PCFormat Forum Archive

Posted: **19 Oct 2011, 10:31**

I'm with Rusty on this. For me, trying to use the internet on a device with a tiny screen is an exercise in frustration, thus I don't settle for anything less than a 10 inch widescreen display. Hardware keyboard wins hands down when it comes to typing messages. Oh-and I usually turn off "predictive" text.

Posted: **19 Oct 2011, 12:10**

You guys must have REALLY small hands.

I love the touch keyboard on my phone, and I type faster on it than on a normal PC keyboard.

Posted: **19 Oct 2011, 12:14**

*sigh*

Since we are off the topic of the main thread article and keep coming back to this I present to you the fastest keyboard ever

.

https://market.android.com/details?id=c ... tkey&hl=en

Description
Next-generation AI keyboard, now with unrivaled prediction and personalization!

SwiftKey X Keyboard is the smartest tablet keyboard on Android, using artificial intelligence to help predict your next word as you type.

With personalized learning from your online profiles such as Facebook, Gmail and Twitter, and many other features that make typing a breeze, boost productivity on your Android phone today.

TOP FEATURES:

World-leading language technology

SwiftKey X is based on the new version of TouchType's advanced Fluency language inference engine... the world's most accurate prediction and correction technology.

Cloud-based personalization

Personalize your SwiftKey typing experience with data from your Facebook, Twitter and Gmail, as well as your sent SMS messages. Our new cloud-based personalization makes for an unparalleled personal typing experience.

Typing styles to suit you

With SwiftKey X, we’ve fine-tuned typing styles to match the way you use your phone, in order to maximize efficiency and make typing messages a breeze. Choose precise if you're prediction-led and like SwiftKey to complete your words for you. Choose rapid if you prefer to write your words out in full, but tend to make typos and errors. SwiftKey will tidy them up for you.

Personal input modeling

SwiftKey X dynamically adapts to mirror the way you interact with your tablet, using advanced machine learning to modify the properties of the keyboard surface. The result is predictions that are based not just on your language, but also the way you type.

Posted: **19 Oct 2011, 12:14**

Ok final warning for this thread. One more off topic post and it gets locked permanently.

The topic is about the BIS outages not about what type of screen or keyboard you prefer on a mobile device.

Posted: **19 Oct 2011, 12:15**

Ruad I think I will change the theme of the thread since this is what people want to talk about

.

Posted: **19 Oct 2011, 12:20**

Shouldn't it be "Blackberry Bashing Thread"?

Posted: **19 Oct 2011, 12:20**

Thread focus changed have fun!

*edit*

Stu where would the fun in that be?

Posted: **19 Oct 2011, 12:40**

D3PART3D wrote:Why all the love for hardware keyboards?

good question. i prefer to have to swap out keyboards when i want caps/symbols... this is waaay more efficient than simply typing a key... never mind tapping shortcut keys when perusing mail/messages

sorry, but while it may offer the hollywood 'coolness' factor of minority report, those touch-screen jobs are still an abysmal form of user interface.

[anyone running the old "fingers-too-big-for-dinky-buttons" tripe up the flagpole]
unless you have fingers like a gorilla, i would strongly suggest you seek urgent medical attention if you have trouble using a BB qwerty keypad... :/

Posted: **19 Oct 2011, 12:44**

for a win-win situation with the BB... why not get the one with a qwerty keyboard and a touch screen...
don't know which one it is, but my dad has it and he uses both, depending on the situation...

Posted: **19 Oct 2011, 12:46**

KK that is a waste of space they could have used for a decent screen

Posted: **19 Oct 2011, 12:49**

the qwerty keyboard slides out... so the phone is just a bit thicker than most (i think)...
but the screen is still biggish...

Posted: **19 Oct 2011, 12:55**

rustypup wrote:those touch-screen jobs are still an abysmal form of user interface.

That is entirely a matter of opinion and preference.

Posted: **19 Oct 2011, 13:10**

Stuart wrote:
rustypup wrote:those touch-screen jobs are still an abysmal form of user interface.
That is entirely a matter of opinion and preference.

Agreed. I am more functional with my Android touch screen than I ever was with my iOS touch screen. In fact I dont think I could ever go back to a "normal" phone...

Posted: **19 Oct 2011, 13:16**

Stuart wrote:That is entirely a matter of opinion and preference.

oh shucks!... re-reading this thread reveals it to be packed to the rafters with empirical evidence and cold, hard, fact!

nothing to do with personal opinion. whenever they could be bothered to actually run productivity tests the physical keyboard has always trumped the touchscreen in accuracy and speed. throwing software at it, (that redonkulous predictive nonsense), is not a solution - it's a stop-gap.

anyone arguing that it's only a matter of preference is using the phone as a toy, not a tool.

Posted: **19 Oct 2011, 13:45**

rustypup wrote:... is using the phone as a toy, not a tool.

The problem with that being...?

Posted: **19 Oct 2011, 13:53**

doo_much wrote:
rustypup wrote:... is using the phone as a toy, not a tool.
The problem with that being...?

Exactly. I use the phone as both. Yes the battery life takes a knock but I can live it with it. Like I said I have more function with this phone than any previous phone I have ever owned (except for my HTC Desire).

