Typing on glass screen what the tech 458

Go into any Apple store.

The store workers don’t use any laptops to do their work. They all use iPhones or iPads to run the whole store.

of course to write a novel one would use a mechanical keyboard.

virtual keyboards have come a long way.

a five minute test isn’t long enough. I stopped connecting a mechanical keyboard to my tablets.

Conversation 9 comments

  • travlinman

    22 November, 2019 - 12:07 pm

    <p>As well as some doctors offices as well as my optometrist. Also seen more at restaurants in the hands of waitresses and at checkouts. Small business kiosks seem to heavily use tablets with a card reader for transactions as well. </p>

  • minke

    22 November, 2019 - 1:34 pm

    <p>It's awful for any length of time–nothing to orient the location of your fingers, so you have to constantly keep looking down at the screen to see where to push. Most virtual keyboards are too small too, and then accompanied by a touchpad or touchscreen you waste a lot of time. Note that in any office where people type all day everyday you will see lots of fullsize keyboards and mice, often quite old ones, even attached to laptops and portable devices.</p>

    • harrymyhre

      Premium Member
      22 November, 2019 - 11:50 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#491306">In reply to Minke:</a></em></blockquote><p>Yes for typing all day I need a mechanical keyboard. But I don’t really need a 101 keyboard. I could get by with an 88 keyboard. Sans numeric keypad. </p>

  • Brazbit

    22 November, 2019 - 2:14 pm

    <p>I don't mind it terribly myself, I grew up with membrane keyboards which are very similar (Odyssey 2, Atari 400 etc…) and had no problem with the Microsoft Touch Keyboard on the original Surface Pro. Not to mention years of using virtual keyboards on phones, tablets and kiosks. My biggest problem with glass keyboards is they usually take up too much of the display and make using the program more difficult as the program was designed for a full screen but this would not have that issue.</p><p><br></p><p>So while I vastly prefer a tactile keyboard for extended text entry, I could see using a glass keyboard on a laptop form factor device for basic tasks and media consumption. The dynamic aspect of it would allow for customized input per program at some point and that is very intriguing and could be better than a regular keyboard in many applications that are not text entry applications. </p><p><br></p><p>I am interested to see how this plays out.</p>

  • harrymyhre

    Premium Member
    22 November, 2019 - 11:58 pm

    <p>One more thing I thought of. </p><p>mechanical keyboards have plateaued. </p><p>they really can’t get any better. </p><p>the Lenovo’s keyboard – how can it be improved? </p><p>Apple tried and they messed up. </p><p><br></p><p>however virtual keyboards are just starting out. There are all kinds of ways they can improve that have yet to be tried. Haptic feedback is one. </p><p><br></p><p>also the response time on a virtual keyboard needs to be instant. I think some of them are sluggish so folks dismiss them. Takes a little bit of adapting. </p><p><br></p><p>I can remember going from mechanical typewriters to electric typewriters. that was a big shift for some. </p>

  • Daekar

    23 November, 2019 - 5:03 pm

    <p>Could I get away with not having a hardware keyboard in my personal life? If you exclude computer games, yes, although it would be miserable in comparison. In my professional life? Hell no. Even using a laptop keyboard is burdensome for me because so much of what I handle is numbers – the 10-key pad is a Godsend, and I am considerably more productive at my dual-monitor dock with a real keyboard and mouse than I am when just using that little 14" screen and no 10-key.</p><p><br></p><p>The folks at an Apple Store don't need to do much, which is why they can get away without using real productivity hardware. Those who want to are welcome to subject themselves to that nonsense, but I'm not going to be one of them until there are CONSIDERABLE improvements in glass/virtual keyboards.</p>

  • wunderbar

    Premium Member
    25 November, 2019 - 5:39 pm

    <p>if you type for a living, a glass keyboard isn't really something that works, and you need a real physical keyboard. If you don't, it's fine most of the time.</p><p><br></p><p>I think that's kind of the end of the story.</p>

    • wright_is

      Premium Member
      28 November, 2019 - 8:20 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#491928">In reply to wunderbar:</a></em></blockquote><p>Exactly, I type several thousand words a day. I'd hate to be limited to a glass keyboard.</p><p>A touch screen is fine for limited input, but it isn't a good solution for typing long texts.</p><p>I tend to use Swype or Google's GBoard, but their recognition is dreadful – especially as I type 50/50 English and German. What is really bad is they seem to change words after I've typed them. I often read as I type and everything is fine, then I send the message and the text that is sent is completely different to what I entered and read… If it can wait, I will wait until I can get to a real keyboard.</p>

  • simard57

    27 November, 2019 - 8:52 pm

    <p>might be a reason behind the Neo and the Duo?</p>

Windows Intelligence In Your Inbox

Sign up for our new free newsletter to get three time-saving tips each Friday

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Thurrott © 2024 Thurrott LLC