Microsoft Possibly Working on 'Touch Cover' Smart Keyboard For iPad

[shaunp]

could be interesting. The type cover for the surface pro is great.

 

[JosephAW]

The nice thing about MS keyboards is they automatically log and transmit your keystrokes to the NSA.

 

[convergent]

The best of both worlds? Tried a Surface tablet and it just didn't "click" with me. But Apple keyboards are not my thing. Try and use Word with those things...

I'm a Win10 PC user. While testing it, I kept thinking the Surace was a PC in a tablet form factor but offering no intuitive experience, like the keyboard popping up at the right time, an easy to use interface, the stylus behaving as expected, etc., etc.

Leave it to Microsoft to confuse someone who's actually been using its products for 20 years.

IDK if windows or iOS are the future of mobile computing, but for the first time, iOS 11 looks like we might be able to actually DO something useful with a tablet without the pain of using an idiotic software overlay on a touchscreen Windows laptop.

Microsoft has barely made any progress since the day it slapped a capacitive screen on a Vista setup in terms of interface. I hate Modern UI, it's a trainwreck taking functionnality away from the core win10 experience.

But give me one of those Surface keyboards and a decent office experience on a tablet and we might have a deal.

Wow... you believe Microsoft has made little progress since Vista! You lost all credibility right there.

What exactly is a Surface keyboard going to do to improve your iPad experience? Minus the Surface Pro unique features and lacking support for a pointing device, it's just a keyboard.

The iPad experience is closer to a big smartphone than a laptop. A Surface type cover ain't gonna change that.

 

[dannys1]

I really wish they would've added that to iOS 11. It's very awkward to keep reaching up to the screen when using the iPad with a keyboard.

Yep, which is why I use a Mac with a pointer device input most of the time.

 

[Compote]

Wow... you believe Microsoft has made little progress since Vista! You lost all credibility right there.

What exactly is a Surface keyboard going to do to improve your iPad experience? Minus the Surface Pro unique features and lacking support for a pointing device, it's just a keyboard.

The iPad experience is closer to a big smartphone than a laptop. A Surface type cover ain't gonna change that.

I said they made little progress in terms of touchscreen interface. You pick up an iPad, you know where's what. You pick Windows 10 without a keyboard or mouse... good luck with that.

I'm reclaiming my cred thx.

 

[WatchFromAfar]

The nice thing about MS keyboards is they automatically log and transmit your keystrokes to the NSA.

And yet I bet you don't have a problem using Siri to perform a search. Siri is powered by Microsoft Bing, Apple doesn't have a search engine.

 

[anthorumor]

From someone who once owned a Surface 4 with Alcantara fabric, this is welcomed news for me and my iPad Pro.
I just hope it supports the smart connector, since Logitech's is too thick and Apple's too clumsy.

 

[Tiger8]

The nice thing about MS keyboards is they automatically log and transmit your keystrokes to the NSA.

and so does Siri

 

[convergent]

I said they made little progress in terms of touchscreen interface. You pick up an iPad, you know where's what. You pick Windows 10 without a keyboard or mouse... good luck with that.

I'm reclaiming my cred thx.

LOL... with your clarification I still strongly disagree with you. The tablet mode interface in Windows 10 is much improved over Windows 8; and I didn't even know there was one back in Vista. So improvements are there if you are being honest.

Is Windows as prescriptive within applications from an interface perspective as iOS? Of course not. If you were able to run MacOS apps on an iPad, you'd likely have a similar problem. You are comparing a smartphone OS foundation with a wide open full function OS. "You pick up an iPad, you know where's what" because of its greatly limited functionality. After using the Surface Pro for a few weeks, I've pretty much learned "where's what" so if you do have a learning curve. I'll use a camera analogy. Anyone can pick up a cheap point and shoot camera and figure out how to use it pretty easily. But pick up a $6000 professional camera body with mostly manual controls, and you aren't going to as easily know how to use it. After a little study, you can capture much more with the pro body, but there is a learning curve to get there.

I still ask you the question, however... how is a Microsoft keyboard... which is going to be just a keyboard... mated to an iPad, going to change your experience in any great way? Or did I misunderstand what you were saying?

 

[rowspaxe]

It'll be interesting to see what MS does with the TouchCover for iPad. First, because there is no support for pointing devices (does Microsoft know something that we don't? ) and Secondly, because there is no integrated kickstand on the iPad, the TouchCover will need a redesign to support the iPad.

