A few years back, Tactus has made an announcement that its commercial product brainchild is available in market: a case for the iPad Mini called Phorm. The company has started taking preorders at $99, and says it intends to begin shipping the case this summer for $149 for regular buyers. Further the company had showed a similar prototype iPad Mini case at CES, but they refined the idea considerably since then, in collaboration with San Francisco-based design firm Ammunition. You slide your tablet into the case, and then apply a clear, flexible layer on top of the screen. The back side of the case has a slider switch which is wide enough that easily find it and push it back and forth as you hold the tablet. What happens when you flip the switch is easier to show than describe
The little bumps just appear—no power required. Slide the switch in the other direction, and they’re gone again. The above demo shows shows a non-final version of the key bumps. The final ones are shaped more like jelly beans, and sit above the keys perfectly. They provide feedback intended to help guide your fingers as you tap away, and work both with Apple’s standard keyboard and third-party alternatives such as Swype and SwiftKey. If compared with early days of touch-screen keyboards, Phorm might have attracted a huge amount of attention. But today, the people have grown accustomed to typing on virtual keyboards and does more technology love. So the new case will be able to catch the audience soon. (The Touchfire keyboard implements a vaguely similar concept in a cheaper, lower-tech fashion.) Still, if you have a chance to see Phorm in person, do so: It really does make for a remarkable demo. Tactus’s has also shown a demo video about Phorm, which also shows the earlier bumps rather than the ones which shipping devices will have https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNnGpIEa3AU#t=52 The company is making its next move on a Phorm case for the iPhone 6 Plus, and that it’s considering making ones for the iPhone 6 and iPad Air. The works are still in progress to implement new technology built directly into screens on devices such as tablets.
