Screen overlay attempts to create tactile keyboard for Apple iPhone

15 years ago

4iconcepts' 4iThumbs iPhone 4 keyboard overlay

“Hoping to appeal to those who like their iPhones but don’t like typing on them, the 4iThumbs2, from 4iConcepts, places a thin plastic film above the keyboard; ridges on the screen define the area of each virtual key,” Eric A. Taub reports for The New York Times. “The ridges fall between each key, not on top of them. When typing, the ridges help guide your finger into the correct location, rather than slip off to the left or right, which might otherwise result in a word like hello turning into hellp.”

Taub reports, “The overlay is held in place by its own iPhone bumper, similar to the ones supplied by Apple; the overlay and bumper together cost $29.95 at the company’s Web site. You slip the overlay into the bumper frame; when you don’t need it, for example while playing a video game, you slip it out and put it in the frame facing the back of the phone.”

“Unfortunately, the overlay didn’t stay flat on the phone; instead, it buckled up a bit in the center, which meant that each time you pressed a key, the overlay first got pressed against the phone’s screen, adding an unpleasant feel to the underlying hardware. It’s as if the plastic tint on your car’s window no longer adhered tightly to the glass,” Taub reports. “The company says the lack of flatness has mostly been solved in the actual production units, but ‘you will still have some raise on the panel,’ said Gerald Rosengarten, the company’s director.”