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iOS 5 split keyboard

Saladinos

Saladinos

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Feb 26, 2008
1,845
4
Seriously it's brilliant. SO much easier to type on the iPad. Can take a bit of getting used to, but i find I can touch-type on it whilst holding the ipad high; something I definitely couldn't do before!

Also good if its propped up against your chest when lying down. Would like the keys to be resizeable (maybe with a gesture?). I know it's meant not to stretch your thumbs, but the keys are just a bit too small for me, and I dont have very large hands and can type fine on an iPhone.
 
oh

I can't even tell you how awesome this is. At first when i saw the feature i was like who cares but now once your used to it its amazing. it literally makes typing on here much easier. Just wish you could customize the color or something, that'd be awesome.
 
i was very disappointed to see in the demo yesterday that they still didn't add a row of numbers to the 'revised' keyboard.

how could they leave something which is so basic, out?

this of one of those things that i find frustrating about Apple. they come up with some good ideas at times and bungle it in a very basic way. arrrghhh!

Saladinos said:
Seriously it's brilliant. SO much easier to type on the iPad. Can take a bit of getting used to, but i find I can touch-type on it whilst holding the ipad high; something I definitely couldn't do before!

Also good if its propped up against your chest when lying down. Would like the keys to be resizeable (maybe with a gesture?). I know it's meant not to stretch your thumbs, but the keys are just a bit too small for me, and I dont have very large hands and can type fine on an iPhone.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
I love it too!

To activate it, hold the keyboard icon on the bottom right of the keyboard.


Only 1 big problem for me though: I docked it and now my applications crash when trying to split it. Anyone else run into this one?

Edit: activating it in spotlight worked.
 
good feature, glad it is there, and i hope they continue to refine it to make it even better
 
Apple only have to do ONE SIMPLE THING, and they won't :mad:

Just allow user/dev created keyboards.

So you can go to the App Store and download new custom keyboard layouts.

The Palm PDA's allowed this and the Pocket PC's allowed this, and both devices/users benefited tremendously from this.

You could buy/select the layout you liked and use that.

It's simple to do, but again, Apple don't want us to have this freedom :(

Such a shame as it would not hurt them.
 
Piggie said:
Apple only have to do ONE SIMPLE THING, and they won't :mad:

Just allow user/dev created keyboards.

So you can go to the App Store and download new custom keyboard layouts.

The Palm PDA's allowed this and the Pocket PC's allowed this, and both devices/users benefited tremendously from this.

You could buy/select the layout you liked and use that.

It's simple to do, but again, Apple don't want us to have this freedom :(

Such a shame as it would not hurt them.
Click to expand...

It's a keyboard. There's nothing to customize. You don't get keyboard skins on your real desktop keyboard do ya?

I don't agree - the keyboard in iOS 5.0 rocks. I can't begin to tell you how great it is to iMessage with that split keyboard. Even surfing the web with safari having to type the URLs is quite enjoyable..except for the fact you have to tap the address bar to enter in which requires you to shift your entire hand away...
 
iPadThai said:
It's a keyboard. There's nothing to customize. You don't get keyboard skins on your real desktop keyboard do ya?

I don't agree - the keyboard in iOS 5.0 rocks. I can't begin to tell you how great it is to iMessage with that split keyboard. Even surfing the web with safari having to type the URLs is quite enjoyable..except for the fact you have to tap the address bar to enter in which requires you to shift your entire hand away...
Click to expand...

No, but I get number keys, Cursor Keys and more on a real keyboard, the same as you do.
All they had to do is define a set area for the on screen keyboard to be contained within, and devs could of created their own keys and layouts.
And we would all of loved it, and be talking about the great cool new layouts that come out.
 
Saladinos said:
Seriously it's brilliant. SO much easier to type on the iPad. Can take a bit of getting used to, but i find I can touch-type on it whilst holding the ipad high; something I definitely couldn't do before!

Also good if its propped up against your chest when lying down. Would like the keys to be resizeable (maybe with a gesture?). I know it's meant not to stretch your thumbs, but the keys are just a bit too small for me, and I dont have very large hands and can type fine on an iPhone.
Click to expand...

Gotta agree, I'm super excited about this one.
 
bobright said:
Does anybody have a link here I can see the full keynote from my iPad? :p
Click to expand...

There was a link from engadget but I think it was Flash as I couldn't get it to work on my ipad. I think it was ustream or something like that.
 
bobright said:
Does anybody have a link here I can see the full keynote from my iPad? :p
Click to expand...

Piggie said:
According to this picture yes:

http://www.geek.com/articles/apple/apples-ios-5-finally-brings-a-split-keyboard-to-the-ipad-2011067/

Quite funny actually, no room for number keys as that would make the keys too small everyone's been saying for over a year, but they've shrunk the keys tiny for this split and everyone is saying wonderful.

Funny that. Before smaller would be terrible, now smaller is great.
Click to expand...

When I saw this I asked myself the same thing. The feature is most Needed in landscape. Most guys don't need it in portrait mode. Would have defeated the purpose if it didn't work in landscape.
 
MS showed off the same kind of keyboard in Windows 8 just three days before the WWDC keynote. Interesting they both arrived at it about the same time.

My question for any devs: can it be used on the lock screen with a long passcode, too?
 
Piggie said:
According to this picture yes:

http://www.geek.com/articles/apple/apples-ios-5-finally-brings-a-split-keyboard-to-the-ipad-2011067/

Quite funny actually, no room for number keys as that would make the keys too small everyone's been saying for over a year, but they've shrunk the keys tiny for this split and everyone is saying wonderful.

Funny that. Before smaller would be terrible, now smaller is great.
Click to expand...

superstrikertwo said:
Yes.
Click to expand...

Thank you! Very very happy to see that. Scott only showed it in portrait at the keynote.

I use my iPad in landscape at least 90% of the time. Good info. Thanks again.
 
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