geekhack

geekhack Community => Keyboards => Topic started by: derpdederp on Mon, 12 December 2016, 02:18:01

Title: Phone keyboards
Post by: derpdederp on Mon, 12 December 2016, 02:18:01

Is there any big forums or communities dedicated to this topic? With the amount of time we spend on phones, I think this should be a big issue for us. We can type faster and better on our computer keyboards - but worse on our phones since touch typing became the standard. I bet there are some ways to extend phones to be better than the previous touch phone keyboards - if such a product became mature. Better typing could probably save us a lot of time on our phones as well.

Ideas & comments?

Title: Re: Phone keyboards
Post by: nmur on Mon, 12 December 2016, 02:50:36

we're limited by the touch screen a lot because there's no physical buttons to feel your way around the virtual keyboard. i used to have a Nokia E63, which had a full keyboard, and i loved it

i would never want an extra attachment to my phone or anything for typing, so the best i've found is Swiftkey. Swype is also good but i've found that i am faster with tapping, as i can use more than one digit

More

(http://i.imgur.com/KVWRcke.png)

there is also Keymonk, which is essentially Swype that you can use with two thumbs. pretty cool and i'm sure you could potentially get great at it, but after a few weeks i was still having some trouble with accuracy. it also hasn't been updated for 4 years..

Title: Re: Phone keyboards
Post by: fohat.digs on Mon, 12 December 2016, 07:29:39

With a standard USB-A-to-micro-USB adapter I can plug a keyboard directly into my Galaxy and immediately start typing.

Title: Re: Phone keyboards
Post by: Findecanor on Mon, 12 December 2016, 15:08:24

Quote from: derpdederp on Mon, 12 December 2016, 02:18:01

With the amount of time we spend on phones, I think this should be a big issue for us.

Speak for yourself.

I once saved a texting woman from being run over by a train ... and she did not even realize it the mortal danger that she had been in: she continued texting throughout.
Then (which happened before touchscreen smartphones came around) I promised that I would never turn into such an idiot. Now I see lots of such idiots everywhere, people who are not mindful of their surroundings, and downright rude and obnoxious to other people in the real world because they are too absorbed in their phones. Idiocracy has turned into the norm.

Please do not turn into such a person.

Quote from: fohat.digs on Mon, 12 December 2016, 07:29:39

With a standard USB-A-to-micro-USB adapter I can plug a keyboard directly into my Galaxy and immediately start typing.

You can also connect pretty much every keyboard to an Apple iPhone, using an adapter.
The downside is that they would draw power from the phone. There are also half-decent Bluetooth keyboards with their own batteries though.