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(Yet Another) Mobile Keypad

Posted by Hemos on from the and-then-you-do-a-handstand-and dept.

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

6 of 220 comments (clear)

  1. *slaps forehead* by cybermace5 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

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  2. Just glad it's not QWERTY. by Thinkit3 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Plain alphabetical order is better than a poorly designed layout that sticks around because most people are afraid of change.

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    -Libertarian secular transhumanist
    1. Re:Just glad it's not QWERTY. by cybermace5 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Plain alphabetical order is better than a poorly designed layout that sticks around because most people are afraid of change.

      You deserve a +5, Funny. What exactly is alphabetical order, if not a layout people have been afraid to change for a few thousand years?

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  3. Re:Why the confounded close-ups? by InfiniteWisdom · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Ah now I know why.... in your picture the phenomenal ugliness of the keypad is much too obvious

  4. Re:You're totally missing the point... by b!arg · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

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    Everybody dies frustrated and sad and that is beautiful
  5. Keyboard Innovation is a Good Thing (TM) by kb3edk · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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 :-)