We all know that multitouch is capable on the popular G1 and myTouch. Now I was wondering if adding such a feature onto the virtual keyboard is a can-do. All for the sake of exponentially increasing text insertion speed.
I don't see a reason to use multitouch for text input. What should happen if you enter 2 keys at the same time?
MarcLandis said:
I don't see a reason to use multitouch for text input. What should happen if you enter 2 keys at the same time?
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the point of multi-touch on the vk is to increase the speed of texting meaning u can press a key directly after another without fear of the keys not registering. it really helps when holding the phone sideways because when text i start texting too fast and keys dont register correctly. thats y im still partial to the hard keyboard.
MarcLandis said:
I don't see a reason to use multitouch for text input. What should happen if you enter 2 keys at the same time?
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The reason for multi-touch is simple... take a look at the iPhone, if you hit one key and then before releasing it hit another it registers both hits. So that way you can type much quicker! Try this on the android/htc/better keyboards and you'll see that if you hit two keys at the same time, it will register a key that is almost always half-way in between the two.
However, I think Google is having a hard-time coding for not simultaneous taps but for timing. Meaning that if you hit both the 'K' and the 'N' keys at the same time while trying to type the word 'KNOW', the software not only has to recognize that 2 keys were hit; but has to resolve which one was hit first or was likely meant to be hit first. So that way, it can say
"hey, he hit the 'K' and the 'N' at virtually the same time; BUT, because he hit the 'K' .00002 seconds before the 'N' I'll put register and display the 'K' before the 'N'"
Multi-touch in the browser is probably not easy to code for but it certainly is much easier than the keyboard because pinching only requires the software to recognize that two fingers are on the screen, not that one was there before the other.
But, I think Google needs to work on the usability of the keyboard first. The screen-size on the magic and keyboard might restrict them somewhat but damn the virtual keyboard layout is verry bad... I always hit the "M" key when trying to hit the "DELETE" key.. And why not auto-popup the keyboard when you enter messaging? and why is there the "smiley" key in messaging? WASTE OF SPACE?!?
I thought the HTC keyboard sorta-of had multi-touch support, no?
How does one "sorta" have multi-touch support?
I would love to see this. My biggest problem is not registering a space in between words because I hit it too quickly and then the autocorrect can't fix the issue. Maybe a 3rd party keyboard developer would be interested in incorporating this into their app?
I believe better keyboard has multi touch.
exile20 said:
I believe better keyboard has multi touch.
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It does not, unfortunately.
TonyDeez said:
How does one "sorta" have multi-touch support?
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I think I only got it working with the bottom row of keys.
I can't fathom how one would get the Dream/Magic (G1/myTouch3G) to have a fully functional multitouch keyboard. The multitouch capacity of these devices is hackish to say the least; if the horizontal or vertical coordinates of the touched points coincide to within a rather wide range (comparatively speaking) then the device is incapable of registering more than one touch -- and it wouldn't necessarily be /either/ of the points originally touched.
That would seem to me to be a game-breaker.
Unless I misunderstand? Perhaps the Droid or Cliq are different.
IConrad01 said:
The multitouch capacity of these devices is hackish to say the least; if the horizontal or vertical coordinates of the touched points coincide to within a rather wide range (comparatively speaking) then the device is incapable of registering more than one touch -- and it wouldn't necessarily be /either/ of the points originally touched.
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Reading this got me curious so I went back to Luke Hutchison's blog posts on the matter and played around with his multitouch demo apps here and it looks like there are indeed problems. I then found this post which explains his observations on the matter.
Even with these limitations, though, it's hard to say if there would be much of an issue. I think this "rather wide range" you speak of is small enough. The QWERTY keyboard layout was designed to spread out keys to minimize "jams" of neighboring keys. This works in our favor, making the distance between possible close-to-simultaneous keypresses rather large on average. If I play with the virtual keyboard a little bit, I notice that if my fingers are hitting neighboring keys I don't have problems with simultaneous presses because I have to move my first finger out of the way to make room for the second. I do have unusually large fingers, but give it a try yourself.
Who knows though...it may indeed be too inaccurate.
Also, it looks like there's a similar thread to this one over here.
The trouble, as I understand it, is that you could not touch two points on the same horizontal "read" line of the device, at the same time. You could probably do top row and bottom row as multitouch, but not middle row and anything else. (Assuming three rows total.)
