Posted by
CmdrTaco
on Tue Jan 06, 2009 09:27 AM
from the future-is-now dept.
CommonCents noted an Apple announcement a few hours before the anticipated keynote. He says "Apples' latest must have gadget does away with the keyboard. With the new MacBook Wheel, Apple has replaced the traditional keyboard with a giant wheel."
Dialing a phone with a rotary wheel will actually be a whole lot easier in my mind than typing an email with a whole wheel. I don't see how this process is faster than me typing exactly what I want. Imagine trying to program with that thing. Predictive text will not be any help with odd variables names and punctuation marks all over the place. This to me is definitely overkill.
Dialing a phone with a rotary wheel will actually be a whole lot easier in my mind than typing an email with a whole wheel. I don't see how this process is faster than me typing exactly what I want. Imagine trying to program with that thing. Predictive text will not be any help with odd variables names and punctuation marks all over the place. This to me is definitely overkill.
It's quick than you think. Suppose you wanted to type Whoosh! to inform someone that they had missed a joke. Once you enter Wh you can just select Whoosh! from the dropdown list.
If this isn't on the iPhone AppStore already, it will be real soon. Enough folks would shell out a few bucks for the novetly of it.
"Hey, look at me! I can dial my iPhone, just like in those old movies!"
Mount your iPhone in a shoe, and you can play Maxwell Smart. Now that would really freak people out, when your shoe rings, and you take it off to answer it.
The way that my jobs works out, I could do MOST of it with a Wheel! And if I got the MacWheel Shuffle, I could NOT show up, and half the office wouldn't notice;-)
MacWorld San Francisco is today. This content is made available to you as part of their 'driving and leveraging for increased consumer experience' toward the '"Idle" supersite subbrand of the Slashdot publishing matrix'.
This post took 119 minutes to write on my new MacBook Wheel.
Oh noes, it took up almost 2 cm of your screen when you opened Slashdot, and perhaps as much as 3 minutes of your opening morning avoid-work browsing to view the video, however will you recover from such trauma?
This is a bit "out there", but to be perfectly honest I'd rather use a laptop running VISTA over that silly Macbook Wheel. It will take me more time to type an e-mail on that thing, then it would to send an e-mail on Vista. This is what happens when Steve gets sick, Apple gets desperate for ideas.
I think you're missing the real genious here. What Apple/Steve did is simplify the computing experience so that it "just works". If you were to type an email in Vista, you'd have to use the confusing keyboad which has way too many buttons. A common keyboard has about a hundred too many.
Instead, you just flick the wheel around until you get to the character you need, like you would with a safe. That's it, there's just one device you interface with, and everything is a single fluid motion around the wheel. As is often the case, you're just stuck with your old obsolete ways, while Steve has seen the light and wants to share with us all.
Next year's big Apple announcement will be the elimination of keyboards from the MacBook Air. Just touch sensitive pads so that we can make it even THINNER!!!!
I'm actually surprised this hasn't happened before. People are too lazy to type or read anyway, so why bother with a keyboard? But using the terminal will be a bit tricky...
However, on a more serious note, it's just a matter of time before the keyboard and mouse go away. Perhaps it isn't going to happen quite as soon as some people predict, but eventually with gestural control and the ever-improving implication of voice recognition technology, there just won't be a need for direct, physical input.
Maybe, maybe not. I'm sure I'm not alone in not looking forward to being surrounded by an office full people jabbering at their computers, so speech recognition, even if it ever gets to a level of accuracy that makes is speed-competitive with a keyboard, will still not be suitable for a lot of working environments. And I'm not all that convinced that is is improving very quickly - current products seem to need a lot less training than those of 10 years ago, but the best you can get out of them doesn't seem much better than what could be achieved back then. Gesture recognition won't stand on it's own as an input medium, although I can see it being more useful in the forseeable future than speech recognition. Personally I see direct physical interfaces persisting right up until we can have a wireless brain interface to take over.
Try writing and formatting a 20-page brief, 150-page thesis, or a thousand 2-page letters on your cell phone if you need any proof that the full keyboard is here to stay.
Oh, and then, after you finish all that, try to write a speech recognition program without using a keyboard.
Having actually read the parent and its parent, I, unlike you, am aware that the claim was that "it's just a matter of time before the keyboard and mouse go away." That means no keyboards at all, and it's preposterous, a few cell-phone novels from the people who grow square watermelons notwithstanding.
