-because the retardation was really just a couple of clicks from coming full circle anyway...

Yes, by all means add buttons to my touch screen device.
-and then kill me.

strider_mt2k

@kaneshadow: My mistake, the Alpine pulse touch is still in use on their in dash nav screens. Maybe they're on to something.

kaneshadow

And I am still wondering when will the fanboys show up to comment on this item.

Doc Benway

Isn't the whole point of the on-screen keyboard that you don't lose screen real estate to the keyboard? now if you're not typing you're going to have a silouette of a keyboard on the screen. Retarded.

A while ago Alpine had a touch screen nav that was supposed to have some kind of "pulse" thing that would create tactile feedback where you touched. It must hvae been awful because it disappeared but maybe that's more along the lines of what we should be looking at, not celulose cutouts.

kaneshadow

Do the holes in the plastic rotate for when I'm typing in landscape mode?

Pass, thanks.

I really think most of the people who feel they can't type on the iphone seriously haven't thrown caution to the wind and let the autocorrection feature do its job... I've put in the most atrocious messes and gotten out exactly what I was trying to say (hey, it's an anti-newton!). But hitting the back button to correct one typo usually (but not always) seems to turn off autocorrection until you start a new word.

I do wish there was a nice interface for the custom dictionary though. You can erase it, but I'd really like to be able to add to it, remove from it, change order of recommendation, etc... preferably from itunes or some third party app, not on the phone itself.

Narual

MMM....anyone buying this after the purchase of the iPhone should have added to his or her resume...DO NOT ALLOW THIS EMPLOYEE TO BREED

fastmike

@Barfolemew: by "right spot" you mean oxygen intake aperture right? RIGHT?

Arelar

I wonder if I could use something like this on my girlfriend... everything is covered in a clear plastic sheet except for the right spot.

Barfolemew

Those people who bought the iphone and cant get used to the KB are assholes. They probably bought it because it was COOLIO and the inteface was NEATO.

Those people should be removed from the localized area.

If you cant get used to how the KB, sell it and buy any number of other REAL KB'd piles of shit out there that are equally as lousy.

PIGS.

Stacky Botrus

is this honestly needed?

jekyoo_style

this is for the "no tactile feedback" waa waa whaaaa crowd?

Arelar

What a completely redundant concept - buttons are so last Millennia

MINI Driver

When will we get a phone that kicks our ass when we touch it?

Ryanraven

@scatpack:

Believe it or not, everyone I talk to won't buy this phone because of it's lack of tactile feedback.

Seems like everyone (in my social stratosphere) loves the ability to text and drive at the same time. And in general, they don't want to look at their phone when sending messages.

I just don't understand that line of thinking. I am perfectly happy with the iPhone touchscreen. yeah it can be kinda finicky when you are dealing with lots of proper nouns and acronyms. But other than that it's awesome and I probably find myself typing faster and more accurate than anyone else using T9 or predictive text.

metalhaze

Whenever I am sending an SMS in english, auto correction is really helping out with mistypings. But whenever I am texting in other languages, it does nothing but get in the way.

Rank of the keyboards of my last 5 mobiles:
1. qtek 9100 (aka HTC Wizard) (landscape). (Qtek is better since the keys are separated)
2. blackberry 8700, very fast and responsive keyboard
3. Nokia E61, mushier feel, but still easy to type
4. blackberry 8800, good keyboard, but buttons feel like a continuous surface with slight bumps
5. iphone, best autocorrect, no feedback. You have to LOOK at the keyboard, unless you are a violin player :p

For all the people saying that we should not complain about the iphone keyboard here is something to think about: how slower and error prone would you be if you change your PC keyboard with a flat touch panel? Now make the panel 5cm wide and try to type with your thumb.

I would love to see some other hardware solution:
A snap on hardware keyboard:
one that would reside facing the back of the iPhone,
(___________________), leaving the touchscreen free to use as designed

and then snap it face front, and use it as a standard keyboard
(-^--^--^--^--^--^-)

(Patent not applied for ... :p)

kanenas

I thought I would hate typing on the iPhone as I really like a nice "click" when I'm using thumboards. But after a day of using it I'm totally fine and use the iPhone to jot down ideas, send email, and write blog posts a lot more than I thought I would.

Jason

This is for when you need to type while driving.

And your lying if you say you never do it.

scatpack

@James: iBlackberry

flyboy

This seems more like training wheels than for full time use. Spend 20 minutes typing with this on and I bet you'll become a pro typing without it. I've gotten really fast typing on my iPhone.

James

@Doc Benway: does it blend,,, i mean catch fire

flyboy

@jekyoo_style: yes - that's why someone deems to put money into it.

