Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
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This is still the best input device around. Completely stopped all my repetitive motion pain. Made everything faster as the gestures were so powerful. I sure wish when the company was acquired (rumored to have been quietly acquired by Apple) they did not shut down this product. This is years old and still puts Apple's "new" gesture recognition to shame. I cannot use mine anymore as the drivers no longer work. I miss this very much and feel handicapped without it.
I've been using this keyboard 8 hours a day for 3 weeks (I'm a software engineer), and couldn't manage without it now. I had been experiencing a sudden increase in RSI symptoms, particularly in my right elbow, shoulder, and wrist. It became clear that the problem was due to constantly reaching for the mouse, cursor keys and page-up/down. After some research I came across the TouchStream (it's not particularly well marketed unfortunately, even though it is a mature product). It's an amazing device, combining mouse functionality, text-cursor 'pointing' (i.e. like a mouse; forget cursor keys!), a zero-force keyboard, and an extremely cool gesture system for many common actions (cut/paste etc.). The user's hands need never move away from the keyboard. It also has great support for specialist users, such as software engineers (a code punctuation pad and gesture sets for vi and emacs), and 3D graphic artists (gestures for object manipulation in Maya). The unit is staggeringly customizable via a nice GUI. And it even has an SDK that allows users to write useful features; e.g. see the excellent (and free) XWinder application on the FingerWorks website. The customer forums (on the same website) are great -- full of helpful hints from enthusiastic users, and showing a very strong customer-support ethic from FingerWorks staff. Googling for 'TouchStream' finds several reviews and blog entries. Most users loved it, a few have problems (usually dramatically slower typing speeds at first, due to inaccuracies), but often say they plan to stick with it anyway, due to the reduction/removal of RSI pain. I found similar problems with typing at first. But a few minutes practice a day with a typing tutor program (I use TypeSmart) really helps. It's definitely worth persevering because effortless 'zero-force' typing becomes great fun once your error-rate drops to something bearable. Plus the gestures and other innovations immediately compensate to some degree for slower typing at the outset. I suppose it might not work for everyone, but the pain in my right arm completely disappeared on the first day of use, and hasn't returned. That's so absurdly dramatic that I wonder why FingerWorks don't make stronger claims about reducing RSI than they do. Now whenever I'm forced to use a normal keyboard or mouse, they feel unbearably clunky and awkward. Also, my RSI pain returns almost immediately -- and vanishes again when I return to the TouchStream. I wish I'd discovered it years ago. I also considered keyboards from Kinesis, Maltron, Goldtouch, SafeType, and Adesso. They all seem to be good, possibly great designs, offering various combinations of basic ergonomic features along with their own particular innovations. But for me the TouchStream is the only device that offers a complete solution -- a well-integrated package of effective ideas. And I think that makes it a qualitative leap forward in humane input devices. I hope this review helps someone.
A looong time ago, in 2004, I was looking for a keyboard to help me continue being able to work as I began to have more and more troubles with my hands. Today, several TouchStreams later, I am looking for another one as my last one has just died and I am finding to my chagrin that despite advanced technology in other areas, still nobody has created a keyboard/mouse combination that is comparable to this jewel.
We have touch on phones, tablets and quite a few other devices but nobody has thought of combining the 2 like Fingerworks did and I am not even talking about being able to set the keys acc. to my hand size, configure them as I need them and add gesture control on top of it. There still is not even a full size keyboard that allows me to properly touch type just as we sort of can on mobile phones now. The TouchStream was so much ahead of its time I wonder whether I will experience another of a similar type in my life time.
As usual when corporate takes over small developers, creativity and grand ideas get lost by the way side. This was no exception. We are getting tidbits here and there but the original idea was tossed aside. What a pity...
This is Star Trek in real life. A completely flat typing surface without buttons or moving parts! It understands when I want to type, when I want to mouse around, and when I want to make gestures. There are many intuitive and very useful gestures built-in, and it can be programmed to do anything you want. The keyboard/mouse device is automatically recognized as a normal keyboard&mouse in Windows & Mac & Linux, so the companion software is optional.
It's very easy to learn to use, and oh-so-comfortable to never again have to reach for the mouse because the whole surface doubles as a touch pad. Typing without tactile feedback takes some getting used to though! There are ten dimples on the surface that indicate your fingers' resting position but fast typing takes some practice.
The company has been closed by Apple (the tech was used to invent the iPhone!) but there is an enthusiastic support forum where people still help each other and provide downloads: Google "Fingerfans" or "FingerWorks forum" to find it.
I spend roughly sixty hours a week typing. When my hands and wrists began to hurt I knew I had to do something. After much searching I bought this device to replace both my keyboard and my mouse.
It was perfect. I never leave home without it. The best part came after a few weeks, when I noticed that most of my task-habits had changed. Everything seemed faster and easier. I used the gesture recognition to do things I never bothered with before. For example, I'd lay out spreadsheets or maps that took advantage of zooming. Before this product, zooming took multiple keystrokes or keystroke-homing-pointing-keystroke combinations. Very cumbersome. Switching to this device, with its gesture recognition, made zooming as simple as spreading or contracting my fingers.
Recently, Raskin's "The Humane Interface" introduced the GOMS (goals, objects, methods, and selection rules) model of user interfaces to me. I learned why computer operation sped up: it had. This product reduces the time needed to switch hands from mouse to keyboard and back from about 0.4 seconds (Raskin 2000) to less than the time time needed to hit a single keystroke: 0.2 seconds.
That might seem a trivial savings, so let me repeat the first reason I bought this device. My wrists and hands no longer hurt.