It's not just about touching two keys simultaneously but that if the same capacitors are triggered horizontally, then the device will read this as one -- confused -- input. And if the same capacitors are triggered horizontally, the same will occur.
It is my understanding that the Motorola Milestone's Eclair keyboard is multi-touch. Can anyone confirm that?
i can conform that there is a multi-touch keyboard. Ive actually tested it out. They rebuild the keyboard and made capable of it. I think its called HTC VK keyboard. And yes i can press 2 keys at the same time too.
I have a t mobile Touch pro 2, love the keyboard but i would rather go back to android. Its almost new if anyone is interested let me know in a pm. thanks.
If I'm not mistaken, the HTC Keyboard on the hero has multitouch.
ajones7279 said:
If I'm not mistaken, the HTC Keyboard on the hero has multitouch.
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sorry but you are mistaken. the hero does not even have real multitouch in the driver. one finger gives a small dot, while a second finger would increase the dot size that is reported from the driver, the bigger the distance between fingers the bigger the dot size. this way the pinch-to-zoom works, but it does not actually detect a second touch.
you can see this with various application that show the touch graphically, for example cracked screen or steamy window.
Then I stand corrected. Just relaying something I heard. But doesn't mulititouch have to be written into the program? Like how Picsay had multitouch on the Droid whereas other apps didn't? Just throwing things out there.
kendong2 said:
sorry but you are mistaken. the hero does not even have real multitouch in the driver. one finger gives a small dot, while a second finger would increase the dot size that is reported from the driver, the bigger the distance between fingers the bigger the dot size. this way the pinch-to-zoom works, but it does not actually detect a second touch.
you can see this with various application that show the touch graphically, for example cracked screen or steamy window.
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Dunno about the Hero, but the Eris definitely does have it.
Also- multitouch DOES have to be coded into the application. The driver isn't important at all if the application itself only supports one input.
Interesting new tweet by cyanogen:
@paracycle multitouch is built into keyboardview on eclair. i've backported this for the next CM-4.2 release.
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Related
i have been searching for the iphone touch scroll and media player for the hermes 8525 phone. is there anyone working on this? also is there anyway to make the touch screen to a multi tocuh screen like the iphone.
The multi touch screen is totally different hardware, although it would be cool if there was a way...
delude said:
The multi touch screen is totally different hardware, although it would be cool if there was a way...
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i thought so but i would think if you hack the dll file maybe there is a way to make it read multi times i dont know i am not an expert on hardware or software hacking.
I thought I heard somewhere that there might be someone working on doing something like that. given hardware constraints, it wouldn't be perfect. It would detect the space between the fingers as being pressed as well (I'm assuming), e.g. if you have fingers on the screen like this:
__........__
|__|.....|__|
it would see this:
_________
|_________|
So it would have to figure out by the shape of it where your fingers really are.
Still, I hope someone does. Multitouch would be very nice...
EDIT: due to the restrictiveness of this forum, just imagine that the periods in my ASCII art above dont exist.
That would be amazing, and something i would definately pay for. Looks like it would be like the drag box on a PC desktop. If you put two fingers on then it could drag things or select the space within.
jackbnymbl said:
I thought I heard somewhere that there might be someone working on doing something like that. given hardware constraints, it wouldn't be perfect. It would detect the space between the fingers as being pressed as well (I'm assuming), e.g. if you have fingers on the screen like this:
__........__
|__|.....|__|
it would see this:
_________
|_________|
So it would have to figure out by the shape of it where your fingers really are.
Still, I hope someone does. Multitouch would be very nice...
EDIT: due to the restrictiveness of this forum, just imagine that the periods in my ASCII art above dont exist.
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Detecting the space between fingers would only be possible with double touch screens one on top of the other. To simulate it on the present hardware would require low-level programming to continuously scan the screen within milliseconds so that it could detect minute differences of whichever finger came in contact first. It will not detect it if both fingers pressed on the screen at exactly the same time. Theoretically it should be possible to do but that would really slow down the system just to do it that way.
for multi touch, i'm not sure how it would be useful but i was thinking, maybe it somehow "remembers" a first click, then that second click is processed. for example, the iphone zooming feature. a single click, then a second, separate clickanddrag to zoom in and out
Well, many of the features can actually be done without requiring multi touch. For example, as the screen of the phone small enough, you can actually assigning area in the viewing screen to be doing something specific. For example, on my notebook touch pad, I can assign part of the right portion to do a scroll function. Hence, it is possible to implement the dynamic zoom function on a WM (non-multi touch device) by assigning (say) right hand area to do a zooming. It wont be as cool though.
would it still be cooler than a generic scroll bar? i like to think so.
