Google Laptop: Goodbye caps lock, hello search!
Google recently released a laptop - well, kind of. It's "reference hardware" for its Chrome OS, to be tested and evaluated by the lucky ducks who get into the pilot program. Among the many little design tweaks that make it different from your average netbook, one stands out as particularly relevant to the theme of this blog: the Caps Lock button has been replaced with a "Search" button. Sure, it's just a button - but around here, that means something! Google is saying (correctly, in my opinion) that caps lock is something we need less these days, and search is something we do more. Not only that, but this may be a nudge against those few people who still WRITE IN ALL CAPS - make it more difficult (like Apple did), and maybe it won't happen as often. In any case - capital or lower, ha ha - I like it.
3 comments:
It makes me wish for a way to reconfigure my Macbook to work the same way.
Getting rid of caps lock function is a great idea, but the practicality of a search button placed right there isn't all that great. As someone currently using and messing with a Cr-48 laptop, I ofter find myself mistakenly pressing it in place of shift or tab. On my normal laptop, it turns on a light and I'm in all caps - no big deal. In Chrome OS, it spawns a new tab that I'm not ready for and BAM - lost my workflow.
Post a Comment