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How do you input your data?

By Jean-Claude Elias - Feb 04,2016 - Last updated at Feb 04,2016

Even those not technically minded know the essential input-output principle that rules every single computer-based device today, from actual computers to smartphones. Hence the importance of data or information input, the place where understandably it all starts. How do you input yours? What is your preferred method?

In the beginning it used to be keyboards, almost exclusively. Today, various pointers, trackballs, touch pads, touch screens, mice, S-Pens, virtual keyboards and last but not least voice, they all come to the rescue. Though it may be fun and trendy, the most sophisticated method is not always the most practical. It all depends on the context and the task you are working on.

Take voice input for example. Today, with the advanced speech to text functionality, you can just say the text you want to “type” and your computer will feed the text in the word processor, smartly displaying it on the screen. Even the mouse clicks and keyboard commands have their equivalent with voice commands. This is great only if you have a long text to type, if you are working in a quiet place and if you are alone. For surely you don’t want everyone around to listen to the text you are dictating to your computer.

Voice operation is becoming more and more common with smartphones and with some forms of Google search like Ask Google for instance. But again, in the most common situation silent operation remains the preferred rule, and by far.

When it comes to tablets, combining voice action with the virtual keyboard that automatically appears on the screen works well. Still, for long typing sessions many prefer to connect a physical keyboard to the tablet, be it a cabled or a wireless Bluetooth model.

The mouse of course goes without saying. Alongside the keyboard it has proved to be a survivor through the years, and few devices have really replaced it or can perform better, especially with the high precision and inexpensive models that have now been around for more than 10 years. American Douglas Engelbart from Stanford University patented the mouse in 1970. The device may be small apparently insignificant, but its impact is huge and universal. Today, countless wireless Bluetooth models of mouse are used not only with computers but with tablets as well.

I must confess I have a weakness for Samsung’s S-Pen. I started playing with the beautifully crafted little electronic pen when I discovered that it came with my latest tablet. I say playing for I didn’t buy the tablet because of it and didn’t take it seriously at first. The more I was using it and the more convenient I found it to be. It’s fast, precise, responsive, and it truly replaces the pen you’d use to write on paper.

The application that Android provides with it is very smartly designed and covers all aspects of working with a pen: erasing, ignoring the annoying wrist touch, colouring, setting the thickness and the type of pen, and so forth. In less than a week I was hooked on the little pen and I now I use it to take notes during meetings or even to input my “to do” list for the next day, to write down quickly a memo, etc.

The S-Pen comes with additional functions that are elegantly housed in its body and that also lets you click like with a mouse and also allow you to preview data and menu items just by hovering above the screen, without even touching it, making the best of both worlds.

 

As wonderful as the S-Pen may be, it won’t make me discard the other tools. We need them all, at different times, for different tasks, with different computers.

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