When Microsoft announced the Surface tablet, the industry was amazed particularly by the keyboard cover.
The magnetic keyboard comes in two varieties.
- The Touch Cover, which is a laser etched soft keyboard. It costs $119 and comes in five different colors?black, white, red, cyan, and magenta. It has a fully functioning multi-touch trackpad with two buttons.
- The Type Cover, which retails for $129 comes in one color, black, and resembles a fully functioning physical keyboard with trackpad.
How good are these keyboards? Judging by the first wave of reviews, pretty darn good.
Joshua Topolsky of The Verge remarked about the Touch Cover's functionality:
On a desk or other flat surface, the Touch Cover works reasonably well. It doesn't come close to replicating a physical, tactile keyboard, but it does do a good job of reminding you where your fingers need to be...The Type Cover is another story altogether ? it's one of the best portable keyboards I've ever used.
David Pogue of The New York Times commented on the idea behind the Touch Cover:
[The Touch Cover] is an incredibly slick idea, but the keys don?t move. You?re pounding a flat surface. If you type too fast, the keyboard skips letters. (?If you type 80 words a minute on a keyboard and 20-30 on glass, you should be in the 50s on the Touch Cover,? says a Microsoft representative.)
Walt Mossberg of AllThingsD remarked about the style and usability:
These are better than any of the add-on keyboards I?ve seen for the iPad. And Microsoft has built in a standard USB port and a sturdy kickstand for typing on a desk.
There is a downside to these keyboards: They are almost useless on your lap. There is no hinge to keep the screen upright and the kickstand works poorly on your legs. Despite that, these features make the Surface better for traditional productivity tasks than any tablet I?ve tested.
Sam Biddle of Gizmodo is the only person really hating on it:
It's just a half-broken death march up the learning curve. The trackpad, sludge-like and jerky, is even worse?particularly galling compared to the super-smooth touchscreen?and unlike the keyboard, will never get better with practice.
Matt Burns of TechCrunch thought that the Touch Cover was essential:
Without a Touch Cover, the Surface RT feels incomplete in design and function. The problem here is that the Surface is basically a big laptop screen without the keyboard. The cover rights the design?s wrongs by forcing the user to use the physical keyboard rather than the on-screen keyboard. Microsoft knows this. After all, Surface is rarely advertised without a Touch Cover, but that doesn?t alleviate the sting of paying another $100+ for a keyboard.
Tim Stevens from Engadget liked the Touch Cover, but warned that there was a slight learning curve:
You wouldn't think a 3mm-thick piece of polyurethane could make for a comfy keyboard, but the pressure-sensitive Touch Cover is a compelling companion to your written missives. Just give yourself a little time to get used to it. Microsoft warns it could take four to five days to reach your peak touch-typing speed.
Peter Bright of Ars Technica wanted to hate the Touch Cover, but ended up liking it:
I expected to hate the Touch Covers. I?wanted?to hate the Touch Covers. As a fluent touch-typist who normally uses an extremely loud Dell clicky keyboard, the Touch Covers represent an affront to everything I stand for. But the damn things work, and work well, and I don't really know how I feel about that. They?do?take a little getting used to; it'll be a few days before you're really comfortable on them. 50 words per minute should be readily achievable, with an accuracy and convenience that surpasses any on-screen keyboard.
Matthew Honan of Wired backed up the learning curve notion:
It?s actually quite fantastic. On this miniature keyboard, that has no actual physical keys, keystrokes fire as fast as you can type them. There is no lag. There is, however, a learning curve.
I struggled mightily with typos and finger placement for the first 24 hours. My left wrist hurt like hell. The pinkie and ring finger on my left hand were cramped. But by day three, my hands began to relax and I was typing quickly and, for the most part, accurately. After a week, I powered along at 90 words per minute. It?s not the same speed I hit on a full size keyboard, and I still have typos galore (though far fewer) but given how much I?ve improved in a week, it?s impressive.
Oddly, it is perhaps less effective as a cover than a keyboard. It folds over nicely, but doesn?t stay closed as well as I?d like. Several times, I opened my bag to a glow, like something out of?Pulp Fiction, to find the Surface had lit up as the Touch Cover came open inside.
Zach Epstein from BGR calls the Touch Cover, "brilliant":
I find it to be the perfect compromise between a traditional tablet typing experience (tapping on glass) and typing on a standard keyboard.
By supporting an ultra-thin, feather-light full keyboard accessory, the Surface instantly becomes one of the best tablets on the planet in terms of productivity without adding any bulk. Typing on a soft polyurethane keypad is not the same as typing on a regular keyboard of course, but I got pretty good with it after a few days of practice.
