Wait, are we having another "ding the iPhone's keyboard - and deem it a failure - before the thing is even released" type of discussion here?
I'm
pretty sure you'd get used to it, whatever design or approach Apple takes. We always do. We're humans...we've got that whole "walk on two feet and adapt to new, different things with relative ease" thing down pretty well.
(we've all adapted to the shuffle's click wheel, which is nothing like that on the other, current iPods, which, in turn are quite different from the click-wheel of previous-generation iPods...things change and tweak over time, over the iPod's life-span, and we've all flowed right along with it; I can't think of why we wouldn't again if needed).
It's not as though that click wheel is on the side of a golf ball or something (or that this new iPod, viewed from the top, is actually - American - "football" shaped, making for a ridiculously huge curved front); how much of a "curved surface" could we possibly be talking about? It looks very slight to me, especially in the center area where the click-wheel sits.
BTW, the iPhone's keyboard is just fine; one of its nicer, more well-thought-out features, IMO. I type on it as fast and accurately as I want, and have pretty much since day one...so I guess I tend to view these sorts of things (concerns or complaints about a product's usability and comfort before we've even held and used one) with a bit more of a
than I have in the past.