A better iPad keyboard

http://rosscarter.com/2010/320.html

by mojombo • 16 years ago

72 37 16 years ago

ctdonath• 16 years ago

Author seems to not realize that several keys show alternates when held.

gojomo• 16 years ago

I don't think his flicks are incompatible with the hold-for-alternates option, and the flicks -- with display on the keys -- offer a lot more symbols at easily learnable locations.

sfphotoarts• 16 years ago

I didn't realize that either! Although it just took me a while to find any that did, and even those that do are not very useful. For example round brackets, I cannot seem to hold down any key to get that character.

My biggest grips is 'n'. I keep conjoining words with n because it seems as though I hit that rather than space. Then autocorrect makes matters worse is that it figures it out and rather than breaking the words, it instead keeps the last word and drops the first. This is harder to spot when proofing than if it had just left the conjoined word alone.

I mainly use the blackberry for anything typing heavy.

etfb2• 16 years ago

Years ago, I experimented with a speech synthesiser for the Commodore 64. You used it the typical Commodore way: open a channel to the device, print command codes to the channel. Something like OPEN 3,12,1: PRINT#3, "H0E1L0O3 W0E4R1L0D0";: CLOSE 3 would be the obvious first step (I'm making up the details, but it gives you the idea). One funny thing was that, if you forgot the semi-colon at the end of the PRINT# command, you got an "nnnn" noise at the end of every statement. Why? Because all ASCII characters had associated sounds with the synthesiser, and the end of line character, which the semi-colon suppresses in a print statement, was mapped to the sound of the letter N.

Decades later, totally different technology, and you brought up that memory. Plus ça change and all that.

Xuzz• 16 years ago

I also hit 'n' as well, both on the iPhone and the iPad. I was worried this was just me, thanks for letting me know I'm not crazy.

jmreid2• 16 years ago

The flick-up on comma and period is a nice shortcut.

Here's another one that's helpful: If you want to type just one character that's on the numerical keyboard, don't just tap the ".?123" button, tap and hold then drag to the key you'd like to press. This selects that key, then immediately returns you to the alpha keyboard.

jmreid2• 16 years ago

Should also mention, this works on any iOS device.

extension• 16 years ago

On my iPad, when I try to do this with the shift key, it seems to have trouble tracking where my finger slides. It only follows me when I'm moving really fast. As soon as I slow down, it gets stuck on whatever key I'm over. It doesn't do this with the .?123 key.

sirn• 16 years ago

Slightly related: Japanese "Ten Key" keyboard[1] on iPhone did something similar to this. Keys are mapped to consonants, with each flick direction being vowels. Biggest caveat is that the learning curve is pretty high, since you have to remember which vowel goes into which direction.

Apple did not implement this keyboard on an iPad, though. I assume because it would be pretty awkward to use in a full-sized keyboard layout. (E.g. target for full two hands vs. thumb)

[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVy1p0v0Pow

sliverstorm• 16 years ago

That's pretty darn clever! That's the only time I've seen a language that looked seriously type-able on such a small keyboard.

kentosi• 16 years ago

sirn is damn right about the learning curve, but once you get the hang of it (as I have), it's an absolute pleasure to type in Japanese.

So much so, that it makes you almost regret having to type English messages.

po• 16 years ago

You can't really see it in the video but if you click and hold a consonant, a popup shows you the 4 (other) vowel options. You can then flick after seeing the options. When used this way it is sort of like a training mode.

The main reason they can get away with this is because the consonants in the language are so regular. The only real exceptions are the single "n" sound and a few rarely used "y" consonants. It would be harder to do in english.

jawee• 16 years ago

I somehow think if every key were to implement this, then quick typing would quickly lead to troubles. Why not simply do a long press for most punctuation and show it underneath, as on Android? I used to hate this about my iPod Touch, which I did a lot of typing on (often used for IM) and I am already faster using the touchscreen on my Android phone then I ever was on my much-used iPod (after 2 weeks with the phone and a year with the iPod).

That said, I doubt this is a independent-developer possibility. Alternative keyboards for iOS have, thus far, been limited to their own app, such as ShapeWriter as there is no way to implement them system-wide.. you can copy and paste and what not, but it's far from convenient.

tomn• 16 years ago

I hate to be the one to point this out, but the keyboard on Windows Mobile has had something like this for a long time (drag up to shift, left to delete, right for space and down for enter). It makes typing on iOS devices feel really slow and laborious.

44VIIIV• 16 years ago

I'd just settle for Swype.

enjo• 16 years ago

I'm not sure swype works well in the iPad context. I don't even like to use it in landscape on my incredible. It's too much distance to swype.

Terretta2• 16 years ago

Long before Swype, I enjoyed Fitaly on keyboards that were so small they needed a stylus.

Fitaly is designed to minimize single finger travel:

http://fitaly.com/fitaly/ofkey.htm

awolf3• 16 years ago

I don't think this would work very well. iPad typing, like normal typing, is all about muscle memory. Given a default position (fingertips hovering above middle row) each of my ten fingers has learned how to reach for and connect with each letter key. After reaching for a letter and tapping it my fingers immediately return to the default position. To type a capital letter I quickly tap shift with the pinky opposite the hand that will reach for that letter and then it's business as usual. Same goes for the symbol keys on the second page. This system minimizes the unique muscle movements needed to type the full spectrum of letters, numbers, and symbols. Sure: I'm making more key presses to type a single symbol in the current system, but many of those keystrokes are motions that I have learned to make very rapidly since they are used so often.

