If you hate the keyboards...

[Ma2k5]

How fast people forget the real keys on mobile phones and the outrage when touchscreens were coming out...

If you think about it though, how is your typing accuracy on your phone vs keyboard? Much weaker I presume.

The reason it works so well on the phone is, it isn't just an on screen keyboard, but effectively your mouse/pointer tool, to click, to navigate/swipe/scroll. It also enables you to have a bigger screen.

So it takes away from the typing experience, but gives you a lot in return - a very valuable trade. On top, you don't do heavy amounts of typing on a phone as in, writing essays or lines of code - accuracy/speed isn't that important as it is in a professional environment.

On a laptop however, the keyboards main and only real purpose is keyboard inputs. What are you gaining for a 2D/touch keyboard that will justify the loss off productivity?

 

[537635]

Well obviously it isn't gonna be the same onscreen keyboard as on iPad. That would never work.

There were a couple of recent patents, which hint to a much deeper haptic feedback integration.

Try not to think about how thinks are and were done, but how they could be. You know, progress... Or do you think that 640kB is enough for everyone?

 

[Eithanius]

Apple will get rid of them and replace with touchscreen/ virtual ones, lol: https://mashable.com/2018/08/06/app...s/?utm_cid=mash-com-Tw-main-link#FaLd6pfj5sql

I'm all for it...

Ever since I got my 2018 iPad, I've enjoyed typing on it more than my 2010 MBP 15"...

LCARS anyone...?

 

[theluggage]

Apple will get rid of them and replace with touchscreen/ virtual ones, lol

Apple, like all big tech firms, probably patents whatever their engineers doodled on a beer mat on a Friday night, to help build up their defensive patent portfolio.

They'd be daft not to at least think about radical keyboard options - whether they get implemented is another matter.

That's not happening, and if it did, that would mark the moment, I leave the Mac platform.

Well, I'm certainly skeptical - they'd need to bring something new to the table to make it work, not just stick a 12" iPad in the bottom half of the case* - but I'd want to see what they actually came up with before making a judgement.

Whatever you think of their current products, Apple have got a track record of being absolute wizards with things like tiny speakers, on-screen keyboards and haptics.

Before the Unibody macs came out (2009?) I'd have poured scorn on the idea of a "chiclet" keyboard (and cited the likes of the PCJr or PET 2001)... but here we are, years later, lamenting that keyboard's demise. Before 2007 I'd have said that a smartphone was useless without a physical QUERTY keyboard, but the iPhone implementation defied expectations. I couldn't believe that removing the physical microswitch on the trackpad would work until I tried one and couldn't feel the difference (and although they haven't made good use of it, the 'force click' illusion is spooky). So, although past performance is not a guarantee of future results, I'd give them the benefit of the doubt until we have something tangible to critique.

Also, there are big practical advantages in a "no moving parts (-ish)" keyboard - spillproof, wipe-clean, assignable keys, double as a touch/Pencil tablet - so there's some incentive to maybe try to get used to it. I'm sure I could get used to the low-travel keys on a MBP (assuming they've fixed the reliability problem) if I could see any advantage to shaving a mm or so of the thickness of an already think & light product.

Same for the Magic Keyboard 2 w/number pad that I got with my iMac: its perfectly functional, I just prefer the feel of the old one and there was no need to make it so thin and light (or, for my money, wireless - the USB ports in the old keyboard are useful).

(* although sticking a 7" iPad screen in place of the trackpad might be interesting).