The iPad Typescreen: the April fools product that should have been real
Above you see the Typescreen, a fictional product that was the April fools joke from spinninghat.com this year. It wasGoogle+Reader” target=”_blank”> enthusiastically reblogged by hopeful tech bloggers who took it to be real, but unfortunately that’s not the case.
I saw it on April 1st as well (via the other site) but once I saw that they’re hinting at it having actual typewriter arms come out and hit the onscreen keyboard I knew it was a hoax. The reason I thought it could be real at all is that USB typewriters exist and have been used on iPads (see the below video) which means a Bluetooth version wouldn’t be hard to make. Making a typewriter that actually hit the right on-screen keys however would be as close to impossible as you get as typewriters are based on the concept of having many arms placed in a semicircle which then all converge on the same point when the keys are hit. Something like this would require the arms to stretch across a 20x7cm area, which isn’t going to happen.
Just because this design was a bit over the top doesn’t negate the fact that the thing looks freaking awesome. I would just love to show up for a lecture with my iPad docked to something like that, and then film the reactions. If someone could make a dock like this that was a Bluetooth keyboard instead, I’d have a hard time staying away.
Other cool fictional products from April 1st include the iPhone Super 3DBoy, edible gummy iPhone case and Angry Birds pork rinds.
