I thought the touchscreen vs. physical keyboard debate was old news by now. Despite ongoing efforts to market to business professionals who “could never reply to hundreds of emails a day using a touchscreen,” even RIM has succumbed to the consumer trend, shifting to a virtual keyboard with the latest Blackberry 10. And as companies continue chasing after the iPad in the tablet domain, we’re seeing touchscreens invading the PC market, too.

So why is Tactus trying to bring back the tactile keyboard? Even if they spin it to look and sound like the keyboard of the future, isn’t it really a step backward rather than forward?

Considering Google’s rapid progression in the Project Glass development, it’s difficult to imagine Tactus Technology’s “morphing button” interface will bring much competition. Kudos to Tactus for trying something different, but I think they’re going to fall short with this one. By now, most BlackBerry fanatics have given in to frustrations with RIM—and many have already made the switch to the touchscreen, realizing it’s not so difficult to send emails after all.

And really, won’t we all be sending emails through speech to text applications soon anyway? Typing on a physical keyboard is already a thing of the past. Isn’t it?

While I've become quite proficient with the touch keyboard in iOS (especially on the iPad), I have a few gripes. The biggest one is selecting text. There are a few great suggestions by users on how to improve the text selection and navigation process in iOS.

The "Hooper Selection" video actually inspired some developers to put a similar text selection feature into their coding app for iPad.



While this would make selecting text much more natural (fingers don't have to leave the keyboard), it doesn't fix the problems for touch-typists. If you're not looking at a touch-screen keyboard while you're tying, accuracy is significantly decreased!

I think there are still a LOT of people who prefer to type on a keyboard (a la RIM) rather than on a touchscreen (a la android / apple) - it seems to depend on the number of emails being typed, and their length.

I know I tried an android phone a few months ago, after being on blackberries for years, and the keyboard just wasn't fast enough for me, nor were the email applications robust enough.

So, please don't discount the power of a true keyboard just yet!

Cheryl

Ironically the tactical screen issue is a partial solution to what I think is the wrong question ... Rather than focusing on improving TYPING, the question is whether there is a better way ahead for data input to devices.

Forgoing the Matrix meat-skewer-in-the-head routine (or bluetooth brain upload) I figure speech recognition is the natural input device for us. At 150 words per minute (typical talk speed) that's faster than a rabid typist on Redbull.

I know ... voice is still a bit flakey (OK, a lot at times) but it's likely to the be the natural development path beyond a keyboard. Which - by the way - always sets physical limits to the device size because of the need to make the keys a certain size. No keys - no size limits.

Just my 2 cents ... pre coffee this Wednesday morning

PS. The Tactus solution seems promising ... if strangely voyeuristic. Doesn't anyone else feel weird watching a keyboard "inflate". Viagra for your touch screen anyone?

You make a good point, James. I agree it's time to look beyond typing.

Speaking of voice recognition... How about an app/program that allows us to transcribe recorded speech (from interviews, for example) into text without having to play back the audio and type everything out? I have witnessed some ineffectual attempts but would love to find something that really worked - it would make life a little easier for the journalists out there.

Just an idea for where to start.


By the way, I should have introduced myself. My name is Charlotte Bumstead (Carly for short). I am one of the new staff writers here at IT in Canada. And I'm glad to be a part of the conversation in the forum.

Thanks for sharing your insights everyone.

Interesting development on this front:

news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-57464841-75/m...g-for-windows-phone/

Is the Arc Soft keyboard going to be the answer? Interesting concept indeed.