From what we gather, the cover is essential to the tablet. If you plan on purchasing a Surface, make sure that you pick up a Touch or Type cover because it really makes the device.
Don't Miss:?Uh Oh, Microsoft's Surface Tablet Is Getting Some Awful Reviews >
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/meta-review-microsoft-surface-keyboard-2012-10
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An English narrator? Why does NOM hate America?
Posted by: John Dough | Oct 16, 2012 6:23:21 PM
When you alienate "the gays", your propaganda will be done by a straight designer so anxious to try out his new font pack that you'll see 50 fonts in 50 seconds, and it'll look like a 1950's health class filmstrip. Just sayin'....
Posted by: Vint | Oct 16, 2012 6:27:56 PM
No benefits for society as a whole? Doesn't freedom benefit society as a whole? The Declaration of Independence and Constitution say it does.
Their parents probably made the same claim about interracial marriage, as did their grandparents about interreligious marriage.
Posted by: Anastasia Beaverhausen | Oct 16, 2012 6:28:42 PM
That art style reminds me of the retro 50s design of the Fallout series. Which is pretty much the time NOM wants to get back to
Posted by: Steve | Oct 16, 2012 6:29:24 PM
Once again, all of their claims about how and why "natural marriage" helps children, men and women, are "supported" either by clearly biased conservative "study" groups, or studies showing the benefits of children and people being in two-parent households vs. single-parent households, NOT opposite vs. same-sex households. Many of the people who have conducted these studies have not taken kindly to NOM and the like, perverting their work.
Posted by: Chris | Oct 16, 2012 6:38:43 PM
and this, Maggie Gallagher, is why your son Patrick is waiting for you to die before he comes out.
and this is why, Brian Brown, you are going to attend the funeral of at least one of your eight children.
ditto Rick Santorum.
enjoy!
Posted by: LittleKiwi | Oct 16, 2012 6:40:51 PM
Are they really as stupid as this add insinuates by the childish graphics and narration it contains. Besides the obvious falsehoods...is the common denominator an
IQ of 40? The good news is that I'm sure the average person immediately felt talked down to...because we're smarter than this add would imply the average person is. Well, either that or we're in a lot more hot water than I thought. Can you imagine if the whole world talked like this....googoo-gaagaa.
Posted by: PAUL B. | Oct 16, 2012 7:11:12 PM
@Paul B. - Yes, I think that IS the IQ they are aiming for. The accent of the narrator reminds me of that annoying Brit from "weakest link"... who very outspokenly reminded the viewing audience how stupid a person was.
Posted by: scotty | Oct 16, 2012 7:20:04 PM
Listening to it a second time (ouch!) I realized that the use of a lovely articulate Brit makes sense. Can you imagine the same add with a few ya'll and you betcha's thrown in? That would have tied in perfectly with the narrative & message...but been over the top shocking stupid... as opposed to whatever this is.
Posted by: PAUL B. | Oct 16, 2012 7:22:04 PM
@Scotty...you're right, it does! I think they try to lend some credibility with the accent...since it implies good grammar & some education. Oh well, I must admit...a good British accent works on me too.
Posted by: PAUL B. | Oct 16, 2012 7:26:07 PM
This kind of concealed bigotry drives me over the edge.
On the one hand, "natural marriage" on the other, "paedophilia and incest".
Gee, that really makes things clear, I was getting confused, I thought that guys who committed and dearly wanted to be married together would also be socially cohesive.
How wrong can I be ?
Now I won't be able to get to sleep, I'll be in a rage all night.
Damn you, Charlie Brown.
Posted by: JackFknTwist | Oct 16, 2012 7:26:58 PM
They had (accidentally) allowed comments for a while. But after getting reamed by 95% negative comments, they finally disabled them. -- Hey, NOM... if you can't take the heat, get out of the discrimination game!
Posted by: David in Houston | Oct 16, 2012 7:28:51 PM
Hey Jacktwist!
Keep in mind that ultimately we have "natural selection" as our ally. It's a slow route to take but close your eyes tonight and imagine a world where the only bigots are "extinct bigots"...for it will come to pass. Sleep tight.
Posted by: PAUL B. | Oct 16, 2012 7:30:56 PM
That's not a British accent, sounds more like South African...
Posted by: Basil | Oct 16, 2012 7:42:41 PM
Marriage is a legal contract. How can a contract be natural or unnatural?
Posted by: marshallt | Oct 16, 2012 8:16:45 PM
Natural marriage?
Show me any other organism in nature that marries. Then maybe we can talk.
Posted by: Sean in Dallas | Oct 16, 2012 8:24:55 PM