Your suggestion that people balked at computers because they did not view them as practical is not backed up in history, nor do you provide any citation to any serious claims of that sort. The computer wa
Besides the fact that talking for hours to your computer is extremely tiresome, just like hearing everyone in your office is extremely tiresome... the security issues of everyone speaking out loud what they type would be astronomical. I mean it doesn't make any sense, and it will never make any sense.
The only way the keyboard is going away is with voice recognition that doesn't suck. It's been a decade since they started down that path... I don't foresee it anytime soon. As for the mouse, as screens get larger we could potentially see a move to touch screen or a wii-mote type of thing, but people under estimate the mouse a lot. I've never seen any other input device that is as exact and that you can use for hours and hours without getting tired and sore.
So, any topic that shows up on 'idle' is banned from appearing on the front page?
This is a story that clearly belongs in idle. It is also, in one dudes opinion, from the top of that pile. So if the category exists, does the cream of it not belong on the front page?
Even better, for phones, you coukld have a wheel with the numbers arranged around it. Then to dial *any number*, you just rotate the wheel to the number you want! It would be great, much easier than those stupid pushbuttons.
The Onion (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re:The Onion (Score:5, Funny)
The onion, where it's April 1st year round.
And where only Apple could reinvent the Wheel.
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
You tap 'tip tap tap tip tap tap tip tap tip tip tip tip' which spells 'EMACS' in morse code.
Or, install VIM and then hit ANY key.
Re:The Onion (Score:5, Funny)
"Spin the wheel in ANY direction."
"Hey guys, which way is the any direction?"
The more things change...
Is it just me? (Score:3, Funny)
phone next? (Score:5, Funny)
Maybe next they'll invent some way to dial a phone with just some sort of rotary wheel...
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Dialing a phone with a rotary wheel will actually be a whole lot easier in my mind than typing an email with a whole wheel. I don't see how this process is faster than me typing exactly what I want. Imagine trying to program with that thing. Predictive text will not be any help with odd variables names and punctuation marks all over the place. This to me is definitely overkill.
Re:phone next? (Score:5, Funny)
Dialing a phone with a rotary wheel will actually be a whole lot easier in my mind than typing an email with a whole wheel. I don't see how this process is faster than me typing exactly what I want. Imagine trying to program with that thing. Predictive text will not be any help with odd variables names and punctuation marks all over the place. This to me is definitely overkill.
It's quick than you think. Suppose you wanted to type Whoosh! to inform someone that they had missed a joke. Once you enter Wh you can just select Whoosh! from the dropdown list.
Re:phone next? (Score:4, Funny)
Hal is working on one of these already - that's why his first sentence has "quick" where the form "quicker" should have been.
Re:phone next? (Score:5, Interesting)
If this isn't on the iPhone AppStore already, it will be real soon. Enough folks would shell out a few bucks for the novetly of it.
"Hey, look at me! I can dial my iPhone, just like in those old movies!"
Mount your iPhone in a shoe, and you can play Maxwell Smart. Now that would really freak people out, when your shoe rings, and you take it off to answer it.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Mactini (Score:2, Funny)
This reminds me of the Mactini on the The Peter Serafinowicz Show Christmas Special: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=noe3kR8KqJc
MacWheel Shuffle (Score:2, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
You could get a cardboard cutout made of yourself to fool the rest of the office.
Re:MacWheel Shuffle (Score:4, Funny)
You could get a cardboard cutout made of yourself to fool the rest of the office.
It'd probably be less painfull if you got it made of cardboard.
Why is this on the -/ frontpage? (Score:2, Insightful)
Ligfhten up dude. /. did. :-) (Score:5, Insightful)
Personally, I thought it was a bit of a waste of space but its "The Onion" what else could is be?
Re:Why is this on the -/ frontpage? (Score:5, Funny)
MacWorld San Francisco is today. This content is made available to you as part of their 'driving and leveraging for increased consumer experience' toward the '"Idle" supersite subbrand of the Slashdot publishing matrix'.
This post took 119 minutes to write on my new MacBook Wheel.
Re:Why is this on the -/ frontpage? (Score:4, Insightful)
Oh noes, it took up almost 2 cm of your screen when you opened Slashdot, and perhaps as much as 3 minutes of your opening morning avoid-work browsing to view the video, however will you recover from such trauma?
