Move Over Blackberry - The Bubbles are Back

Written by Alyssa Anderson

Have you ever wished your smartphone was easier to type with?  Maybe you miss the days when your phone had a physical keyboard and you could type secretly under the table.  If so, you’ll be happy to hear that there are developments in the scientific world to meet your needs.  More specifically, there are tech companies out there who are using microfluid technology to make your smartphone easier to use. 

Tactus is developing a case which enables users of the iPad mini to enable physical buttons to appear on the tablet’s keyboard.  For people who have a hard time adapting to touchscreen keyboards, this is a great technological advancement.  Tactus CEO Dr. Craig Ciesla says that the case has helped testers improve their typing speed and accuracy.  However, the greatest improvement was found in overall typing satisfaction.

The Phorm is bringing the tactile experience back to iPad user’s software keyboard.  The keyboard uses a microfluidic panel to route liquid through invisible channels to expand specific areas of the top layer of a touch panel, producing protrusions and bumps where previously there were none.  There is a single switch on the back that lets you turn the tactile keys on and off, and the case has an industrial design which was produced by the same firm that worked with Beats on its hardware pre-Apple acquisition.

Phorm will be available for retail Summer 2015 starting at $149, but customers can pre-order now to save some cash.

There are, however, some who aren’t too impressed with Phorm.  According to Gizmodo writer Darren Orf, the extra layer of glass between him and the physical screen made typing more difficult.  He says it required a very “intentional” press if he wanted decent results.

Orf did, however, seem impressed with some of the prototype tablets of Tactus that bring up the keyboard automatically anytime a digital keyboard pops up on screen.  It is this technology that could be making big waves in the future.

So while Tactus may not have an exciting product now, there is definitely promise of a great product here in the future.