Re: Keyboard & trackpad location
Re: " Anyone with a modern Apple Macbook Pro will know the limited use of the trackbar above the keyboard -- useless for a touch typist."
While I have looked at (and lusted after) the Macbooks with touch bar, I haven't bought one. The problem is, while I am not trained, I touch type. As such, I don't generally look at the keyboard I am using. The problem with putting any form of screen on the keyboard is that it forces the user to alternate looking at the keyboard and the screen, which, ergonomically, probably isn't good. That said, in my experience, most laptops, from an ergonomic point of view aren't that good anyway.
I do think that IBM/Lenovo had the right idea, when they mounted a small secondary LCD on the side of the main LCD in their Thinkpad W700ds, but mucked it up because, by all accounts, the small LCD they used was awful.
Still, we do seem to be getting an awful lot of portable, a4 size external monitors that use battery, and are small enough to go in a laptop bag or rucksack, which could be handy when working with a laptop, although you would still need a reasonable size desk or table to use one. No sticking the whole setup on the fold down tray table on a train or plane..
Biting the hand that feeds IT
