Background: I have decided that I will be using my work-provided 15" Powerbook as my primary computer at work, but I wanted to outfit it with an external monitor and input devices so I can use it more like a desktop while I'm in my office. The monitor decision was easy, but choosing a keyboard/pointing device was a bit trickier. A long time ago, I swore off mice in favor of keyboards with integrated Synaptics touchpads. Sadly, these keyboards are harder to find these days, and Synaptics touchpads aren't supported on the Mac. It turns out Adesso makes a keyboard with an integrated touchpad, but it's a Cirque Glidepoint, and the drivers on the Mac are known to suck. So, I ventured "off the beaten path" and found the
Fingerworks Touchstream LP keyboard. Since I'm very impressed with it, I figured I'd share my thoughts on it so far.
So, instead of a keyboard with a touchpad, this keyboard *is* a touchpad. Seriously. It's a split ergonomic keyboard that's nothing more than two large touchpad-like surfaces attached by a small length of ribbon cable. No keys, no mouse, no buttons to be found. Well, you gotta give them credit for originality, right? But how does this thing work?
First, typing is as you might expect. Your fingertips touch the printed keys to type those characters. The keyboard layout is either QWERTY or Dvorak, though you can make the keys send whatever characters you want. You can also move the key zones around, which ended up being very important for me (more on that later.) The lightest touch of the finger is enough to trigger the keys. Fingernails won't get it done though, so I wouldn't recommend this for the wife, girlfriend, or mistress with long nails.
More on typing later, though, because the keys are just a part of what this keyboard is about. The real appeal of this product is its gesture support. Now, gestures are not a new concept, of course. Gesture support has crept into web browsers, common mouse drivers, and other pointing devices, but you haven't seen gesture support like this. The Touchstream LP can recognize a mind-boggling array of different gestures, and they're all configurable via a Java-based utility that runs on Windows, Linux, and OS X, and probably other platforms.
Basic mouse movement is accomplished by gliding two fingers across the right half of the keyboard (lefties, don't fret, you can configure it for left-handed mousing operation very easily. To click, you can tap those two fingers, or even cooler, if you enable "Game mode mousing" you can use two fingers (typically the middle and ring) to move the pointer, and the other fingers and thumb to click. My configuration is index for left click, thumb for right click, and pinky for middle click, with the middle and ring being my "virtual mouse" that I move around.
The left hand, by default, is generally used for cursor movement and keyboard-based selection. Two fingers moves the cursor in the 4 directions, and *fast* which is a real time saver. Three fingers left/right moves to the next/previous word (option-arrow on Mac, I guess Ctrl-arrow on the PC) and three fingers up/down is page up/down. Four fingers does selection as if you were using the U/D/R/L arrows while holding down Shift. If you want to copy text, tap the left thumb and middle finger on the keyboard. To cut, bring those two fingers together. To paste, touch the board with them together and move them apart. As the Guinness commercial says... Brilliant!
Those are just the basics. Each hand has dozens of other gestures by default, and more that you can pick yourself. Take a look at the website for the kinds of hand motions that can be recognized, and keep in mind that you don't have to stay with their canned gesture sets, you can take any hand motion it recognizes and send whatever keys you'd like. I've added a whole bunch to make my life easier, and the recognition of the gestures is remarkable, though it does take a little time for them to become second-nature.
Now, back to the typing. I know what you're all saying. No tactile feedback? How am I going to type on this thing? If you're a touch typist, I think you'll have a better time of this than if you're not. I'm not, and for me, this has been the hardest thing in adjusting to this keyboard. I never need to look at a conventional keyboard when I type, but until recently, I had to look down every few characters to make sure my hands were in the right spot. If you're a sloppy pseudo-touch-typist like me, you will have a bit of a steep learning curve. Even if you aren't a touch typist, the non-staggered keys will probably cause some considerable confusion until you get used to them. Actually, I went in and moved them to a staggered layout because I couldn't deal. I probably don't get as much RSI relief from this configuration, but my accuracy is way up.
Realizing that learing how to type effectively on this device is the steepest hill to climb, the engineers put a lot of convenience gestures in for typing. For instance, instead of reaching for Shift, you can put all 4 fingers down on the home row key of the opposite hand. If you need to type something in ALL CAPS, simply drop 4 fingers of both hands on the row above home, and the next word will be in caps. You can use similar gestures to activate the Numpad for the right hand, activate the "punctpad" which sends common punctuation (or any keys you want, really) using keys that are closer to home than conventional punctuation keys.
Other cool keyboard tricks are shortcut gestures for meta keys (Ctrl, Alt, etc.) which can be fired anywhere on the keyboard, and little shortcuts like hitting three fingers of both hands on the home row for Enter, or above the home row for Escape.
Now, after extolling this device's cool features, I must say that it's been an uphill climb to become proficient on it. I'd say after 3 weeks of moderate use, I'm at 60% of my previous typing speed. I make up some of that with the convenient gestures and easy mousing, but not all of it. I don't know if I'll ever hit my maximum typing speed, and if I don't, I'm not sure I'll be able to justify keeping the keyboard. Still, I think in the end I'll end up staying with it, because I definitely do feel RSI relief with the zero force typing and more varied hand movements, and I think in the long run, it could end up being a productivity boost as well. Plus, it's certainly a conversation piece, sure to impress even the geekiest of early-adopting geeks.
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