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Apple Testing iPhones with Physical Keyboards?

I already posted the true solution some time back. Make a keyboard dongle that plugs into the dock connector when you need it. One more object in your pocket or holster. At some point the user of the dongle will become accustomed to the virtual keyboard and its large and increasing benefits, and abandon the dongle. Dongles will be sold for half price on ebay.

In the mean time those folks who "need" a Crackberry like keyboard have one and we can stop listening to the incessant whining.

Heck, windblows users are "taking up" the Mac in droves now. Who coulda known? Shuddap Steve. :p

Rocketman
 
Oh and on a related note...has anyone checked their iPhone typing test scores lately? After using the iPhone for about a week last July I was in the 25-30 WPM range. Now I hover around 35-40 and can burst up to 48 WPM when typing in freestyle mode where I just type whatever is on my mind. The biggest drawback to that app is that the horizontal keyboard is too big on the Safari screen to see what you're supposed to be typing up above, which makes freestyle mode faster. I hope they come out with a speed test on the app store for free.
 
humm.... i cant help but think that if a half blind guy with fat fingers (me) can type at normal speed on a soft keyboard then why cant anyone else?

Well... i will look forward to apple making a slide out keyboard elegant... I can't imagine it.
 
Powerbooky said:
Honestly, even though Apple made some strange "moves" before (Intel Mac), but adding an built-in real keyboard to the iPhone? Naah! It would be more obvious to make an external Apple mini/micro alu-keyboard and sell that as an accessory.

Even the first iPhone has bluetooth, right? Can't it already pair with existing BT-keyboards?
Click to expand...

No, it only pairs with bluetooth headsets at this point, unfortunately. However, I highly doubt Apple would ever release a separate keyboard to pair with the iPhone. Seriously, who does that?

I mean, I'm not trying to be a jerk, but who wants to carry around a keyboard with their mobile phone? It's just not very efficient. That's the beauty of it being a mobile phone... you don't have to carry around accessories with it in order for it to be functional... and even moreso, I highly doubt that any executives out there are going to be ooh'ing and aah'ing over having the option to pair their phone with a keyboard when they want to type up an email... they want to pull out their phone, type an email while walking to a meeting and be done with it.
 
Doh! It just struck me - everyone here is either saying Apple can't add a physical keyboard because SJ trashed phone keyboards etc or that a physical keyboard for the iPhone is a must.

BUT THERE IS ANOTHER WAY.

Supposing the sliding out keyboard turns out to be...another touch screen keyboard! Because it's touch screen it could be thin enough not to make the iPhone any much bigger, it would increase the screen real estate enormously by effectively producing two touch screens, and if it came out the side you could rotate it and have a landscape touchscreen keyboard and full iPhone screen page to write on. Sorted!

And it wouldn't compromise SJ's stance on physical key keyboards...
 
macduke said:
Oh and on a related note...has anyone checked their iPhone typing test scores lately? After using the iPhone for about a week last July I was in the 25-30 WPM range. Now I hover around 35-40 and can burst up to 48 WPM when typing in freestyle mode where I just type whatever is on my mind. The biggest drawback to that app is that the horizontal keyboard is too big on the Safari screen to see what you're supposed to be typing up above, which makes freestyle mode faster. I hope they come out with a speed test on the app store for free.
Click to expand...

Nice to see a real user. I have hit mid-50's a couple times but generally 35 is comfortable for me. I type a lot faster in portrait mode, I hate landscape because you have to move your fingers too far. Flying low and quick and clumsy is key to rip-roaring speed. Regular full-size keyboards almost seem slower and really, really dumb once you get used to it.
 
Idea...

What would be AWESOME is this:

Use the sliding keyboard still, with physical keys, BUT use a "Optimus Maximus" concept and allow the keys to be changed via software...SJ seemed very insistent on phones going out of date because theyre keyboard couldnt change....hm
 
100% pure bull*****

1) When has Apple ever relied on outside opinion when evaluating the market for a device? Their entire design philosophy is predicated on ignoring what the market thinks they want, in order to deliver what the market actually wants. This occasionally leads Apple down the wrong road, but only a fool argues with success.

2) Apple has proven, time and time again, that they could care less about the enterprise market. "If enterprise wants to buy our stuff, fine -- we'll take their money."

3) This notion that because most staff have physical keyboards, Apple must have them too, is patently ridiculous. First, the same reasoning could have been used to convince Apple to never release the iPhone in the first place. Second, OF COURSE they have physical keyboards -- there were no viable touch-screen options before the iPhone.

This rumor isn't even worthy of Page 2.
 
bmk said:
Doh! It just struck me - everyone here is either saying Apple can't add a physical keyboard because SJ trashed phone keyboards etc or that a physical keyboard for the iPhone is a must.

BUT THERE IS ANOTHER WAY.

Supposing the sliding out keyboard turns out to be...another touch screen keyboard! Because it's touch screen it could be thin enough not to make the iPhone any much bigger, it would increase the screen real estate enormously by effectively producing two touch screens, and if it came out the side you could rotate it and have a landscape touchscreen keyboard and full iPhone screen page to write on. Sorted!

And it wouldn't compromise SJ's stance on physical key keyboards...
Click to expand...

