It always surprises me when someone predicts that keyboards will go away. People love typing. Or I do love typing. No way I am going to talk to my phone, especially if someone else can hear it (which is always basically).
Heh, I had this dream/nightmare where I was typing on a laptop at a cafe and someone came up to me and said, "Oh neat, you're going real old-school. I like it!" and got an info dump about how everyone just uses AI voice transcription now.
And I was like, "But that's not a complete replacement, right? What about the times when you don't want to broadcast what you're writing to the entire room?"
And then there was a big reveal that AI has mastered lip-reading, so even then, people would just put their lips up to the camera and mouth out what they wanted to write.
With that said, as the owner of tyrannyofthemouse.com, I agree with the importance of the keyboard as a UI device.
Interesting, I get so many "speech messages" in WhatsApp, nobody is really writing anymore. Its annoying. WhatsApp even has a transcript feature to put it back to text.
For chat apps, once you've got the conversation thread open, typing is pretty easy.
I think the more surprising thing is that people don't use voice to access deeply nested features, like adding items to calendars etc which would otherwise take a lot of fiddly app navigation.
I think the main reason we don't have that is because Apple's Siri is so useless that it has singlehandedly held back this entire flow, and there's no way for anyone else to get a foothold in smartphone market.
I think an understated thing that's been happening is that people have been investing heavily into their desktop workspace. Even non-gamers have decked out mics, keyboards, monitors, the whole thing. It's easy to forget because one of the most commonly accepted sayings for awhile now has been "everyone's got a computer in their pocket". They have nice setups at home too.
When you have a nice mic or headset and multiple monitors and your own private space, it's totally the next step to just begin working with the computer with voice. Voice has not been a staple feature of people's workflow, but I think all that is about to change (Voice as an interface, not as a communication tool, that's been around since 1876.
Voice is slow and loud. If you think voice is going to make a comeback in the desktop PC space as a primary interface I am guessing you work from home and have no roommates. Am I close?
I talk all the time to the AI on my phone. I was using ChatGPT's voice interface then it failed probably because my phone is too old. Now I use Gemini. I don't usually do alot with it but when I go on walks I talk with it about different things I want to learn. to me it's a great way to learn about something at a high level. or talk through ideas.
Honestly, I would love for the keyboard input style to go away completely. It is such an unnatural way to interact with a computing device compared to other things we operate in the world. Misspellings, backspacing, cramped keys, different layout styles depending on your origin, etc make it a very poor input device - not to mention people with motor function difficulties. Sadly, I think it is here to stay around for a while until we get to a different computing paradigm.
I hope not. I make many more verbal mistakes than typed ones, and my throat dries and becomes sore quickly. I prefer my environment to be as quiet as possible. Voice control is also terrible for anything requiring fine temporal resolution.
The only thing better than a keyboard is direct neural interface, and we aren't there yet.
That aside, keyboard is an excellent input device for humans specifically because it is very much designed around the strengths of our biology - those dextrous fingers.
SilasX|6 months ago
And I was like, "But that's not a complete replacement, right? What about the times when you don't want to broadcast what you're writing to the entire room?"
And then there was a big reveal that AI has mastered lip-reading, so even then, people would just put their lips up to the camera and mouth out what they wanted to write.
With that said, as the owner of tyrannyofthemouse.com, I agree with the importance of the keyboard as a UI device.
glhaynes|6 months ago
SvenL|6 months ago
TheDong|6 months ago
I think the more surprising thing is that people don't use voice to access deeply nested features, like adding items to calendars etc which would otherwise take a lot of fiddly app navigation.
I think the main reason we don't have that is because Apple's Siri is so useless that it has singlehandedly held back this entire flow, and there's no way for anyone else to get a foothold in smartphone market.
EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK|6 months ago
monkeydust|6 months ago
ivape|6 months ago
When you have a nice mic or headset and multiple monitors and your own private space, it's totally the next step to just begin working with the computer with voice. Voice has not been a staple feature of people's workflow, but I think all that is about to change (Voice as an interface, not as a communication tool, that's been around since 1876.
elictronic|6 months ago
mlyle|6 months ago
But-- that means "not pivotal any more, just hugely important."
sharemywin|6 months ago
Sean-Der|6 months ago
rtp4me|6 months ago
nancyminusone|6 months ago
rpdillon|6 months ago
Wow, I've always felt the keyboard is the pinnacle of input devices. Everything else feels like a toy in comparison.
int_19h|6 months ago
That aside, keyboard is an excellent input device for humans specifically because it is very much designed around the strengths of our biology - those dextrous fingers.
4b11b4|6 months ago
EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK|6 months ago
smohare|6 months ago
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