Hacker News Reader

The only way I can imagine a fully-drawable keyboard working is if they perfected one of the haptic feedback technologies like ultra-sonic keys or something crazy.

the fully drawable keyboard is already here. expect apple to perfect it in three years one the other OEMs rush it to market and fail.

http://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2016/9/2/12769094/len...

They already have, I think. The force touch trackpads don't move - they give the illusion of clicking using haptics. Don't see why keys would be much more difficult.

Well it would have to be much, much better than any haptic keyboard I've used so far. Those that I've used may give feedback, but it's nothing like using a keyboard.

I don't think the haptics are fine enough to allow for feeling the key boundaries with your fingertips.

I'd bet they will be one-day, or perhaps they are in a lab, but they can't achieve it at-scale, or at an acceptable cost. It's likely why they're trending the existing keyboards towards a flatter profile -- in preparation for the sensation they know they'll be able to pull-off in 3 or 5 or however many years it'll take to deliver a haptic implementation on their products.

What I was referring to was technologies that give not just the illusion of some click but of physical texture before a key is even clicked. If your fingers can't feel the keys before you even click them, IMHO it's a no go.

Given that they have gone out of their way to create actual keyboards for the iPad pro line I don't think Apple is convinced a fully drawable keyboard is the way to go either.

>imagine the entire keyboard surface being the TouchBar?

It seems very likely to me that apple is moving this direction. They continue to pour resources into "taptic" feedback, to make flat fixed surfaces feel like buttons, and at the same time are decreasing the travel of their physical keyboards. They're definitely converging on a full touchscreen keyboard.

> HP or Dell find a backbone, and starts pitching supporting and building a perfect Linux laptop to devs

Dell has been selling a beautiful developer Linux laptop for a while, http://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/productdetails/xps-13-linux

> This product is currently unavailable. Please find our recommendation for a comparable system below.

I fixed the link, thanks

Yeah that project has been falling in and out of the store for over a year and a half.

This could be a stepping stone to a fully redrawable keyboard.

There was one (not redrawable, but who looks at the keys anyway), but Apple bought it and killed it: http://ergocanada.com/products/keyboards/fingerworks_lp.html

I had one. It was not good for typing.

I agree. It was not good for typing. I gave a good 4 months before i gave up.

If someone made an e-paper optimus style keyboard, i would definitely give that a try.

Little animations are neat. they pop. i really like them. for about a day. Then they're just annoying.

http://www.theverge.com/2016/10/19/13328710/apple-e-ink-keyb... There is one by Sonder

Just an anecdote: I typed pretty decently on it and used it for years for everything including programming. (For reference sake, I've never timed, but I'm one of the fastest typist among people I know when not using the Touchstream)

Buying that company is what got them multitouch, which is what made the iPhone and iPad possible.

It's funny, but they're really just closing the loop on that acquisition by making a programmable keyboard.

By the way, a friend of mine had the Fingerworks (I use a Kinesis Advantage) and in the winter it would always go wonky because of static. He wound up having the company buy a humidifier... for his keyboard. I thought it was a neat idea (especially switching between typing and mousing by just sliding around) but I found the lack of feedback jarring and didn't fall in love with it.

Fully redrawable touch keyboard exists. It's in the iPad.

It'd be nice if you could take old "obsolete" iPads and turn them into dedicated control panels for other devices. Better that than in a dump.

I'm doing that with my old android phones. I've got a home-automation server setup, and the phones are all able to control lights, speaker volume, etc.

> This could be a stepping stone to a fully redrawable keyboard. Not saying I want such a thing, but it's interesting.

Something to be approached with caution. There may be an appropriate programming metaphor for the opportunities and risk, somewhere between operator overloading and self-modifying code.

I can already imagine websites placing the "Buy now" button where "Esc" used to be.