The Missing Keyboard Revolution

With the iPhone and iPad, Apple's multi-touch technology has successfully replaced the mouse with a new input method which is more intuitive and intimate. However, the second half of the old input tag team - the keyboard - is still struggling on the new devices. It works, sure, and it works pretty well, but, like the mouse, it needs replacing with something newer and better.

There's no one great solution, though. Handwriting recognition and speech recognition are the two obvious candidates but neither is a be-all or end-all and I expect that the virtual keyboard will still have to sit beside them as part of an input triumvirate.

I was disappointed that the iPad didn't address this. I was expecting speech recognition to be the big revolution that would make productivity apps worthwhile. Still, as someone who has gone up against voice recognition systems that refuse to listen unless you have an American accent, I do know it's awfully complicated stuff - and once it's done, it's only a software update away.

Maybe it'll be in the iPhone OS 4.0.