Time to kick it old school, and we’re not talking The Offspring, flannel, and Home Alone, the usual era for “old school” computer stuff. Nope, we’re going to keep going, skip over Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Poison, and Cabbage Patch Kids, and go all the way to polyester, The Jam, and Farah Fawcett*. Behold iTypewriter!
For the kids, this is a “typewriter” keyboard accessory for the iPad. Google “typewriter” if you need to. Go ahead, we’ll wait…
OK, for the elderly who might be reading, that’s an “iPad” where the paper would normally go. Ask your children or their children if you need to know more. Maybe they’ll Google it for you.
As noted in the caption above, the iTypewriter isn’t a shipping product, but rather a “project.” Its creator, Austin Yang, has posted a YouTube video demonstrating the device, and we thought it was super awesome.
Wait, that’s not entirely true. This reporter thought it was super awesome, but one TMO staff member who requested anonymity said that it was “just insane,” and the product of “a sick mind.”
That sort of bifurcated dichotomy seems to have taken root on YouTube, too, where comments that aren’t dedicated to trashing or defending Apple (you know, because that’s relevant) are divided between “this sucks” and some form of “this is cool.”
There are tons of keyboard accessories for the iPad, but this one is the only device that is so retro it’s more like it’s sub-retro.
“Instead of stroking on the screen with no feedback, this product can reflect a strong haptic feedback,” Mr. Yang wrote on his site. “User can experience the physical strength transfer from the keypad and the movement of each key.”
Check out the video. The demonstrator (presumably Mr. Yang) types frustratingly slowly, but it’s still cool. At the right place, we’d buy one!
iTypewriter Project Video
[Via NBC]
*With apologies to Paul Weller for the company we lumped him with.