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Thanks Beverly Howard!!!

Just tried Fastpad. Liked it way way more then the other two I posted above!

Finally a useful post to help us save time instead of waste time!!
 
Qwerty guesses words too tho when they are long enough?

When you have to differentiate between good and home and examples like that it sets u back and evens out the speed differences between qwerty and t9.

T9 is faster for a common burst phrase (barely) but qwerty is faster in everything else.

Ive written whole essays in both landscape and vertical in qwerty and I could never do that in t9.
 
Let me just say I love T9 as well, and rely on ONE HAND texting, I dont want to use 2 hands. I hate using phones in landscape mode, phones were built to be held in portrait mode. I gotta hit 26 different little keys to type something in qwerty, but in T9 I gotta hit like 9 or so LARGE keys.

I have owned an iphone, and LOVE the iphone, but right now I have a android phone, and I got the best dang T9 app there is. It doesn't even require jailbreak/root. Its a SIMPLE download from the market.

I can't tell you how much better my life with texting has become. I type emails and everything with this T9 on android. Man, I want to switch back to iphone sometimes, but this is just one of the small perks of the android.

Check the app out here, I'm sure you guys will be impressed!
https://market.android.com/details?id=net.fredricknet.inputmethod.latin&feature=search_result
 
We still haven't got a proper T9 for iPhone yet? I miss my Nokia ....... you know what'll work best? T9 in vertical mode, and Qwerty in horizontal! Best of both worlds! C'mon Steve, give us options for T9!
 
We still haven't got a proper T9 for iPhone yet? I miss my Nokia ....... you know what'll work best? T9 in vertical mode, and Qwerty in horizontal! Best of both worlds! C'mon Steve, give us options for T9!

T9 is old, since its not been done yet, Apple will never do it. Lost cause. Adapt or go back to Nokia.
 
Yea it is old, it was patented in 1998.

Apple will not bring this in, it's old tech. It's like asking for them to incorporate morse code pretty much!

I don't think something being 'old tech' is really the issue. The humble computer mouse could be considered old tech, but it's the most efficient means of controlling a cursor on a screen, so it's still around. A T9 keypad is probably the most efficient way to enter text on a small screened device because it allows maximum button size on the screen combined with an intelligent system to work out what you are typing. A tiny QWERTY keypad isn't necessarilly a better option on a small touch screen device and for a lot of people might hamper speedy text input.
 
It is considered old as the technology is no longer needed with a full sized keyboards that are common with smartphones these days.
It is most likely that neither Apple nor HTC nor Motorola will include this feature on their smart phones due to this (full sized keyboards) fact.

T9 was a shortcut that allowed you to press a key once instead of 3 times to just find a letter. With a full keyboard, you only have to press the key once as well. Thus T9 is a dead technology on smartphones.

However, many of us are nostalgic. I'm sure you can still find dumbphones that incorporate this feature and are still available today.
 
It is considered old as the technology is no longer needed with a full sized keyboards that are common with smartphones these days.
It is most likely that neither Apple nor HTC nor Motorola will include this feature on their smart phones due to this (full sized keyboards) fact.

T9 was a shortcut that allowed you to press a key once instead of 3 times to just find a letter. With a full keyboard, you only have to press the key once as well. Thus T9 is a dead technology on smartphones.

However, many of us are nostalgic. I'm sure you can still find dumbphones that incorporate this feature and are still available today.

The iPhone doesn't have a full sized keyboard.
 
I think I was faster typing with T9 than I am with QWERTY.

The main problem is when the iPhone thinks I've typed a completely different word than I actually have.

With T9, corrections were very easy because you could go back to any word and change the correction.

The iPhone doesn't offer a reliable way to solve this.

Turn off the autocorrect.

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The iPhone doesn't have a full sized keyboard.

Still better than having to type words when pressing a single button for multiple letters. I type the fastest on the QWERTY keyboard on my iPhone then these "T9" keyboards you speak of. Typing on these keyboards takes two-three times slower than using my iPhone for texting.
 
Turn off the autocorrect.

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Still better than having to type words when pressing a single button for multiple letters. I type the fastest on the QWERTY keyboard on my iPhone then these "T9" keyboards you speak of. Typing on these keyboards takes two-three times slower than using my iPhone for texting.

I think when you know how to use a T9 keypad effectively, it can be a lot faster than a tiny QWERTY keypad.
 
I don't think something being 'old tech' is really the issue. The humble computer mouse could be considered old tech, but it's the most efficient means of controlling a cursor on a screen, so it's still around. A T9 keypad is probably the most efficient way to enter text on a small screened device because it allows maximum button size on the screen combined with an intelligent system to work out what you are typing. A tiny QWERTY keypad isn't necessarilly a better option on a small touch screen device and for a lot of people might hamper speedy text input.

He still has a point. However, the only reason why the Mouse and Keyboard are still here, is mainly because nothing more practical has come to overcome these technologies, which I think was more of his point. As for QWERTY, it certainly became the next practical keyboard to be used, as is worldwide use (varying upon country) and just overtook technology such as T9. In the end, what you may think is fine, but the majority is what counts now a days. It would be too much to support the minority by inputting old technology because tech would not be given the chance to change and evolve into things we would have never imagined. Sometimes, you have to let go of the good times with the old, and get to know the present with what it has to offer and hoping for the future.

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I think when you know how to use a T9 keypad effectively, it can be a lot faster than a tiny QWERTY keypad.

To each is their own. However, he mentioned that the iPhone kept autocorrecting his intended words, which I suggested to turn off autocorrect, so he can type whatever words he wants without changing it.
 
