the point is that you could in theory use a regular USB keyboard and this driver/cable combo, and it would work just as well. As several people have mentioned, you can then do things like taking notes without a laptop. I was able to type these three sentences at a leisurely pace on my mac with a full size keyboard in less time than it would take me to log into the macrumors forums for the first time on an iphone because you can only use two "fingers" at a time. I've got 9 points of entry right now: 8 fingers and my thumbs on the spacebar. There is no way that anyone using a touch phone could keep up with your average college lecture unless you're extremely good at shorthand translation afterwards. BT keyboard support would be amazing.
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iPhone with External Keyboard (Video)
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why don't apple let people have access to bluetooth so anyone can use any bluetooth keyboard they want? bluetooth for answering phone only is such a waste...
If some people want it, I hope it can made official (sounds tricky). I say, why not?
But for me the answer is: I LIKE my iPhone small and thin and simple, and surprisingly, I even like the iPhone's small portrait keyboard better than the landscape mode. Less distance to travel, which means I can type faster and need need to move my fingers as rapidly (meaning less accurately too) across the screen.
I thought I'd prefer landscape, but for me it's just a way to type in landscape apps, not a benefit of its own.
And if I have to have small keys instead of desktop keys (this is a handheld after all), I LIKE them being virtual and not physical: they adapt to the context in really useful ways. Drag from the # button and release to type just one number or punctuation mark. Drag from a letter to get an accent. Type .com with one tap. And best of all, again... did I mention thin?
But for me the answer is: I LIKE my iPhone small and thin and simple, and surprisingly, I even like the iPhone's small portrait keyboard better than the landscape mode. Less distance to travel, which means I can type faster and need need to move my fingers as rapidly (meaning less accurately too) across the screen.
I thought I'd prefer landscape, but for me it's just a way to type in landscape apps, not a benefit of its own.
And if I have to have small keys instead of desktop keys (this is a handheld after all), I LIKE them being virtual and not physical: they adapt to the context in really useful ways. Drag from the # button and release to type just one number or punctuation mark. Drag from a letter to get an accent. Type .com with one tap. And best of all, again... did I mention thin?
Well it's a good start! Make it compatible with a full-size keyboard and I'd buy it in a heartbeat! Better yet, make it compatible with Apple's Wireless Keyboard. That would be sweet.
Make it compatible with a full-size keyboard and I'd buy it in a heartbeat! Better yet, make it compatible with Apple's Wireless Keyboard. That would be sweet. I don't understand the issues with the reluctance with the virtual keyboard. Took me 1 week to get up to speed with it. I love it and can fly. The adaptive spell/word corrections works great and the more you use it, the smarter it appears to function.
My previous smart phones included both Palm & BB devices. I'd never go back to those little frigging keyboards.
Different strokes for different folks I guess!
My previous smart phones included both Palm & BB devices. I'd never go back to those little frigging keyboards.
Different strokes for different folks I guess!
It would be even more awesome if my MAC's wireless KB would work with the iPhone (via BT of course), one can only dream right?
Well, if I could EDIT documents (I know, the old copy and paste saga) then I may find it useful, butr I did really need a keybord just for e-mail and SMS and writing brief notes.
I Love the World
I love the world because no matter what, some onw will make a keyboard for anything capable of accepting text input.
No matter how impractical or counter to the original purpose of the device, they will do it.
Here are some others:
* Linux
* remote login and/or remote control
* http server
* voice recording
* stylus
* external battery packs
* emulators for other devices
I love the world because no matter what, some onw will make a keyboard for anything capable of accepting text input.
No matter how impractical or counter to the original purpose of the device, they will do it.
Here are some others:
* Linux
* remote login and/or remote control
* http server
* voice recording
* stylus
* external battery packs
* emulators for other devices
indeed
This is what would make it even more useful! Like others, I would love it if I could type with my Apple BT Keyboard and an increase in screen usage would make it twice as nice.
Even better would be a companion mod to keep the software keyboard form even popping up or only popping up with a small line to show that the phone is expecting input... More screen space
This is what would make it even more useful! Like others, I would love it if I could type with my Apple BT Keyboard and an increase in screen usage would make it twice as nice.
I have suggested a blackberry like keyboard dongle that plugs right into the dock connector. It could double as a spare battery. Pocketable and suitable for bloggers and reporters.
Another cool option wold be a BT micro keyboard. The one pictured is a mid-sized keyboard. The main limitation to the iPhone keyboard for rapid typing is the panes of characters and key size.
Rocketman
Another cool option wold be a BT micro keyboard. The one pictured is a mid-sized keyboard. The main limitation to the iPhone keyboard for rapid typing is the panes of characters and key size.
