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Comment by dman | Hacker News Reader

Completely agree. They do need to solve the text input problem though. I have had to consciously reduce my usage of the ipad since it seems to put me in read mode vs write mode.

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There's less of a text input problem on the iPad than there is on a mobile phone.

Since I've used smartphones with software keyboards I find myself in the habit of replying only when I get home, the phone becoming little more than a notification device.

At least on the iPad I respond a little.

I find myself seriously considering a blackberry again. I'd miss the software but know my response rate whilst mobile would soar.

I actually find Swype on my android phone to be easier for text input than the iPad. My wife also puts down the iPad and grabs her iPhone when it's time to reply to emails. She doesn't like full ten finger typing on it and she can't thumb type on it like on her phone.

For me, the iPad 2's Smart Cover's ability to prop it up makes all the difference. I end up using it for lots more "laptop replacement" tasks because it's so much easier to type on with the Cover folded back.

My wife has an iPad 1 with a similar case (Incase or Belkin, can't remember which), but she still doesn't like typing on it. My theory is that it's partly ergonomic, but partly a matter of expectations. A phone is a completely different form factor, so you don't expect an experience that has any sort of fidelity to using a physical keyboard (also the keys are closer together). On an iPad-sized virtual keyboard, you hit a sort of uncanny valley, wherein it feels like a bad version of what you're used to, instead of a totally different thing. But that's pure conjecture.

The input thing is why I'm bearish on tablets in general. I like not just having a physical keyboard because it's faster and feels better, but I also like that there's a portion of my hardware that's dedicated to input. On an abstract level I feel like it is a more egalitarian paradigm, to put my ideas on the same starting level as everyone else's. It's like having upstream and downstream parity. Maybe that's silly, but it's how I feel.

I have fantastical thoughts of some kind of surface that can alter its shape to provide the tactile feedback that touchscreens are lacking... though these thoughts will likely remain in the domain of science fiction.

There's already touch screens out there with tactile feedback. They don't physically alter shape, but they vibrate at specific frequencies to mimic the feel of button presses. Seems like tactile feedback would be very useful for driving applications.

It's not a big deal. As the tablet matures eventually you'll just be able to connect a usb/bluetooth keyboard to one, when necessary.

What do you mean "eventually"? The iPad has worked with Bluetooth keyboards since day one.

I do wonder how long it will be until an actual iPad/iPod/iPhone computing dock surfaces.

That is, one dock connection that supplies power, feeds an HDMI display and connects a keyboard, transforming the ipad screen into a sort of oversized trackpad. optionally with some context sensitive controls.

With that, when people want a more traditional computing experience, they just carry their device over to the desk, dock and get on with it.

The only real missing part is OS-wide awareness of such a dock, so that the UI can shift to being more keyboard-friendly [1]. I believe even the existing dock API could effect this on a smaller scale [2] if Apple greenlit a third party to build one.

[1] Using a bluetooth keyboard with the iPad is pretty weak, due to the lack of consistent navigation support. e.g. alt-tab/cmd-tab sorts of behaviors, arrowing through pick-lists, universal tab/shift-tab support, etc.

[2] Each app would have to look for said dock (and not just on startup) and the OS still wouldn't be integrated, which would limit things a bit.

The existing iPad Keyboard dock supports connecting power and an external display through the 30-pin connector on the back. I'm guessing it'll work with the new HDMI connector as well, although I'm not sure.

I don't think making the iPad a trackpad for an external display would work well, however, since the iPad does not have a cursor and the GUI is not designed to be used with one (try the iPhone/iPad simulator on a Mac to see how it works). Making it work as a 1-1 mapping from the iPad to the external display is what the current HDMI connector gives you anyway.

I was suggesting the OS be updated so that a trackpad-friendly UI mode could be created. As-is, I agree, it's not useful at all.

The thrust of my wonder about a possible docking solution was towards a real, actually good, option.

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