So, what's the question?

"Is the learning curve of the Alphagrip worth the obvious benefits?"

Stay tuned, and I'll let you know!

My Alphagrip has arrived!

Mike at Alphagrip sent me an email to let me know that my Alphagrip was likely to show up at my doorstep today. Sure enough, I saw (from work) on Fedex.com that it arrived at 1:48PM. A few minutes later my wife called.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Your geek toy is here."

I could hardly concentrate for the next hour at work. Slowly though, I got sucked back into work. We ended up going out to dinner with some friends, and left the moment I got home from work. We got back and put our son to bed (waaaay past his bedtime) just in time to watch one of our favorite weekly TV shows, Battlestar Galactica. It wasn't until the first commercial break that I remembered that the Alphagrip AG-5 I had been eagerly awaiting for the last 14 months was here!

The package was much smaller than I expected. Actually, I'm not quite sure what I was expecting. It was hard to believe that something with the potential to be so revolutionary could come in such a small nondescript cardboard box. I popped it open, and there it was: the Alphagrip AG-5.

It is exactly the size and shape I expected from the pictures on the website. The feel of the buttons (read: keys) are in between those on a laptop and those on a normal keyboard. The feedback varies slightly between buttons of different sizes, but is remarkably uniform overall considering the variation in shape and size. The trackball is as smooth and precise as a trackball can be.

Aside from the AG-5, the box also contained some brief documentation, a stand for the AG-5, a standard 6' USB cable (flat connector on one side, square on the other), and a set of stickers to put on the front of the device. The stickers show the layout of the rear buttons, so that you don't have to flip the device over to look. These stickers are essential when using the AG-5!

So, I now had a dilemma. The main Windows PC was upstairs, but I didn't want to miss any of Battlestar. I then recalled that the AG-5 shouldn't require drivers in most operating systems, since it just shows up as a standard keyboard and mouse. I grabbed my Linux laptop (Gentoo, for those that care) during the next commercial break, and plugged the Alphagrip in.

I already had the laptop booted, up and was running KDE3 with a few webpages open. It started working instantly. All the keyboard buttons did exactly what the labels said, and the trackball took over mouse duties with no fuss. A quick look at dmesg output showed this:

usb 1-1: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 2
hub 1-1:1.0: USB hub found
hub 1-1:1.0: 4 ports detected
usb 1-1.1: new low speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 3
input: USB HID v1.10 Keyboard [SEJIN AlphaGrip AG5 USB Keyboard] on usb-0000:00:07.2-1.1
input: USB HID v1.10 Mouse [SEJIN AlphaGrip AG5 USB Keyboard] on usb-0000:00:07.2-1.1

Beautiful. Awesome. This is what I've been waiting for.

My Initial Reaction
Good: Looks to have delivered everything promised

Bad: Learning how to type on the thing

Ugly: The included stand for the Alphagrip is made of the thinnest, cheapest plastic. It already had several tears in it before I took it out of the box. It isn't pretty, but it does it's job. This isn't a big deal though. If the Alphagrip takes off, and starts selling on a large scale, I predict there will be several manufacturers making a variety of aftermarket carrying cases and stands for the AG-5.

P.S. - My next post will be written with the Alphagrip, and I hope to include some initial numbers (WPM) on typing speed. Expect numbers similar to your grandma attempting Graffiti on a Palm for the first time. I'll get there though, I'm sure of it.

New Alphagrip Google Group!

Check out the new group! I've posted the first thread.

Congratulations: you've successfully created your Google Group, alphagrip.

Here are the essentials:

* Group name: alphagrip
* Group home page: http://groups.google.com/group/alphagrip
* Group email address alphagrip@googlegroups.com

My Plans, Once I Get My AG-5

• Post photos, in proper "geek with a new gadget and a blog" fashion, which includes all accessories, packing, etc.
• I plan to use my AG-5 at home at first, waiting to take it to work only when I am fast enough that it won't eat into my productivity.
• I will post details on how fast it takes me to overcome the learning curve. I will use "The Typing Tutor", which is a java-based tutor, with Alphagrip-specific lessons. I will report my increases in speed as they come.
• I plan to report any hurdles, obstacles, or frustrations I encounter in my experiences with the Alphagrip.
• I plan to test the Alphagrip in the main 3 environments I use my keyboard:
• Alphanumeric typing
• Typing at a UNIX/Linux command-line (yes, I will test the AG-5 natively in Linux)
• Gaming, including RPGs, FPSs, etc. - I don't think the Alphagrip will cut it in the fast-paces world of First Person Shooters, but we will see...
  

