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Lenovo’s new Yoga Book replaces the keyboard with an E Ink screen

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Re: Lenovo’s new Yoga Book replaces the keyboard with an E Ink screen

#11
post #3

How is anyone supposed to type on something like that?

Haptics will definitely help the feel. I imagine it would take a few weeks of use to evaluate if it's a workable solution for you. I'm very interested to hear what the reviews say about it.

Re: Lenovo’s new Yoga Book replaces the keyboard with an E Ink screen

#12
post #3

How is anyone supposed to type on something like that?

I've typed on one of these (same style i.e. a projection keyboard) and it's not that bad, the zero-tactile feedback takes some getting used to but my wpm doesn't suffer too much. I also only type at 70-120 wpm and never purchased a 'nice' keyboard so I'm certainly not a typing/keyboard enthusiast. I think a keyboard with each individual key being e-ink would be pretty cool.

This one has haptic feedback when you type so you do get some kind of feedback, even if there aren't defined keys.

Re: Lenovo’s new Yoga Book replaces the keyboard with an E Ink screen

#13

I'd like to see a laptop with an e-ink display I can code on. That way I can go and sit in the sun.

That was always the promise of Pixel Qi screens. Shame they never hit critical mass. There are eink standalone monitors (e.g. http://dasungtech.com/ ) but nothing in a laptop form factor that I’m aware of.

Re: Lenovo’s new Yoga Book replaces the keyboard with an E Ink screen

#14
I think this has a lot of potential to be a revolutionary product segment for musicians, for example. So much great music software is out there, literally impeded by not having such a great input mechanism - with something like a reconfigurable keyboard area, it means many different kinds of (musical) user interaction may be defined in the near future .. an interface for mixing, a drum-pad, complex synthesis models rendered in a way for user interaction across multiple domains - I can think of as many uses for this device, as there are iPad apps for musicians.

So I hope some care is given as to latencies and multi-value inputs. It would be great to have a mixer interface overlay running on this thing ..

Re: Lenovo’s new Yoga Book replaces the keyboard with an E Ink screen

#15
post #14

I think this has a lot of potential to be a revolutionary product segment for musicians, for example. So much great music software is out there, literally impeded by not having such a great input mechanism - with something like a reconfigurable keyboard area, it means many different kinds of (musical) user interaction may be defined in the near future .. an interface for mixing, a drum-pad, complex synthesis models r…

A MIDI keyboard interface would be great for music notation software, latency would be a non-factor

Re: Lenovo’s new Yoga Book replaces the keyboard with an E Ink screen

#16
post #14

I think this has a lot of potential to be a revolutionary product segment for musicians, for example. So much great music software is out there, literally impeded by not having such a great input mechanism - with something like a reconfigurable keyboard area, it means many different kinds of (musical) user interaction may be defined in the near future .. an interface for mixing, a drum-pad, complex synthesis models r…

This would make a ton of sense as a peripheral device. An e-ink input that can change buttons for any variety of modes you can imagine. I can't see what good there would be in replacing a physical keyboard rather than supplementing it.

Re: Lenovo’s new Yoga Book replaces the keyboard with an E Ink screen

#17

I'm still consistently enraged at trackpads without physically distinct left and right buttons. No one does them right. Not even Apple.

I always turn on 'tap to click' on my trackpad so you can tap anywhere to click, and two finger tap to right click. I haven't missed physical buttons since getting used to this. Is there a particular use case that the physical buttons are better for? I can imagine gaming at least.

I've found trying to drag&drop with that method infuriating.

Re: Lenovo’s new Yoga Book replaces the keyboard with an E Ink screen

#18
post #3

How is anyone supposed to type on something like that?

Who cares. Bringing experiments all the way to market is a good thing, just don't buy one and you are sorted.

bringing experiments all the way to market is really only good if anyone cares to try them out. if no one cares to try them then that experiment has failed in the market.

Re: Lenovo’s new Yoga Book replaces the keyboard with an E Ink screen

#19
post #3

How is anyone supposed to type on something like that?

Who cares. Bringing experiments all the way to market is a good thing, just don't buy one and you are sorted.

It's probably not very bad, but stupid experiments can have a negative influence on the community as a whole.

Let's say e-ink keyboards are a good idea, but it's too soon. An early implementation will quite possibly delay (more make completely unviable) trying the experiment again.

If it's just a bad idea, resources will have been diverted into the development of a failed product (which is years of someones life spent on something useless). Not only that, but the cost of trying other ideas is increased. You have to hire and train more developers to work on other projects, to make up for the time wasted. The cost of developers increases for other companies, perhaps trying out better ideas.

This particular instance probably isn't very significant. But people apply the same logic to "what's the harm in VCs funding blockchains for pets", or any other buzzword without really understanding it. Well the harm is that they shift the entire ecosystem toward something that is possibly not very useful. They increase the costs for other companies (perhaps bootstrapping) their own ideas. And they push us toward a market that is driven by buzzwords, not logic, which is where most of us end up working.

Re: Lenovo’s new Yoga Book replaces the keyboard with an E Ink screen

#20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who cares. Bringing experiments all the way to market is a good thing, just don't buy one and you are sorted.

bringing experiments all the way to market is really only good if anyone cares to try them out. if no one cares to try them then that experiment has failed in the market.

Okay, but my point is that the other poster is responding to the idea, not the implementation. If people that have used it say it stinks, then we have some information.
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