The Apple GUI design Gods are not amused.

flyboy

Apple just needs to allow the small BT keyboards to work with the iPhone or allow someone to make one that can attach to the port on the bottom.

Shabbis

@scatpack:

If they would just reprogram the music player keys on the iPhone to make them larger, so you don't need to be so damned precise to press them, I'd be happy.

I think it's all for the sake of Album Art, which is stupid to begin with, but completely useless while driving. I wish there were a driving mode, without album art, and with HUGE FF/PLAY/REW buttons that you couldn't possibly miss.

This is such a BAD interface for an iPOD. I'm actually ashamed for Apple. Hopefully someone will soon reprogram it to have a better screen skin/interface to address this problem.

darex

The worst feature of the iPhone keypad is in music player, where you have to press the FF/RWD buttons EXACTLY on target with the tip of your finger, or they don't work. With that huge screen to work with, why couldn't they have made huge buttons to press with large areas programmed to execute these functions?

Is it because of the stupid album art?

I'm trying to drive! Why must I look at my screen to make sure I hit the FF key EXACTLY on target. It's ridiculous, and it's so easily reprogrammed to correct this. Please, won't anyone do this?????????

I'm actually embarrassed for Apple to have made such a horrible iPOD interface on the iPhone.

darex

For the "We hate change" crowd! The funny thing is there is are people that will be ready to buy this!

-What is a Budcase anyway?

cdawson2000

@darex: "I'm actually embarrassed for Apple to have made such a horrible iPOD interface on the iPhone."

Agreed. While I love it as a phone, there's no way it could be my only iPod.

Track metadata is inexcusably small for a screen that size. But at least I get giant music notes for those songs without album art.

someToast

Hey, at least it can be used as a screen protector.

Bani-Banan

this goes against the ENTIRE reason the iphone came out with touch-screen for cellphones... morons..

devianaut

It actually seems smart and useful but i wonder if this will have any impact on the functionality of the touch screen because in the picture it looks kind of thick.
Just wondering.
But $8 is a good price and $4 is better that way you can have a back up when you're film strip gets too dirty.

SneakerFiend

seems kinda silly, but the video linked on the website is pretty convincing.

drugs

One change I'd definitely vote for is the option to quickly change the "tap' sound when you hit a key into a vocalization of the letter you pressed.... for those times when I *do* text and drive. (I usally just trust to the autocorrect)

Narual

The iPhone has a pretty responsive 3-axis accelerometer. There is no reason the iPod interface should require tiny on-screen buttons. You could switch it to a mode where shaking it in various ways would control music playback ... never forcing you to use the screen.

The keyboard could pulse the, ehr, vibrator instead of making a click sound to provide feedback... and could lightly pulse when you 'slide' your mousefinger around across the virtual keys (as you cross the edges).

The main problem with the iPhone's keypad is the uselessly narrow keys in portrait mode. Even tactile buttons this small are a pain in the butt. They should have placed more emphasis on landscape mode for typing (why the hell can't you go into landscape for email/texting???).

Please don't text while you drive around. At least wait until you are at a light. Your social plans and gossip aren't more important than people's lives around you.

alinear

@darex:

I couldn't agree with you more. While I am completely fine with the keyboard on the iPhone (except the lack of landscape keyboard for txting)...The ridiculous interface for the iPod part of the iPhone is infuriating when trying to do anything while listening to music...Especially while driving and switching songs!

If this company came out with an iPod clingy for the iPhone screen to add "tactile feedback" I might just be interested in checking it out.

SkoGoody

Tactile feedback isn't an issue if you have used an iPhone for over a month. I haven't ran into anyone that was unable to type quickly. It took me a little bit longer than expected to adjust, but I'm am just as fast as I was on any other QWERTY device. There is always an adjustment period between devices anyway.

jaisin

@alinear: try that HapticKB app ... i hope apple hires these guys or at least buys their app

And texting while driving on an iphone sounds like something out of a SF movie ! I miss 1 in 5 keys while sitting down at my desk... just thinkg of doing it driving, holding the steering wheel with my knee makes me laugh.

Tensor

@darex: you COULD have the best of both worlds ...

Have a full screen background image art divided in 4 by its diagonals with next / prev top and bottom (or vol up/down) and rew/ff left and right ... making the buttons 100% transparent when not in use (BUT STILL USABLE) and having them @ say alpha 50% when in use for a couple of seconds ... not too hard to do at all.

The best keyboard app for the iphone i've seen is HapticKB by two students (welsh was it?) that makes the iPhone vibrate on key press/change and vibrate differently on release. Just a tech demo app but VERY cool.

Tensor