12-23-2019, 11:52 AM
The following is an idea that may not be feasible for this version of the Pinephone, but it generally came to my mind and I do not know where else to raise it:
My problem with the Android soft keyboard is that I very often get the characters wrong and hit adjacent keys. It has perhaps something to do with the fact that my fingers do not hit the screen in an exact vertical fashion but at a slight angle.
The haptic feedback (brief vibration) does not help, unfortunately.
In another post, I was talking about my old Palm Treo 680 and how easy its physical keyboard was to use. In fact, the Treo 600 was even better, because the rows of keys were not curved:
![[Image: hst600.gif]](https://fdn2.gsmarena.com/vv/bigpic/hst600.gif)
I took those old phones out of their cupboard recently and started them up. And even after not using them for over 5 years, I was surprised how quickly and error-free I was able to type on them.
Here is my idea:
In the picture above, the keyboard takes up half of the front of the phone, which is not acceptable nowadays. However, why can't we have a screen with in-built little nobbles, representing the keys in the the picture above? They would need to protrude just enough to be felt under your fingers but smooth enough to swipe over, if necessary. No need to have a physical press action, just those nobbles in the glass.
Why hasn't any manufacturer thought of this?
Oh, hang on, now I've got it: Why not have a screen protector with such nobbles? It can't be that difficult!
(Sorry I was developing the idea while typing.)
My problem with the Android soft keyboard is that I very often get the characters wrong and hit adjacent keys. It has perhaps something to do with the fact that my fingers do not hit the screen in an exact vertical fashion but at a slight angle.
The haptic feedback (brief vibration) does not help, unfortunately.
In another post, I was talking about my old Palm Treo 680 and how easy its physical keyboard was to use. In fact, the Treo 600 was even better, because the rows of keys were not curved:
I took those old phones out of their cupboard recently and started them up. And even after not using them for over 5 years, I was surprised how quickly and error-free I was able to type on them.
Here is my idea:
In the picture above, the keyboard takes up half of the front of the phone, which is not acceptable nowadays. However, why can't we have a screen with in-built little nobbles, representing the keys in the the picture above? They would need to protrude just enough to be felt under your fingers but smooth enough to swipe over, if necessary. No need to have a physical press action, just those nobbles in the glass.
Why hasn't any manufacturer thought of this?
Oh, hang on, now I've got it: Why not have a screen protector with such nobbles? It can't be that difficult!
(Sorry I was developing the idea while typing.)
