Damian I d0 the drive daily. Lately I have been getting a lift, s0 I l00k ar0und a bit m0re. I see every 5th car 0r truck with the driver texting or l00king at their m0Biles. All I can say is ID0IOTS! U als0 c ur every day dick head driver in between th0se.
Drive safe!
hard to find a better example of why I prefer a real tactile keyboard with a backspace.
I wonder if I'm ever going to find myself eating crow over this? Perhaps when glass screens give some feel of the keys...
I type out text messages and email just fine on my iPhone and iPad (the android devices I've tried have been equally as good). Better in fact than on the smaller buttons on smart phones with keyboards. Especially when it comes to special characters. Not having to cram every option onto the keys with funny color coding and shift combinations makes for much faster typing (and less eye strain), for me. The one thing I don't care for is the predictive features, which can easily be turned off.
ReplyDeleteBut, I haven't tried a Nokia as you use, so maybe it get's it right too.
Hi Larry thanks for your comments. Firstly I think your comment high lights the most important thing and that is how it feels for you.
ReplyDeletePersonally I didn't like the ultra-sensitive nature of the touch screens, and it also required me adapting how I held the phone. I found you could not linger your finger over a key without accidentally pressing it and had to keep all digits away from the screen when typing.
That was more annoying that it was worth.
Also I found navigation of what I'd written (like say a multi paragraph email) quite tedious and the screen (on a Samsung not an iPhone) to be less than generous in displaying what you'd written.
I'm not sure about what you mean about special characters, as on the Samsung I had to move in and out of different views of the keyboards (ASCII, NUMERIC, ALT Keys) to get anything written. I personally found that more tedious than the Nokia's keyboard.
I guess that why I have a bee in my bonnet about it is that the general public seem to be relatively unsophisticated users, and so accept whatever is sold. Sadly this seems to mean that marketing is driving this in the direction of the lowest common denominator PLUS what ever is cheaper. I suspect that touch screens are cheaper than good keyboards.
:-)
PS: I meant to make it clearer that "how it feels to you" and "what you like" is of course the most important thing. That's the starting point from which all decisions are made.
ReplyDeleteHow it feels to you is certainly the most important thing. Just to clarify, my comments about the special characters were made specifically about a Blackberry I have had the displeasure of using and a non-smartphone keyboard phone my child has. On the Blackberry every key had two symbols written on it. I'm sure I could have gotten used to it, but it was so clunky on many ways I never wanted to even try. The fact that the buttons were so small I frequently hit the wrong one probably did't help. On my kid's phone, the buttons are even smaller, and there are three sets of characters in different colors on there. I can't easily find the symbol I'm looking for easily. I don't know how she texts on the thing. Writing an email would drive me insane.
ReplyDeleteI looked at the Nokia keyboard pictures in your latest post, and it looks fairly clear and probably useable. Still, I'm not sure I want to give up so much potential screen space for a keyboard. I guess that's half of what I love about the iPhone. You can maximize the screen space for reading or other UI controls, and have a keyboard when you need it.
Larry
ReplyDeleteif you like your iPhone then definately don't give it up. It is a platform moving forward, while my Nokia will have no further development. like my PalmPilot its not going to grow, and the market is indeed moving on.
Its just that for me this style of phone is perfect. its just a shame there arent any alternatives. Who knows what the future will bring...
>Who knows what the future will bring...
ReplyDeletenothing yet, a brief entrance by Blackberry Key series and phones going towards the $2000 mark.
FMD the market is insane