On Thu, 22 May 2008 14:41:21 -0700 (PDT) [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > On Thu, 22 May 2008, Andres Salomon wrote: > > > Date: Thu, 22 May 2008 17:33:24 -0400 > > From: Andres Salomon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > Cc: devel@lists.laptop.org > > Subject: Re: XO-2 > > > > On Thu, 22 May 2008 14:07:26 -0700 (PDT) > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > > >> On Thu, 22 May 2008, Andres Salomon wrote: > >> > >>> On Thu, 22 May 2008 13:33:10 -0700 (PDT) > >>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > >>> > >>>> On Thu, 22 May 2008, C. Scott Ananian wrote: > >>>> > >>>>> There will almost certainly be a 'virtual XO-1' mode for > >>>>> compatibility, where the lower touchscreen will display a > >>>>> keyboard and touchpad like the XO-1. > >>>> > >>>> a touchscreen based keyboard is far inferior to a real keyboard. > >>>> it's > >>> > >>> So plug a USB keyboard in if you're going to be doing some serious > >>> typing. If you just need to type in a few lines, the virtual > >>> keyboard would be fine. A USB keyboard gives far more flexibility > >>> than XO-1 currently has in terms of languages, layout, cost, and > >>> manufacturers. Being tied to a single keyboard/touchpad > >>> manufacturer makes everyone sad. > >>> > >>> http://www.pricewatch.com/keyboards/usb.htm shows ~$4 for a basic > >>> keyboard, and bulk rates could probably do even better.. > >> > >> this makes it a $79 laptop, and I don't think it's really a good > >> idea to say that every kid will carry the XO-2 and a keyboard > >> everywhere. > >> > > > > Of course not. Kids can leave the keyboards at school, and share > > them. You're assuming that kids will even _want_ keyboards. Maybe > > they'll want to use something equivalent to Dasher, or they'll find > > themselves becoming quite proficient w/ the on-screen keyboard, or > > perhaps the processor will be powerful enough to support > > speech-to-text software, or a stylus combined with handwriting > > recognition software, or maybe they'll prefer writing on paper and > > just use the XO for reading ebooks (despite having access to all > > this wonderful QWERTY technology, there are certain tasks that I > > prefer to use paper and whiteboards for), or maybe they'll come up > > w/ some radically new input system that we haven't enough thought > > of. > > people have been predicting the death of keybards for decades, it > hasn't come close to happening yet, and I really don't expect it to > happen in the next year or two. >
You're putting words into my mouth. I'm saying that it's not a foregone conclusion that kids will want actual, physical keyboards. I'm not saying the keyboards will disappear. Besides, the cost of the machine is _never_ the only cost. There's access points, school servers, internet connections, and so on. If a specific school wants 30 physical keyboards at $1 each for a classroom, so be it. > there are a lot of things that you want to enter text for that must > be done on a computer, anything that involves text and collaberation > for example (e-mail, etc) > I pointed out that one can enter text without using a keyboard. Those of us who grew up using qwerty-style keyboards just happen to be fastest at entering text with such a device. > also, while you can choose to not use the computer for things like > term papers, book reports, etc. not being able to do so is drasticly > limiting the usefulness of the computer. > > David Lang _______________________________________________ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel