If you were talking about yourself only, I'd agree. But since you name humanity, one thing must be very clear: most people don't like keyboards. That's something that holds in "the developed world". Outside of the ASCII-world, that might be even more so.

Smartphone keyboards with glide typing function very well for language (i.e., no passwords and no programming). They have an important feature: they provide the input you want, not exactly characters for the keypresses you did.

If you consider the Chinese language, many people use the input either by drawing (elderly people) or with Pinyin, a phonetics script. In both cases there's a lot of software involved to figure out what people want.

The point is: programmers are a tiny minority who need exactly the characters for the keys they presses. Most other people just need text in their native language.

Google wrote about reaching "the next billion users": https://www.blog.google/technology/next-billion-users/next-b...

> Smartphone keyboards with glide typing function very well for language (i.e., no passwords and no programming). They have an important feature: they provide the input you want, not exactly characters for the keypresses you did.

If only. Because when people write nonsensical sentences and you ask what’s going on, the reply is usually "sorry, on mobile".

Indeed, I have been caught out so many times with the word I want initially appearing on screen, and then auto-"corrected" to something else when I input the next word and I am no longer looking.

First thing I do is disabling autocorrect. It introduces more errors than it fixes. Also it's changing a correct word in language A to another correct word in language B. But I need the language A word.

Not claiming it's foolproof, but after years of using GBoard, the multilingual keyboard mode now feels like it corrects far more than it corrupts. Or maybe I'm just too accustomed to it.

On the other hand you will never get my proper keyboard for work away from me.

Have you tried using the Google Keyboard on Android recently? It will distinguish between several languages.

I'm going to want a source on this claim.

While mobile keyboards are "alright" for messaging where you can get away with errors, they're not the kind of thing you want to be using for prolonged periods, ie. writing documents or long emails. They're slow, error prone, and tiring because of the unnatural thumb movements.

For any significant amount of typing and where accuracy is needed (a single letter wrong is more understandable than being replace with a similar dictionary word), keyboards are still preferred.

Have a look at the Google article. I presume they do some research when claiming that keyboards aren't what a significant portion of humankind needs.

But indeed not only programmers rely on keyboards.

> Smartphone keyboards with glide typing function very well for language

I have literally never been able to make those work acceptably well.

I have found the [iClever keyboard][1] to be a great portable solution while programming on my iPhone (via [Blink SSH][2] app)

[1]: https://www.iclever.com/products/BK05-Tri-Folding-Bluetooth-... [2]: http://www.blink.sh/

That's awesome, think I might get that and stash it in my car.

Now all I'd need is to figure out how I wanted access to my env. Eg, being able to ssh into a home machine and then work in emergencies seems valuable. But, that would involve exposing my machine. Hmm

I've used openVPN for this in the past. It's nice because you only have to secure one point of access, and than you have all of your local devices easily accessible. It also allows you to tunnel through your home if you're on an insecure network, which is nice

Yea I was thinking something like that. At first I thought SSH would be plenty secure on its own, but then I thought what if I'm devving and want to see the server page? Or maybe a DB hosted on the machine? Etc etc.

Though I think I'd use Wireguard, but still. Some type of easy to manage VPN, with a Dynamic IP domain thing.

Any recommendations on the dynamic domain? Self hosting something might be neat

I don't bother with dynamic DNS- my home IP has never changed, and if it does change- I don't host anything where some downtime would matter much.

But this site has been recommended to me before- https://freedns.afraid.org/

My concern with the IP changing is if I was on vacation and my IP changes, I'd have no clue how to get back to it.

I use a dynamic DNS service for safety, but my IP address has literally never changed yet.

What makes the (lack of a) dynamic DNS a safety issue?

By "safety" I mean the ability to reach my machines even if the external IP address changes.

This keyboard looks amazing. Thanks for sharing.

I’ve recently installed Codeserver on a digital ocean server - https://github.com/cdr/code-server

I do almost all of my programming on it now. I think if I upgrade my phone to a bigger screen then this keyboard could mean I ditch the laptop when I travel

The twiddler is a chording keyboard that leaves one hand free and with the strap, can be used while walking.

https://twiddler.tekgear.com/

Discussed on hn: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8597556

Nice - I like the idea of chording keyboards. Especially handheld.

> 200 bucks

Why?

Niche, somewhat complex to make, hardware product.

I still love my Thinkoutside keyboard https://www.cnet.com/reviews/think-outside-stowaway-universa... had it since my Nokia E61 and use it weekly. Only issue I've had so far has been that the photo support finally broke, other than that it works like new. Really great size to type on, decent travel and folds down to a great size.

Real shame they stopped making them ages ago.

I still have my Thinkoutside keyboard from the Dell Axim days as well. I’ve tried a few more recent folding keyboards, but nothing has met the rigidity, compactness, and key feel of that old thing. It was truly a magical product for its time.

Not as portable as you might like, but I carry a vortex core[0] with me to program on my phone. It weights around 440g and is very programmable.

[0]: http://www.vortexgear.tw/vortex2_2.asp?kind=47&kind2=224&kin...

These people know what they are doing. Even while optimizing for size, they kept the full set of control keys on both sides of the space key(s).

I just wish they offered bluetooth and AA batteries in these portable mechanical keyboards. The K380 is good for these reasons.

I am tired of having peripherals with built in proprietary batteries :(

I’ve been watching Tap a long time, but haven’t tried it yet. Previous HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11933956

I have a Tap keyboard. The mouse is phenomenal. The tapping keyboard takes some getting used to. With a full keyboard nearby, there's no justification for the cost in speed. But I'm working on a wearable computer now that I expect the Tap to be perfect for.

For a literal definition of promising Kickstarter is busy seperating fools from their money, most seem to falter at moving past the concept video stage though. Tap apparently nearly works: https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2018/3/8/17096786/ta...

Of course one of the big problems is that our portable monitors still need at least one of our finite set of hands, so it seems like we'll need AR/VR monitors before they become practical. But then if we have the free hands something more like a traditional keyboard would probably work.

The TextBlade from WayTools (https://waytools.com) looks promising but they never seem to ship anything. I've been waiting for most of a year.

Unless you are deGoogling.

Twiddler.