Thumb Keyboard For PalmPilot

Cpt_Kirks writes "Wired has an article mentioning a new thumb keyboard for the PalmPilot that clips over the graphitti (sp?) area. The site listed is in Japanese, but it appears to just be push buttons that tap the screen. The rest must be done in software. " They claim you can use it as fast as you can use grafitti, and at only $40 it doesn't seem that expensive.

Comments

translation

[willhelm]

My awesome x-roommate is native Japanese. I just asked him to translate the specs to me:

- it covers the touch panel part with the keyboard
- it's 60mm X 22mm sheet. the sheet can be put on/taken off without any cable, or somekind of connection. all the typing will be taken are of by the associated software.
- you can have the touch panel on top of the keyboard if you need. (the picture is listed in the wed site. second picture from top.)
- a part of the keyboard is customizable.
- they started shipping in this Oct.
- it does not take extra battery. it's just a sheet sitting on top of the screen.
- it works for WorkPad, WorkPad c3, Palm III, Palm IIIx, Palm IIIe, Palm V for now. not sure if this works for Visor. i don't believe Visor will be out in Japan for a while...
- the current cost is 6800 yen + tax. pretty much $70...


/will

hasn't anyone read the article?

[Zhaus]

Hasn't anyone read the article? This is nothing new. They've answered all your objections already.

1. I can graffiti 1.2 parsecs. How fast can ThumbType[tm] possibly be?
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2. I dunno about it, I've grafitid [sic] for x years and I refuse to change my ways.
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3. What's the catch?
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4. What if I just like saying the word 'stylus'?
Îè¦ÊÌäÂêÅÀòßÈËòèè¦ÈÎÎÖThumbType×Çë£

5. Palms/Microsoft/Linux/Sux/Rulz/1st/Troll/Hemos/Sux
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If you don't like Grafitti

[Kiwi]

If you don't like Grafitti, the Fitaly on-screen keyboard. is an excellent alternative. The learning curve is a bit steep, and it costs a whopping $25, but once you know how to use it, it is twice as fast as Grafitti.

- Sam

So in effect

[jabber]

This thing (software) maps a virtual keyboard to the writing tablet, and you put an overlay film in place to tell you where the keys are. Then points of pressure on the tablet are interpreted as key presses. Hmmm...

Sounds an awful lot like the T9 text input option that my Nino came with. (I know it's dead, and I know it's WinCE. Gimme a break, I'm weak)

You know, it's long been my opinion that the writing tablet on the Pilots should be virtual, a'la WinCE. In fact, this single reason is why a chose the Nino. It buys a little extra screen space, and you can tweak your interface without carrying a bunch of little plastic overlays.

[rant]
In retrospect, a mistake. But a virtual writing space is a cool feature, and I'd pitch the WinCE PDA out the window tonight, if I could get a Pilot with it tomorrow.
[\rant]

Re:So in effect

[orev]

On the surface, this seems like a good idea. But, if you think about it a little more, it's a really really bad idea.

Consider: Your device has a virtual input area. That area could presumably be controlled by the developer of the application you are using. They decide they need a little more screen space, and shrink it down, only, now you can't use your device for input, because you were used to the size and location it was at before. Do you really want to trust a developer with this important function? (face it, someone who knows how to make cool code usually doesn't realize that they don't know anything about interface design)

Ok, make it unchangeable by app developers, and only configurable in a control panel: You make your input area smaller, and the apps aren't written to take advantage of the extra space. Now you have wasted space. Make it bigger, and apps won't fit.

Basically, there is much to be said for having no control over something. If every developer changed your keyboard map to match their prefs, it would be a nightmare. This is a very similar issue.

The only reason I could see in creating a virtual input area is to be able to display information inside of it, like maybe a clock or the date, but, you must keep it the same size. Configurability creates confusion for most users, so you should keep configuration options down to a minimum.

Re:The point being...?

[Bearpaw]

If you'd win typing speed, I wouldn't see a problem, but they claim this thing is as fast as the normal graffiti operation, not faster.

That was my first thought, but CmdrTaco seems to have misstated that part. They claim that "with practice, the tiny keyboard is faster than handwriting using Graffiti."

For people interested in speeding up their Palm entry, there's a hack to use the Twiddler here.

Re:Replacement for Graffitti

[Bearpaw]

And what about that researcher that found that Grafitti can cause physical problems in the hands similar to CTS or worse?

That was a joke. Lots of folks fell for it, though.

Another alternative: Quikwriting at MRL...

[Anonymous Coward]

There's version 2.0 of the Quikwriting graffiti replacement. It uses HackMaster to allow you to use it with regular apps now. (Last time I checked it was just a single demo app.)

I haven't checked it out yet, but seeing these posts made me think of it.

- AC

has anyone seen the bigger keyboards?

[Anonymous Coward]

i bought a go-type keyboard a few months ago and can input text into my pilot almost as fast as i can type on a regular keyboard. i say "almost as fast" because the go-type is a wee bit smaller than a standard keyboard, so i still have to adjust my typing. but i've heard about another keyboard that's going to be available soon from think outside that looks pretty cool too. this one has the added advantage of not wasting three times the space as your pilot like the go-type keyboard does. they also purport to have made the keyboard "full size". either way, using the keyboard i have beats the heck out of using graffiti, and certainly does a lot better than pecking out words with my thumbs.

Re:Replacement for Graffitti

[_Sprocket_]

OK.. yea... that was a joke. Having said that, I find myself writing the occasional graffiti stroke when jotting something down quickly on a PostIt.

If anything, it probably reenforces the idea that I don't NEED sticky notes. I'm better off using my Palm. But then... there's those cool all-black PostIts with the white (or metalic, or dayglo, etc) gel pens. Those are cool....

Virtual writing space for Palm...

[Robotech_Master]

You know, you can get Screenwrite, which allows you to write on the screen. The thing is, I'm actually glad for the Palm's separate writespace. I can put a piece of post-it notepaper over it to keep it from scratching up, and I don't write on the screen as much. I can replace the notepaper, but once the screen gets scratched up, that's that.

Anyway...I'm perfectly happy with my Palm, nonscreen-writing space and all.