He still has a point. However, the only reason why the Mouse and Keyboard are still here, is mainly because nothing more practical has come to overcome these technologies, which I think was more of his point. As for QWERTY, it certainly became the next practical keyboard to be used, as is worldwide use (varying upon country) and just overtook technology such as T9. In the end, what you may think is fine, but the majority is what counts now a days. It would be too much to support the minority by inputting old technology because tech would not be given the chance to change and evolve into things we would have never imagined. Sometimes, you have to let go of the good times with the old, and get to know the present with what it has to offer and hoping for the future.

I'm all for advances in technology to make my life easier and more enjoyable, but is taking away T9 and swapping it for QWERTY really an advancement, or just a sidestep that inconveniences many people? If the only reason for swapping something is because it's 'old tech', then that's not really a good enough reason to change it. There needs to be a practical and useful purpose too. People don't want a T9 option because they're stuck in the past and can't bare to see technology move on, they want T9 because they want a faster and more convenient way to enter text on their iPhones!
 
I think when you know how to use a T9 keypad effectively, it can be a lot faster than a tiny QWERTY keypad.

I used to be very quick with T9, I knew perfectly well how to use it, but I'm even better with the QWERTY keyboard and even more so with autocorrect on, you just have to know how to use it effectively.
 
T9 is not old and its wery nice to use it in car.

This is exactly the reason I like the demise of t9 ttexting is dangerous whilst driving. Since my mum got a touchscreen phone, she hasn't been able to text and drive (which used to wind me up no end).

Also it's more the haptic feedback of physical buttons rather than the t9 technology is what made it easy to text with.
 
I used to be very quick with T9, I knew perfectly well how to use it, but I'm even better with the QWERTY keyboard and even more so with autocorrect on, you just have to know how to use it effectively.

So how do you use the QWERTY keyboard effectively to be faster than T9? I've been an iPhone user since January 2009 and I'm still not as fast as I was with T9. I'm either missing a trick with the QWERTY keyboard or T9 really was better.
 
So how do you use the QWERTY keyboard effectively to be faster than T9? I've been an iPhone user since January 2009 and I'm still not as fast as I was with T9. I'm either missing a trick with the QWERTY keyboard or T9 really was better.

dunno, i just am. maybe you resent it too much to use it properly.... :p ;) :rolleyes:
 
dunno, i just am. maybe you resent it too much to use it properly.... :p ;) :rolleyes:

Other than typing as fast as I possibly can (and ending up with stacks of mistakes, spaces where there shouldn't be spaces, and in the case of a text message, sending it half way through typing!), I don't know what else to try to make the QWERTY keyboard as quick and accurate as T9 was.

I'm wondering, fundamentally, what it is that stops Apple from allowing a T9 keypad on the iPhone. Is the device going to explode or suffer some other unfortunate consequence? Or is it simply a desire to force everyone to use one particular input method?

I suspect it's simply the latter, which is all the more frustrating for those of us who would like to have a choice as it's an arbitrary limit
 
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Or is it simply a desire to force everyone to use one particular input method?

no, it's a desire not to use redundant outdated tech, nothing arbitrary about it, there's no need when you can fit all the keys on the screen and the high majority of people can cope fine. AFAIK BB, android and windows mobile don't have T9 functionality natively either.
 
no, it's a desire not to use redundant outdated tech, nothing arbitrary about it, there's no need when you can fit all the keys on the screen and the high majority of people can cope fine. AFAIK BB, android and windows mobile don't have T9 functionality natively either.

Like I said, the reasoning is a bit weak if the only argument put forward is that it's a desire to not use old tech. By that logic, Macs shouldn't come with a mouse because it's old tech. There isn't any fundamental reason why a T9 keypad can't be included, or permitted to be sold in the app store, other than to control what input methods people should use. It's a choice of manufacturer control over user convenience.
 
Like I said, the reasoning is a bit weak if the only argument put forward is that it's a desire to not use old tech. By that logic, Macs shouldn't come with a mouse because it's old tech. There isn't any fundamental reason why a T9 keypad can't be included, or permitted to be sold in the app store, other than to control what input methods people should use. It's a choice of manufacturer control over user convenience.

Maybe old tech is the wrong word, i should have said redundant tech, T9 redundant tech, it was made for a time when phones only had numbers for keys. mice are old tech, but they're not redundant tech.

there is a fundemental reason, it's redundant. it's a waste of effort to code when they can be spending the time coding something else.

Again, it's not just apple that aren't using T9, so it's not a apple only thing. T9 is dead on smartphones, adapt and move on. simple as.
 
Maybe old tech is the wrong word, i should have said redundant tech, T9 redundant tech, it was made for a time when phones only had numbers for keys. mice are old tech, but they're not redundant tech.

there is a fundemental reason, it's redundant. it's a waste of effort to code when they can be spending the time coding something else.

Again, it's not just apple that aren't using T9, so it's not a apple only thing. T9 is dead on smartphones, adapt and move on. simple as.

Is there any inherent reason why a T9 keypad wouldn't work on the iPhone or is it simply that Apple have forced iPhone users to accept that as the only input method, whether for better or worse?

The question as to whether a T9 keypad is available on a (non-jailbroken) iPhone is a resounding no. The question as to why that is the case has yet to be answered. It's not because it's 'old tech' because something being old doesn't mean it's wrong. It's not because it's 'outdated tech' because we can clearly see that for many people, it's a faster input method than a tiny QWERTY keypad. So what is the actual reason for it?

I think the answer is, we will never know what Apple's reason is/was.
 
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