| 
personal computing is about to get a lot more personal. Internet-based television now in development will recognize a viewer and deliver customized entertainment.
And it will do this without the trusty keyboard and mouse. We're already phasing them out, thanks to the increasing popularity of touch screens -- including the patron saint of all this, the Apple iPhone, and a spate of copycat smartphones. All of these devices allow users to navigate without physical buttons or input devices.
Thus, with a flick of the finger, the era of the mouse and the keyboard will soon be over.
Sounds awesome! But I have a question. Ever since I got my first laptop — the original Mac PowerBook 100 in 1992, if you must know — I have done a good deal of my writing in coffee shops, in libraries, in my living room (while other members of my family read or watch TV), and even on airplanes and in trains. I have written a lot, and plan to do a lot more writing in the future. If I’m going to keep writing in such environments, Kara Swisher, how am I going to do it without a keyboard? Am I going to make everyone around me listen as I compose my prose out loud with my voice-recognition software, sort of like like Winston Churchill in his bedroom with his army of secretaries? Will “writing in public” be the new “talking on my cellphone in public”?
Please reply soonest.
Posts
