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'Phorm' Case Adds Morphing Tactile Keyboard to iPad Mini

AppleWarMachine said:
Why do I need this...my iPad already has a keyboard? :p (and this will make it bulkier)
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Because people will fall for anything. No different than Apple releasing a smartwatch that cost $350; minimum. I can only imagine how much people would actually pay.
 
May or may not be a good or bad product but I am starting to get immediately turned off by anything advertised with the granola universal salesperson Adam Lisagor from Coin/Navdy/TrueCar/etc. He's starting to bug me.
 
No landscape. No bubble for the spacebar. No ability to morph its phorm to the necessary situation. No sale.
 
NYR99 said:
While it's a pretty cool technology, do people actually still have problems with touchscreen keyboards anymore?
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I certainly do.

Touchscreens are nice for quickly inputting a few lines, but seriously frustrating when doing serious work. Not to mention slower.

In fact I find myself looking at 'convertible' options more and more after the initial tablet craze wore off.

This doesn't look great (the touch buttons are too small) but it looks like a great idea to get this going.

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ScottHammet said:
Serious typing, in the 75-80 words per minute range, can't be done with the onscreen keyboards. You need tactical feedback to be able to do "real" typing, where you don't look at what your hands/fingers are doing.
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You mean tactile but it was funny like that. ;) Or are you a soldier :)
 
RiddlaBronc said:
I guess people will buy anything. I don't see the point of this? If you want hard keys then buy the wireless keyboard which is still easier to use.:confused:
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Yup, thats what I was thinking when watching the video. And the guy smirk doesn't help convince me either.
 
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jayducharme said:
"Anxiety of autocorrect"? What the heck is he talking about? Autocorrect helps me type faster.
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Maybe it's better in English, but whenever I write something in German, autocorrect usually messes up my sentences and I have to stop every once in a while to figure out what the hell went wrong again. I turned it off, because when I make a "normal" mistake it's usually easy to decipher what I wanted to say, whereas autocorrect often creates completely new sentences that are impossible to understand.

Also, I really write like 10 times faster on a mechanical keyboard compared to a virtual one (my iPhone). Never typed on an iPad.
 
tpharrison said:
The funny thing is this guy is a professional and is the spokesman in most/all of the commercials he makes. I've never been a fan, but some people must like him I guess.

Here's his company site: http://sandwichvideo.com
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Hey, you are right. That is the guy who convinced me to kickstart order Coin. Which promptly missed its shipment date (Summer 2014) and which I still haven't received. I was just thinking that this case product can't possibly work or be shipped this year and it was reminding me of Coin. But maybe I also remembered the guy.

Damn Coin product. Haven't heard a peep from those guys in months. I wonder if they will ever ship the product or refund my purchase.
 
ArtOfWarfare said:
Cool idea, good price, but it falls a bit short of what I would want:

1 - Why do I have to manually activate it? It should communicate with iOS to know when to turn on/off.

2 - Not flexible enough. Needs to have an API for alternative onscreen controls to be augmented by it. IE, the buttons in games. Or other keyboards. Or as other people mentioned, landscape keyboards.

I'm still confused about how it works. It sounds like what it does requires energy to pressurize the keys... But it doesn't cause battery drain? What sorcery does it use for energy if not a battery? Is it solar powered? Does it gather the energy it needs from being shaked when it moves?
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The energy is provided by your fingers when you push that big switch on the back. That's what increases the pressure, and the switch presumably locks to keep the pressure applied. It seems to be an entirely mechanical invention, hence no API ;)
 
Exit strategy

Apple, over here! Buy me, buy me, buy me...!!!

It looks too leading edge and clunky to be something consumers would buy.
As a proof of concept it's cool and probably something Apple would consider integrating into it's products.
 
Creepy spokesman makes me want to wait until I'm sure any units he's touched have sold through.
 
NYR99 said:
While it's a pretty cool technology, do people actually still have problems with touchscreen keyboards anymore?
Click to expand...

I do. It's like trying to jerk off with my foot. That's why I use my phone and tablets primarily for consumption rather than creation. Anything longer than a URL is a chore to type.

YMMV.
 
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