Keyboards and mice suck.

Having spent a few weeks out of the office I’ve been lucky enough to have plenty of time to play with Apple’s new iPad.  It’s lovely, but flawed.  You can curl up on the couch with it and watch your favourite TV series (but the screen is too reflective) or browse the web (but crippled by not having Flash), it’s got gaming potential, its not a half bad reader (but rubbish in the sun) and can work as a phone if you use a headset.  Its easy to carry, the battery lasts well and you can use it anywhere.  What’s not to like?   It’s a great new start for tablet computing that I think will be seen as a milestone in a decline in netbook sales and another nail in the coffin for home desktop computing.

But the big thing the iPad has done for me is make me realise I don’t need a keyboard and mouse outside the office.  And that actually, they suck, big time.   They define the form factor for a device, they demand lots of space, you need to use both hands or thumbs, a level surface.

We  started using them on typewriters back in the 1870’s and like the armidillo, evolution and innovation seem to have passed them by.  Seriously, after an iPad, it feels positively medieval bashing out these words on a keyboard, and reaching clumsily for that mouse.  The interface between man and machine has been stuck in the mud for hundreds of years. 

In the past fifty years we’ve given washing machines more computing power than the technology that put us on the moon and yet we’re still thumping out our thoughts in “Keyboard and Mouse One-Point-Zero” (K&M 1.0).

Mobile and gaming seem to be inspiring what little ‘Keyboard and Mouse’ innovation.  I saw a predictive keyboard on android device recently that grows the keys it thinks you might need next – much better than the iPhone keyboard.  There’s been a projected keyboard, and there’s been track-balls, touchpads and nipples to replace the mouse.  But where’s the game changer?  Where’s the tech that transforms our relationship with computers?

The iPad has proved there are alternatives that can suit people’s lifestyles, it’s badly flawed, a small step in the right direction, but we still need, at the least K&M1.5, or indeed K&M2.0?