Tactile keyboard overlay for iPad

[hashbaz]

Tactile as in something physical to touch, not the tactile bump felt in regular keyswitches.

This is a genius idea.  Might make touchscreen keyboards usable.  Plus, it's got f***ing magnets.

http://www.touchfire.com
(Currently redirects to their Kickstarter page: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/740785012/touchfire-the-screen-top-keyboard-for-ipad)

They're already 3x overfunded.

[dpmcalli]

This seems like a clever idea, but at what point do you just admit that you should have bought a proper laptop in the first place?

[shrap]

Interesting idea, but I wonder how well the iPad works with the overlay on when it's not in keyboard mode. The page says you can "swipe through it", but how well does that work and how well can you see through it? Plus it's a bit limiting - you have to be in landscape mode, and iOS 5 adds the "split keyboard mode" to the portrait keyboard.

I think one of the reasons virtual keyboards have become so popular is because they're so space efficient - you have a large screen when you need it (playing games, watching movies, reading) and the keyboard only appears when you need it. Not sure I would give up half my screen space for the limited time I spend typing on it, plus I can always get an external keyboard. If I had one of these on my phone, it would be like having a broken Blackberry.

[itlnstln]

Not a good look:

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[Atenacius]

That's cool but I bought Apple's bluetooth keyboard for it. A physical keyboard also frees up space on the screen. The idea is great, though.

[Findecanor]

Interesting ... I wonder how it feels like. Can you really rest your fingers on the keys without triggering a key press?

Before reading the description, I thought that it would be something like what the Ericsson R380 phone had.
It had a resistive touchscreen for a stylus and a very light flip cover with hard physical buttons for dialing numbers. The buttons in the flip cover did not have any switches -- they just poked the touchscreen! Note that the screen was a resistive touch screen that detected light presses, not proximity to a surface with finger-like electric properties like the capacitative screen of an iPad.
Btw, the Ericsson R380 was introduced in 2000 and was the first device marketed as a "Smartphone".

[StaCT13]

That's funny... all the people in the video complimented the thing for being more comfortable to type on. When I saw it, the first thought in my head was, "OH GOD! THE BACKS OF MY HANDS ARE BURNING!"

[hashbaz]

The first in a multi-part article series on the TouchFire:

http://techcrunch.com/2011/12/05/the-touchfire-chronicles-how-two-guys-raised-100k-to-make-a-magical-keyboard

Interesting stuff.  The inventor also led the team at Sun that developed NFS!

[hashbaz]

P.S. Twitter is going nuts for this thing right now, and the Kickstarter page is at like $100K / $10K.  Apparently it's not just keyboard nerds that find touch-screen keyboards lacking.