Doesn't it seem strange no one has developed an attachable ipad kickstand cover. Even a good plastic implementation would be far better than the smartcover fabric souffle

 

[Compote]

LOL... with your clarification I still strongly disagree with you. The tablet mode interface in Windows 10 is much improved over Windows 8; and I didn't even know there was one back in Vista. So improvements are there if you are being honest.

Is Windows as prescriptive within applications from an interface perspective as iOS? Of course not. If you were able to run MacOS apps on an iPad, you'd likely have a similar problem. You are comparing a smartphone OS foundation with a wide open full function OS. "You pick up an iPad, you know where's what" because of its greatly limited functionality. After using the Surface Pro for a few weeks, I've pretty much learned "where's what" so if you do have a learning curve. I'll use a camera analogy. Anyone can pick up a cheap point and shoot camera and figure out how to use it pretty easily. But pick up a $6000 professional camera body with mostly manual controls, and you aren't going to as easily know how to use it. After a little study, you can capture much more with the pro body, but there is a learning curve to get there.

I still ask you the question, however... how is a Microsoft keyboard... which is going to be just a keyboard... mated to an iPad, going to change your experience in any great way? Or did I misunderstand what you were saying?

I'm sorry, is this Microsoftfanboyrumors.com ?

I'm a PC user, I use it professionally.
I said why I prefered PC keyboards : Word, and typing with them on the Office suite in general. I'm only hoping there are custom controlls pn tje mac apps to allow for the same shortcuts.

If not that, suface keyboards have simply been superior.

You do not challenge my point that the Surface and Microsoft Windows 10 are not a good tablet experience compared to the iPad. The iPad is only limited by its software - for now.

When professional developpers decide to port their apps on iPad, I see no reason to suffer Windows and its restarts, viruses, its decay and piling interface failures.

 

[convergent]

I'm sorry, is this Microsoftfanboyrumors.com ?

I'm a PC user, I use it professionally.
I said why I prefered PC keyboards : Word, and typing with them on the Office suite in general. I'm only hoping there are custom controlls pn tje mac apps to allow for the same shortcuts.

If not that, suface keyboards have simply been superior.

You do not challenge my point that the Surface and Microsoft Windows 10 are not a good tablet experience compared to the iPad. The iPad is only limited by its software - for now.

When professional developpers decide to port their apps on iPad, I see no reason to suffer Windows and its restarts, viruses, its decay and piling interface failures.

No, and its not Macfanboyrumors.com either. I own Macs, and I own a Surface Pro. I try to look at this stuff objectively. My opinion is that a Surface Pro keyboard won't improve the iPad experience at all because the iPad can't take advantage of most of its differentiation compared to any other keyboard you might use with an iPad.

What I challenged is your statement that Surface and Windows 10 was no better of a tablet experience than Vista. I don't disagree that if you wanted a dedicated tablet, the iPad interface is simpler to use and more predictable. But it is also a very limited environment compared to MacOS or Windows. It just is. There are pros and cons to that. My wife only uses an iPad and it works well for her. I could frankly not do my job if I had to do it on an iPad.

Professional developers have ported apps to the iPad, such as Microsoft Office, and with the limited interface and no pointing device, its not productive for complex work where you need to get lots of windows open at the same time on a big display and move things back and forth. Doing that on an iPad is not pleasant (to me) and no developer is going to fix it since its a limitation of the platform.

Microsoft's tablet environment is more complex to deal with because they have not put the limitations on it that Apple has done. There are pros and cons to that. The same could be said for Android vs. iOS... Android is more robust and flexible, but also much more complex. One is not better than the other, just different.

As for your experience of restarts, viruses, and decay... I've not seen that in Windows for quite a number of years; and I find MacOS and Windows 10 to be somewhat at parity with this regard. They both require frequent updates and they both break at times. What I have observed is that in every company I've worked, if I compare the IT provided Windows image, its usually bloated and bogged down compared to a fresh Windows install. For some reason IT departments insist on installing security and virus protection add-ons that bog the system down. Windows out of the box has virus protection and I see no need to add more.

 

[Wolfpup]

I've heard good things about their keyboards. Unfortunately, due to iOS's lack of mouse support, the trackpad probably won't carry over. I really wish they would've added that to iOS 11. It's very awkward to keep reaching up to the screen when using the iPad with a keyboard.

While *I* like full PCs, I think we've all got parents or the like who could do with an PC style iOS device...ability to hook up an iPad to a full keyboard, mouse, and monitor (and maybe other peripherals) the way even the first gen ARM based Surface works, do the basics but have less things they can accidentally do wrong. (Quit authorizing things to run, parents! LOL)