Is it just me or do you find yourself sometime poking your finger at the monitor on your desktop or laptop? As an iPhone and iPad user I've grown so accustomed to swiping my finger across the screen or tapping an icon or the on-screen keyboard that it took me several minutes to figure out why my lately underutilized netbook wasn't responding. Oops!
I was trying to help my daughter find some elusive setting on her phone the other day and kept poking the screen wondering why it wouldn't do anything -- it wasn't a touchscreen kind of phone. I've even grown somewhat accustomed to using the on-screen keyboards (especially if I'm using my stylus) although I do pull out my bluetooth keyboard if I plan to do a lot of typing on my iPad.
All Things D takes us on a tour of some of the new ways that we may find ourselves interacting with all our digital devices before long in How Touchscreens Are Forcing the Reinvention of Keyboards. From an alternative to QWERTY (that's not Dvorak) to touchscreens that feel more like regular keyboards to keyboards that aren't really there (or, they're everywhere).
What kind of keyboard advancements would you like to see for any reason or specifically for doing design & publishing? Are you excited about any of the technologies in the All Things D article or do you prefer to continue kicking it (and clicking it) old school? Use your keyboard to give me a shout about it in the comments.
Related (more or less):
- History of the Computer Keyboard (About.com Inventors)
- History of Typing and QWERTY Keyboards (About.com Inventors)
- Who Invented Touchscreen Technology (About.com Inventors)
- Common Keyboard Symbols
- Keyboard Shortcuts for Desktop Publishing Software
- iPad Keyboard Shortcuts (About.com iPad)
- Why Would a Designer Want an iPad?
Photo © J. Bear; Manual Royal Typewriter






