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macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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For this week's giveaway, we've teamed up with Tap to give MacRumors readers a chance to win one of the company's wearable keyboards, which Tap believes is the keyboard of the future.

Available for $199, the Tap is a keyboard that's unlike anything else that you've used because it turns your fingers into the keys, letting you type letters, numbers, and symbols with simple taps.

taponhand-800x362.jpg

The Tap uses a series of finger-worn rings with built-in sensors that are designed to detect your tap gestures. The rings are adjustable and can fit a wide range of hand sizes, and because it's wearable, you can basically use the Tap Keyboard wherever you happen to be.


Typing each letter of the alphabet is done with a different tap. To make an "A," for example, you tap your thumb in a downwards motion. A single tap of the index finger makes an "E," and to create a "K" you tap your thumb and ring finger downwards at the same time.

tapkeyboarddesign-800x270.jpg

Learning to use the Tap Keyboard can take a few days to a few weeks because learning and mastering an entirely new way of typing takes some time. When I reviewed the Tap last year I was able to learn how to use it in about a week of practicing for 30 minutes a day.

tapkeyboardonhand2-800x533.jpg

Tap makes a fun, intuitive app called the TapAcademy to teach you how to use the Tap. It's a 30-day course that requires just 10 minutes a day to memorize all the letters, numbers, and symbols you need to use the Tap. There are Tap-designed games to play too.

tapkeyboardacademy-800x573.jpg

The Tap is a Bluetooth keyboard, so it works with all Bluetooth-enabled devices, including your Mac, your iPhone, and your iPad. There's also a built-in mouse replacement feature that lets you use your thumb as a mouse for navigation.

tapkeyboardcase.jpg

On the iPhone, there are some neat features to be aware of. There are plenty of built-in iOS shortcuts for doing things like searching, selecting apps, and getting to the Home screen, and multiple Accessibility options are supported. There are Tap controls for VoiceOver commands, such as choosing an item, reading what's on the page, and more, and it works with the iOS Switch Control feature. You can map switches to any finger tap, making Tap inclusive and useful for those with visual impairments or limited mobility.

tapkeyboardonhand-800x622.jpg

The Tap Keyboard has been out for over a year now, and the company behind it has had time to refine the technology. A recent firmware update made the Tap more accurate on soft surfaces (like a leg), and it added a new option for pairing the Tap with up to three devices and switching between them with a button press.

tapkeyboardonhand1-800x533.jpg

We have two of the Tap Keyboards for MacRumors readers. To enter to win our giveaway, use the Gleam.io widget below and enter an email address. Email addresses will be used solely for contact purposes to reach the winners and send the prizes. You can earn additional entries by subscribing to our weekly newsletter, subscribing to our YouTube channel, following us on Twitter, following us on Instagram, or visiting the MacRumors Facebook page.

Due to the complexities of international laws regarding giveaways, only U.S. residents who are 18 years or older and Canadian residents (excluding Quebec) who have reached the age of majority in their province or territory are eligible to enter. To offer feedback or get more information on the giveaway restrictions, please refer to our Site Feedback section, as that is where discussion of the rules will be redirected.

The contest will run from today (June 21) at 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time through 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time on June 28. The winners will be chosen randomly on June 28 and will be contacted by email. The winners will have 48 hours to respond and provide a shipping address before new winners are chosen.

Article Link: MacRumors Giveaway: Win a Futuristic, Gesture-Based 'Tap' Wearable Keyboard
 
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keysofanxiety

macrumors G3
Nov 23, 2011
9,539
25,302
I can just see AngerDanger wielding this clumsy tool in a Minority Report manner to awkwardly create GIFs far more clumsily than if he had a mouse and keyboard.

Side note: I hope AngerDanger wins this.
 

gadgetfreak98

macrumors 6502
Feb 6, 2009
277
166
Well, that's super annoying and sketchy, MacRumors... So I go ahead and give my name and email address (which I now regret). It then tells me I have zero entries and I need to log in with a social network account to prove I'm a "real person." So now it has captured my info, declined to give me credit for an entry and then sends me to log in with the world's least trustworthy institutions that are rife with non-real people. Not cool...
 

shyam09

macrumors 68020
Oct 31, 2010
2,229
2,498
I can just see AngerDanger wielding this clumsy tool in a Minority Report manner to awkwardly create GIFs far more clumsily than if he had a mouse and keyboard.