Guys - great information in the Blackstone forum - wow! I have been following this device for a while, and may want to take the plunge on it (after being disappointed with the Diamond and the Fuze). But - I really need to know how the typing is on this thing? I have read some negative and positive comments on this and other Forums, and I would love to get some opinions. I am a user of Nokia, BlackBerry and the iPhone (cell-phone crack addict), and even though I don't type a book on my phone each day, I do answer about 30 texts and 20 emails per day (1 to 3 sentence responses), and I want to make sure I will not struggle with the typing on this box. I crank on my various Nokia's and my iPhone (BlackBerry goes without saying) - and I don't want to slow down drastically with this device.
Could anyone give me some "real world" experience? I could see myself using the keyboard in both Portrait and Landscape mode - depending on what I was doing at the time.
Any input would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Adam
I find it remarkably well, after getting used to typing instead of writing (I come from PalmOS). Still, my advice is go to a phone shop and try for yourself to see if your fingers aren't too fat
But at least allow for the fact that the first time typing on a touchscreen is going to feel wierd and that you will improve.
I find it really good (coming from the HTC Touch which was sooo small and a pain even when using the stylus). Typing fast its fairly accurate and although you can tweak it to write in landscape I generally type in portrait. I have spent a fair amount of time with the iphone too and although not directly comparative it really is a fairly close call.
(oh and i have fat fingers )
I have had my HD for about 3 weeks now. I don't type that often on it, but I can tell I am getting better. I usually make about one mistake per sentence, but I must say, that I type somewhat slow to avoid making mistakes.
I also see a pattern of mistakes, that show I probably need to practice accuracy with my fingers. For example I often type: W instead of E, S instead of A, X instead of C. All these are left hand keys, so I guess my right hand is better. My right hand sometimes types the space bar instead of B or N in portrait mode.
In landscape mode I make fewer mistakes. However, you will need third-party software to rotate the keyboard in messaging applications.
One BIG annoying thing in landscape mode when you are writing - say, a text message - is that the "Send" button is directly below the "z" and "x" keys (or Y and X in German keyboard). It has happened to me that I want to type one of those letters and I accidentally hit Send - and away goes the unfinished message!! This does not happen in portrait mode because there are other keys (CapsLock, D-pad etc) above the Send button.
This is my first touch-screen phone, so I can't compare it to others.
All in all, I am pleased with the keyboard, and I can see that I am improving. That leads me to believe that it is really just a matter of practice. But, for you it might be different since you are used to other phones. It would be best if you can test one at a store (unless you live in the U.S.).
Here are 2 youtube videos with reviews on the HD keyboard.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qh7YJ-upe1s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=st7ivblVZwY
I came from the Touch (Elf) to the HD. The extra space on the screen means typing with the full Qwerty keyboard is much easier with fingers. I'm quicker with my finger tip than I am with the stylus, whereas the opposite was true with the Elf. I usually use the portrait screen mode and I like the layout of the keyboard in this mode.
On my Elf I installed PocketCM Keyboard which had the auto-correct feature similar to the keyboard of the iPhone. I miss this feature with my HD's keyboard although I'm making fewer mistakes even without this. The auto-correct meant that I could even type one-handed on the Elf but the bigger screen on the HD makes one-handed typing difficult.
But I agree that you should try the keyboard yourself before deciding.
You've got a fair few different styles with third aprty keyboards - something feature packed like touchpal (check youtube for examples), or resco/spb. Should be possible to customise it to suit your preferences.
Personally I like landscape mode, bashing away with both thumbs. The huge screen means the key sizes are quite practical.
Terrific feedback everyone - thanks! I saw a few videos just now, and it appears that you can crank with T9 or mini-QWERTY pretty well, but the full QWERTY in portrait looked a bit harder to use....maybe in Landscape it will be a bit easier?
