how to type faster?

Practice??

 

Use it for email, and get an IM client like google talk for it or something. Maybe facebook chat, or something similar.

 

Landscape mode? Practice?


I wish Swype was on the iPhone...

 

Same. My friend showed me on his droid and it was pretty sweet. Wish someone could develop this and add it to cydia or something.

 

Use it. A LOT.

I take notes with Notes all the time and it really helps. You get a feel for the way auto-complete works and you'll just start to push space on instinct and that'll make you go faster.

I find if I go into landscape mode I screw up a lot more because the keys are placed awkwardly. I can type pretty fast on my iPhone now. It takes practice.

 

I'd rather have BlindType.

 

That's an amazing piece of software but :-

Shame .. I would certainly pay for it.

 

I've never jailbroken my phone before, but if I could replace they keyboard with the blind type one I'd do it in a heartbeat

 

Fully agreed, I've come from a Nexus One to an iPhone 4 and it's the one thing I miss on my Nexus.

 

As has been said before - Practice, practice, practice.

 

Have you tried landscape with both thumbs?

 

I got really good at typing fast (in portrait) due to using my iPod touch a LOT for MSN, and I can touch type anyway so that kinda helps (know where the keys are). Just get a messaging client, use it lots and you'll get better.

 

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Yup, this is how I got faster.

 

I use iDitDahText. Get it on Cydia. Learn morse code and it's perfect. It's gotten to the point where I can type while driving without looking at my iPhone.

 

The exact same way you get to Carnegie Hall.

 

I have to agree with all of those who say that practice helps a lot. Think about learning to type on a keyboard, that took time and practice to master as well. Personally, I can't type with any level of skill in landscape mode, but I can type pretty fast in portrait mode. I got really good at iPhone typing when my phone was my only accessible computer for quite some time. I had a 8 year old desktop PC running Win XP that was hooked up to my TV as a media center, and my iPhone. So if I wanted to do stuff while my wife and I were watching TV, it was the iPhone.

 

My advice, trust the phone. Its smarter then you think.

I used to waste so much time backing up and retyping misspelled words that the phone would have auto corrected for me.

But 3 plus years of practice does it make a lot easier to say all this.

 

Move your fingers faster.

 

start with the "chicken pecking" method with only your right pointer finger, and holding it in your left hand (or vice versa if your left handed). This way you get a feel for where each key is / where each key should be touched.

then after a week graduate to using your thumbs.

remember, if you switched from another smartphone with physical keys...just PET the phone. Don't press hard, just...pet it softly, like a kitty cat

 

Sometimes it takes a change of "strategy".

Try this: Go ahead and start right off with both thumbs. Type deliberately slow at first, focusing entirely on the keyboard itself and where your thumbs are landing, and not so much on the words above. When I say "type slow", I mean to pause for a half-second before lifting your thumbs after each letter. Remember, you don't have to tap hard -- in fact you can tap the screen very lightly. Just slow yourself down until you get a rhythm.

Then, start picking up the pace. Learn to look up at the words only occasionally, such as when you finish longer words but before you hit SPACE, to make sure it came out correctly and to cancel the Autocorrect if needed (especially after odd names and words that might not be in the dictionary). But focus mostly on the keyboard. It's counter-intuitive for us touch-typers, who are used to looking only at the screen on the PC. But you'll get the hang of it.

Also, learn to trust the autocorrect. If you know you've made a mistake but the word is mostly correct (and it's a common word), just keep going, and glance up to verify it came out right. I always give my sentences a double check read before I hit send too.

Finally, try landscape orientation. You might like that better.

Those are my tips.

 

I use my right thumb and left index finger. I almost never type in landscape mode (unless I have to). To me using both thumbs is too clunky.

 

I sometimes use all my fingers like I do it on a real keyboard, and the letters will show up slower than I'm actually typing.