Imagine hitting a key and seeing all your widgets zoom into view where your keyboard use to be. Tap one to bring it up to the big screen, manipulate it and then make it disappear. What about time machine? How would you like a virtual wheel you could spin that would take you along your file’s timeline? Or for gaming, you could create custom keys of any shape, size or color all named and mapped specifically for your current game.
And these ideas just scratch the surface of what else you could do. If Apple were to start shipping laptops with a Multi-Touch screen built in the very notion of how we use computers would have to change. What does a trackpad really do anyway? It translates the motion of your finger so you can move a cursor. It can detect taps and translate that into mouse clicks. And that is basically it. Now we are seeing a technology that will allow a whole new range of motion to be supported, which in turns means our old notions of what a user interface is are obsolete.
Remember the image on Apple’s homepage that cryptically explained that 2007 was just the beginning?
Welcome to the future.
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I am so sick of this tactile feedback nonsense. Are you people crazy? Do you really use a computer so that you can push nice-feeling keys? I didn’t think so. Tactile feedback is *one* way of communicating to a person that they have done something. In this case, you push a keyboard button and can sense the resistance the button has to being pushed, confirming the push.
Apple has given you a multitouch surface for the iPhone ... what now? Apparently to a great many people their first instinct is to try to make a physical button out of a software button. Surprisingly, for them, this sort of solution tends not to work very well. What if we try a little harder?
Let’s say tactile feedback is worth 20% of your keyboard efficiency ... how can we get that back? One solution would be to change the virtual keyboard. How about a Dvorak layout? I bet you could get some speed from using a more efficient key layout (frequently used keys on the home row). Or how about a virtual keyboard that watches everything you type and continually refines the layout for efficiency?
Another idea is getting rid of traditional keyboards altogether. Why do we use keyboards? Not because they bring us joy, intrinsically. They let us get words into the computer. We could very well do that in other ways with our hands. How about a Morse code-type system? Or chording with two hands? Or a kind of sign language variant? Gestures? I am absolutely confident that there will be, at a minimum, zero loss of efficiency moving from physical keyboards to multitouch interfaces.
I am absolutely confident that there will be, at a minimum, zero loss of efficiency moving from physical keyboards to multitouch interfaces.
I type without looking at the keyboard. I work without looking at the keyboard. In what way does a touchpad make that more efficient? Without exception, every single keyboard enhancement for editing is MORE physical, not less. A jog shuttle mouse mimics a real jog shuttle. A tablet mimics a pencil and paper.
One could conceivably use a touch screen to edit, by physically touching the screen instead of a separate input device. But it would be difficult to argue the efficiency of holding one’s hands to the screen for hours at a time.
As melorama says, some things require physical input. His example of virtual strings on a guitar is an excellent one, but there are others.
We could very well do that in other ways with our hands. How about a Morse code-type system? Or chording with two hands? Or a kind of sign language variant? Gestures?
So you’d force everyone to re-learn a new method of entering text? Reminds me of that group that wants to redefine how words are spelled—these guys:
http://www.spellingsociety.org/journals/pamflets/p12ns90.php
You’ll have to undo hundreds of years of education and sheer inertia. Just because studies show that a certain way is better and faster doesn’t mean people will use it. Your Dvorak keyboard suggestion is a perfect example—it’s been out for a while now, and studies show that it’s faster than a QWERTY keyboard, but you don’t really see that many Dvorak keyboards out there, do you?
I doubt Apple would do it—it’ll run counter to the “It Just Works” mantra. Regular people won’t be able to just turn it on and go.
I don’t care what the keyboard looks like, I just want a small MacBook Pro that looks good and runs Leopard damn it! I can’t hold out much longer (there’s only so long I can keep using XP).
I use DVORAK, started as a curiosity then became much easier to use than switch from qwerty to dvorak and back. It’s fun, it’s debatably more efficient, but then again I’m also a long-time piano player so training fingers is nothing new.
Getting a SOCIETY to adopt a new input - whether DVORAK or a form of telepathy of sentences directly onto the screen or somewhere inbetween - is a monumental task, especially when you’re providing <5% of the hardware. Think of all of the primary and secondary school typing classes. Joe Secretary isn’t going to re-train.
But it’s reasonably possible that one could type onto a virtual keyboard (as originally suggested by the post), perhaps efficiently. The only way I see to do it is to reflect a GHOST keyboard onto the actual display screen and show the keys on which the fingers are resting - this provides the necessary reference for those who type with muscle memory (not so much typing by touch but typing with precise muscle memory) so that one can get instant visual feedback rather than have to look up at the screen, down at the keyboard, up at the screen…. hunt and peck “typists” will always remain so.
