Apple Tablet: The Mystery of Data Input
Posted on August 17, 2009 |
I swore to myself that I wouldn't write about the Apple tablet, that great unicorn of the high tech world, until I had some actual knowledge of what it really was and when it would appear. But I can't resist weighing in on one subject that most commentators seem to be skirting: How do you enter data?
We have two reasonably successful models for entering alphanumeric data. One is keyboard that sits on a flat surface and that you type on with ten fingers. The other is a miniature keyboard, real as on most BlackBerrys or virtual as on an iPhone, that you type on with your thumbs while cradling the device in your palms. (Let's regard the 12-key phone keypad as a one-handed variant of the thumb keyboard.)
The problem with a 7- to 10-in. tablet is that neither model works on it. There's no room for a physical keyboard, which in any event would require lying the device down on a flat surface to use it. And it's too big for a thumb keyboard because unless you have enormous hands, you can't comfortably hold the device that way. Your thumbs can't reach the middle of the keyboard while holding the device by its corners. And the top-heavy tablet wants to rotate backward, a situation that, at best, puts a lot of stress on your wrists.
