The greatest keyboard never sold

WayTools’ TextBlade brilliantly compressed a comfy typing experience into a pocket-sized device. Too bad it never actually reached the market.

Even as the latest phones and wearables tout speech recognition with unprecedented accuracy and spatial computing products flirt with replacing tablets and laptops, physical keyboards remain beloved for their efficiency. Earlier this year, for example, sci-fi novelist Robert J. Sawyer created a comprehensive archive of files that enables modern PCs to run WordStar 7, the DOS program’s final version. He favors the once-dominant word processor, also used by Game of Thrones author George R. R. Martin, in part because of its effective use of “home row” keyboard shortcuts to speed navigation and editing.