Apple today released the latest in the company’s recent string of iPhone videos: “iPhone Keyboard.”
Apple advises:
• Start with just one index finger
• At first, be very deliberate with your finger taps
• Pay particular attention to the confirmation pop-ups and where your finger touches the screen
Apple has clearly spent a lot of time developing iPhone’s virtual keyboard. iPhone constantly checks what you’re typing against its built-in dictionary. When it finds a mistake, the iPhone makes a suggestion. To decline and keep the word as you typed it, just tap the suggested word. To accept iPhone’s suggestion, just tap the space bar. iPhone also uses its built-in dictionary along with complex mathematics to help correct mistake via pattern matching (for example, typing “ouzza” leads iPhone to offer “pizza” as a suggestion). iPhone also uses its built-in dictionary to predict the next letter you might tap and dynamically resizes the tap zones. It makes the next predicted keys larger and the others smaller as it zeros in on the particular word you’re typing.
iPhone changes its keyboard for different tasks, adapting its layout and keys for different apps.
The trick is to just type away and trust the intelligence of the iPhone keyboard. As you become more comfortable and more proficient, you can graduate to typing with two thumbs and, Apple says, “in less than a week you’ll likely discover yourself typing faster on iPhone than on any other small keyboard.”
The video (in your choice of sizes) is here: http://www.apple.com/iphone/usingiphone/keyboard.html
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Isabelle” for the heads up.]
Stay tuned tomorrow on duh! We will show you how to dial the telephone!
pretty impressive
Yeah, now i can see why the keyboard is going to be easier to use. I hope all the tech is patented!
MDN Keyword: Clearly, as in clearly better keyboard tech
I need this type of phone…..
I think the iPhone is great, and I am looking forward to seeing it in Europe. I have used Macs since 1987, and barely know how to use a PC let alone set one up. Now, having established that I am not in any way a Mac hater, could someone please answer me a question. I only ask because I am curious.
Does anyone on these message boards know anyone who has ever bought a mobile phone, let alone one costing $500.00?
I have had a mobile phone since about 1990, and everyone I know either has their own given free by the network, or is supplied one by their company. Not one person I have ever known has actually bought one.
I myself have just been upgraded to a Nokia 6300 by Orange. The phone I am sure is not a patch on the iPhone, but at a notional retail price of £175, it ain’t bad.
Could someone explain to me who is going to jump from “free” to $500? I wish the iPhone well but, that’s a big jump.
Uhm, to not select the word, you actually tap it?
Why does that sound contrary to how my brain works?
Shouldn’t it be the other way around?
those ericssons are something like $900.
You get what you pay for.
Does your ‘free’ phone hold any water here? If so, why are you asking? This isn’t just a phone – it’s a gadget consolidator.
No longer will I have to carry an iPod, phone, and powerbook around with me just to have the basic address/phone/browser/music/video/chat/etc.
more than $500? I’d pay $1000, the $200 to Sprint/Nextel to drop ’em, the $60 for AppleCare, and smile the whole time.
let’s get some real questions in here, please.
MDN word: however – as in , if you don’t like it, however, you can KEEP your shitty free phone.
those ericssons are something like $900.
You get what you pay for.
Does your ‘free’ phone hold any water here? If so, why are you asking? This isn’t just a phone – it’s a gadget consolidator.
No longer will I have to carry an iPod, phone, and powerbook around with me just to have the basic address/phone/browser/music/video/chat/etc.
more than $500? I’d pay $1000, the $200 to Sprint/Nextel to drop ’em, the $60 for AppleCare, and smile the whole time.
let’s get some real questions in here, please.
MDN word: however – as in , if you don’t like it, however, you can KEEP your shitty free phone.
those ericssons are something like $900.
You get what you pay for.
Does your ‘free’ phone hold any water here? If so, why are you asking? This isn’t just a phone – it’s a gadget consolidator.
No longer will I have to carry an iPod, phone, and powerbook around with me just to have the basic address/phone/browser/music/video/chat/etc.
more than $500? I’d pay $1000, the $200 to Sprint/Nextel to drop ’em, the $60 for AppleCare, and smile the whole time.
let’s get some real questions in here, please.
MDN word: however – as in , if you don’t like it, however, you can KEEP your shitty free phone.
those ericssons are something like $900.
You get what you pay for.
Does your ‘free’ phone hold any water here? If so, why are you asking? This isn’t just a phone – it’s a gadget consolidator.
