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What's Apple waiting for to change this?

J

joelmejiaganan

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 10, 2005
31
0
Santo Domingo, República Dominicana
We are using the same keyboard since the first computer.

Why do we have to press two or more keys to do things we do frequently?
Because keyboards were made to imput text, not commands. Cut, Copy and Paste came later.

How many of you use all those F1~F16 keys?
Maybe most of us only use 3 or 4 of them and just because they are used in shorcuts.

Why do we have to learn all those shorcuts?
It's OK for some actions, but not for actions we do very frequently.
Wouldn't you like to have a New Window/Tab, Reload, Previous/Next page and Quit keys for browsing?
And a Cut, Paste and Copy, New finder Wndow, Spotlight search, Apple Menu keys?

Apple (or any other company) can design a keyboard like the Macbooks' with backlightning, with those dedicated buttons, maybe with some touch sensitive buttons, with a rectangular trackpad area to make gestures and resize, scroll, move and drag just like the new iPhone interface.
This is the Touch Generation !!!

I thing those are some ideas to thing about. Please comment.
 
mrgreen4242

mrgreen4242

macrumors 601
Feb 10, 2004
4,377
9
While I think that Apple needs a new keyboard (the current one is an ergonomic nightmare) I'm not sure that I'd want something with dedicated buttons for a lot of things.

Pressing Cmd-<whatever> isn't bad, for most things, and it's a lot faster because you can enter them without moving your hand at all. Cmd-c/v/x for copy/paste/cut are very fast and efficient, making a new new for it would have to be farther away from where my hand is and so it would take more motion, and hence be slower. Cmd-space for spotlight is perfect, imo, as well. Same reasons. Cmd-tab is fine, again for the same reasons.

Expose could have it's buttons relabeled, and maybe moved, but that's the only thing I can think of that would be better as a dedicated key (which it already is, really, just not labeled well and located in just an "OK" spot).

What I would like is a more comfortable keyboard.... they need to make it look like the MS Comfort Curve keyboard (say what you will about Windows, MS's input hardware is phenomenal). It's "curved" like the ergonomic boards, but the keys aren't split into two groups, so you can still type "incorrectly" (that is you can press keys on the left side of the board with your right hand, etc) and there's no learning curve like with the split keyboards. There's a nice palm rest built in, and adjustable height risers on the bottom. It's the nicest shaped keyboard I've ever used... add the look and feel of the Apple keyboard (white with the clear plastic covering, and the nice feel of the keys, plus the "special" Apple layout) and USB ports and you'd have a winner.

Here's the MS keyboard... http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/mouseandkeyboard/ProductDetails.aspx?pid=040

I'd also like to see Apple incorporate a couple/three user definable keys that have the little LCD/OLED displays on the into a "Pro" keyboard. Those are just fun/neat/kind of useful for application specific actions, etc.
 
MacBoobsPro

MacBoobsPro

macrumors 603
Jan 10, 2006
5,114
6
joelmejiaganan said:
Yes, something like that. But what do you think about the ideas? Do you think it is time to change the way we interact with the computer? I think now we can because we have the technology.
Click to expand...

Soon keyboards will be a thing of the past and everything will be multitouch. Maybe sooner than we think. New iMac 2008?
 
J

joelmejiaganan

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 10, 2005
31
0
Santo Domingo, República Dominicana
mrgreen4242 said:
While I think that Apple needs a new keyboard (the current one is an ergonomic nightmare) I'm not sure that I'd want something with dedicated buttons for a lot of things.

Pressing Cmd-<whatever> isn't bad, for most things, and it's a lot faster because you can enter them without moving your hand at all. Cmd-c/v/x for copy/paste/cut are very fast and efficient, making a new new for it would have to be farther away from where my hand is and so it would take more motion, and hence be slower. Cmd-space for spotlight is perfect, imo, as well. Same reasons. Cmd-tab is fine, again for the same reasons.

Expose could have it's buttons relabeled, and maybe moved, but that's the only thing I can think of that would be better as a dedicated key (which it already is, really, just not labeled well and located in just an "OK" spot).

What I would like is a more comfortable keyboard.... they need to make it look like the MS Comfort Curve keyboard (say what you will about Windows, MS's input hardware is phenomenal). It's "curved" like the ergonomic boards, but the keys aren't split into two groups, so you can still type "incorrectly" (that is you can press keys on the left side of the board with your right hand, etc) and there's no learning curve like with the split keyboards. There's a nice palm rest built in, and adjustable height risers on the bottom. It's the nicest shaped keyboard I've ever used... add the look and feel of the Apple keyboard (white with the clear plastic covering, and the nice feel of the keys, plus the "special" Apple layout) and USB ports and you'd have a winner.

Here's the MS keyboard... http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/mouseandkeyboard/ProductDetails.aspx?pid=040

I'd also like to see Apple incorporate a couple/three user definable keys that have the little LCD/OLED displays on the into a "Pro" keyboard. Those are just fun/neat/kind of useful for application specific actions, etc.
Click to expand...

TRUE. But I don't like the M$ curved stuff. It's just not Apple. Too lousy. But I get the point. Apple can do it simpler and prettier.
 
mkrishnan

mkrishnan

Moderator emeritus
Jan 9, 2004
29,776
15
Grand Rapids, MI, USA
joelmejiaganan said:
Yes, something like that. But what do you think about the ideas? Do you think it is time to change the way we interact with the computer? I think now we can because we have the technology.
Click to expand...

Maybe... but only when the replacement is something that is truly better in some meaningful sense. It's got to preserve rapid ability to type text...text is not going away just because of Web 2.0... there are very few alternatives to the major keyboard concepts like QWERTY and Dvorak on which many people can create text nearly as fast as they can on those. So I don't think anything will really fly that sacrifices that. If you had a large flat multi-touch board, it would be sweeeeet, but without tactile feedback, it would seriously hamper typing speed.

A kind of classic example is the automotive transmission, right? The two major systems implemented on most modern cars -- the gearbox manual style and the impeller / liquid automatic transmission -- are ancient. They've both existed nearly for as long as cars have. When you look at the major alternatives -- SMG and CVT -- outside of some specialty markets, it's very hard to understand why you'd want this over a manual transmission, right?

It's the same with the keyboard. It has to be more than fancy. It actually has to make things better for broad usage, and not just for one or two things. I don't see keyboards changing to suit the needs of web surfers who can't type and ignoring the needs of typists.
 
zblaxberg

zblaxberg

Guest
Jan 22, 2007
873
0
mkrishnan said:
Perhaps something like this:

http://www.artlebedev.com/everything/optimus/

?
Click to expand...

thats insane...i gotta get me one of these

keyb_002.jpg
 
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