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Apple Testing iPhones with Physical Keyboards?

Why is it an either/or deal?

Seems to me if Apple made a slider type keyboard for the iPhone, you'd still have the virtual keyboard as an option on the touch-screen. You'd just *also* have the slide-out physical keyboard to type on, if you so desired.

That would definitely interest me. I like the virtual keyboard and its flexibility too - but when I'm trying to type something like a longer email or multiple SMS messages, it starts to get annoying. Real keys have some advantages I don't think can be duplicated with virtual keys drawn behind a sheet of glass. The "haptic" technology is interesting, but so far - I think that stuff is in the very early stages. People testing it say it's little more than a gimmick right now. (Yes, the phone can slightly vibrate to confirm you pressed a virtual key - but it doesn't simulate the feel of your finger aiming for a key and feeling how it feels to "miss" and have it between two adjacent real keys. That's the kind of feedback you really need to type blindly.)


macluver101 said:
meh. I will never go back to actual keys. I like the virtual keys, way more possibilities.
Click to expand...
 
I will put this disclaimer out first: I do NOT own an iPhone nor an iPod touch. This weekend I will be purchasing an iPod touch along with my MacBook Pro, so my opinions could completely change.

Now then...

I love how people are all "ZOMG!!! No physical keyboardz because they'll make it fugly!!1111!" As if somehow, having a physical keyboard on an Apple product would make the design go straight to hell. Seriously, when has Apple taken something beautiful and made it ugly to the point where everybody revolted? Never. Think how you will, Apple will not make their physical keyboard products ugly.

Secondly, you may think that the keyboards are small, but how many have actually used a physical keyboard on, say, a BlackBerry Pearl for more than 5 minutes? I have one and I have fairly large hands and it's perfect for me. I find that using a keyboard on an LG Voyager a bit cumbersome as the keys aren't really that close.

And to all the rumors of them having a sole physical keyboard with no touch-keyboard, that's just idiotic. Why would they do that? They virtual-keyboard is what made the cell phone market rush to innovate... Again.
 
what are we working backwards here? 1st the round corny plastic back, now its gonna have keys? C'mon apple. :(
 
Rhalliwell1 said:
i said earlier on in this post that i can type just as fast on the iPhone as i can on a full sized keyboard.

Here are some pics;

[snip]
Landscape iPhone

[snip]
Portrait iPhone

[snip]
Full size laptop keyboard

So why is a physical keyboard needed?

All results are first time results.
iPhone tests were done on an 8Gb iPhone running iPhone software version 1.1.4
Full size keyboard test was conducted on an Acer Aspire 9300 running Windows XP SP2 in Safari.

All test were conducted here
Click to expand...

People should stop their postings for a second and read this. 73 WORDS PER MINUTE ON AN IPHONE. I am a crappy typist but I can hit mid 50's. I use the fat pad of one finger only. This 73 WPM is apparently what someone good can do. You fly fast and low and loose and the words just go...I keep saying this but no one believes me.

Rhalliwell1, you do need to make a video of this, and it should go viral. It trumps all arguments.
 
Add me to the list of people that hopes this is true. The requirement to use a content-obscuring onscreen keyboard with no tactile feedback is one of the few things (along with the need to wait for the 3rd-party software base to fill my various software needs, including a HanDBase-like database, an SSH client, a One Time Password generator, etc.) that keeps me on my Treo.

I think this would indeed help with enterprise adoption, and I have to say that Steve's assertions in his keynote about the supposed superiority of virtual keyboards are typical reality disortion fieldisms. What percentage of people need the ability for their keyboard to seamlessly morph between ones for entering English, Japanese, Korean, etc.? Hell, I speak (and sometimes write) Japanese, but I have no interest in a morphing keyboard. Typing Japanese characters via English letter combinations (i.e. romaji) with subsequent semi-automatic transformation to kana / kanji is the easiest for most Westerners anyhow.
 
TalkAboutApple said:
Rhalliwell1, you do need to make a video of this, and it should go viral. It trumps all arguments.
Click to expand...

How can you 'argue' about a typing preference? I mean, seriously. If someone prefers real keys, nothing 'trumps' it. It's what they prefer. I say leave it at that. If Apple releases a slide-out keyboard and the phone isn't like 10x thicker, I know I'd pick it over one WITHOUT the OPTION. I'd then try both and use what I like. Why should anyone force me to use something I don't like? Frankly, that's my entire beef with Steve Jobs and the iMac being the only "mid-range" Mac choice out there. If I want a mini-tower, I should be able to buy a mini-tower running MacOSX and I shouldn't have to buy a Hackintosh to do it or spend $2400 for overblown pro hardware I don't need. So if this rumor is true, maybe Steve is finally starting to see the light and offer people some real CHOICES instead of one size fits most.
 
They should make many models to compete with RIM. They are coming out with a new pearl, curve, bold, flip (kickstart), thunder (touchscreen), storm (touchscreen and slideout keyboard). I think that we should have more options. I am choosing between the Bold and the iPhone 3G for the sole purpose of the keyboard and the typing texture of the keyboard.