I was thinking the same thing, except that it kind of rules out why they would even think of adding a dedicated keyboard in the first place. People bash the touchscreen because it doesn't offer any tactical feedback... ie, executives who are on their Crackberry 24/7 can pretty much type an email without looking at their phone because they're so used to the feel of the keyboard...

So this isn't something that could be achieved with the addition of another touchscreen keyboard :/
 
Niiro13 said:
Cause some people just don't like the idea of a physical keyboard on the iPhone...now bluetoothing with a full keyboard (or Apple's Wireless Keyboard) would be ownage.
Click to expand...

Yep, a colleague and I were just discussing this yesterday -- we need an external keyboard for fast email communication as a laptop replacement. Whatever happened those roll-out keyboards? Do palm people still use those (or did they ever?).
 
so the company that didn't send out the real iphone unit for testing to AT&T is suddenly sending out prototypes? unless we're talking about a fundamentally different internal architecture why does apple need to send out something as easily to test internally as a slide-out keyboard.
 
I've used a blackberry for about ten minutes, and I've used an iPhone for about ten minutes. I much preferred the iPhone.

I would love to see some sort of haptic keys - you slide your finger across the phone and can "feel" the keys as the phone vibrates underneath your finger on each key. Would be great for finding pause/play/next while the phone is in your pocket.

Edit: Here's a link explaining how haptics can (and will) benefit the iPhone: http://code.google.com/p/iphone-haptics/

A bluetooth keyboard molded into an iPhone case would be a great accessory - too bad Apple has crippled the bluetooth stack on the iPhone.

If Apple does come out with some sort of physical keyboard, I hope they do it in some revolutionary way like we've come to expect.
 
The nobs at the register probably saw the prototype for the new iMate or something saw the i and assumed it was apple. Since it was nothing they had seen in the past they probably assumed it was an apple prototype.

This whole rumor just sounds too mainstream to really be apple.
 
Total bollocks. The day they do a physical keyboard it will be the day that a physical keyboard ceases to be. Name of the Rose anyone?
Anybody that things otherwise is a flaming blind idiot.
 
on a semi-related note... does anyone else wish the keyboard reflected when caps or caps lock are enabled? This seems like such a small thing, but many times i've wished i could have the confirmation of seeing the letters change from lower case to caps when i meant to hit the caps key.
 
Dumb Apple, just dumb. I hope this is one rumor that just isn't true. A physical keyboard totally goes against what Jobs has been saying for over a year. There's just no way. The keyboard totally defeats the whole purpose of multi-touch.
 
lowbatteries said:
A bluetooth keyboard molded into an iPhone case would be a great accessory - too bad Apple has crippled the bluetooth stack on the iPhone.

If Apple does come out with some sort of physical keyboard, I hope they do it in some revolutionary way like we've come to expect.
Click to expand...

So what might be actually practical is for the battery dongle company to put a keyboard on the back face of the battery enclosure. That way you get a 2 for one deal and the only interconnect is the dock, not bluetooth.

Rocketman
 
mainstreetmark said:
I'm such a fan of the ".com" button and all the other clever things the soft keybaord can do.
Click to expand...
I don't have an iPhone (yet), but am I missing something? When I enter a domain name in Safari, it automatically adds "http://" to the front and ".com" to the end. For example, if I type "macrumors" into the location bar, I'm directed to "https://www.macrumors.com/". How does having a ".com" button save time?
 
Stang68 said:
Notice how the article states that they wont say which carriers have the prototype? Its because its a CDMA version! Thats right, the Verizon iPhone is going to have a physical keyboard! I dont know if Im happy about that...:confused:
Click to expand...


And you came to this conclusion based on WHAT?

This site amazes me at the stupidity of the posts.
 
Rocketman said:
So what might be actually practical is for the battery dongle company to put a keyboard on the back face of the battery enclosure. That way you get a 2 for one deal and the only interconnect is the dock, not bluetooth.

Rocketman
Click to expand...

A "2 for 1 deal" also means bulkier and spendier. Why should I have to buy a battery dongle when I want a keyboard? Also, anybody making this would have to figure out how to make a keyboard work through the dongle - proprietary hardware. If Apple opened the BT stack, we could have stereo bluetooth, wireless printing, wireless file sending, wireless contact sharing ... you know, like bluetooth is supposed to do. And I could even use a big old bluetooth apple keyboard if I felt so inclined.
 
Choices are good. It'd make a better little "laptop replacement" if it had a kb.

I loved my Sony Clie UX50's keyboard.. I'd probably pick the current style over a keyboarded model but there's definitely space for apple to have 2 or even 3 iphone designs for different types of user.

One fits all doesn't work with computers - or MP3 players - why should it for phones? They've turned round and done things they've previously said they disagree with on numerous occasions.

.. BTW none of this means I think they *will* make a kb iPhone - I find it pretty unlikely, but it's not a terrible idea, I'm sure they'd do a really good job of it.
 
SUCH BS!!! First of all steve would go to a phone without any screen and absolutely no keyboard before he went to a phone with a keyboard so get over it. All apple has to do is when it keyboard mode on the touch screen the screen surface would actually raise a small pimple through the substrate to simulate the presence of a key... The point is moot.
 
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