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(Yet Another) Mobile Keypad
A reader wrote to us about Intel's newly unveiled mobile keypad, which, all things considered, doesn't look nearly as terrible as most mobile keypads. Still not exactly stirring, but not too bad either. Of course, there's getting it into production, licensing etc etc
I haven't used text on my phone enough for the text entry method (typing each number up to four times) to be a hassle.
What I DO use my phone for, however, is dialing numbers. And if I have to have to press FOUR buttons to enter ONE number, then this keyboard would create more problems than it would solve for me.
Just my two pence.
William
When you're not looking, this sig is in Latin.
The future lies with Hand-writing recognition and good high resolution screens. We have used to pen for well over 2000 years and it is both comfortable, easy to understand and use and fits the requirements of being small and usable on the train/bus/airplane.
Yes it is possible to shrink a keyboard down to the size of a pin-head but our fingers are not getting any smaller...
---- The Open Source Record Label : : LOCARECORDS.COM
Most people have typos with regular keyboards. I doubt anyone is going to have the dexterity to not hit those letter keys while meaning to just use the numeric part of the keypad.
Too obvious! This is a "why didn't I think of that five years ago" moment.
Mobile input is THE barrier to true interactive use of wireless data. I could see a keypad like this speeding up my mobile text input by at least four to five times, yet still non-clunky enough to fit in a flip-phone.
...
Plain alphabetical order is better than a poorly designed layout that sticks around because most people are afraid of change.
-Libertarian secular transhumanist
After taking another look at the keyboard, I have to point out the obvious design flaw... No QWERTY.
This is the standard we are all use to -- how can a keyboard be successful without it.
Ah now I know why.... in your picture the phenomenal ugliness of the keypad is much too obvious
I've always wondered about touch screen pads. Why can't you have a phone that is the same form factor but is essentially just a touch screen? And depending on what you want to do it shouws you a numberpad, keyboard of your choice or handwriting recognition.
Everybody dies frustrated and sad and that is beautiful
Thank god at least someone still cares about trying to come up with a better interface for a cell phone keypad. I was beginning to get worried that everything was going to converge on the standard, kludgey keypad ("Hit 7 three times for R")... while it looks like some people in this thread have gotten used to it, I can't stand it. Think about it... the interface is 40 years old (first touch tone telephone, 1963) and was never intended for text entry. The engineered inefficiency and its overwhelming rate of adoption is a creepy repeat of how QWERTY still dominates over Dvorak.
:-)
(Not that QWERTY is all bad, it still is much faster than a numeric keypad. I can type 15 words per minute on my Treo using just two thumbs... Of course, 15 years of Nintendo served as excellent training
Like most other modern cell phones, my Sanyo 6400 has a T9 predictive input mode... Once you get used to it, it's really not so bad.
I really don't think the extra keys are worth it considering how much they'll get in the way, so this is not a feature I'd want my next cell phone to have. Besides, if I need to use a real keyboard, I can just plug the phone into my laptop and use the phone as a wireless Internet connection.
I have seen some phones that have fold-up keyboards they can "dock" with... That seems like a much better idea and it would be nice if more phones supported it. I think adding more buttons is really just another example of cell phone designers forgetting the primary use of the device is a phone. I don't need a full alpha numeric keypad to dial phone numbers.
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DRM is like antifreeze, to the MPAA/RIAA it's sweet, to the consumers it's poison.
I have one -- the Samsung i300. The interface sucks. Try checking your voicemail or using any phone menu system. Instead of feeling where the key is to erase your message, you have to take the damned phone off of your ear, look at the pad, and find the button. If someone would make an lcd that would allow the app designer to specify that certain areas should be raise (probably by air injection or magnetism), then this would be useful. Until then, its just a PITA.
t'nera semordnilap
Nope, still dumb.. How many of us QWERTY users shudder when we approach something that has a keyboard arranged ABCDEFG? Ugh! Not optimized in the slightest! (I know, neither is QWERTY, but atleast we're used to it!)
What I wonder is why no one's invested in finding a unique letter layout that's optimized for two-thumb typing... Kinda like the way the FITALY people developed that layout with stylus-tapping in mind, the keyboard could be arraged in four columns like the one in this article, and then arrange the letters so they're most optimized-- i.e. by analyzing letter-pairs in most english text, one finds out that many pairs are more popular than others, and the best solution would be something that keeps alternating between sides.