The iPhone Blog » keyboard

When Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone back at Macworld 2007, he prefaced the introduction by saying what was wrong with current not-so-smartphones — the hardware keyboard. They don’t go away when you don’t need them. They don’t change if you switch from text entry to bitmap editing, for example, And if you come up with a great idea later, you can’t go back an add an extra button.

Now it’s 2009 and Apple has released the iPhone 3GS, yet many people, including notable technologists, have called the lack of a physical keyboard a deal-breaker.

Is it? Let’s take a look after the break.

Dieter, in his review for the Palm Pre, had this to say:

I’ve been using QWERTY keyboards on phones for over seven years now and I had no problem adjusting to the Palm Pre. If you’re looking for a comparison, I’ll say that it’s not as good as your standard BlackBerry keyboard, but for 90% of people it’s going to be much better than the iPhone’s on-screen software keyboard. I know the keyboard is a big X factor for a lot of people, so the best I can say is that you not only need to try it for yourself, but you need to give it at least a couple of days of use before you turn in your verdict.

Personally, I’m on record as saying I vastly prefer the iPhone’s virtual keyboard to either the Treo, Windows Mobile, BlackBerrys and G1s I’ve owned or test-driven. My dislike for hardware keyboards and the pain-in-the fingers and arms they’d given me pretty much made me avoid them entirely until the iPhone came along. Zero. Stress. Typing.

Also, as we’ve said before, for those who need to switch frequently from English to Chinese, Hebrew, Arabic, or even other Roman input method, hardware keyboards just can’t compare. (And let’s not forget those who need to out-type netbooks during car races…)

Daring Fireball, in response to Tim Bray saying he’d never use an iPhone sans hardware keyboard, summed up the argument:

(1) that all phone-size keyboards — hardware or software — are poor compared to real honest-to-god full-size put-your-eight-finger-across-the-home-row-keys keyboards; but (2) given a week or two of use and some trust in the auto-correct system, most people can thumb-type just as well, if not better, on an iPhone as they could on a BlackBerry or a slider-style keyboard like the G1’s.

DF also believes Apple will never make an iPhone with a hardware keyboard, and that Apple will not suffer in the market for this (for our part, we’ve suggested the aforementioned Palm Pre could be considered the iPhone with a keyboard, given Jon Rubinstein’s history).

Given the over 40 million iPhone and iPod touch software keyboard devices already sold, and the 1 million iPhone 3GS’s sold opening weekend alone, it’s hard to argue that point. While there certainly is a niche that will never forgo the lack of a hardware keyboard, Apple seems to have proven there’s a far bigger market of those that will embrace, or at least tolerate and adapt to it.

What’s your take? Is the lack of a hardware keyboard holding the iPhone back? Is it just old-school hardware keyboarders that miss the action? Is it a deal-breaker for you? Or do you think Steve Jobs was right, a next generation smartphone needed a next generation keyboard?

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Does the iPhone Need a Hardware Keyboard?

External iPhone Keyboard Hack Now 100% Jailbreak Free

Rene Ritchie — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 11:23:26 +0000

Turns out all you need is an old PDA keyboard, the iPhone 2.0 SDK, and a dream. Okay, that, plus tons of smarts and hackery. Hey, at least this one isn’t as hard as the previous workaround we saw. Says Ars Technica:

The work is built on a 1200 baud modem that connects to the iPhone via the headphone port. This allows two-way transmission of data using frequency shift keying, the same method used in early modems. This modem was modified to accept input from infrared and USB connected devices, allowing the use of a keyboard. Further, a 2.0 SDK-compliant terminal app enables text input.

Will Apple ever open up the iPhone to real Bluetooth keyboard support? They did just announce A2DP Stereo, P2P, and SDK access for peripherals at the iPhone 3.0 Sneak Peek event, but not keyboards… Are we waiting on a special Apple designed iPhone keyboard to make an appearance at WWDC perhaps? Or will hacking continue to be the only game in town?