No Mobile shops near me on Long Island, NY to test this out in-person, so I'm going to have to "wing it" and place the order if I decide on the HD.
Cheers.
I am having some problems with it because I come from a QVGA 2.8" and the WVGA 3.8" is really huge but considering that you have used an iPhone, the transition should be a lot smoother for you.
I am definitely getting the hang of it and improving by the day so I would say that typing is really great on it.
I actually switch a lot between built-in compact and full qwerty boards and leave T9 off. Anybody actually use any of the other built-ins, like the full keyboard etc?
adamzeit said:
....maybe in Landscape it will be a bit easier?
No Mobile shops near me on Long Island, NY to test this out in-person, so I'm going to have to "wing it" and place the order if I decide on the HD.
Cheers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. yes, landscape is easier (except for the send button issue I mentioned)
2. If you wing it - I don't think you'll be disappointed. Especially if you have been looking into it and know the pros and cons discussed in this forum. (Mostly pros)
One minor glitch I found using qwerty keyboard in landscape (using Gyrator2) is the displacement of the dot with the comma, so when you want to type one you have to click on the other and viceversa. This doesn't happen in portrait
Great - feedback - thanks for the quick replies everyone. I decided to indeed "wing it" - and I should have this bad-boy in my hands tomorrow morning!
I'll continue scrolling through the WiKi and such, but besides installing Gyrator2, another other suggestions for my "out of the box" approach?
Thanks!
I used to love the physical keyboard on the TyTn II (Kaiser) I had as it was the closest thing to a full size qwerty keyboard. Made typing a joy. I was weary to abandon a keyboard for strictly virtual keyboard. So I went to the local shop, tried typing and did not like it. I decided to wait till the HD Pro comes (or similar) but that beautifully large, high resolution screen kept bringing me back. I then decided to try it in landscape mode. I sadly found out that HTC did not provide that option, which lead me to this very wonderful forum for help. I found out that you could edit the registry to bring the option of rotating to landscape. I did that at the shop and then unfortunately found out the next fall, it would not remain in landscape because of TF3D home screen and the dialer. I did not hesitate about turning off TF3d because I u se SPB apps (almost all of them collectively on the home screen) but the dialer menu/screen , when accessed - to dial a number for example, would retard the screen back to portrait which made owning it frustrating. Thats till I found out that changing from the HTC dialer to the standard/default WM dialer would allow me to keep it in landscape. Apparently HTC designed thier dialer in portrait mode, which is restricted from rotating. I did eventually loose the HTC dialer (the WM dialer is not that nice) but the large screen, faster processor outweighed the dialer loss.
Typing in landscape mode using full qwerty keyboard is actually a bit easier but you have to get used to the fact that you will not get a physical response. You know , when you press the button and it goes back up. Other than this its not problem.
I do miss the shortcuts provided by the TyTn II keyboard. Like the Fn + ok turns on wifi, Fn+ -> key opens up the explorer window.
CorruptedSanity said:
Typing in landscape mode using full qwerty keyboard is actually a bit easier but you have to get used to the fact that you will not get a physical response.
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Click to collapse
Look for "TouchResponse". This will make your phone vibrating by touching the screen.
johnpatcher said:
Look for "TouchResponse". This will make your phone vibrating by touching the screen.
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Click to collapse
Oh My God man! I thank you infinitely!!!!!!!!!!
The little vibes gave me that "TyTn II keyboard" sensation I missed so much. Now I feel 100 times more comfortable looking at the text when typing rather watching whether I tapped the correct key on the keyboard.
Thanks to the generous creator of the app too.
The best part is that you can customize how intense the vibrations are.
Does "TouchResponse" make it vibrate only on the keyboard or does it vibrate in any and every application every time you touch the screen?
EDIT: By the way, can someone provide a link to TouchResponse. I can't seem to find it via search.
To have truly easy typing with your THUMB, use Tengo Thumb. It works like the T9 version of COMPACT QWERTY, except the keys are grouped into six areas instead of 12. Precision is not needed. When you need to type words not in the dictionary, use non-predictive typing with either finger nail or stylus to precisely touch the specific key within the large area.
Chris Cross said:
Does "TouchResponse" make it vibrate only on the keyboard or does it vibrate in any and every application every time you touch the screen?