Side note: I hope AngerDanger wins this.
We should all just concede and make AngerDanger auto-win.
 

Gravydog316

macrumors 6502a
May 17, 2016
553
193
Canada
How come I can't enter contests anymore?

Login to your existing account

gravydog316@gmail.com
has already been used to log in to Gleam.
Please login to your linked account:

...I don't have any such "Gleam" account (???)
 

ThunderSkunk

macrumors 68040
Dec 31, 2007
3,827
4,078
Milwaukee Area
I support anyone who will make the effort to try alternate input methods, and by support I mean buy their work, with money.

This still early version of their product doesn’t have to be perfect, the concept doesn’t even have to be perfect, and it doesn’t have to pretend to be the ultimate solution for every use case in the entire universe. Right now our CAD setups are, programmable 2007 Wacom Digitizer & pucks, Apple 10key keyboards, with an Apple trackpad hardwired in on the left side. If you saw it, you’d think the left hand & trackpad it barely moves on are practically dormant 99% of the time, but they function as constant, intuitive zoom/orbit view controls that free up the right side and your brain to send a million commands & mousing on the Wacom. It’s about a 3 foot long pile of half EOL’d stuff, but it’s ultimately the most accurate, efficient, reliable and customizable array of input hardware the market has ever coughed up. Now, since Wacom is a derelict 32bit zombie of a company as far as drivers to support its own hardware go, and Apple giveth nary a flying concern, OS X Catalina is set to torpedo our decade-old working ideal and replace it with question marks, requiring us to either jump ship on OS X, or start cobbling together new input hardware and devise an entirely new methodology for interacting with design and engineering software.

I don’t care if these fingercuffs only do one thing, or if it takes them 5 more years and a Leap and friggin laser eyes, but if they or some combination of them produces a more efficient input method, they’re worth their weight in gold. There is a fiery pit of unpleasantness in the center of the earth reserved for mice with relative coordinates and battery keyboards.
 

Doc C

macrumors regular
Nov 5, 2013
236
187
What ever happened to those devices that project a keyboard onto a surface using a little laser or something then detect your “key press”?

Seems to me that those would be more practical since they are no different than typing on a glass screen and they use the standard QWERTY layout...
 

Baehrs

macrumors newbie
Jun 23, 2019
2
0
Why does everyone using the device type so slowly? Dictation would be faster.
 

Gravydog316

macrumors 6502a
May 17, 2016
553
193
Canada
What ever happened to those devices that project a keyboard onto a surface using a little laser or something then detect your “key press”?

Seems to me that those would be more practical since they are no different than typing on a glass screen and they use the standard QWERTY layout...

they failed because QWERTY is stupid.
We demand an alphabetical keyboard
&/or
a customizable keyboard.
QWERTY makes no sense.
 

Doc C

macrumors regular
Nov 5, 2013
236
187
they failed because QWERTY is stupid.
We demand an alphabetical keyboard
&/or
a customizable keyboard.
QWERTY makes no sense.

QWERTY was designed to be slower.
From what I’ve seen, the Dvorak keyboard is the most efficient.

My question was directed more at the technology itself. I just thought that the laser-projected keyboard would be more useful than the device that the article focuses on.
 

Gravydog316

macrumors 6502a
May 17, 2016
553
193
Canada
QWERTY was designed to be slower.
From what I’ve seen, the Dvorak keyboard is the most efficient.

My question was directed more at the technology itself. I just thought that the laser-projected keyboard would be more useful than the device that the article focuses on.
i guess the biggest problem with them is low battery life (2~3 hours), but i haven't even thought about projection keyboards in years lol. they kind of stopped being a thing like 3D television a couple years ago!

& u r right... but i still don't know why i can't have my software keyboard in alphabetical order (or any order, for that matter)
 
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