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External iPhone Keyboard Hack Now 100% Jailbreak Free

iPhone Hard Keyboard… the Hard Way

Rene Ritchie — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 18:37:51 +0000

Not only has the iPhone 3G finally been unlocked, it’s now also been hacked to work with a Blue Tooth keyboard. Sure, it’s not the elegant, Apple, “it just works” solution the world at large has been waiting for, but a “it’s hard work” solution for those desperate and ingenious enough to tackle it. Ars Technica’s Erica Sadun breaks down the solution:

For the external approach, Ackermann modified a Robotech Bluetooth module, which he placed in an iPhone battery sleeve and connected to the iPhone (serial) connector port at the bottom of the unit. This allowed the the phone to communicate directly with the the module using the Bluetooth serial port profile.

And you can find out more at Ackermann’s blog, if you want to try it yourself. Do you? Or are you waiting (and waiting…) on Apple?

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iPhone Hard Keyboard… the Hard Way

Say Hello to… iSlider?

Rene Ritchie — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 17:55:53 +0000

Could Steve Jobs be secretly developing and testing a slide-out keyboard version of the iPhone to make certain tic-tactile thumb typing enterprise customers happy? Sure. And he could be getting ready to license OS X to Dell and switch out the Mac casings to the little beige box company.

Of course, the same Jobs who said Apple wouldn’t make a slider also said Apple wouldn’t make a phone, and only a seasoned Kremlinologist can divine anything even remotely resembling Apple’s forward looking plans anyway, so here, to go along with iFlip and iPhone Nano, is the iSlider:

What he is apparently doing is canvassing the idea with operators. “If you had a keyboard version, how many would you take?” And he has taken this beyond just chatting: actual prototypes – not just mockups – have been sent to senior executives at some operators. I’m not allowed to even hint which operators… but I can report that the keyboard has “issues” which are not yet resolved.

What “issues” remain unresolved? The big, honking lack of keyboard? Only time and and a Macworld Jobsnote Boom! will tell.

Personally, I’ve never been great on hard keyboards (as my old Treo, still sinking to the bottom of the Atlantic, will tell you), so I’m not particularly interested in this. How about you? Any urge to get your QUERTY on?

Read

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Say Hello to… iSlider?

Tool Time: Internationalize Your Webs and Cap Your Screens!

Rene Ritchie — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 12:55:29 +0000

The iPhone OS, like its big Mac brother, has a lot of little tools, preferences, and settings, some explicitly surfaced, others hidden away. The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) brings us one of each this week!

First up, by way of RipDev’s molecular decomposition of the code (either that or a well-placed source…) is a way to enable screen capture on your jailbroken iPhone:

After setting the preference in /var/mobile/Library/Preferences/com.apple.springboard.plist, just restart Springboard and use the following super-secret key combination: Hold down the Home key and toggle the mute switch. Your screen flashes white, a screen shot appears on your camera roll. [...] If you’d rather not edit your property lists directly, add http://repository.ripdev.com as an Installer repository and install Apple Screenshot Enabler. Warning: trying to remove the mod via Installer.app caused my phone to reboot. It just would not uninstall properly.

Next, for our international readers who may want to use their own TLD (top level domain such as .ca, .uk, .de, etc.) rather than the standard .com, here’s a way to internationalize your Safari Touch keyboard:

In settings, choose General > Keyboards and enable some of those international keyboards. Next go to Safari and start to enter a new URL. Tap the globe to switch the active keyboard from US English to some other nationality. [...] Finally, tap and hold the .com button. After a second, a regionalized version of .com appears just to the left of the default.

Hit the links for more and If anyone gives them a try, let us know how they work (or don’t) for you!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Tool Time: Internationalize Your Webs and Cap Your Screens!

Former Exec Rubenstein Wanted a Physical Keyboard on the iPhone

Dieter Bohn — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 19:52:22 +0000

Sramana Mitra has an interesting post up comparing Apple to Palm. Actually, she’s been on a tear lately when it comes to Palm and how they’ve dropped the corporate management ball. She scored a comprehensive interview with former Palm Executive Eric Benhamou, which reads very nicely but is also a clear example of how the problems Palm has now are the direct result of their earlier problems. Basically they followed the exact opposite trajectory that Apple did in nearly the same time period (basically).

Anyway, back to the intersection of the two companies. Mitra writes:

Rubinstein and Jobs could not agree on the iPhone’s strategy wrt the Keyboard. This tells me that Rubinstein has a separate but perhaps also compelling vision on how the keyboard needs to be incorporated into smartphones. I can’t wait to see what that vision entails!

