The end of the mouse is near says MG Siegler of Techcrunch...and I say the keyboard too. Computer interfaces change every 20 years or so. First there were toggle switches to "program" computers, then IBM innovated with punchcards. Keyboards came along later. Then Xerox PARC invented the mouse, which Apple commercialized. The mouse and keyboard have been the state of the art for about 30 years. That is changing before our eyes.
Laptops with touchpads have eliminated the mouse for many computer users. I haven't used a desktop computer since 1999. Most laptops today come with a touchpad or tracking ball or nipple. The mouse is already a thing of the past for the current generation of computer users.
Swype is making the keyboard go away too. Most phones, tablet computers, and even some laptops now come with touch sensitive screens with virtual on screen keyboards. Swype allows you to "swype" or trace words on the screen rather than peck at each letter to form a word. In the graphic at left a user is spelling "quick". Note how you just trace over the letters without lifting your finger to spell q-u-i-c-k. When you lift your finger at the end Swype knows that is the end of a word. It is revolutionary...and spells the end to old style keyboards.
Will the desktop computer die too? - In the not too distant future I believe your phone will be your primary computer. For many people it already is. My Android phone has a 1 Ghz processor, 32G of storage, a touch screen, an 8 Megapixel camera, GPS with voice directions, and access to all the applications I use everyday. I can get by for days without my laptop.
In the future you will walk into your office, home, hotel, or public building and simply dock your phone to a large touch sensitive screen. All your applications and data will be accessible from your phone, and displayed on the large screen. You can decide to keep some applications and data resident on the phone and others will be in the cloud. The cloud will keep an up to date copy of all your apps and data synced so if you lose your phone or it crashes...no problem. Your data on the phone will have security and encryption so that data loss is not a problem.
The laptop signaled the end of the mouse. The iPhone and Android signal the end of the desktop. Swype signals the end of the keyboard. Just to prove the point, I wrote this post on my Android phone using Swype. No mouse or keyboard. The future is here.
PS. I did need to go back to my laptop to insert the picture of the Swype virtual keyboard. There is probably a way to do that from my phone but I haven't bothered to figure it out. I also needed to use my laptop to change the color of the font on the "Subscribe" text below. Other than that...all done on my Android based HTC Incredible phone with Swype.
UPDATE: Just to show you that I am hopelessly out of touch with the mainstream...I did a search for "mouse wikipedia" to get the link for background info on the mouse. I was astonished that the first link went to a page with a rodent...a real mouse. The second link was to the wikipedia page for the "computer" mouse. OK, I feel normal now :-)
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