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Apple Testing Three iPhone 5 Prototypes, One With Slide-Out Keyboard?

All that yelling...

... for hardly anything... as some said previously to me.. its a case with a bluetooth keyboard in it....

http://www.boxwave.com/products/keyboardbuddycase/apple-iphone-4-keyboard-buddy-case_3968.htm

But how are the odds that Apple would go back to a Nokia N97 style, if there are already patents for gesture recognition on a regular mac keyboard?!

...and... if this were a real "Apple" product... the responsable one for the materials crossing (marked) would have already been killed by Steve.

Cheers
Presssack
 

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Will we finally have the iPhone that Steve Ballmer wants?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eywi0h_Y5_U


I find a tiny slide out keyboard to be... wrong thinking. It's a case of "take what works big, and make it smaller", which is a lazy an ineffective way to engineer products. You should be asking "How can we make this particular device ergonomic?", and Apple nailed that with their software keyboard. I can do 45+ wpm, which is pretty damn good for a phone.

Android's Swype impresses me too.

A physical keyboard on a phone is about as ergonomic and refined as the latest clunker truck from Hummer.
 
What a ridiculous rumour!

The whole concept of the iPhone was to do away with the keyboard. The reason why smartphones never took off was BECAUSE of the complexity of the physical buttons.

I will be extremely surprised if Apple releases an iPhone with a slide out keyboard.
 
Maybe if Apple made a slide-out keyboard accessory for the iPhone, like pictured, it would cover some of the bases. And when it use, it automatically prevents software keyboard pop-up. The same way apple makes the Magic Trackpad and Keyboard options for their computer lines. Then users could have a robust option made the Apple quality, if they wanted. Hard to imagine one being built into the actual phone though by Apple.
 
notabadname said:
Maybe if Apple made a slide-out keyboard accessory for the iPhone, like pictured, it would cover some of the bases. And when it use, it automatically prevents software keyboard pop-up. The same way apple makes the Magic Trackpad and Keyboard options for their computer lines. Then users could have a robust option made the Apple quality, if they wanted. Hard to imagine one being built into the actual phone though by Apple.
Click to expand...

Agreed.

That seems the most logical, something that is attachable. The lack of physical keyboard is a hurdle of entry for those new to the iPhone.

Those that have used an iPhone for any length of time, know there is a learning curve, but you quickly forget about needing/wanting a physical keyboard.
 
gri said:
Hell freezes over?
Not going to happen since Jobs was really bashing the fixed keyboards. That is like him suddenly saying that they just love Flash on the iPhone...
Click to expand...

Steve Jobs also once said that the only purpose of a tablet computer would be to give rich people a justification to buy a third computer. And Steve Jobs also once said that there wouldn't be an AppStore for the Mac. He also once tried to convince the world that the PowerPC architecture was so much more powerful and advanced than the Intel architecture - only to finally switch the Macs to that "weaker" architecture. And I'm pretty sure that nobody would ever have thought that he would "allow" Windows to be installed on "his" Macs.

If you could get a dollar for every time that Steve Jobs got caught lying or turning his opinion by 180 degrees (with a strong case of sudden amnesia), you'd become a millionaire.
 
Wow. Okay, folks.

1) It's just a case with a keyboard. No big deal. Nobody is going to force you to use it.

2) Jobs never said he didn't like real keyboards. He said: "the problem with them is really sort of in the bottom 40 there. It's this stuff right there. They all have these keyboards that are there whether or not you need them to be there."

A slide-out keyboard doesn't take up screen space or obscur the screen, which is fantastic if you're trying to fill out a form, write a long letter, or heck even answer in a forum like this.
 
These rumors are not just unbelievable they are stupid. It looks like media sources started manufacturing Apple-related rumors on large scale (to increase page hit counts).
 
iMacoo7 said:
I agree with most. I think this is there way to sift out the leakers...
Click to expand...

Quite possibly. What I don't get, is why would anyone leak stuff? They don't get the 'cred' as they can't use their real name. It could be to hurt Apple, but why work for Apple if you hate the company?

Maybe it's just to score points for their forum username while risking their job in real life.

I could see why you might share the excitement of inside knowledge with your immediate family or close friends, but leaking stuff publicly just seems pointless...
 
Do I see apple doing this? Hell no. Would it be nice for a lot of people yes. I see HW keyboard useful more in the enterprise would or where people need to write longer messages/email than your normal user. The reason I say this is because I have read, head and know people who have gone form a HW keyboard to a software one and they find themselves writing shorter email replays if they replay at all because it is more difficult to do. There is not getting around that fact.
I know I personally will write longer post off my blackberry here than off my iPod touch just because it is easier to type on the bb keyboard.

Physical keyboards are just easier to type on plane and simple. Now that being said I am more than willing to give it up for a bigger screen.
For short quick messages software keyboard. For longer messages I would rather kick up to Physical keyboard.
 
Is this even newsworthy? Anyone with a brain knows this isn't happening.

If you need a keyboard Apple, unlike Android, lets you easily pair with a Bluetooth keyboard.

(I have to admit though, while the G1 was a mediocre phone, I've yet to use a keyboard on any smartphone that was as nice as the one on that phone.)
 
Settle down, folks. Even if this article is true, it's just a prototype. Anyone who's in the technology business knows that companies build stuff all the time that never gets released. Good companies consider all avenues before choosing the best one.
 
queshy said:
What a ridiculous rumour!

The whole concept of the iPhone was to do away with the keyboard. The reason why smartphones never took off was BECAUSE of the complexity of the physical buttons.

I will be extremely surprised if Apple releases an iPhone with a slide out keyboard.
Click to expand...

To say that smartphones "never took off" before the iPhone is to be ignorant of history. Smartphones, especially Blackberries, were immensely popular among business people long before the iPhone ever came out, and many of those people still refuse to get the iPhone because it LACKS a physical keyboard. And physical keyboards are not complicated or confusing -- they are just keyboards. It was all the other stupid buttons that were a problem.

The iPhone's brilliance, and the reason it became so popular with non-business people, wasn't the fact that it could get rid of a physical keyboard. It was that they built a device from the ground up to have a very intuitive touch interface and seamlessly integrate the phone, web, music, email, and all the other functions, all of which it could still have with a slide-out keyboard. Getting rid of the physical keyboard was just a natural byproduct of the multi-touch interface, but by no means was it the primary goal.

However, I very strongly doubt that Apple will put a slide-out or any other physical keyboard on the iPhone. If they did, it would be some revolutionary design no one else had thought of yet.
 
I for one would like a keyboard. I have no problem with folks enjoying a soft keyboard, but there are some of us who aren't made with tiny girly fingers. I have man sized hands, and my Blackberry was easier to type on.

Choices are good.
 
slide out keyboards.. blah. Apple is about eliminating stuff, not adding. It would be kinda like giving mice balls.
 
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