EDIT: By the way, can someone provide a link to TouchResponse. I can't seem to find it via search.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://www.1800pocketpc.com/2008/12/12/touchresponse-022-vibrate-on-touch-for-windows-mobile.html
scroll down to the bottom.....
adamzeit said:
http://www.1800pocketpc.com/2008/12/12/touchresponse-022-vibrate-on-touch-for-windows-mobile.html
scroll down to the bottom.....
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A-ha!! Thank you!
I tried the Blackberry Storm and the iPhone before switching to the Touch HD using SPB keyboard - having come from Sony Ericsson P series phones before that.
With SPB keyboard I can honestly say that I make as few mistakes as I do when typing on my laptop QWERTY. It's terrific. And I don't mean the auto-correction feature a la iPhone. This just isn't necessary as my accuracy is first rate on the huge keyboard.
When I got the 'phone I immediatly downloaded gyrator to have access to a landscape keyboard but I really don't need it. My accuracy is spot on in portrait.
Don't get me wrong, i love my phone and i think that it is a seriously cool piece of technology, but we are just not getting along at the moment when it comes to texting.
I've come from a n95, where i could quite happily bash out text messages all day with very few errors, however, on my HD i can hardly type a word correctly either using the full qwerty or phone keypad. I've tried to persevere with both, but things seem to be getting worse rather than better. I'm fine when using the stylus, but when using fingers I am all over the place.
The thing that annoys me most is when i press a key and the key increases in size (as it should) but then nothing appears in the message. The space bar is the worst culprit for this, i'll be typing away and the space bar will acknowledge the press, but when i check the message something like teoitoerteritktret will be there as the space bar presses haven't been put between the words.
So please help me and my HD to remain friends and if you can suggest alternative keyboards that can be downloaded or any tips that you have I'd be more than grateful to hear about them
Spud
For myself, texting has been great on the HD and I have pretty big fingers (i'm 6"4'...and sorry for the 'standard' units). What might help is using the keyboard in landscape if you're not already doing that, that way the keys are alot bigger, especialy in qwerty mode. Also, T9 might be helpful since it corrects mistakes (like hitting the wrong key for one of the letters). As for hitting the key but not having it input it into the text, that occurs when you touch the screen where the key is (good) but before picking up the finger moving it of that key (bad). This tends to occur when you 'roll' your finger onto/off a key. Another thing which might help is this: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=479464&highlight=finger+keyboard (there might be a v2 out already...or still in testing not sure) which is suppose to be a more finger friendly keyboard. A last option which I can give you from the top of my head is Dutty's v1.8 ROM which i believe uses a different keyboard which looks a bit more finger friendly as well.
Hope atleast some of this helps and good luck
I had a bit of difficulty typing at the beginning with the HD, I tried all the keyboards. Even in landscape (full QWERTY) although better than portrayed I found the Compact Keyboard to be the most effective way of typing. I was going to choose the default phone keypad where you have 3 letters but with compact QWERTY you have 2 keys on each key which is even better/faster/accurate (T9-wise). I typed for 2 weeks and now rarely make mistakes, sometimes I even type taking my eyes of the screen because I have memorised the distance between the keys.
I hated the keyboards and nearly wanted to throw the HD in the bin.
This is what I recommend for fast accurate texting.
Use PHONEPAD keyboard. Large keys so you can't accidentally hit the wrong key.
Turn on T9 input (not ABC)
In T9 settings, from Settings, Input, Options menu, uncheck Auto-Substitution and Word Completion in ABC mode. The other two leave checked.
In Word Completion tab, uncheck Suggest words when entering text and check box for Enable auto correct.
I found my frustration came from the words i was typing were automatically changed and substitued when i didn't want them to.
good luck!
Do you know if Cootek TouchPal works on HTC Touch HD ?
I use it on both my HTC Prophet and Diamond and I really like it.
IMHO, it's much better than the provided full and compact qwerty keyboards.
The only drawback is that it's not free software.
Just my two cents.
Cheers.