Rocketman
I would love a little keyboard - wired though, not wireless. I don't want another thing to have to charge.
It would be a shrewd move for Apple. Okay, the touch sensitive keyboard is pretty good. Okay I hit the wrong keys often but the correction system is pretty good. What it doesn't let me do is type particuarly fast, and this limits it's use for e-mails and typing posts into a forum like this, for instance.
The good thing about the BlackBerry et. al is their keyboards - really speed up texting and e-mailing and what not. Sometimes a physical keyboard, although old-school is something you can't beat! If Apple released a psysical keyboard, it would really say that they're serious about this device being a real competitor to BlackBerry or WM for the e-mail-aholics who need to stay connected.
I would really like to see a keyboard with perhaps a stand that holds the iPhone upright at an angle, a bit like that cheap bit of plastic supplied with the iPod touch does. Then I could set it down on a desk or on the train or whatever and start work.
In my opinion it would be fab. And the beauty of the free market being that if you don't like the idea, or don't want one, then you don't need to buy one!
It would be a shrewd move for Apple. Okay, the touch sensitive keyboard is pretty good. Okay I hit the wrong keys often but the correction system is pretty good. What it doesn't let me do is type particuarly fast, and this limits it's use for e-mails and typing posts into a forum like this, for instance.
The good thing about the BlackBerry et. al is their keyboards - really speed up texting and e-mailing and what not. Sometimes a physical keyboard, although old-school is something you can't beat! If Apple released a psysical keyboard, it would really say that they're serious about this device being a real competitor to BlackBerry or WM for the e-mail-aholics who need to stay connected.
I would really like to see a keyboard with perhaps a stand that holds the iPhone upright at an angle, a bit like that cheap bit of plastic supplied with the iPod touch does. Then I could set it down on a desk or on the train or whatever and start work.
In my opinion it would be fab. And the beauty of the free market being that if you don't like the idea, or don't want one, then you don't need to buy one!
Might be useful for travel, where the iPhone replaces an entire laptop provided that they add editing ability to documents. Should be BT though.
Might be cool, but seems pretty pointless to pay 10 cents to send a text when I already pay for unlimited SMS through AT&T. I would much rather have the landscape keyboard feature and keep everything else the same.
i wouldn't want that thing attached to my iphone. I've actually gotten used to typing on the iphone and I'm pretty good at it, I don't need an external keyboard
I don't get the "others" part. Is it related to input devices at allparticularly explain the "voice recording" part and "http server". Thanks.
Big enough to thumb type?
He's using his thumbs, and as others have noted is achieving considerably slower input than is possible with the build in kb.
I can understand that there may be a market for this sort of thing, but surely it needs to be bluetooth enabled and large enough to achieve serious performance gains over the built in kb.
He's using his thumbs, and as others have noted is achieving considerably slower input than is possible with the build in kb.
I can understand that there may be a market for this sort of thing, but surely it needs to be bluetooth enabled and large enough to achieve serious performance gains over the built in kb.
Back in the glory days of Palm, a few companies built folding keyboards that, when folded, were no bigger than the Palm itself. I bought the best one on the market at the time: well-built, precise, durable. The Palm docked into the keyboard. It just worked. And for entering longer text, it rocked.
This was...7 or 8 years ago.
Why not do it now for the iPhone?
This was...7 or 8 years ago.
Why not do it now for the iPhone?
It would be even more awesome if my MAC's wireless KB would work with the iPhone (via BT of course), one can only dream right?
I wonder how much that keyboard weighs? Anyone knows?
I didn't say useless. Anyway, I said I love this general phenomenon where, no matter what Apple or some other manufacturer originally envisioned, people with try to reform any device according to their own vision. And it's funny that that vision always includes, for some people, a miniature external keyboard!
I think it's particularly funny in regard to Apple products because, reputedly they are so carefully designed. You just know Apple sweated every detail of what would make their "soft" keyboard better than a regular one. They may have put more attention to this than any other aspect of its design. But, of course, someone comes out with an external keyboard. Never mind that it dwarfs the device itself, or that it needs a jail broken phone to work, or that it still doesn't turn the iPhone into a productivity device (example: still no cut & paste).
It's just funny. Someone (more than one) looked at the iPhone and thought. You know, this is pretty good. But what it really needs--the one thing I think it needs to make a big improvement--is an external keyboard! And they went ahead and made one!
So, from that post of yours one can gather that you somehow managed to miss the point of the video and people's posts entirely. It's not about adding that ridiculously small keyboard, but about adding a keyboard. Think "proper sized".
P.S. Noone - absolutely no-one - has "made" a keyboard for the iPhone. They wrote a driver for an already existing keyboard to prove a point. The very point you seem to miss.