Moreover, this is precisely how I began typing DVORAK. Not because I bought a keyboard or rearranged the keys, but rather because onscreen (on a displayed jpeg or pdf) I saw where my fingers ought to move: i.e., the D is where you’re used to seeing the H; the U for the old F, the A’s the same, the B for the old N, check it out. Now it’s all muscle memory and I type at work on qwerty hardware with dvorak mapping. Buh-bye cues. If you have a transparent (think dashboard) display over your wordprocessor of choice, you can always be cued in to knowing where your fingers are and therefore where they are not.
Once you accept that, this new small LCD input screen becomes a pan-input device open to the next genius’ method of communicating with the computer. It could be interesting. Or we’ll stay firm and fast to 19th century technology.
This idea is so old and been done to death, and it always falls apart on the input device. Touchpad keyboards have existed for years, the failed companies who produced probably thought like the writer and a few of the comments that “it was a great idea!”
Tactile feedback, whether people like or not is vital for typing.
The iPhone is not even out yet, lets see if Apple really do manage (outside the Jobs reality distortion field) to successfully overcome the need for a keypad on a phone first after a few both hands texting sessions before consigning the keyboard to history.
I like this comment. It perfectly demonstrates the technical la-la land some people inhabit.
When presented discussion as to why his dreamed-of method of input isn’t the nirvana, he calls everyone crazy, then concedes (perhaps for sake of argument) to the crazy people’s arguments but tries to solve it with ideas more impractical than the original and without any evidence to prove it, asserts that the impractical solution will work just as well, if not better than the status-quo.
So, your idea to improve the interface is to make it even more unfamiliar to the user, so much so that they’d have to in effect relearn how to use a computer?
There may be a simple solution - have the system produce key-click sounds. Part of the “tactile” effect is probably due to the sound of successfully hitting a key.
As a further optional step, why not have subtly differently-pitched sounds for each key - users would probably start to unconsciously respond to this and efficiency would improve. Eventually the key pitches could even be standardized.
Just a thought. Well, a couple thoughts.
Seems to me Apple has already taken care of all this with a patent they filed a few months ago. I design stuff for a living, and when I read the patent I knew exactly what they were up to. They will be doing some sort of removeable overlay on top of a trackpad/screen that will allow a user to change out the input style as needed. The keyboard overlay comes with the computer, but other special overlays (like for video editing) could be added as needed, and for many other functions you just remove the keyboard overlay (or slide it out of the way) and you have a nice big trackpad/screen to enter info onto like on the iphone. The overlays can have real physical keys, dials, whatever, but they are recognized by the trackpad/screen underneath to automatically provide the right input. So you get a REAL keyboard AND the flexibility to input information in a new way.
Brilliant really . . . that’s why I love apple products . . . they DO sweat the details.
As for the iPhone I think since there is no really good way to type on ANY dinky object, there will be 3 solutions. Make the touch screen keyboard as good as possible, add a portable real keyboard that rolls up or folds as an accessory, and use other techniques like syncing to limit the amount of typing you need to do.
Minority Report would be cool. But I think my arms would get tired.
The easiest way to show why this is a no go idea: Try typing on a glass table. Just do it. If you want to, you can also put your keyboard below the glass, or print out a keyboard. You will find not only the effect mentioned many times now, that the lack of tactile feedback kills both your speed and accuracy, but also that your joints will hurt after very, very short time.
Otherwise, those laser/IR-projection-keyboards would see more use, wouldn’t they? You can buy them for years now. I have never seen one in the wild. Because typing on hard surfaces is bad(tm).
Nevertheless, I think a 12” - no, make it 10” - MBP with a multitouchscreen would be veeery nice. But make it a swivel or foldover unit so one can keep the keyboard. Or even better: Bring out a tablet with a foldable bluetooth keyboard.
OK . . . check this apple patent out . . .
http://www.macnn.com/blogs/?p=182
Imagine this on a ultra thin portable . . . you tactile guys get exactly what you desire . . . you ultra thin guys can type away on the included emergency touch screen keyboard. Plus, you get free touch screen “special use” keyboards specific to programs you know and love like Final Cut. If you are serious about the special use you can buy the 3rd party physical overlay and use real knobs everyday. PERFECT for musicians . . . can you say soundboard! When apple brings this out . . . maybe even this year . . . jaws will drop . . . it will be sa-wwweeet!
When materials scientists develop truly morphable shape-shifting compounds (a la Terminator 3), then I’ll abandon my trusty old keyboard.