Touch typing on Aspire One (video)

Just for fun, I did a little video of myself touch typing on the Acer Aspire One (Xp/120GB version):

Notes: I had to put it on a laptop stand in my lap (I don't have a camera tripod, so I just stuck it on the side of my couch), which is why it's shaking around so much.

I think I was typing something about a couple dopey reviews I read that claimed the keyboard was no better than early Eee PCs (which is rubbish, I tried both at a store myself) I think the only thing I struggle a bit with is reaching the small backspace key on it (though many standard PC keyboards also have a small backspace key, I usually seek out ones with an extra wide backspace), but it's no biggie.

I'd love to see more reviews do something like this. Video a couple folks with different size, thickness hands/fingers to really see how it is to type on something. I wasn't willing to buy the Aspire One online without getting to really give the keyboard a workout (I'm a reporter and keyboarding is really my life ). fwiw, I have large hands, spindly fingers, to some extent I'm a worst case scenario, but I'm still relatively comfortable with it.

Also, I add my gratitude to whomever(s) started this board. I love my machine, and it's fun to have a friendly place to talk about it.

 

Yeah, I have fairly big hands, pretty big (and long?) fingers, I was testing out an Aspire One keyboard today in-store and it only took me a few seconds to get used to.

 

I second that: touch typing on the AA1 is a real pleasure given the size of the device. Even when constantly switching between a regular size keyboard and the AA1 every minute while using a PC in parallel. After trying out the EEEPC where touch typing was difficult even with keeping the eyes on the keyboard, the AA1 I got to play around with before purchase felt perfect right from the beginning. Now typing this on my own AA1 and still pleased with the keyboard

The keyboard is flexing a bit when typing hard (especially in the upper left area of the keypad), but I don't perceive that as an issue. Some might call the feeling a bit "cheap", but personally I like the smooth touch of it.

The only slightly annoying thing is the reverse order of Page up/Page down compared to my full-size Acer (on the AA1, the "Page up" is on the left, "Page down" on the right) and the fact that "Home" and "End" are only available in combination with the Fn key. But that's most likely just a question of adaptation?!

 

I am slowly getting used to the keyboard. I have fat fingers and it shows in my typing.
The home and end keys bother me. I use them a lot. On the other hand, I very rarely use Pause/Break or PrtSc/SysRq. I wish I could remap the keyboard.

 

I was considering that as well. Haven't tried it yet, but that should entirely be possible according to this thread: viewtopic.php?f=17&t=1139&p=8186 . If I understand it right, it's all about creating a /home/user/.Xmodmap file and add the required commands in it to remap any keys. It should be possible to find the required xmodmap commands from Google somehow - I might give it a try as soon as time allows...

 

Boohoo. I'm running XP.

 

Hi again,

I think under XP this shouldn't be a big issue to remap those keys. Key remapping under XP is handled by a certain registry entry and there's quite some freeware tools around that can save you the pain of editing the registry by hand. I cannot recommend a specific tool, but you might want to have a look at http://www.google.com/search?&q=xp remap keys for a start.

Or maybe some reader of this thread can recommend a tool?