Posted: **19 Oct 2011, 14:02**

rustypup wrote:good question. i prefer to have to swap out keyboards when i want caps/symbols... this is waaay more efficient than simply typing a key... never mind tapping shortcut keys when perusing mail/messages

What are you talking about? BBs also have an "alt" button because they can't fit everything on their keyboards. At least on the touch screens you can see what keys you are about to press.

rustypup wrote:unless you have fingers like a gorilla, i would strongly suggest you seek urgent medical attention if you have trouble using a BB qwerty keypad... :/

some empirical evidence:
bb button size: 5mm x 5mm
touch screen button size: 9mm x 6mm
area of my thumb 15mm x 10mm

Not only are the buttons easier to hit, they are also more visible i.e. I am not hiding 4 buttons underneath my thumb.

Posted: **19 Oct 2011, 14:27**

GreyWolf wrote:At least on the touch screens you can see what keys you are about to press.

so, you need to see a button in order to know what it is you're typing?... and this is more productive

alt==shift... i fail to get your point on that one :/ ... no need to flip between multiple keyboards... no need to look at a keypad... just type and look at screen as you would on a standard desktop...

i am hardly a midget and manage to completely fail to hit multiple keys when typing up mail responses... guess i'm somehow unique...

Posted: **19 Oct 2011, 14:43**

rustypup wrote:alt==shift... i fail to get your point on that one :/ ... no need to flip between multiple keyboards... no need to look at a keypad... just type and look at screen as you would on a standard desktop...

my point is, I never know with the BBs whether I have hit the right key, so having the the keys change is way more helpful then typing the wrong thing, realising it is wrong, deleting it and then starting again.

Also.. who types with 2 thumbs on their desktop? Unless you are telling me you type 10 fingered on your bb, in which case I call bs!

Posted: **19 Oct 2011, 14:47**

There is, of course, a compromise.

Get a phone with both a touchscreen and a hardware keyboard?

Personally, I'd much prefer a slide-out keyboard on my phone, as quite often the virtual one takes up too much screen space (This argument is probably being swayed by the fact that I use a HTC WildFire)

Posted: **19 Oct 2011, 14:59**

To give you an idea of functionality (not typing) on the screen capture there are 4 coloured blocks. The greenish block launches the contacts option and if I swipe up it launches my alarm program. The yellow block launches the apps and if I swipe up it shows the notifications. The blueish block launches SMS and if I swipe up it launches a app which controls when the phone is on silent and when its not. The white block launches the normal browser, swipe up and it launches Opera. Now I have 3 docks the one you see and 2 others. The other 2 also have swipe gestures adding even more functionality. Can your Blackberry do that?

Posted: **19 Oct 2011, 15:28**

THE_STIG wrote: What I should have said was that a phone with only a keyboard is rubbish. There are lots of phones that have both a qwerty keyboard and a touch screen.

Touch screens absolutely suck for typing sms's or emails.

THE_STIG wrote: Trying to browse the net with just the little arrow keys is seriously frustrating, you need a touch screen for this or a mouse but phones dont have mice

On my Bold I don't have to press any keys. I just glide my finger over the joystick (is that correct?). Other than that, BB's browser is one of the best I have ever seen or used on a phone.

Posted: **19 Oct 2011, 15:29**

yes... it's a revolutionary device called the scroll button, (trackpad?)... scroll... click... bam! mail/messenger/calendar/browser and radios...

2x convenience buttons on either side for whatever additional nonsense you may deem necessary, (i use one for task switching and the other does some other random default thing because i never use it), 2 buttons on top for mute/keyboard lock, one multi-purpose button for adjusting volume/skipping tracks.

the newer BB models with OS 6 have 4/5 distinct docks, (horizontally scrolled to switch), with each allowing you to resort the quick picks... completely pointless feature given that virtually nobody uses it...

next....

Posted: **19 Oct 2011, 15:52**

Bladerunner wrote:Touch screens absolutely suck for typing sms's or emails.

Emails, sure. Longer messages are easier to author on less fiddly devices... like the PC.

As for sms... I'm not bashing, but I honestly get the feeling you folk haven't spent much time with a decent touch screen device.

Bladerunner wrote:On my Bold I don't have to press any keys. I just glide my finger over the joystick (is that correct?).

I find optical joysticks incredibly annoying. My Android device has one but I almost never use it. Swiping your finger over it multiple times as you cycle through all your icons to get to the one you want versus simply touching?

A touch screen is useful for the same reason a mouse is. Think about it.

Posted: **19 Oct 2011, 20:55**

i have used my gf blackberry and i must say apart from the "Free" Uncapped internet its ***** and i would like to throw it against a wall. The BBM that everyone is getting into is also stupid. Why? because you can't turn it off. you can't log out. what happened to the times that you can turn it off and sleep in piece. and placing the dam thing on silent don't help as if people PING you your phone don't stop vibrating.

So i like to have my offline times. don't want to be contactable all the time.... like when i am on the bog...

Also the user interface sucks. i pray for the day that SP provide an uncapped internet service for mobile phones at a low fixed price so i can rub it in the faces of BB users and say "So now what can you brag about on your BB?!".

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