The death of the keyboard

For those of you who are keeping current on the iPhone 4S, then by now you know the term Siri. It allows you to ask it questions and it replies. On the surface, not only is this a cool activity, but it makes it a lot easier to search for answers. However, underneath the Siri surface lies the slow, but sure death of the of the keyboard. 

Let me make sure I’m making myself clear. Here is what I do now. I’m a writer. I dictate into a portable transcriber, I send the electronic file to my transcriber who keypunches in the words and sends me back a printed document. That whole process has numbered days. 

Here is what I will do with future versions of Siri. I will dictate my stories into my iPhone. The stories will be emailed back to me in a printed document from a wireless printer located anywhere in the world. It is an incredible development, and one I have been waiting on for several years. If I were a keyboard, I would be searching for another job, or purchasing A Basic Guide to Job Hunting by this blogger.

The iPhone 4S commentators missed the most powerful aspect of what’s going on with the iPhone. Siri is the proverbial writing on the wall because it eliminates the one thing that slows down most people using a computer; the one thing that occupies the most space, and the one thing that has limited the size of the computer for many years – the keyboard.

"Siri, what is a keyboard?"

"It is device that was used at one time to enter data into a computer," replied Siri.

"And Siri, who will replace you?"

"That is confidential," replied Siri.