Also, If Apple made texting with a landscape keyboard, life would be a lot easier. (OH WAIT, THE TEXT PLANS WON'T BE ON THE iPHONE NO MORE, SO I GUESS WE CAN JUST ELIMINATE THE TEXT APP IN GENERAL BECAUSE TEXTING COST SO FREAKIN MUCH ON AT&T!!!!!)
 
coolb0yalex said:
They should make many models to compete with RIM. They are coming out with a new pearl, curve, bold, flip (kickstart), thunder (touchscreen), storm (touchscreen and slideout keyboard). I think that we should have more options. I am choosing between the Bold and the iPhone 3G for the sole purpose of the keyboard and the typing texture of the keyboard.

Also, If Apple made texting with a landscape keyboard, life would be a lot easier. (OH WAIT, THE TEXT PLANS WON'T BE ON THE iPHONE NO MORE, SO I GUESS WE CAN JUST ELIMINATE THE TEXT APP IN GENERAL BECAUSE TEXTING COST SO FREAKIN MUCH ON AT&T!!!!!)
Click to expand...
I guess you don't have a Verizon PDA/BlackBerry. Or Sprint. Or T-Mobile. Nobody bundles texts with their data plans. They don't even bundle texts with feature phone data plans.
 
haptic

Haptic tech is something that takes getting use to. I still prefer the keys/buttons and I think this is something that apple will have to work on in order to siphon the crackberry folks on over.
 
zflauaus said:
I guess you don't have a Verizon PDA/BlackBerry. Or Sprint. Or T-Mobile. Nobody bundles texts with their data plans. They don't even bundle texts with feature phone data plans.
Click to expand...

Why include text data with a data plan when they can royally rip you off instead? I guess it's why I've NEVER 'texted' in my entire life. It's a total scam. Do you know how much it costs to transmit an average text message? They're making like 25000% profit and they're only doing it because they CAN. People are willing to be ripped off so they keep ripping you off. It reminds me of people bottling tap water and charging more per ounce than gasoline and people just eat it up, only this is worse, really. Here's a nice article on it I ran across:

http://crave.cnet.com/8301-1_105-9982251-1.html
 
this will never happen because steve was dissing plastic keys and saying they never change during they keynote so there you have it folks its complete BS.
 
Rhalliwell1 said:
i said earlier on in this post that i can type just as fast on the iPhone as i can on a full sized keyboard.

Here are some pics;


Landscape iPhone


Portrait iPhone


Full size laptop keyboard

So why is a physical keyboard needed?

All results are first time results.
iPhone tests were done on an 8Gb iPhone running iPhone software version 1.1.4
Full size keyboard test was conducted on an Acer Aspire 9300 running Windows XP SP2 in Safari.

All test were conducted here
Click to expand...
Holy cow bells! I type aprox. 70-73 WPM on a test. I have no idea how fast I type on an iPhone, but I've tried to type on one once and it was tough.
 
TalkAboutApple said:
Anyone who likes the idea of physical keys on the iPhone needs to be "re-educated" because they are only "getting" a tiny part of the platform. The touchscreen is a big part of the revolution.

And here's the litmus test: Any user who prefers landscape mode isn't truly proficient. Real users use the fattest, clumsy pad of their fingers or thumbs in portrait mode...and can get at least 30wpm.
Click to expand...
I will so support this statement. When I first got the iphone I was a bit skeptical. I thought that the only way that I would be able to even begin to match my normal typing speed would be to tilt to landscape. But as time passed, landscape mode became clunky, the keys are too spread out. In portrait mode, I can blaze with two thumbs. You learn (instinctively) where your thumbs hit the screen first. And of course, the auto-complete is pretty damn smart. For all of you whining about the lack of physical keyboard being the reason that you are shying from the iphone... try stepping out of your shoes for a bit. Those new shoes feel a little odd at first, but pretty soon they are a damn good fit.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4A102 Safari/419.3)

I know a number of people who would be all over this. But I wouldn't be, it would take away all the sleekness in my opinion.
 
TalkAboutApple said:
People should stop their postings for a second and read this. 73 WORDS PER MINUTE ON AN IPHONE. I am a crappy typist but I can hit mid 50's. I use the fat pad of one finger only. This 73 WPM is apparently what someone good can do. You fly fast and low and loose and the words just go...I keep saying this but no one believes me.

Rhalliwell1, you do need to make a video of this, and it should go viral. It trumps all arguments.
Click to expand...

I have a confession i am afraid;

Like i said i was surprised by the landscape test and it appears i have found a bug in the site. I am still able to produce the high 40's low 50's but 70's seem to be out of the question.

Here's me exploiting the bug:



I will go and make a video but i doubt you will see 70 wpm. Sorry.

Edit: Recorded all footage,
Got all pictures,
Just putting them together in WMM..... Crashed 5 times so far!
 
Here it is;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JsPStl0dDw

It is quite obvious that my thumbs are somewhat fat. But i would also like to point out that the vision in my right eye is practically not there! its so bad that i need font size 38 to read text on a screen from 1 foot away. luckily my left eye has near perfect vision, but your brain uses both eyes to judge distances and as a result my hand-eye coordination is pretty aporling. Because of this i don't see any reason why the 'average' user cannot use the iPhone keyboard.

Enjoy the video... my computer struggled to make it... 7 crashes :eek:

The quality is a bit poor, you can download it here. It might be a little better.
 
I just can't see keyboard attachment for the inphone...touch is what makes the iphone what it is....any keyboard would be going backwards in my eyes
 
I say...

If they make an iPhone Nano (2.8" screen), how could they possible have room to type anything.

So in conclusion, an iPhone Nano with a "physical" keyboard would a grand idea and give customers more of a choice! ;)
 
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