back in my day... touch screen smart phones

[forgotten_aria]

I got to use someone's incredible (I think) last night and while I was amused at using the vibrate function to give physical feed back that you had touched a key, I couldn't get the hang of typing 'e's in stead of 'r's. I think I HAVE to have a physical keyboard on any phone I own. I just hope the market still has a nice supply of them by the time I need a new one.

Comments

[plymouth.livejournal.com]

I find on my blackberry I mostly type with my fingernails so when I try to type on a touchscreen this FAILS UTTERLY. It's not like I have super long nails and on a regular keyboard I can hit the key with both. But on a tiny interface I feel like I have more control with my nails.

So I also hate touchscreens.

Even on my awesome convertible tablet of awesometude I opted for one that is explicitly NOT a touchscreen - it ONLY responds to the magic pen and I want it that way. I can rest my hand on the screen (lightly) while I draw and that doesn't register as input.

[crs.livejournal.com]

I type e's instead of r's all the time. Well, not that specific error, but various off-by-one errors come up, especially when I'm typing quickly.

But here's the thing - as I'm typing, the screen is also showing me what the phone's best guess is for what I'm actually trying to type. If it guesses right, I can just hit space, and it'll replace the word, and I can go on typing. I've gotten pretty fast at using this feedback to type at reasonable speeds on the screen.

YMMV, but it sounds to me like you fell into the standard trap of "I meant e!" and hitting backspace and trying again, when often you can just forge ahead and the phone will get it right.

[plymouth.livejournal.com]

autocomplete is a separate feature though. you could put autocomplete on a device with a physical keyboard and have it work EVEN BETTER!

[sauergeek.livejournal.com]

There's at least one Android phone with a physical keyboard: the Samsung Moment. The Palm Pre and the Palm Pixi both have one, though I suspect Palm is going the way of the dodo. Steve Jobs once again blows it and doesn't offer a physical keyboard, but it usually takes him a couple iterations for the market to bash him over the head. Eventually he understands that what he wants (grayscale screens, no multitasking) is frequently dumb, and does something about it. However, that won't keep him from trying again (the first NeXT machines also were grayscale only; iPhones and their relatives do not multitask) on a new platform.