David
Thanks for the input guys, i've gone for the finger keyboard option to start with and intial impressions are that it is much better, not perfect though, but certainly better
Try getting a smaller keyboard and you will have a great time typing with the stylus.
i can type pretty fast on the phone pad method on my touch HD with t9 activated. the interface is good, much better than the one they included on the universal.
i cant type as fast as i did on my touch dual, but almost as fast now since i've had practise.
i never got the point of full qwerty onscreen, i cant stand them lol, i always use phonepad method. plus with this you can text using one hand
movig from a physical keyboard to a touchscreen is indeed a big change of habits. rather than suggesting a input method I would suggest you some behaviors that helped me a lot in the beginning:
-do not try to type when walking as it makes aiming the keys more difficult
-try to look at the actual keys not at the word written, look at the word every now and then to check for errors
-take your time, it needs concentration on the beginning a.k.a do not try to type too fast just to realize you can do it, speed comes with practice
-try all the input methods with all possible combinations to see what fits you most
-not really the thread to discuss about this, but there are some tweaks and programs available to your device that help a lot, mainly like:
touchresponse by snailslug which provides a small vibration every time you hit the screen, this helps on understanding whether you actually pressed the key
hd tweak and advanced configuration tools can increase the sensitivity of your touchscreen so that less pressure is needed to interact with it
these small tips and a lot of patience helped me a lot in the beginning, now (just after a couple months) I happily type with full qwerty on portrait only both with 2 and 1 hand (and i'm 1m90 tall so don't have exactly small fingers ... and I feel there is a lot more room for improvement
I have just upgraded to the Touch HD. My previous two phones were the TyTn and the TyTn 2 with hardware keyboards, and as you can imagine how well I'd get on with the touch screen for typing was my biggest concern.
I've played around a bit and found the transition much easier than expected, I find that using the QWERTY keyboard with the T9 dictionary turned on works best for me.
As someone else has mentioned, don't try and touch type, that will only lead to mistakes, look at the buttons as you press them and then check your text every so often to make sure it's how you think it should be.
Try Cootek's Touchpal keyboard, best I've tried so far for HD.
There are some others that you may get on with, like Resco and CM.
try fingerkeyboard, it works better for me than the stock HTC keyboard
I've always used FSK (FULL SIZE KEYBOARD) by Spb. I've used it back when I was using an Eten and 5 HTC products later, I've got it on my HD.
Because the screen is larger, it has the tiniest amount of distortion on HD but nothing that makes a big difference.
Like someone mentioned, I've gotten use to using a stylus so many times it's just as fast for me to use the little keyboard.
But then again, I've never been one of those 500 texts a minute person anyway.
HTH's,
Mark
jst first day of my HD usage...i used to have a nokia E61i (still got it) and coupled with nimbuzz i was easily using my mobile to chat to friends and family for abt 3 hours non stop easily like np... but...jst 15 mins of typing on HD and like omg i could only see one line of the conversation box ( landscape mode) and den the keyboard was lil small on te potrait mode. btw...used finger keyboard ver 2 to type...n in jst some minutes my wrist was hurting from keeping the mobile up ( e61i waws heavy as well but was no problemo to me :|) so u people got any sugessions i could try ? Else i'll have to switch to Xperia X1 cuz i would have had no choice left ....help me out plz guys...
I was using my nephew's iPod Touch the other day and the keyboard had a feature I quite liked. When you pressed a key it popped up, but above your finger, so you could actually see what key had been pressed. Are there any apps that copy this?
Plonker said:
I was using my nephew's iPod Touch the other day and the keyboard had a feature I quite liked. When you pressed a key it popped up, but above your finger, so you could actually see what key had been pressed. Are there any apps that copy this?
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Click to collapse
the new HTC keyboard from the new manilla has this that feature now. I think you can get the new keyboard from the app section or the development part.
I was very used to physical keypad on Nokia phone. When I switched over to D810/Trinity, I was using Phonepad, then when TouchPal was launched, I started using it. Since then, TouchPal has been my keyboard. I am using the compact qwerty instead of Phonepad layout. TouchPal has pretty good predictive engine. If you type mostly English or those language supported by TouchPal, then it will be great. Else predictive engine may not be that helpful.
Anyway, what's helpful about TouchPal is also the swipe feature. e.g. swiping the word backward give you the past tense, upward gives you the plural, forward gives you the continuous tense, downward give you the other choices related to the word.
On the key it self, swiping left or right allow you to select the specific letter in the key : 2 letters per key, plus a number (bottom) and a symbol (top). Swiping upward gives you the capital letter, downward gives you the symbol and up and then downward give you the number. Cool, right?!
