Could the Apple iPad cripple you?

Apple iTablet
The Apple iTablet: pain ahead?

I've been up since 4am, woken yet again by the tingling in my hands as my fingers go numb. I've been to the doc about it. She says it's Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, one of the nastier forms of RSI, and I know what's causing it: it's my iPhone.

I've had RSI for years, but for a long time I've kept it at bay with good ergonomics, carefully chosen keyboards and mice and regular breaks.

The iPhone has changed all that, though: when I'm not at my desk I'm giving my phone a damn good thumbing, scrolling through RSS feeds or catching up on tweets. And that's seriously damaging my hands. For all its joys, multi-touch can be an ergonomic disaster area.

Could the Apple iPad be even worse? I think it could. We'll be getting a 9.7-inch touchscreen boasting multi-touch and a virtual keyboard, and if it's anything like the one on the iPhone - which I'm sure it will be - then that virtual keyboard's going to take up roughly half of the screen.

Make your own pain-bringer

It's easy to see what that would be like: find a 10-inch netbook and imagine the keyboard has been scaled down 50% and all the keys glued to the case.

Don't have a netbook handy? Take a sheet of A4 and fold it in half to make it A5. Now, fold it again so it's wider than it is tall. That's your keyboard. Try typing on it. Maybe throw in some finger scrolling, some pinching and grabbing too. Uncomfortable, isn't it?

It can't be anything other than uncomfortable at that size, because there simply isn't enough room for properly sized keys like the ones you'll find on Apple's current (and exceptionally comfortable) keyboards.

It's likely, then, that typing on the iPad will be uncomfortable. At the risk of sounding like a character from The Day Today, Uncomfortable plus time equals pain.

Although tablet computing isn't exactly new - it's been around in PC form since the turn of the century, and of course we've had stylus-based computing in PDAs for years before that - decent tablet computing is a brand new thing.

If Apple's iPad is as good as all Steve Jobs claims, then people will be spending an awful lot of time using it. Do we know what the consequences of that will be? Has Apple been testing it with numb-fingered people like me to see whether it exacerbates RSI? I'd love to think so, but I very much doubt it.

But let's face it: if this thing costs a thousand quid I'm not going to be in the market for one any time soon. But the odds are that, as with the iPhone, some iPad lovers are going to discover that love hurts.

Carrie Marshall
Contributor

Writer, broadcaster, musician and kitchen gadget obsessive Carrie Marshall has been writing about tech since 1998, contributing sage advice and odd opinions to all kinds of magazines and websites as well as writing more than a dozen books. Her memoir, Carrie Kills A Man, is on sale now and her next book, about pop music, is out in 2025. She is the singer in Glaswegian rock band Unquiet Mind.

Latest in iPad
MacBook Air M4
Apple's rumored foldable iPad tipped to launch sooner than expected with an exciting software twist
iPad Air M3 11-inch and 13-inch on an orange background next to TechRadar deals price cut badge
Wait, what? The brand-new iPad Air just launched and it's already on sale on Amazon
Three photos of the iPad Air M3 and its camera
iPad Air M3 review roundup – should you buy Apple's new mid-range tablet?
iPad Pro 13-inch 2024 on a table
The OLED iPad Pro is reportedly less popular than expected – and that could mean these changes to Apple's OLED iPad plans
iPad Air M3
The new iPad Air M3 is good value – but I’d still buy this iPad Pro model instead
iPad Air M3 on a green background next to TechRadar big savings badge
Get the brand-new iPad Air (M3) from just $249 at Best Buy with a trade-in
Latest in News
EA Sports F1 25 promotional image featuring drivers Oscar Piastri, Carlos Sainz and Oliver Bearman.
F1 25 has been officially announced, with this year's entry marking a return for Braking Point and a 'significant overhaul' for My Team mode
Garmin clippd integration
Garmin's golf watches just got a big software integration upgrade to help you improve your game
Robert Downey Jr reveals himself as Doctor Doom to a delighted crowd at San Diego Comic-Con 2024
Marvel is currently making a major announcement about Avengers: Doomsday's cast on YouTube, and I think it's going to be a long-winded reveal
Samsung QN90F on yellow background
Samsung announces US prices for its 2025 mini-LED TV lineup, and it’s good and bad news
Nintendo Switch Lite
Forget the Nintendo Switch 2, the original Switch is getting one last hurrah in a surprise Nintendo Direct tomorrow
The Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge on display the January 22, 2025 Galaxy Unpacked event.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge colors seemingly revealed in new video, and there’s another sign of an imminent launch