Basically, you see a virtual qwerty keyboard. Rather than pressing each individual button, you just start on the first letter of the word and gesture over all the letters of the word. When you pick up your finger, it predicts the word you were typing and it will show a list of words in the order of likelihood (if it’s only one, it just inputs it). You don’t even have to use the space key, if the word it predicts is most likely, you just start swyping the next word, if not, you select the word you want and then start swyping the next one. If it’s a word that it doesn’t know, you can still type it in normally and it will add to it’s library and show up next time you swype it. It obviously has some intelligence built it based on how common the word is in general along with how much I use it.
I will say it can get confusing if you’re trying to swype a long word and you end up with the gesture all over the place, but it’s actually surprisingly good at predicting the word you’re trying to swype. And while it sounds a little weird, it only took me a day or two of normal texting to get used to it.
My iPhone still annoys me if I have to type any lengthy amount of text. For some reason it always always always wants to write “if” instead of “of” - that’s the main bugbear. It also usually misses off the last “g” of words ending in “-ing”, for some reason, and it has a passion for “it’s” rather than “its”, but that’s a failing of autocorrect rather than the keyboard.
My cellphone has an actual keyboard, so I pretty much always use that. It’s a pain when I have to type passwords (because all of mine alternate numbers and letters) but it’s alright.
But work gave us all Kindles and the keyboard on that is awful. Virtual keyboard, right? So I should be able to get Dvorak? Nope. And apparently I’m half dead or something, because if I use my fingers (on any touch screen device), a third of the time it doesn’t register (yeah, I got a stylus). But I can’t edit worth crud (stupid cursor, go where I want!) and it’s even worse in chrome, even though otherwise it’s mostly a better browser than the one the kindle came with.
I suppose I should try Swype, but I tend to type weird things.
I never had a keyboard phone. My first smartphone was an iphone, and it took me about two weeks before i was comfortable and proficient with the touchscreen keyboard.
Touch screens don’t respond to my touch very well. Maybe it’s because my fingers are calloused but I usually have to touch two or three times for the device to sense the touch. This is on several different devices, ipods, androids, garmin, etc. I like the old keyboard on my ancient Blackberry, the phone is reeeeaaallly slow but at least the keyboard works. Maybe the touchscreens are designed for people with soft skin that never touch anything besides touchscreens?
You just need a little moisture. Either use a little moisturizer on your hands, or just give your finger a tiny lick every once in a while. If it’s really dry out, and/or your fingers are dry/calloused, it becomes downright necessary.
Apparently the touch screen for our copier sucks too, because I have the same issues. And sometimes on my phone. I think I’m like 60wag. My hands are always dry.
I’ve had my iPad for 2 years and I’m still not over my hatred for touchscreen keyboard.
In April I’m changing my blackberry for the new Samsung Galaxy, I’m not looking forward to it (for the typing… everything else I can’t wait to be rid of the BB).
I hate the touchscreen keyboard too. It’s my square fingertips.
I’ve used physical keyboards and Swype and Swiftkey. Swiftkey wins, especially now that it has a Swype-like feature. It’s better than Swype at predicting text.
Hasn’t happened yet. I got the Razr with the slide out keypad, and am very glad I did. My wife regrets getting the slimmer version w/ no keypad, and I often have folk say they wish that had my phone.
I’m well aware that touchscreens are the way of the future, but I ain’t jumping in until I have to.