Kevin Tofel wonders if this demo of a bluetooth keyboard being used to type letters into a jailbroken is real. Seems plausible to me.
Along these lines I’ve been wondering about using a digitizing tablet with an iPhone. To me, that would make a notetaking application a lot more interesting. Drawing on the iPhone with my finger is marginal.
I’m not necessarily thinking in terms of a full size tablet, although that would be fine too. I’m wondering about a smallish one placed on the edges of a keyboard or maybe of an extra large trackpad that serves a dual purpose–one as a mouse and the other as a pressure sensitive surface for finger drawing.
Here are two other possibilities I’ve pondered:
Assume you have a virtual keyboard the size of a real keyboard. Sounds kind of silly, but imagine it anyway. Let’s say you have a display the size and proportions of a keyboard with virtual keys displayed on it. Now, of course, you need a touch technology on the display. For this I’m thinking of a multi-touch digitizer. Well, now that you have this digitizer, why not have a “locked” keys mode or a drawing mode where you can write with a stylus or your finger right over the same screen?
Another possibility: Imagine one of those laser projected keyboards that some have been advocating for cell phones. One step further is to use it to track your finger, not for striking projected keys, but to draw with. Seems like a natural. As an aside, not sure if the hardware is right or there’s enough performance but it might be possible to use a real-time capturing webcam in a cellphone to track a finger tip on a surface like this–assuming there’s enough lighting and contrast between the finger and the background or low enough noise to facilitate differencing. Not sure if the iPhone can be jailbroken to do this?
Anyway, a keyboard would be good at times I imagine. I also wonder about taking it one step further and providing ink input.