Timing is everything (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm sure this being on the front page of /. has nothing to do with the Macworld Expo keynote that takes place in a matter of hours...
Re:Why is this on the -/ frontpage? (Score:4, Funny)
-/? This is slashdot, not dashslash.
2 things put me off on this (Score:5, Funny)
2. The dude that said "I'll buy anything thats shiny made by Apple!"
I know... (Score:4, Funny)
This is a bit "out there", but to be perfectly honest I'd rather use a laptop running VISTA over that silly Macbook Wheel. It will take me more time to type an e-mail on that thing, then it would to send an e-mail on Vista. This is what happens when Steve gets sick, Apple gets desperate for ideas.
Re:I know... (Score:5, Funny)
I think you're missing the real genious here. What Apple/Steve did is simplify the computing experience so that it "just works". If you were to type an email in Vista, you'd have to use the confusing keyboad which has way too many buttons. A common keyboard has about a hundred too many.
Instead, you just flick the wheel around until you get to the character you need, like you would with a safe. That's it, there's just one device you interface with, and everything is a single fluid motion around the wheel. As is often the case, you're just stuck with your old obsolete ways, while Steve has seen the light and wants to share with us all.
Ob ... (Score:5, Funny)
- Yes, iWheel !
10-to-1 (Score:3, Funny)
Next year's big Apple announcement will be the elimination of keyboards from the MacBook Air. Just touch sensitive pads so that we can make it even THINNER!!!!
Leave it to Apple... (Score:5, Funny)
mactini (Score:3, Funny)
Puts me in mind of this recent spoof, by Peter Serafinowicz: http://www.dumpert.nl/mediabase/348881/d4b348a0/de_mactini.html [dumpert.nl]
This is great news (Score:2)
the Onion have been right before now... (Score:5, Informative)
First Post! (Score:5, Funny)
with Macbook Wheel
I can't find my car keys. (Score:3, Funny)
How did you Added your own Sentenced, The actor asked for an aardvark. 16uy89; ?
Sent from my MacBook Wheel.
Apostrophe's (Score:3, Funny)
Apples' latest must have gadget
Thi's seem's to have been written by a per'son who ha's no idea where to put hi's apo'strophe's
Re:The really sad thing about this... (Score:4, Insightful)
However, on a more serious note, it's just a matter of time before the keyboard and mouse go away. Perhaps it isn't going to happen quite as soon as some people predict, but eventually with gestural control and the ever-improving implication of voice recognition technology, there just won't be a need for direct, physical input.
Maybe, maybe not. I'm sure I'm not alone in not looking forward to being surrounded by an office full people jabbering at their computers, so speech recognition, even if it ever gets to a level of accuracy that makes is speed-competitive with a keyboard, will still not be suitable for a lot of working environments. And I'm not all that convinced that is is improving very quickly - current products seem to need a lot less training than those of 10 years ago, but the best you can get out of them doesn't seem much better than what could be achieved back then. Gesture recognition won't stand on it's own as an input medium, although I can see it being more useful in the forseeable future than speech recognition. Personally I see direct physical interfaces persisting right up until we can have a wireless brain interface to take over.
Re:The really sad thing about this... (Score:5, Insightful)
Oh, and then, after you finish all that, try to write a speech recognition program without using a keyboard.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Your suggestion that people balked at computers because they did not view them as practical is not backed up in history, nor do you provide any citation to any serious claims of that sort. The computer wa
Re: (Score:2)
Besides the fact that talking for hours to your computer is extremely tiresome, just like hearing everyone in your office is extremely tiresome... the security issues of everyone speaking out loud what they type would be astronomical. I mean it doesn't make any sense, and it will never make any sense.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
I look forward to playing UT2020 by waving my hands in the direction I want to turn and shouting 'fire'.
I'm already training for the steady decline toward inferior input interfaces by playing FPSes on the Wii.
Re:The really sad thing about this... (Score:5, Funny)
Computer! rm -rf /var/www/old!
# rm -rf /
#
SHIT!
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
You're aware this is idle right?
Re: (Score:2)
Re:This doesn't belong here (Score:5, Insightful)
This is a story that clearly belongs in idle. It is also, in one dudes opinion, from the top of that pile. So if the category exists, does the cream of it not belong on the front page?
PK
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)