It comes with copy and paste as well as other useful symbol, preset words features.
For those who really really hate typing, check out ShapeWriter. You 'glide' from one key to another without lifting your finger. Just that the keyboard layout is not too big. The key is pretty small. I'm waiting for 'Swype' which has the same technology, but with bigger key. Sadly, it's not out yet.
Hi Guys,
Just got my HTC HD2 last night on O2 Ireland (Silent release yesterday),
Love the phone but one thing that is really annoying me is the onscreen keyboard, the qwerty and compact qwerty are useless to me, even in landscape mode, but I can use the numeric keypad one although I often have the odd mistake here unless I type really slow and think about it.
Basically what normally happens is as I have quite big fingers, sometimes I tough most of the key I want and a small amount of the key underneath, which is really irritating me as it's taking me 10x longer to send a message than it does on my N95 8GB.
I love the phone but the slow text entry really is making me stick with the N95 8GB right now. I was wondering if anyone had any advice? I wish I could have some nice bigger keypad like when you put the pin in when you turn the phone on and that would be much easier for me!
Is there any way I can use or install any other text input options, or what about bluetooth keypads (Keyboards not really acceptable as they're too big but a keypad could work)
Cheers for any advice
Dear JustinJJ,
I had the same problem, until I relaised I had a hardware screen problem. There are a number of tests you can do to find out if you have a hardware problem.
Just have a look on the forum.
Regards and best wishes with your typing.
Oh, just to let you know, I am on my third HD2 in less than a month, and this is the first time I can type the A-Z without making a mistake. So it was hardware not my fingers.
ADC (Yateley, UK)
Try another keyboard, like Swype?
It needs lots of practice, especially when you were using phone with keypad in the past.
I was going to try Swype over the weekend and see how that goes, it looks quite good but I have doubts because of the much smaller key size which makes me worry a little bit.
I've already tried to recalibrate the screen which helped a little bit, but it's still nowhere near as nice as typing with an actual phone keypad.
It really annoys me as I love the phone so much for everything else apart from text entry!
Practice makes perfect seriously though, it just takes a bit of time to get used to it. Back in December someone made a handy little programme - I think it's called touch mark - which plots where you touch the screen and compares it to where you should be touching the screen, quite handy to "retrain" your finger/eye coordination... will go see if I can find the link to it.
Edit: found it http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=594158&highlight=touchmark
going from resistive to capacitive screen is a big jump; you WILL make a lot of mistakes on the "fat finger" phenomenon, but eventually you will get better (right now i can type faster and with better accuracy on the iphone screen than my X1a keyboard )
Isadora said:
Practice makes perfect seriously though, it just takes a bit of time to get used to it. Back in December someone made a handy little programme - I think it's called touch mark - which plots where you touch the screen and compares it to where you should be touching the screen, quite handy to "retrain" your finger/eye coordination... will go see if I can find the link to it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Indeed,
Touch mark can be quite helpfull to retrain your touching skills
Grtz,
Degake
I use swype and it's mostly great (using it now, in fact) quite surprising how inaccurate you can be with it and it still gets it right.
regarding the capacitive screen in general, the angle of your finger can make all the difference, the pad being recognized much more accurately than the tip/edge, and even the temperature.... cold dry skin = jumpy detection.
I also found that no matter how much I align the screen, for best results my aim must always be slightly up and left if where I'm aiming....not much, just a bit.
I used Cootek touchpal on my HTC HD. I use the predicitive text feature with the 3 letters in each box. It does a hell of a job predicting my words. I find that it types faster than when I was on my blackberry. As in all things new you have to train yourself on it and eventually it becomes natural.
The only typing I never wanted to master was the number pad t9 crap. I got so fed up with it I didn't use it went to blackberry...
I went from a SE W910i with a physical numpad to the HD2 and the first week typing on the HD2 was torture, I dreaded typing a simple "On my way" SMS and kept everything as short as possible. After a week or two I started understanding how it works and started retraining myself in regards to hitting the right key. A few things I noticed are that you don't press the key like you would on a physical keyboard so you need a much "lighter" touch and try to just tap the screen with the tip of your finger. Patience is one of your biggest friends when learning to type and I've sat down with my HD2 for dedicated sessions on typing and have learnt a lot. I also avoid using my thumbs as they are too wide and flat and tend to not hit the keys I want, I usually hold the phone in one hand and "type" with the index finger of the other hand. Now I can type as fast as I would on a normal numpad keyboard but not as fast as I could with my G1.
