Microsoft gets cleverer with multitouch screen keyboard
Oh, those smart rascals at Microsoft are on a roll. I love their Courier tablet concept, and now they may have found the way to make on-screen multitouch keyboards actually work great–even for touch typists like me.
The problem with screen keyboards is that you actually have to look at the screen to hit the keys correctly. With real keyboards, touch typists have a physical reference to position their hands. That’s why they type blind. With a flat screen keyboard, however, you lose the physical reference frame.
The patent for this screen keyboard, however, uses multitouch technology to automatically align the keys to the position of the hand. Since the keys are always in the same relative position to your fingers, you will always have a physical point of reference: Your own hand. That way, you can blindingly hammer your keys against the screen, knowing that your fingers will always hit the keys they are aiming for.
The patent also details the way this virtual keyboard would appear anywhere on the screen: Just place your hands as you would normally do while typing, and the keyboard will pop up. [USPTO via WMPowerUser]
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Poopy!
Considering how well most Microsoft software works, especially on the first few releases, would anyone like to use this to type anything important? Or use it with documents where system crashes could have serious consequences?
I think I’ll wait until Apple releases it iPad and shows us how it should be done. Microsoft should do the same. After all, that’s how they usually operate, wait until Apple does it, then copy it. It’s worked well for 25 years, why change now?
Shapoopie…
Wow, it only took 2 comments for an Apple fanboy to bash anything that said Microsoft on it!
GET THE FUCK OUUUUUUUUT.
ashent, the problem is its true, microsoft makes good software eventually but they release far too soon nearly all the time. apple tends to make sure it feels solid before releasing….i hope things are changing i love windows 7 but from what ive seen in their multitouch…..its doubt able.
This is just awesome!
PS: Who the hell types with their index finger on the “h” key!?
@brian
Way to make a sweeping (and for the most part, false) generalization.
Microsoft has done extremely well recently with multi-touch devices, touchscreens, and handwriting recognition software for tablets, just look at the recently announced Courrier.
As far as apple goes, how can anyone pander to them so soon after they released an OS update which could destroy entire drives worth of data just from logging into the guest account? That seems like something even the most minimal amount of testing would reveal if they had actually cared about their customer base.
Wow…Apple fan, have you ever actually used a Windows system before? I think it’s possible that you automatically reject anything with Microsoft related to it. It’s entirely possible, if you have the right mindset, to find flaws with any OS. As others have mentioned, Apple’s new OS has some -major- flaws. So did Vista when it came out.
Now, though, I can attest to the functionality of Windows Vista (I’m running the x64 bit). It is the most efficacious, easy-to-use OS I’ve used, and I used to own all Apple software. And, as aforementioned (again), Microsoft has proven very capable of releasing high-functioning on-screen/tablet type software.
And please, the whole thing about Microsoft copying everything Apple did? I don’t think Apple has sued Microsoft for, essentially, creating the idea of a computer that doesn’t take up 3 rooms and an astronomical power bill. I think we would have noticed that law-suit.
One more point….for functionality/price ratio, Apple is in the stone age. I had a $1400 Macbook Pro, and switched to a $700 HP G60t-200 OS: Vistax64. No discernible differences except the HP didn’t have the shiny little half-eaten apple on the back.
I don’t trust microsoft, and i think ubuntu can do it better, but about Mac… costs about 3 times a Pc. So, it must at least work 2 times better…
Microsoft plays a little game called “competition”. They see macs do something they like, and they’ll adapt and do it too. It’s very easy to see where Microsoft copied Apple because Microsoft doesn’t try to hide it. It’s all in the GUI. But the functionality is different.
Now, if you’re making a comment on Microsoft’s OS being unstable, that’s for 2 reasons: 1) Microsoft designs software intended to be usable on a wide variety of computers while Apple produces their own machinery tailored to fit their OS. 2)Microsoft is under a lot of pressure from other software industries to release early, whereas Mac pretty much sets the rules for themselves.
It’s quite easy to demonize Microsoft but the reality is that there are things, even in the hardware world now, where Microsoft is excelling at while mac waits behind. The iPod is NOT one of those things.
In all seriousness, the courier’s preemptive announcement looking so promising has probably made Apple go back to the charts with their tablet, realizing it was falling short (hence no news on that front for a long time). Microsoft’s touch screen technology is lightyears ahead of Apple’s, yes even with the iPod, but the technology is geared more towards corporations and the military than it is your average hipster.
We’ve also seen a serious of remarkably stable netbooks, such as the Eee PC, which winrots at a very slow pace and remains usable for a long time.
There are, of course, obvious reasons to opt for Windows over Mac, and those reasons aren’t going anywhere. Only the very biggest games can afford to come out on both Mac and Windows, and Windows still is the go-to OS for gaming. Don’t get me started on Linux. Oh, but what’s that you say? PC gaming is dead because of the next-gen consoles? Well that XBox 360 you’ve been playing the last few years… That’s also made by Microsoft (duh). People kind of forget that sometimes, I think.
Apple computers are known for their stability and ease of use. In my experience, Macs crash and slow down just about as much as a similarly built PC. They have their own set of problems, to be sure, and to pretend otherwise is ignorant. Are these problems as glaring and widespread? Well, no.
Microsoft’s biggest disadvantage is its own supremacy. Thousands of malicious Linux and Mac-using (and even Windows using, sometimes) programmers decide that Windows should be the virus magnet of the three OSs. It’s really just unfair, since many of Windows’ problems are created by smaller viruses, spyware, etc. that just pile up over time and cause massive problems after using it for a while. These viruses just aren’t available on Mac and Linux (like most software). What’s Microsoft to do but sit and take the hit?
Anyway, business is a dirty thing. I think it’s sad that corporations have created such a dreadful war between Apple and Microsoft, as if the two are even in the same business and really need to be compared. They both have their niche audiences… Hipsters (Apple) and average Joes(PC). And then there are the “dicks” (Linux). Maybe a little bias is showing through here… Let me just say that my hate for Linux actually stems from a time in my life where my Vista crapped out and I decided to use Ubuntu to solve my crisis. Well, Ubuntu just made everything even more miserable as I found that it’s compatible with nothing, you must resort to online forums full of pricks to find help, the terminal is STILL a necessity despite Ubuntu being supposedly easy to use, installations were ridiculous, and the learning curve was so steep that I eventually just got engaged and gave up on computers entirely for a while.
I don’t hate macs. I had a Macbook last year. It was nice, I’ll admit it. I own an iPod, too. I don’t use it. Thinking of selling it, but that’s certainly not because of its quality. Its great, but it’s just not something I use too often anymore. I think the best thing we can do is find a middle-ground and have everyone admit that each corporation has their own merits, and lets just get on with our lives, buy what we’ll buy, and not add to the senseless trolling on the interwebs.
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