John Rubinstein (Palm) vs. Steve Jobs (iPhone) – Sramana Mitra on Strategy

It’s surely not the case (one assumes) that Rubenstein left Apple over the keyboard issue (though that would be hilarious); but it is interesting that the guy who ran the iPod division, the podfather himself, was pro-physical-keyboard for the iPhone. Now, of course, he’s hard at work over at Palm, they who basically specialize in keyboard + touchscreen smartphones.

One wonders what other ideas Rubenstein had that didn’t make the cut on the iPhone. If “Podfather” Rubenstein’s input was 86′d on the iPhone, then one assumes that it was all Ive and Jobs, just like everybody’s always said.

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Former Exec Rubenstein Wanted a Physical Keyboard on the iPhone

How Small Things Influence Big Things

Mike Overbo — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 18:58:20 +0000

There’s an insightful post over at 37signals that talks about the handoff of design cues that iterate from product to product from Apple. He adroitly notes the design similarities between the iPhone and the new iMac; he similarly notes the connections between the iPod and the old iMac. It goes without saying that a company that was in such a hurry to drop keyboards for their iPhones sure makes some nice keys for the computers that still need them. [Daring Fireball Filter]

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How Small Things Influence Big Things

iPhone: My Impressions

Mike Overbo — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 18:21:38 +0000

So, after twelve hours of waiting in line, it didn’t take me long to take the iPhone out and start playing around with it. I didn’t get the zip and seal treatment that some folks got at AT&T stores, but then again, the MOA was trying to zip people through as efficiently as possible. Here are my impressions, there will be a full review later with video and pictures.

Upsides:

Safari: The web browser is great. I haven’t missed flash yet, and the fact that YouTube is built-in more or less means that I’m not too broken-hearted about Flash. Maybe we’ll see it in an update, maybe we won’t. If we don’t, I hope they give me the ability to turn it off.

iPod halo effect: The iPod video functionality is flawless and great, and more importantly, built in. The halo effect for folks that already have an iPod or use iTunes to manage mp3s is going to be huge; they don’t have to learn anything new here.

Sensible Desktop Syncing: They really took the learning and guesswork out of syncing with a computer. The sync process with a computer is about as difficult as an iPod sync. That is to say, not at all difficult. There are important omissions (see below), but the overall mechanic is very good.

Keyboard: Some folks have reported trouble with the keyboard; I’m not one of those people. I was thumb-and finger in about 10 minutes (I hold it in my right hand with fingers, thumb on keys, peck with left index finger). It’s been better than a Treo keyboard for me; I don’t think I’ll go back to a physical keyboard again. Feel free to ask me this again in winter; I may be singing a different tune then.

Fundamental UI Mechanics: The fundamental UI mechanics are intelligent and quick to grasp. Not just for me, but for every person that got their hands on my iPhone. The only thing I’ve had to show anyone is how to flick and how to zoom. Everyone else can browse the web, find their videos on YouTube, play the iPod, the whole shebang. The phone is ready for prime time, and the user interface is a very large cut above everything else.

Wi-Fi: The inclusion of wi-fi on the iPhone is fantastic. I’ve yearned for wi-fi on my mobiles for what feels like forever, especially since the area in which I live isn’t 3G on GSM yet. Wi-fi is nice and snappy. I’m using the iPhone as my main personal email device. You’ll get the most out of the iPhone if you have wi-fi at home and at work.

The Screen: The screen is a behemoth. The resolution on it is very, very good, and very bright. I had to turn the screen brightness down a few notches to look at it comfortably. It collects finger oil like you’d expect, but the screen doesn’t seem to nick or scratch easily.

Phone and Contact Management: The integration between the phone application, the address book, and Maps is fantastic. The phone app could be a bit better — a lot of folks are used to typing a bit of a contact’s name, and seeing the list of possibilities shrink until the likely candidate is the only remaining option or just a button press away. iPhone users will have to scroll through to find this person.