I've owned a N95 and found the keys were too small and I usually hit more than one at a time which was most annoying. So I don't think your fingers are too big.
I've never tried any other keyboard program but Swype looks like it could be loads of fun as well as more accurate. So give it a week or two to get used to typing and if you still have problems then you may have a faulty screen.
i also use touchpal as it has a great auto correction. first i used the three letters in one box, but now i'm learning full qwertz to be more flexible.
never tried swype but this and touchpal seems to be the most famous osk's around.
a good way for me to reduce the sensitivity and also reduce errors is to apply a screen protector. i got one from - i think e-cell, which was recommended by a lot of users here at devs.
Tried swype, that was awful, partly because my fingers were too big and partly because I had to think about the letters and stop when moving my finger which messed the word generation up.
Tried Touchpal and found that a little better than the built in keyboard in keypad mode but the fact they moved the space to the right of the 9 key really messed it up for me, if they had it underneath it would be perfect but it really messes me up right now and the key after hitting it I always end up hitting wrong.
Then I tried Cliquick! I was in love straight away with it's huge keys this is the only editor I can type accurately with, and not make any mistakes by accidentally pressing the wrong keys. The only problem was this has no predictive text or no standard hardware style keypad mode so it is a little slow having to use multi-tap and an unfamiliar layout, but least it's accurate and less frustrating even if it is slow.
Does anyone know if they plan to release a predictive text add in or perhaps a standard keypad layour, or is there any plug-ins I can use to achieve the same effect.
So it isn't just ME...
samsamuel said:
...I also found that no matter how much I align the screen, for best results my aim must always be slightly up and left if where I'm aiming....not much, just a bit.
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That's funny. I thought it was just ME. I realigned the screen and picked spots slightly BELOW the X.
Works great now when I actually click ON the icons...
What is the biggest keyboard which can be installed on the HTC HD2? I have tried swype and the standard keyboard that comes with the phone, but I tend to be hitting the key next door at times resulting in me taking longer than I would like to send a simple text.
I haven't seen an Iphone keyboard before but I have not heard anyone mentioning the difficulties with the typing on that phone, I could be wrong of course.
I need some decent size keys to press, it wouldn't of been to bad if we had a stylus in the phone.
Trust me, the Iphone keyboard is harder to use.
I always miss the buttons on the standard keyboard, but is it really a problem?
XT9 corrects me 98% of the time.
And with swype its not a problem at all...
You are swyping the keyboard, right? Because its almost impossible to press the buttons.
Maybe my damn fingers are just too big, with swype I find myself rolling my finger to see if I'm swiping the right key or the one beside it. Oh well let's see how it goes.
Cheers
Then you could consider the possibility to move the keyboard on the horizontal way, using software as girator, then if you use both the thumbs with an angle of 90 degrees it is really easy to write, look in youtube a video that shows how a iphone user can write faster than one that use the great swype on hd2, it is just a matter of pratical skill that stems for some training. anyway there are software that use bigger keyboard, if I well remember is the spb keyboard.
3 solutions...
1)swype
2)training
3)spb keyboard
seems easy...
Yeap practice is definately the way forward in this case I think
sony007 said:
What is the biggest keyboard which can be installed on the HTC HD2? I have tried swype and the standard keyboard that comes with the phone, but I tend to be hitting the key next door at times resulting in me taking longer than I would like to send a simple text.
I haven't seen an Iphone keyboard before but I have not heard anyone mentioning the difficulties with the typing on that phone, I could be wrong of course.
I need some decent size keys to press, it wouldn't of been to bad if we had a stylus in the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the iphone is much more accurate then hd2.i own the hd2 and the htc shift.
Accuracy depends on each and every person. You can`t say that one keyboard is more accurate than another, because only the person typing can be more or less accurate when using one of the keyboards. I`ve used both the iPhone and the HD2 (which I own) and I would go for the HD2`s keyboard anytime. But that`s just my opinion.
As for the OP`s problem, use SPB Keyboard if you have a hard time typing on the stock keyboard.