iPhone's horizontal qwerty mock-up
hi all. take a look at this. if you're watching with a 15 powerbook this image represents real size.
for REAL text input, the iPhone NEEDS a bigger qwerty keypad. Period.
This horizontal one might work. It's big enough to be used without errors. I've tried it myself touching on the screen on the powerbook, and as for each finger press, only the right key is 'waved' on the tft screen as a results of the pressure. so size is ok. Try it for yourselves!
This proposed qwerty would be great for a TextEdit kind of mini-app. As you flip the iPhone horizontally, the "standard" qwerty follows suit, appearing as you can see here.
Touching the "M" key for instance, at the right of the "return" key, makes the qwerty dissapear, bringing the usual TexEdit Menu. touch the icon on the right corner, and it comes back again. Boom! ;-)
As the iPhone can detect simultaneous finger touches, this would allow for entering text with 2 fingers simultaneously, which would speed text entry considerably. I've tried it with an iPod (which is only slighlty smaller than the iPhone) and it works great. You could enter text with your both thumbs while holding the iPhone as if it was a PSP, or with your both index fingers, if it's laying on a table.
I'm sure Apple will implement this. Txt input, even if only for SMS, is MORE IMPORTANT than phone calls in europe. If it's working properly, it would made the iPhone a laptop substitute for MANY people.
I'm working on a website dedicated exclusively to further develop all (reasonable) ideas for the promising iPhone. stay tuned.
cheers.
for REAL text input, the iPhone NEEDS a bigger qwerty keypad. Period.
This horizontal one might work. It's big enough to be used without errors. I've tried it myself touching on the screen on the powerbook, and as for each finger press, only the right key is 'waved' on the tft screen as a results of the pressure. so size is ok. Try it for yourselves!
This proposed qwerty would be great for a TextEdit kind of mini-app. As you flip the iPhone horizontally, the "standard" qwerty follows suit, appearing as you can see here.
Touching the "M" key for instance, at the right of the "return" key, makes the qwerty dissapear, bringing the usual TexEdit Menu. touch the icon on the right corner, and it comes back again. Boom! ;-)
As the iPhone can detect simultaneous finger touches, this would allow for entering text with 2 fingers simultaneously, which would speed text entry considerably. I've tried it with an iPod (which is only slighlty smaller than the iPhone) and it works great. You could enter text with your both thumbs while holding the iPhone as if it was a PSP, or with your both index fingers, if it's laying on a table.
I'm sure Apple will implement this. Txt input, even if only for SMS, is MORE IMPORTANT than phone calls in europe. If it's working properly, it would made the iPhone a laptop substitute for MANY people.
I'm working on a website dedicated exclusively to further develop all (reasonable) ideas for the promising iPhone. stay tuned.
cheers.
Comments
tab Q W E R T Y U I O P del
func A S D F G H J K L : ret
shift Z X C V B N M < ? shift
ctrl cmd space cmd spec/char
The usability tradeoff is whether the bigger keys make you more productive while typing, or is it, more keys?
On my treo 650, the biggest typing productivaty loss for me is typing frelling punctuation. On an iPhone, who knows. Apple can reiterate to their hearts content since it is a virtual keyboard though.
http://forums.appleinsider.com/showthread.php?t=70594
ooops, i just missed that.
can we ask the moderators to consolidate both threads into one?
ok, now the question is how much SPACE should the horizontal qwerty occupy on the whole screen.
Obviously there's a limit to its wide aspect, so is about how many lines of text can be displayed. For an SMS is ok with just 3 like you show, but for writing documents you need to see many more and have enough space to be able to easily scroll with your finger up and down, rolling your finger on the right side.
Also consider you need some additional keys, like to hide/show the qwerty. I included a "M(enu)" key.
THT has also a point. Should punctutation keys be included? On another hand, here in europe, every different language needs dedicated keys, like the "ñ", "ü", "ç" ...etc, for spanish, german, french, swedish..
http://forums.appleinsider.com/showthread.php?t=70594
wait, i'll kind of *consolidate* the threads this way:
That one is IRELAND's proposal: