The Phorm morphing touchscreen case for iPad mini is now available to pre-order. The case brings a tactile feedback keyboard to Apple’s smaller tablet.
Phorm overlays physical guides onto your keyboard, making typing ‘effortless’.
“It gives you greater control of your keyboard. When you’re typing is more accurate you get more from your device. Your keyboard becomes friendlier and more functional as you adapt to it. The anxiety of auto-correct disappears. Your productivity increases. The more you use it the better you type and soon enough you’re not even typing you’re just writing.”
As can be seen in the video below, sliding a bar at the back of the case to the right causes small fluid-filled physical buttons to pop up on the screen protector portion of the case. Sliding the bar to left causes the buttons to disappear.
Tactus Technology CEO Craig Ciesla and CTO Micah Yairi gave MacRumors some details on how it works.
There are a series of small channels filled with fluid behind an elastomeric panel (aka the screen protector portion of the case) and when activated by the slider, pressure is introduced, causing the fluid to come up through the channels and into holes, where it presses against the elastomer, physically changing and morphing the display portion of the case to create buttons. In the opposite slider position, the pressure is released and the buttons disappear as the liquid is dispersed back into the channels.
Whether Phorm does significantly enhance the typing experience has yet to be seen. Powered by Tactus Technology, the Phorm case will ship in summer 2015. The case can be pre-ordered from the link below for $99 plus $5 shipping. It’s offered in slate gray and sky gray colors.
More at getphorm
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