In this new scheme I'd be learning a new movement for each capitalization and special character. Seems like it will be a while before I'd become nearly as proficient as I am now (65wpm).

Also, adding flicks (especially downwards ones) to all of the keys seems like a recipe for wrist strain.

There are some interesting ideas in this post, and I'm not saying there isn't room for improvement on the iOS keyboards, but this isn't it. In the end I think it just boils down to needing practice.

And yes: I'm biased. My buddy and I buuilt an iOS typing trainer called TapTyping. We have seen people get some pretty impressive results:

http://www.flairify.com/leaderboard/

Zev5• 16 years ago

In this new scheme I'd be learning a new movement for each capitalization and special character. Seems like it will be a while before I'd become nearly as proficient as I am now (65wpm).

(Not so) Breaking news: New things take some getting used to.

If you really managed to memorize three separate keyboards (regular, numeric, symbols) and all of the tap/hold options they have, props to you. But, memorizing three keyboards isn't something I've managed to do -- even after using iOS pretty much since the original iPhone first came out. But, I'd personally rather just have it all right there on screen, without having to hunt a key down.

awolf3• 16 years ago

I think we are talking about different use cases.

I'm coming from the perspective that you shouldn't be looking at the keyboard when you type- virtual or not. Instead you are relying on robotic muscle memory to generate a specific character.

So in my view there's a lot more new stuff to get used to in the author's proposed scheme. We would be memorizing a distinct set of finger motions for every distinct symbol as opposed to a fixed set of taps to certain positions on the keyboard - some with one or more preceding modifier keys (that are always at the same keyboard position).

pbrumm• 16 years ago

I was thinking a more ergonomic keyboard that auto sensed your finger locations when you placed all 10 fingers on the keyboard would make a better keyboard for the ipad.

for a touch typist the keyboard wouldn't even need to be visible, as setting all fingers down again would reset to your current finger locations. Just showing the keys as they are pressed may be sufficient.

Adjusting your fingers to the home row could be difficult. I have had the fingerworks keyboards ever since they came out which has tactile dot's to re-adjust your fingers to the home row. Switching so that the keyboard home row moves to where your fingers are seems like a way to avoid the looking at the keyboard on the screen.

Although since the fingerworks wasn't a wild success, this keyboard app would probably be just for a nitch userbase.

softbuilder• 16 years ago

Interesting idea, but most interesting is the retention of capslock. Is there ever a real use for capslock anymore? I can imagine turning it on by accident and promptly going insane.

icegreentea• 16 years ago

Well, if you want to type in all caps for some reason, then caps lock on iPad keyboard seems much more usable than hitting shift, hitting key, hitting shift again, repeat repeat. Especially if you might be using the keyboard one handed.

Zev5• 16 years ago

I had the pleasure of having Ross show me his keyboard about a month back, at SecondConf. I really like the idea. It took a few minutes of getting used to, but, it works really well. And it'll be even better when it has all the little touches to pull it together (Gradients on press/in the direction thats being flicked, graphics for all the keys, etc. See the README).

If you don't know, Ross Carter makes Pagehand (http://pagehand.com) for Mac. Its a very nice text layout app that fills the gap of being somewhere between TextEdit and Pages.app. I don't know if he's porting it to iOS, but I wouldn't be surprised if he's thought a lot about it and the best way to enter text.

Anyway, this is progress. It's the first non-Apple keyboard for an iOS out there. It pushes iOS input forward into another direction (something that Apple really hasn't done much of, for US text input).

niels_olson• 16 years ago

The review of a hands-on user should be ranked above speculation by a competing dev team. Unfortunately, that relationship is currently reversed. No offense to the competitors.

singlow• 16 years ago

"Flicking down on any letter renders it in uppercase. Flicking downward with two or more fingers anywhere on the keyboard toggles Caps Lock, which is identified by swapping the uppercase and lowercase labels on the flickeys."

It seems that the Caps Lock idea should not be limited to the upper and lower cases. I would propose that a two finger swipe in any direction could shift the keyboard and replace the primary key faces.

Flick a single key with one finger to type from the alternate characters in that direction.

Double flick up, right, down or left to shift-lock in the chosen direction. Shift-locking consecutively in the same direction would cycle in order.

A two finger tap could return to default.

stcredzero• 16 years ago

I think this guy takes it a couple of steps too far. If he noticed that the keyboard doesn't give him enough feedback about where some of the shifted/modified keys are, then increased display of the character options is called for, not introducing an entirely new movement.

stevenwei• 16 years ago

I've been wanting to do this for a while now.

Surprisingly, if you look at the date of the post, it was originally written on April 23rd, 2010, a few weeks after the iPad was released.

kgermino• 16 years ago

By the way, .?123 is an odd label. You can already type . and ? from the main keyboard.

Minor Note: This is a holdover from the iPhone keyboard which has no punctuation marks on the main letter keyboard. I'm not sure whether it's better to keep the symbols the same or not but I can certainly understand why Apple would have the somewhat redundant symbols on the button.

A better iPad keyboard

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