Tablets optimize

Ineffective at small tasks means tablets have a long way to go



Light and fast rules


Stumbling on software




The biggest problem




Tom Sherlock
Tom Sherlock

Tablets will never get there. The greatest bandwidth in the world is between our brains and our fingers. Control of individual fingers with tactile feedback for location and pressure is priceless. Clapton couldn’t play anything on a smooth surface and he certainly wouldn’t want a voice activated guitar. If we are to remain mobile with any useful input and output devices, we will need to use some type of tactile input that supports muscle memory to the level of touch typing. (as an aside, it will probably require the abandonment of the QWERTY layout.) Now that some companies are looking at near eye displays more seriously, we may have other options. I have been working on this input problem for a while, and would appreciate feedback from any of you. Take a peek at the project on and be as brutal as you please. I really think we will have to do something like this in order to remain both mobile and productive. (as well as enabling mobile AR gaming and musical instrument invention.)


I think your reasoning is dead on. Until they fix the UI so data entry is as easy as a keyboard or using a mouse, the Tablet will not be as you say. My big fingers and the Tablet's screen UI granularity do not make it data user friendly. I can type faster with 10 fingers than I can swiping with one on a keyboard 1/5 the size of my desktop. My son says get a Bluetooth keyboard for the tablet. Might as well be using the desktop then.


Your wife was right. Next time, instead of faffing around with a fondleslab, try writing on the boxes in felt-tip pen. Then you can tell at a glance what's in the box during what is essentially a box-moving-from-one-place-to-another-place project. The basic technique has worked for hundreds of years and while it's true the advent of 'sticky labels' and 'permanent markers' caused a stir, they're taken for granted nowadays. Hint: "BBQ Stuff" on the relevant box would've done the trick.


Did you use more than one tablet, or just the iPad? Is it possible that that other tablets are more capable than the one that you mentioned?