Mail: Mail is fine. I’m very glad to see that Yahoo! and Google opted to play nice with the device; I don’t intend to check my mail from their websites ever again. Mail.app won’t be going away, if only because the iPhone doesn’t accept my default Mail rules. I think that the iPhone’s mail app is buggy, which leads me to

Crash Reporter! When I was attempting to set up my mail on the device, it was having some trouble. I ended up giving up for a while and attempting later. On my 2nd attempt, I was presented with a dialog box saying the iPhone noticed that mail has crashed, did I want to send a bug report to Apple? Why, yes I do. I don’t expect the bug I encountered to be present in the next software update. I’ve had plenty of phones crash, but to be able to submit a bug report for one is golden.

Battery Life: I know a bunch of folks will gripe that the battery is not replaceable, but I don’t care. If it makes the device thinner and more resilient, I’m all for it.

AT&T’s Plans: The plans available for the iPhone are actually really good; I’m glad to see the return of sensible plans. I don’t need any add-ons and they’ve really eliminated a huge portion of complexity in the selection of calling plans. They make sense, include unlimited internet, and include 200 text messages. I’m a very happy camper with this aspect of AT&T.

Downsides

Web Applications and built-in apps in general: Most applications that Apple has included are great: Text, Calendar (mostly, see below), Photos, Camera, YouTube, Maps, Weather, Clock. I found Notes and Stocks to be underwhelming (and as of this writing, undeserving of the front screen), plus there’s an entire empty row sitting there waiting eagerly to have application buttons stuffed in. You can’t replace this kind of immediacy with web services — I don’t want to open Safari, create a new window, or find it with a bunch of button presses in my bookmarks. I want it there, on the main screen.
To Do: Implement To Do: The sync doesn’t bring over to-dos from iCal, which is going to be a big hullaballoo. On the flip side of events, it doesn’t sync notes from the notes app back to the computer, so there’s no way to back them up either. I’m guessing something will happen here once Leopard comes out, or that we’ll see some updates here, but this aspect is very disappointing; the omission of this is actually downright weird. Any fans of GTD will have to use a web app for To-Dos as of this writing.
Activation: When I first installed the iPhone to my computer, it took a while to activate. The system failed on me. I was nervous of a double-billing situation, but I resubmitted my information anyway. The activation system found my info and to my relief I had already been accepted. Other folks in our organization were not so lucky; Chris Kingree at our warehouse had to wait 60 hours (!) for his activation to go through.
Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR: So what? there are *no* supported profiles for interfacing with a computer. None! That includes DUN, AVRCP, OBEX, the whole shebang. This means you can’t use the unlimited internet on your computer; nor can you sync your iPhone via Bluetooth. A2DP seems to be unimplemented as well. This one is downright weird to me; if I was assigning a score to this review, they’d lose some serious points here.
Preferences: They don’t allow you to set too many preferences. Granted, this keeps things simple to support and you’re never in a situation where you’re not sure where the preferences are (they’re right there in the Settings app). But if you don’t like the default SMS message alert, tough! You can’t change it. You can disable it, but not change it.
Ringtones: Apple has included ringtones on the iPhone, and some of them are pretty good. Thank you for the effort, Apple, but I would prefer to be able to use my own. I’d love to be able to blare video game sounds from Galaga or the theremin-like intro from Dr. Who whenever someone calls me, but that functionality is not with us. I’m guessing they just haven’t finished it yet, or don’t have legal agreements with labels yet in place.
AT&T / EDGE: If you’re a technophile, you expected this here, and I am not willing to disappoint. EDGE brings me back to dialup days. AT&T’s coverage in my area is adequate, but it’s nothing to praise. I dropped two calls on the first day of use. AT&T’s commercials about dropped calls are like salt to my wounds now.
Filesystem and Mass Storage: The iPhone doesn’t show up as a mass storage device when you plug it in to a computer, nor is its filesystem browseable. I can’t peer around on the inside, much with things, see how it works, and the like. It’s essentially a black box, which is annoying. This doesn’t bother me too much, but nor does it make a lot of sense. I didn’t think I’d still have a use for memory cards once the iPhone came out. This one doesn’t bother me too much.

All in all, what Apple has completed is mighty. That’s not to say that there aren’t missing pieces; there are serious missing pieces from the iPhone. Still, for an entry to the smartphone market, or mobile phone market in general, it’s a very impressive device. I’m glad I bought it; I’d recommend it to anyone while making note of the above caveats, it’s the most fun I’ve had with a phone in a long time, and I haven’t even installed any games on it yet. Oh wait, that’s still a sore spot.

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iPhone: My Impressions