Typing without keys
A few months ago, I wrote about the new MacNTouch keyboard. After a long period of thinking about it, an even longer period of trying to find the cheapest place to order one from, and what seemedâbecause of my impatience and excitementâlike a geological epoch, I finally slid my hands over a MacNTouch. Part of my reason for wanting one was because I’d started to have some problems with pains in my hands while typing, and I didn’t want it to get too bad before I did anything about it. But if I’m brutally honest, a large part of my decision can by summed up by the phrase “because it’s cool”.
It was certainly well worth the wait. I’ve had a few days with it now, and I like it a lot. When I get more proficient at typing accurately with it, I think that it will become indispensible. It’s basically a drop-in replacement for the keyboard which ships with the 15” PowerBook keyboard, and once fitted, it sits very nicely in the same space. Due to some Apple imposed constraints, the keyboard can’t use the internal keyboard connection, but the solution of a very flat ribbon cable which passes under the screen and plugs in flush to one of the USB ports is pretty neat. The keyboard itself is like a huge and much more sophisticated touch pad. Apart from 8 little bumps to identify the 8 keys of the home row, the keyboard is totally flat and smooth, and has the keys marked on in curving rows, with the two sides separated by vertically arranged function keys. It has very sophisticated software which allows it to distinguish which fingers are being placed on it, and the timing of the taps or slides.