Let the Shipping Begin!

I am rubbing my hands together with anticipation. I'm tempted to start practicing a supervillan laugh. It has been 14 months since I sent in my pre-order for the Alphagrip, and I'm ready.

On December 28th, Mike Willner, the president of Alphagrip posted update #8 to the webpage keeping all of us pre-order geeks in the loop with the latest news in the AG-5 manufacturing saga.

Update #8 to President's Message

December 28, 2005: We received 300 AlphaGrips yesterday and expect another 200 tomorrow. We expect to receive another 500 in the first half of January. We have begun testing them and for the most part they are working fine (we've only had to reject 2 out of 50 so far). We will begin contacting our pre-launch customers today and expect to start shipping orders next week.

Introduction

Why does this blog exist?

In my young and impressionable years, I gradually became a big computer geek and fell in love with gadgets by proxy. I always felt comfortable in front of computers for long periods of time, and spent what I thought was a considerable amount of time teaching myself how to use them. It wasn't until I moved from working at CompUSA to professional computer jobs (read: sitting at a desk in front of a computer all day) in the late 1990's that I started having trouble with my health.

I gained weight, my wrists started hurting, and I would sink, unmoving, further and further into my office chair as the day progressed. I tried many different positions and configurations in front of my computer, trying to alleviate some of the pain and discomfort. The keyboard moved from on top of the desk to an under-desk keyboard tray and back. My chair moved up and down, closer and farther away. I took the armrests off the chair.

I eventually settled with the keyboard on top of the desk, my chair at a height where my arms rested on the desk surface, and the keyboard pushed back far enough to allow my arms from the elbow down to rest comfortably on top of the desk. This was the best thing I could come up with after all my experiments, but at this point, I had started looking into alternative ways to send input to my computers. After much research, I decided the Alphagrip AG-5 sounded like the best solution to my problems with the traditional QWERTY keyboard.

Two features of the AG-5 especially won me over:

1. It is mobile - I can stand up with it, sit down, and recline, all without compromising ergonomics. Futhermore, I don't have to dedicate a spot on the desk to the AG5. I also don't have to mess with a keyboard drawer under the desk that I'm always bumping with my legs.
2. No reaching! I don't have to stretch my pinky for the backspace key or a backslash. I don't have to stretch my arm for the mouse, only to lose my place on the keyboard (especially in the dark. I don't have to pick up my hand and move it to a numeric keypad. I don't have to look down to find the function key I'm looking for. All the buttons and functions I need are all in one place, with one hand position.

There was the first of a few big problems: It wasn't for sale.

Not yet, anyway. They were still working on prototypes, and looking for a way to get it manufactured without having to search for investors with millions to risk on them. Finally, they found a manufacturer with a low minimum order requirement, and the technology necessary to mass produce the AG-5. This leads us to:

Problem #2: Enough pre-orders had to be secured before the manufacturer would agree to commit to mass-producing the first batch. This meant committing to an unknown timeline.

That is fine with me though. I'm really interested in the product, and I'm a patient guy. If this has the potential to be a permanent QWERTY replacement for me, then it will be worth the wait. Besides, at this point I had started some correspondance with Mike, the Alphagrip president, and I was reasonably certain he wasn't going to take my $99 (the pre-order price) and run.

As for my health, do I expect the AG-5 to be a cure-all? No, but I do expect more productivity (assuming I can get my typing to the claimed 50-60 WPM in a reasonable amount of time), and less massaging wrists and forearms. Note I have minor health complaints at this point; I'm not morbidly obese, I don't have full-blown carpal-tunnel syndrome, etc...

So I put in my pre-order for an AG-5 on November 10th, 2004, and waited.