From: Ed Kummel (tech_ed_at_yahoo.com)
Date: Tue Mar 29 2005 - 07:44:54 PST
I think we need to take a page from the Apple
play-book here.
In the past, Apple did a study on how people would use
the new computer that included a mouse. What they
found is that the people tested insisted on using the
arrow keys to navigate around the screen...awkward at
best, but it was something they were familiar with at
the time. Jobs' decision was simple...force the use of
the mouse by releasing the new Apple computer without
arrow keys on the keyboard! By not giving the end user
a choice, they were forced to use the more efficient
mouse to navigate the screen...a kinda "tough love"
situation.
The same can be said here. Why give the choice of a
keyboard when the single item that personifies the
Newton is it's handwriting recognition? Given the
choice, the more efficient handwriting system will be
neglected by the majority of users and instead they
will use the archaic keyboard that was obsolete more
than 50 years ago!
My ideal PDA interface would be a completly blank
device. Nothing, no buttons, no knobs, no twiddlie
thingies...just a sheet of plexiglass with some kind
of backing...How does it turn on? Capacitance
discharge when held by a human hand in a certain
location. The locations can be configured for left
hand or right hand use. The combination of touch areas
can also be a security device which reads fingerprints
and configures the device for you.
just my "blue-sky" thoughts.
Ed
web/gadget guru
--- James Nichols <smilr_at_mac.com> wrote:
> I'm not Paul, but I'm sufficiently sleep-deprived to
> get up on a
> soapbox:
>
> First off, I've seen that newton3 picture around
> before, and I say that
> I would not use a device that looked like that.
>
> I do not want a built in keyboard, I do not want it
> to be a phone. A
> slide to the side screen like that would let the
> unit be toppled or
> canted at an angle if someone tried pressing on the
> digitizer with the
> stylus at the top of the screen while open.
> Operating that thing in
> landscape mode with the keyboard out makes no sense,
> worse still would
> be operating it in 180 degree flip mode, where the
> keyboard (being with
> the weightier brain of the machine) will want to
> slide closed on you,
> and is also upside down! Not to mention the keys on
> that keyboard are
> tiny.
<snip>
"I'm not an expert, but I *did* stay at a Holiday Inn Express once..."
--Holiday Inn Commercial
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