Skip to main content

Phorm is a morphing touchscreen with tactile finger guides for typing

Tablets are awesome, but their keyboards? Not so much. Touchscreen keyboards are fine for little tasks, like entering in passwords or leaving yourself a quick note — but when it comes time to enter in a big chunk of text, they’re not exactly ideal.

The problem basically comes down to their lack of tactility. Your fingers can’t feel where one key ends and another begins, so you’ve got to rely on your eyeballs to keep track of each button. This inhibits your ability to look at the actual words you’re typing, which leads to more errors. Looking at the words doesn’t help either — stare too long and your fingers tend to drift and lose their place, and then you’re back to making typos again.

Recommended Videos

phorm keyboardSo what’s the solution? Most people who compose a lot of text on their tablets just spring for an external keyboard attachment of some sort, but now there might be a better way. Instead of forcing you to attach a new keyboard altogether, the Phorm case creates an array of raised bumps on your screen — providing (presumably) just enough tactile feedback for you to type without looking.

This definitely isn’t the first time someone’s taken a stab at this problem, but here’s the kicker — Phorm’s bumps can be raised and lowered at the push of a button, so you can have bumps when you’re typing, and go back to smooth screen when it’s time to play Fruit Ninja. Oh yeah, and it doesn’t use any electricity either.

How is this possible? Clever design. The case consists of two main parts: a backplate, and a transparent microfluidic front plate. When you move the slider on the back, it pushes fluid up through tiny holes in the front screen, causing the bumps to form in specific spots. Flip the slider back and the fluid retreats, leaving you with a smooth capacitive touchscreen again.

Pretty slick, right? Well it gets better. Phorm’s creators are running a crowdfunding campaign through Tilt, and are currently offering pre-orders for $100 — about 50 bucks cheaper than what the case is expected to retail for later this year.

Drew Prindle
Former Senior Editor, Features
Drew Prindle is an award-winning writer, editor, and storyteller who currently serves as Senior Features Editor for Digital…
Your next smartwatch could be more powerful than you were expecting
An exploded view of a Qualcomm smartwatch

Qualcomm is tipped to be creating a new, dedicated smartwatch chip to create more powerful and longer lasting wearables, codenamed SW6100 or ‘Aspena’, highlighting a renewed interest in the space.

The chips will reportedly use a 1x Arm Cortex-A78 + 4x Arm Cortex-A55 CPU configuration for the CPU, a huge increase in power from previous versions.Why this matters: The news, revealed by Android Authority, means we’re set to get faster and longer-lasting user experience as smartwatches pack in more sensors and greater ability to be used independently from your phone.

Read more
World’s first Qi2.2 wireless power bank unlocks 25W magnetic charging speeds
UNGREEN QI2.2 Power Bank

Why it matters: As smartphones like the iPhone 16 and Galaxy S25 push charging speeds higher, Qi2's evolution to 2.2 promises up to 50W wireless power—cutting charge times and heat— but adoption has been sluggish, leaving users stuck with slower 15W Qi2 tech. This new power bank could kickstart the upgrade wave for on-the-go charging.

The news: UGREEN has come out with the world's first Qi 2.2-certified wireless power bank, the MagFlow Magnetic Power Bank. This 10,000mAh beast delivers 25W magnetic wireless charging, a built-in USB-C cable for wired options, an extra USB-C port for multi-device juicing, and a slick side display for battery status. It's backward-compatible with current Qi2 devices but shines with stronger magnets and efficiency tweaks for future-proofing.

Read more
See if the new Nothing Phone 3 bends or breaks in this durability test
The Nothing Phone 3 being bent in a durability test.

Marketed by Nothing as its first true flagship (though some beg to differ on this point), the Nothing Phone 3 garnered a lot of interest when it officially launched at the start of this month.

Of course, it wasn’t long before the new $799 handset fell into the hands of popular tech YouTuber Zack Nelson (he of JerryRigEverything), who took no time at all in putting it through its paces in his carefully designed and very unscientific durability test.

Read more