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Tim Cook: I've Given Up Physical Keyboards, Use iPad "80% of the Time"

ladeer said:
this is one thing Tim does not understand about common people... I know so many executives in my company (director and above, like VP, SVP, EVP) who can do 80% of what they do writing short emails. After all, at their level they pretty much attend meetings and ask questions and review things and provide feedback over vast quantities of projects/issues. An iPad works fine for that. In fact, I often see my VP coming to office with only her iPad. But come on, the people who actually work on the deliverable (individual contributors like me), we spend hours going through Business Object or Eclipse or Excel or Word or Toad or Salesforce.com or Oracle ERP tools, trust me we NEED OUR KEYBOARD.
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No one is taking your keyboards away.

Tim commented that the virtual keyboard works fine for HIM for (only) 80 percent of what he does.

And suddenly the MR crowd are all like "waaaaah! apple are taking are keyboards away!!!!"

Jumping to conclusions much?
 
throAU said:
No one is taking your keyboards away.
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I hope you understand my point was that, his sentiment does not represent the vast majority of people. Most people cannot give up physical keyboards. Most people cannot use an iPad 80% of the time. Most people don't have such luxury.
 
ladeer said:
I hope you understand my point was that, his sentiment does not represent the vast majority of people. Most people cannot give up physical keyboards. Most people cannot use an iPad 80% of the time. Most people don't have such luxury.
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You said he doesn't understand what normal (common) people do. I don't think that's the case at all. He wasn't asked to comment on what works best for everyone.


Maybe I've misinterpeted your attitude, but most here seem to be thinking that what asked how HE gets along with the device, he is speaking for what the direction apple is for all end user products.

I'm quite sure he's aware that his accounting department, R&D guys, etc. won't be using an ipad to do their jobs.

And even he admitted (with the 80 percent comment) that he needs to use a computer to get some things done.

If your job involves a lot of typing, trying to use an ipad to do it all on is not for you.
 
Ubele said:
Let the paranoid rumors based on misinterpretation begin. I'll start:

WTF? Tim is saying that the iPad and iPhone are fine for 80% of what users need to do? This is a sure sign that Apple plans to discontinue its Mac line, except for maybe one model, which no doubt will start at $3,000. Greedy bas***ds! Apple is doomed. I'm switching back to Windows PCs before it's too late!

[Obligatory ;) emoticon for people who don't read my opening line and think I'm serious]
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With the way Windows is headed with Windows 8, saying you hate tablets but wanting to go Windows....well lets just say we're out of options now. This is the future ;-)
 
superhrixenz said:
Waiting for Apple to make this.

Image
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I'm not. I'm waiting for a tactile feel of older keyboards with the form factor of the new keyboards.

----------

At NeXT Steve had a beautiful NeXTStation Turbo Color with a 21" Sony Trinitron NeXT Monitor he hardly used.

CEOs are constantly meeting with people and delegating work to be worked up for them.

It's not surprising he doesn't use a keyboard as he's most likely dictating most of what he wants later revised and published by his staff.

For the rest of the world where CEOs from Start ups wear multiple hats, the idea of switching to a touch screen solution for your typing never will be a reality.

Nothing beats tactile feel for long hours of work that requires publishing everything from technical documentation [engineering reports, specs, etc] to authoring.

On the go, keeping comments both brief and to the point makes the iPad and iPhone functional and accessible. Not for long hours of working on collaborative documents. And no, sitting in public dictating about corporate documents won't fly.
 
ladeer said:
I hope you understand my point was that, his sentiment does not represent the vast majority of people. Most people cannot give up physical keyboards. Most people cannot use an iPad 80% of the time. Most people don't have such luxury.
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Most iPad users can. I have a physical keyboard on my iPad (like surface has now, all new) and got rid of it after 3 month, useless on the go and makes the whole thing heavier.
You do not get an iPad if you are a coder or excel junkie, you know that before. You might still get it, to use outside work and then you'll see, it works just fine without a keyboard.
My MB got a keyboard, but then, that is collecting dust since I have the iPad. I do not think, one can comment on everybody else, based on ones own situation.
 
Yeah, and for proper feedback let's invent additional accessories like a special gaming keyboard with WSAD controls for only 70 € available in Apple stores. Or a professional DAW keyboard with all keys of a former keyboard for 140 €.
 
i paid a LOT of money for a decent mechanical keyboard from razer, that has proper travel in the keys, i still refuse to upgrade from my early 2008 macbook because i hate the new flat style keyboards, the on-screen keyobards i use because i dont do a lot of typing on my portable devices,

For example, i would never type anything as long as this post on an iPhone or iPad, but on my desktop, with its proper clicky keys, i can type all day (dont worry, i wont)

Seriously , im starting to think apple really has jumped the shark with its "products as artwork 1st usability 53rd" mentality.

Next they will be telling me i dont need a keyboard at all in this Post-Keyboard world (they have, it seems, done it for the mouse with the track pad almost required to use a mac desktop nowdays)

bring back the old Chunky keyboards as an option i say .. with one of those ugly wire things that mean i dont have to keep changing batteries, in fact, i dont think ive had this many battery driven devices since i had a big-trak and boom box in the early 80s
 
Virtual keyboards are horrible compared to a real one. I am sick and tired of Apple trying to convince people otherwise... Its almost like they do it because they know they can.
 
Stella said:
On a physical keyboard I know if I've typed the wrong letter - cant do that on iPad without looking.
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I'm able to know if I typed a wrong letter due to where my finger lands. It's all about location and not touch anymore for me - if the keyboard changes in size though it throws me off and I need time to adjust to locations.
 
jbellanca said:
Settings > General > Keyboard > Shortcuts
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I use shortcuts all the time, and they are not the same as auto-correct. I like the feature as just that, but it needs more polishing. Obviously I can disable it, but it does come in handy from time to time. I've never used an Android product, so I can't say whether Apple's is better or not. But it can be darn annoying at times.
 
palmerc2 said:
He must not type cuss words, because for the ducking life of me I can't type them with autocorrect.
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That is absolutely hilarious!


As for the article, I don't care what Tim Cook uses or doesn't use. /shrug
 
From the responses I've got from my original message, there's a lot of people who don't understand touch typing... which is why for a lot of people current virtual keyboards aren't going to replace physical.

You can be looking at other content and still typing very accurately because you know where you fingers are on the keyboard and can feel if you've made a mistake. You don't need to be looking at the screen.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touch_typing

On physical keyboards, there's a reason why the F and J keys have bumps...

To answer your question, Joesegh, why should I be always looking at the screen? No offence to my next question, I'm guessing you must be pretty young?


joesegh said:
Wait, what are you looking at when you touch type? The wall? You should be able to tell immediately by looking at your screen!

Also, I really think that typing with the onscreen keyboard of the iPad is really quite nice in portrait mode. My accuracy between that and a physical keyboard is not that different. My only gripe is that the delete key can feel too small at times.
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joesegh said:
Wait, what are you looking at when you touch type? The wall? You should be able to tell immediately by looking at your screen!

Also, I really think that typing with the onscreen keyboard of the iPad is really quite nice in portrait mode. My accuracy between that and a physical keyboard is not that different. My only gripe is that the delete key can feel too small at times.
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Well, traditionally, one looks at the form/document that's getting text input into it. I know most kids these days look at the keyboard to see what they are pressing, but that's just bad typing. I know they did away with lessons in cursive at many public schools; they should've replaced them with lessons in touch typing.

The iPad keyboard in landscape is pretty slick. The iPad Mini keyboard in portrait at full size is so far the best I've used, but with either of those I still have to look at the keyboard to know what I am pressing.
 
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