Concept: iPad Split Keyboard

I'd like a case which doubles as a keyboard. It would just be a thin keyboard embedded in the flap, so you could use it as a tablet or a netbook. Obviously there are problems to figure out, like keeping the keys from scratching the screen (rubberize them?) and adding some rigidity without making it too bulky, but I think it would be awesome. I've always wanted a laptop which doubles as a tablet.<p>Like this! <a href="http://cl.ly/Z5v" rel="nofollow">http://cl.ly/Z5v</a>

Congratulations, you re-invented the UMPC: <a href="http://www.umpc.se/wp-content/uploads/2006/06/asus-umpc-keyboard.jpg" rel="nofollow">http://www.umpc.se/wp-content/uploads/2006/06/asus-umpc-keyb...</a>

In Android, you can write custom method input providers. It'll be an easy concept to realize once the Android tablets started getting released.<p>Maybe the Android slogan should be "there's an API for that" :)

Taking this one step further, the iPad could recognize how you are holding it, whether it's one hand, two hands, on the side or from the bottom, and the keyboard would auto-adjust on the fly to accommodate. The animation/motion would be the same way it rotates from landscape to portrait on the fly, just in this case, the keyboard would morph.

I only hunt-peck when I am standing up... otherwise I have no trouble setting the iPad on my lap, and typing as if it were a normal keyboard

Certainly not as fast as the full sized keyboard (which I'm using to type this comment right now), but it'd be a great alternative orientation for when you can't lay the iPad down on a stable surface.

Hey, let's just buy another iPad and use that as the other keyboard!

What Id like for the iPad landscape keyboard is if the left and right half were rotated inward a little, for ergonomics.

I might be wrong, but doesn't Microsoft have a patent on the corner-screen touchpad keyboard?

Yet another reason why the ipad form factor isn't as good as a netbook.

I remember when the iPad was announced, I saw the keyboard and instantly thought it would be better if it were split for thumb typing, but now that I have an iPad the standard keyboard works well enough that I forgot about the split keyboard until I saw this post. If I'm standing and typing I'm gonna be brief, but it may be worth having as an option in certain situations. I'd be more grateful to have the single quote available without a shift.

Or you could just get a netbook.