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A Touchpad Embedded Keyboard

mokibo.com

21–30 of 118 posts

Re: A Touchpad Embedded Keyboard

#23
why is signup for preorder so detailed about the user? it even requires phone number. Most of the questions were so sketchy I gave up and didnt sign up. Would not be surprised if all that data ends up in wrong hands and will be used for phishing.

Re: A Touchpad Embedded Keyboard

#24

Looks this would be perfect as a "sofa keyboard" for controlling a home media center or similar. I guess that the main difficulty would be not pressing the keys while using it as a touchpad, but I imagine it would be possible to get used to that.

This makes a lot of sense for a use-case.

Their proposed use-case of e.g. phones and tablets (see: already touch-enabled devices) makes me wonder... why use an inferior touchpad on a keyboard when you could just reach up and touch the screen to begin with? Especially with the things they're demoing: moving your cursor to click on something (just tap it) or scrolling (just... scroll normally?). I use a laptop with a "real" touchpad and still prefer just reaching out and touching the screen for most of these tasks already; if I'm not going to use a real touchpad for these kinds of things, why would I use a worse version built into a keyboard (which also probably prevents the keyboard from being as good of a keyboard)?

Using this for a non-touch device or from longer distances (like from your couch) makes so much more sense... especially when you consider how awful mice (and separate touchpads) are on e.g. couches.

Re: A Touchpad Embedded Keyboard

#25
I'm not sure what to make of this. On the surface, it does sounds like a great idea! But I'm not sure if the touch bits would work in a satisfactory manner. The touch surface discontinuity bothers me. Regardless, I hope they produce a great product as I can see myself using it to control my home setup.

Re: A Touchpad Embedded Keyboard

#26

Looks this would be perfect as a "sofa keyboard" for controlling a home media center or similar. I guess that the main difficulty would be not pressing the keys while using it as a touchpad, but I imagine it would be possible to get used to that.

This makes a lot of sense for a use-case. Their proposed use-case of e.g. phones and tablets (see: already touch-enabled devices) makes me wonder... why use an inferior touchpad on a keyboard when you could just reach up and touch the screen to begin with? Especially with the things they're demoing: moving your cursor to click on something (just tap it) or scrolling (just... scroll normally?). I use a laptop with a "…

A lot of people don't want to take the time and/or lose the flow due to shifting the hands away from the keyboard and in particular orientation with the home row.

The laptop approach of the touchpad close to and rigidly coupled to the keyboard is a big improvement as you can move thumbs from the spacebar and back without looking. This is why I use the internal keyboard even when an external keyboard would be otherwise convenient.

This device could be a way to reduce even that friction. Though I think we're better off encouraging people to make sure their apps can be completely controlled from the keyboard (unless of course the app really is appropriate for a pointing device, such as some photo editing).

Re: A Touchpad Embedded Keyboard

#27

Looks this would be perfect as a "sofa keyboard" for controlling a home media center or similar. I guess that the main difficulty would be not pressing the keys while using it as a touchpad, but I imagine it would be possible to get used to that.

Not having tactile feedback seems annoying given that most home media center controlling happens with the lights turned off.

Re: A Touchpad Embedded Keyboard

#28

Looks this would be perfect as a "sofa keyboard" for controlling a home media center or similar. I guess that the main difficulty would be not pressing the keys while using it as a touchpad, but I imagine it would be possible to get used to that.

Not sure how it’s any better than the Logitech K400 or the Microsoft All in One keyboard, especially since those don’t need any special software support so can work with your Android TV, Apple TV, HTPC and essentially any other device that supports USB HID, and those cost only like $20-30 I don’t see this thing being sold for less than $150-200.

Re: A Touchpad Embedded Keyboard

#30

Looks this would be perfect as a "sofa keyboard" for controlling a home media center or similar. I guess that the main difficulty would be not pressing the keys while using it as a touchpad, but I imagine it would be possible to get used to that.

Not sure how it’s any better than the Logitech K400 or the Microsoft All in One keyboard, especially since those don’t need any special software support so can work with your Android TV, Apple TV, HTPC and essentially any other device that supports USB HID, and those cost only like $20-30 I don’t see this thing being sold for less than $150-200.

> Not sure how it’s any better...

this looks like it's half the size of those two... so that's at least somewhat better.

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