Alphagrip ~ AG5

www.alphagrip.com

I've been using the alphagrip for about a week now... and I'm loving it. There's a big learning curve... but I think it's worth it. The only other downside is the physical trackball... but im adjusting to it.

 

My typing speed is about 72 wpm on a standard keyboard, and currently 18 with the alphagrip with similar accuracy (~87 percent), according to www.typingtest.com. Most say that it takes a month or two to get up to standard typing speed (50+ wpm).

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Begreen @ May 21 2006, 01:07 PM) [snapback]258864[/snapback]</div>

 

I spent some time researching different keyboard layouts such as dvorak and colemak... and ended up instead with the ag5.

-The website says you can expect 50 to 60 wpm. However I personally feel that you can achieve standard speeds or faster (more on that later)... with plenty of practice, of course.
-The unit was designed to be used just like a keyboard... IE you lift your finger and press down on the desired key. The ag5 has rocker style buttons on the back... the best way to visualize them is to look on the website. Some users with smaller hands have discovered that you don't have to type like you do on a keyboard... instead you can activate the rocker switch without changing your finger position (each of the non-thumb fingers, if spread out, takes up the space of the rocker button). This is a separate technique, and perhaps one with a potential for greater speed... than the originally utilized technique of lifting and bending your finger up to touch type typically and press down on the desired key.
-The AG5 can be remapped to utilize dvorak or other keyboard layouts.
-The trackball is on the pad and is much less of a distance than, let's say, moving one hand from keyboard to mouse.
-The device only started shipping in late january, so I don't there has been enough time yet to make a definitive top speed.
-It is based on qwerty, but there are some key differences that may provide an advantage over qwerty. The keys under control of the left thumb contain "in a row buttons"... I don't have any better name so I will describe it. Here's how it looks:

C Y
K L

I've been using it for about a week now, and have found that having that arrangement is very beneficial in terms of combos: cy, ck, and ly... combos that are all right there within a much shorter distance than with a typical keyboard... you can essentially hit two birds with one stone... ie two buttons in one quick thumb movement.

-Buttons like enter, backspace, space, and tab are under the right thumb... and activating them takes much less time (after the adjustment period) than with keyboard typing.

Now for the downside in terms of speed:

-The numbers and punctuation keys of a keyboard are layed out individually (DUH!)... but on the AG5, since you're essentially wrapping a keyboard around an oversized gamepad, you rely on one of three shift buttons (white for the alphanumeric shift to TyPe ThInGs LIKe THIS... red for numbers, and green for puncuation). You also have 'Lock buttons to accomplish the same thing (Caps Lock, Fn Lock, and Num Lock). To switch between numbers and letters while typing takes 'extra' presses to accomplish (otherwise probably a form of "chording").
-BUT you don't switch buttons (your hands fingers remain in the same place the whole time, excepting the thumb)... and thus there could be potential for this method for being faster!
-Button/key combinations for things like cut, copy, and paste perhaps require greater finger moving relative to standard keyboard.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(airportkid @ May 21 2006, 05:23 PM) [snapback]258929[/snapback]</div>

*POST ABOVE UPDATED TO ANSWER FIRST CRITICISM*

An astute observation. You do need both hands to operate the AG5. I would like to point out to others that there is a pause button on the unit... which I use whenever I put the unit on my lap to drink some water or utilize the keyboard for mac-specific combos that I haven't learned to do on the ag5 (like the exposee desktop commands, or zooming, or taking custom screenshots, for example). The same applies for Windows. I suppose that there are remapping programs to activate commands with one key.

Off of the company/website FAQ:
Do you have any plans to make the device one handed?

We have a patent on a "split" AlphaGrip that lets you type two-handed with a device in each hand or, if you prefer, you can switch to a one-handed mode. It will likely take quite some time before we can bring this product to market. There is a company, however, that is currently selling a one-handed typing device that is popular among wearable computing enthusiasts. The name of the product is the Twiddler2 and the name of the company is Handykey. Here's a link to its website. http://www.handykey.com/