Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Troyte83

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 3, 2007
139
0
i know there has been a 100 threads on this but i figured i would put my two sense in anyway. alot of people are complaining that the touch screen keyboard is going to be the downfall of the iPhone. Well heres why i think that it will work good (at least for me anyways.) Last month i started my new job working in a bus garage. every day all are jobs are posted on a touch screen that we go into and write notes about various things. well the first time i used it to post the job notes the virtual keyboard came up and it reminded so much of the iPhones keyboard. Well anyway typing on it after about five minutes i started to begin to type at a decent speed.(much faster than on my cell now) And the interface on this screen cant compare to the iPhone so i really think that it will be easily adaptable for mostly everyone.
 
Sure, typing on a touch screen may not be the best, but I do think people will learn to cope with it. I'd rather type on a touch screen, then sticky plastic keys.
 
How wide was the touchscreen keyboard at work?

I would guess that it was much wider than the less-than-2 inches width of the iPhone.

As I've said, I daily use a landscape keyboard on a 3" wide screen, and it's frustrating. You'd sure not want to write a book on it :rolleyes: Practice makes perfect, I sure.

But anyone who says the keyboard will be its downfall is overstating things. IF it was a business phone, then yes absolutely it would be bad news. But it seems targeted at those who'll just occasionally key in things.
 
I would much rather have a keyboard with no tactile feedback than have screen real estate taken up permanently by a physical keyboard.
 
How wide was the touchscreen keyboard at work?

I would guess that it was much wider than the less-than-2 inches width of the iPhone.

As I've said, I daily use a landscape keyboard on a 3" wide screen, and it's frustrating. You'd sure not want to write a book on it :rolleyes: Practice makes perfect, I sure.

But anyone who says the keyboard will be its downfall is overstating things. IF it was a business phone, then yes absolutely it would be bad news. But it seems targeted at those who'll just occasionally key in things.

yes the keyboard at work was much wider but i think that the interface technology into the iPhone will be able to ignore unintended touches so, will it take getting use too? Yes. Will it take long? No
 
I would much rather have a keyboard with no tactile feedback than have screen real estate taken up permanently by a physical keyboard.

either you haven't used a PDA phone before, or you don't text much.

yes the keyboard at work was much wider but i think that the interface technology into the iPhone will be able to ignore unintended touches so, will it take getting use too? Yes. Will it take long? No

if forstall still hasn't been able to master it, i really wouldn't hold my breathe.
 
The treo have what I would hardly consider to be an ideal keyboard. I can't say for certainly but we have yet to see what is easier to use: a tiny tactile keyboard or a larger non-tactile keyboard -> also the possibility of being able to have the keyboard in either vertical or horiz. format. :)
 
yes the keyboard at work was much wider but i think that the interface technology into the iPhone will be able to ignore unintended touches so, will it take getting use too? Yes. Will it take long? No

I'm not trying to be mean, but what "interface technology" are you talking about?

Apparently most of the "magic" will be that the letter you are about to type will show up above your finger. (Because your finger covers up several keys on the keyboard.) This gives you the chance to move your finger to the correct key before lifting up.

Now, that means you're going to spend your time looking above your finger, holding it down extra time just in case, plus glancing up at the completed text window, as you go along. Perhaps that works, I don't know. Sounds painful to me.

But we'll see soon! Humans are amazing animals, and I'm sure some people will become speed typers :)

I might suggest a trick used in the old days. Put the tiniest dot of clear nail polish over the F and J key positions. Won't interfere with the screen or apps, but you'll have tactile feedback as to where those keys are, just like the bumps on a real keyboard.

I don't think screen protectors will work well, since it's a capacitive keyboard, but I could envision one that had little pads where all the keys are, for use by hardcore texters.

Cheers, Kev
 
When I first saw the QWERTY keyboard, 2" wide, I thought "Oh no, where's the stylus".

On Windows Mobile, third parties are allowed to create alternative keyboards of all shapes and sizes, and register them as choices you can pick for the onscreen input.

Here's one interesting possibility that could be fun to try on iPhone:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?d...=32&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0

http://www.exideas.com/ME/index.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMJB3AL7OnU&eurl=http://blogs.zdnet.com/mobile-gadgeteer/
 
OK, I've been in love with QWERTY keyboards on phones since forever. I'm always looking for a way to get more words per minute on my phone.

I've had Grafitti on my Samsung i500-- AWFUL. Maybe 10 WPM max.
I've had an original Blackberry device-- NOT BAD. About 25 WPM.
I've had a Treo 650-- MEH. About 25 WPM.
I've had a PPC-6700-- GOOD. About 35 WPM. There was a lot to hate about that phone, but the backlit keyboard was not one of them.
I've now got a Moto Q-- OKAY. A little easier than the Treo. About 30 WPM.

These are estimates, but the reality is that nobody's really going to be typing 100 WPM on a mobile phone. Based on what I've seen, I don't think the iPhone is going to come in at less than 25 WPM, worst case scenario, which would put it on par with most of the QWERTY mobile phones out there.

That's without predictive text, which Windows Mobile actually does pretty well. I imagine this to wind up being a non-issue for most people, but I do hope that the keyboard is useable in landscape mode. That would help my big hands quite a bit.
 
I don't text a ton, but I have been doing it more on my BlackJack recently...can't stand a normal phone's keypad, smartphones(w/ full keyboard) are great, but I'm willing to learn the touchscreen keyboard.


The trade off seems worth it to me, SO MUCH more screen space, for something I don't use to much.

Also I like that the keyboard on the iPhone won't age...the buttons will not weaken over time
 
Without meaning to sound brutal you'll either 'figure it out' or your going to be forever stuck in the 1990's for the rest of your life nostalgically reminiscing about 'the golden age of buttons'....
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.