Everything you hate about your phone touch keyboard, Now for your PC!

[DZComposer]

Rant time.

I hate capacitive buttons. I hate touchscreen keyboards. Buttons and keys needs to have REAL feedback.

Today, I stumbled across this gem:

$245 for all of the things you hate about touchscreen keyboards.

I may just prefer a Chiclet keyboard over this. Everybody knows Chiclet keyboards suck, but why everybody thinks that these flat, unresponisve, ones are better is beyond me. Sure, they look cool and high-tech, but come on! Function > Form.

Figures we'd end up here. First, there were laptop keyboards with their flat keys and weird feel. Well, keyboard makers felt the need to use these same keys on desktops. I've seen Dell, HP, and even Logitech keyboards like this.

And then there's Apple:

http://www.crunchgear.com/2007/08/10/new-imac-keyboard-is-ok-but-dont-expect-it-to-be-a-good-usb-hub/

These things feel WORSE than laptop keyboards.

Seriously, do these people, you know, TYPE? Christ, using one of those mac keyboards feels like typing on goo. It's almost as bad as a Chiclet board.

Dealing with shitty input on phones is to be expected. You simply can't FIT good input into something that small. But, let's not let this trend go into computers.

Even monitors are starting to get shitty with buttons. My Samsung LED monitor looks great, has a great picture, but the power button is one of those capacitive buttons so I can't tell if I hit it unless I am at the correct angle to see the power LED, which is behind the button. When I stand up, I can't see it. My old monitor had A BUTTON that I could FEEL.

Input is more than just looks, it's about feel, too. In fact, feel is MORE important than look.

The best keyboards ever made were the IBM Model M. They had the IBM "srs bsns" look, They felt great, and each key made a really satisfying "CLACK!" sound. It was a full-immersion typing experience that modern keyboards just do not have anymore. The patent for the Model M's action has expired. If only someone would pick up making them again, since they quit making them before the rise of USB.

[sjrathbun812]

I have never seen a computer with a touch screen like that and I've never used one, but man, I can see how that's retarded. :facepalm:

["User"]

I'm considering getting a mechanical keyboard. I have a bunch of gamer friends that told me once they tried them and got used to them they would never go back to anything else. One standard test you can do to tell if you have a good keyboard for something like gaming is to hold down both shift keys and type out "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog." This is a standard English-language pangram, that is, a phrase that contains all of the letters of the alphabet. A good keyboard will allow you type out all those words correctly on the first try without skipping any of them.

[ZM Anonymous]

Don't you see? Sooner or later everything's gonna be a touchscreen. Touchscreen computer keyboard looks retarded, but I like the touchscreen keyboard on my phone. But I type with my index fingers instead of my thumbs

[DZComposer]

To quote Nintendo during the pre-Wii days, "Touching is good. But feeling is better."

[Nope.]

I already hate my "new", two years old keyboard because of the keys being more flat.

With that thing...? I would have only problems. When I type on the keyboard, I don't look at it because I can feel where my fingers are and I'm sure of what I'm doing.

Look at that thing now. Not only you can't feel what you're touching, but it even lacks of easily visible outlines ( I think I can actually see something there, but damn, it's almost invisible ). That Enter key looks so damn generic, it could be everywhere in that area. Thank God they put, at least, the effort to make a white line where the spacebar is supposed to be. Lol.

[Guest Mr. Nintendo]

I would not want to have that keyboard as my replacement for the keyboard that I have now. I would already imagine over 200 problems if I had a touchscreen keyboard like that, 1 being that my fingers are kinda big, the others...it would make a pretty long post here. (I don't want give that many reasons.)

[Sarita]

Me and that keyboard would have a fight. o: I have the same kind of keypad on the outside of my phone (Pantech Impact), and it's a bit of a pain. It's acutally TOO sensitive.

Though, as a personal preference, I like the flatter keyboards. They're easier for me to use. (Yes, even Mac keyboards Our Graphic design lab at my college is all Macs, so I kinda had to get used to it.)

[Gene Inari]

Yeah. A keyboard without ANY feedback of anysort is just a nightmare.

I have a hate-hate relationships with touch devices and something as feedback intensive like a keyboard will only tank if you take away that tactile sense.