# PDA keyboards **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 7, 2004, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pda-keyboards/263466 "2004-09-07T10:27:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ccwaterback](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@ccwaterback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ccwaterback)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2004, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pda-keyboards/263466/1 "2004-09-07T10:27:46Z")
Don’t you think this would be a good time in history to finally get rid of the quirky QWERTY key layout? With a PDA you are basically a two-thumbed typist, so having QWERTY keyboard skills really doesn’t help you at all. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2004, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pda-keyboards/263466/2 "2004-09-07T14:52:24Z")
dont know about you, but if i am not scrawling in grafitti, i happen to have an almost fullsized fold out PDA keyboard…other than they key ‘feel’ is different, it types just like a normal keyboard. I have used it to take note in meetings with=) works just fine. What I _cant_ do is touchtype on a german keyboard yet :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![ccwaterback](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@ccwaterback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ccwaterback)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2004, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pda-keyboards/263466/3 "2004-09-07T16:09:31Z")
I guess I was thinking more about a Blackberry, or mobile phone. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2004, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pda-keyboards/263466/4 "2004-09-07T18:21:50Z")
> [@ccwaterback](#): > > I guess I was thinking more about a Blackberry, or mobile phone. :smack: Yes, because I had trouble decyphering your two-thumbs comment. Ahh, something to sell. I forgot about my PDA I never use it so I may sell it. Or find a use for it. ---
**Author:** ![Heart\_On\_My\_Sleeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/77aa72/32.png) [@Heart\_On\_My\_Sleeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heart_On_My_Sleeve)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2004, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pda-keyboards/263466/5 "2004-09-08T02:50:25Z")
I’ve been waiting for someone to start offering this for about a year, I think. [http://www.canesta.com/canestakeyboard.htm](http://www.canesta.com/canestakeyboard.htm) ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2004, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pda-keyboards/263466/6 "2004-09-08T08:18:53Z")
I just got a Tungsten C, which comes with a miniature QWERTY keyboard. I am _significantly_ faster using that thing than I am with any version of Graffiti, and can take (abbreviated) notes for any discussion or meeting I’m involved with. ---
**Author:** ![ccwaterback](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/df705f/32.png) [@ccwaterback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ccwaterback)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2004, 10:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pda-keyboards/263466/7 "2004-09-08T10:06:54Z")
Well yeah, us old timers that have been using the QWERTY layout for eons find it quite natural. I just don’t think we should burden the next generation of untrained typists with a keyboard layout that was designed specially to slow you down. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2004, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pda-keyboards/263466/8 "2004-09-08T10:14:39Z")
I have a Treo 600, which has a mini qwerty similar to that of the Blackberry and Tungsten devices. For the most part, I use grafitti (I had to install it myself though, as it isn’t natively supported on this device) and I’m quite fast on that, but the mini keyboard is also quite useful, despite its diminutive size. The qwerty layout definitely made the learning curve shorter, but that is only because I’m very much acquainted with full-size qwerty keyboards. The projection keyboard chipset mentioned by **Heart On My Sleeve** is now available in a commercial product ( [http://www.internity.co.uk/vkb.asp](http://www.internity.co.uk/vkb.asp) ) - it’s not as expensive as I thought it would be, currently retailing for £99.99. ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2004, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pda-keyboards/263466/9 "2004-09-08T12:56:30Z")
> [@rjung](#): > > I just got a Tungsten C, which comes with a miniature QWERTY keyboard. I am _significantly_ faster using that thing than I am with any version of Graffiti, and can take (abbreviated) notes for any discussion or meeting I’m involved with. Same here, I love the keyboard. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2004, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pda-keyboards/263466/10 "2004-09-08T13:45:43Z")
One thing that is very definitely nasty is the ABCDEF layout - I’ve used a number of handheld devices (mostly mobile data capture terminals, I think) that used this layout and text entry was just gratingly annoying all the time. But again, this is porbably only because of a lifetime of familiarity with the qwerty layout. As long as there are alphabetic keyboards, there will be qwerty - it is only likely to be killed off by other, better methods of entry, such as handwriting or voice recognition (of which we already have rudimentary implementations), or direct brain interfaces (which we don’t have), ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2004, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pda-keyboards/263466/11 "2004-09-08T14:21:07Z")
ABCDEF keyboard have been shown time and again to perform WORSE than a random arrangment of keys. Despite a widely trumpeted but methodologically dubious report circulated a while back, it seems most research supports dvorak as the keyboard layout of choice.