Talking Tech

Cross posted at U Tech Tips

Maybe that’s an exageration of a title, but a recent study by the Pew Internet and American Life folks predicts the end of the keyboard as soon as 2012 (entire PDF report here). This announcement came within days from a similar proclamation for the death of the mouse, from Steve Prentice, vice president and fellow at Gartner, a market-research firm based in Stamford, Conn.

Photo by Maurício Alcântara
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The end of the “traditional” input devices (we all remember our first lessons in computers) comes on the heels of the development of voice recognition, touch screens, and motion sensors like in the iPhone and Wii remote.

Have we truly reached an immersed computer world when our speech and touch run the computers?

Now, how much longer for the flying cars?

Photo by eqqman
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The death of books has been “coming” for a long time.  The web was supposed to put print media out of business and eBooks were supposed to replace books.  None of this happened and even with Amazon’s Kindle making some waves, ultimately we are still pretty stuck on paper.

Have the devices not been good enough?

Not “paper-ey’ enough?

Too rigid?

A blog post on TG Daily shares a new device by Plastic Logic was recently introduced in San Diego.  Pretty impressive so far.

It’s made of semi-flexible plastic that can withstand some impact.  It opens Office files without any conversions.

Will it replace paper?

It remains to be seen, but the Kindle has some competition, that’s for sure.

I look forward to giving it a try.