No longer will I have to carry an iPod, phone, and powerbook around with me just to have the basic address/phone/browser/music/video/chat/etc.
more than $500? I’d pay $1000, the $200 to Sprint/Nextel to drop ’em, the $60 for AppleCare, and smile the whole time.
let’s get some real questions in here, please.
MDN word: however – as in , if you don’t like it, however, you can KEEP your shitty free phone.
Why not rotate the iPhone to a horizontal position, which would make the keyboard much larger? Why did they not incorporate this feature? It seems so obvious.
@ Steve
Don’t forget it’s a lot more than just a phone. It’s also an iPod, Blackberry, Web Surfer, etc.
Teflon,
That’s coming in a future free iPhone software update (along with many more things).
@M.A.D.:
I thought the same at first, but hitting the space bar to select a suggestion IS intuitive, since that’s what you normally do after you’ve finished typing a word. It’s just in this case Apple has finished typing it for you. I think it shouldn’t be a problem to get used to this since we’re already conditioned to hit the space bar after a word.
@M.A.D.
Think of tapping on the word as pushing it away. It seems to me that the reason they use the spacebar to accept the word is that you’re going to tap the spacebar anyway before you type in the next word.
@steve
iPhone is not subsidized , pay more up front, but your monthly service, doesn’t reflect re paying your for your phone
http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/RDM.Tech.Q2.07/244A57B2-B535-4146-A5C4-F3804E4187A4.html
Don’t forget that the cost of the phone has already been accounted for in the cost of your subscription. NOTHING, I repeat, nothing is completely free. Someone, somewhere is paying for that “free” phone, whether it is built into the rate plan or being paid for by your employer (lucky you!!).
Why do I think that hitting the spacebar is not a good why to say I accept your spelling suggestion. If I want to say “I hate rar files” and the phone suggests rat for rar I would naturally hit the spacebar after rar. It just seems backwards to me. Hit the spacebar (or any other key) to decline and hit the suggested spelling to accept seems more intuitive to me. Anyone else agree or does Apples way seem right to you?
the keyboard should be able to work in landscape mode when doing email or SMS. That would make each virtual button much bigger and lead to less mistakes. Perhaps they’ll have that in some future update.
That video is VERY impressive btw., and the guy on it is _great_. He’s got this little sly, proud, but not obnoxious smile after each demonstration of a hitherto unknown under-the-hood amazing feature of the virtual keyboard. He’s also got an overall serious, smart and yet nice persona. They should use him more for this kind of stuff, IMO.
I hope you can turn off the spell check or text message shorthand will get real frustrating.
I think that spacebar to accept would work right if the software is designed in the right way. i.e. If Microsoft did it then it would be wrong to hit spacebar, but there is no way Steve would allow this to ship if it wasn’t the most intuitive solution.
I say trust Apple when they say to trust the iPhone…
Chris, I wondered the same thing about the space bar. But if you are accept the suggested word, what is the next key you’d press to continue typing? The space! So why not just type the spacebar to accept and continue with one keypress? It does make sense.
Bob, Chip,
Makes sense. Now to type away and get used to it in practice… thanks.
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Hurry up Friday!
Chris Moore: “Why do I think that hitting the spacebar is not a good why to say I accept your spelling suggestion. If I want to say “I hate rar files” and the phone suggests rat for rar I would naturally hit the spacebar after rar. It just seems backwards to me. Hit the spacebar (or any other key) to decline and hit the suggested spelling to accept seems more intuitive to me. Anyone else agree or does Apples way seem right to you?”
It’s a matter of efficiency. Space and punctuations always come after a word, so you’ll type them anyway. However if space is used to reject the predictive correction, you’ll have to go back to previous words and tap to accept the correction often.
iPhone’s way allows your finger to stay on the virtual keyboard as much as possible and you only need to go to the text area as needed to make a rejection. OTOH, your way means you need to get off the virtual keyboard very often to accept suggested corrections. For example if iPhone uses your way:
I hatw (go back to hatw and tap it)
I hate rar fules (go back to fules and tap it)
I hate rar files
or
I hatw (continue with a space)
I hate rar (go back to rar and tap it)
I hate rar fules (continue with a space)
I hate rar files
Notice how many times you need to go back to the previous words. Remember, you are going to make many mistakes (hence, the need for autocorrect feature), but if you trust the predictive keyboard and plow away with spaces, you can type more efficiently and save many taps if iPhone uses your way.