6 ms·

This looks super cool, but I'm not sure I'd use it. When the Series 5 was launched, there weren't a lot of good options for text input on mobile devices. The k

This looks super cool, but I'm not sure I'd use it. When the Series 5 was launched, there weren't a lot of good options for text input on mobile devices. The keyboard made a huge difference, because your alternatives were a full-size laptop, Graffiti on a Palm device or the awful resistive touchscreen on a WinCE device. The Psion 5 was the most useful productivity device that could fit in a coat pocket. Today, touchscreen keyboards work well enough that a Psion 5-sized keyboard isn't a vast improvement. For less than $30, you can buy a folding Bluetooth keyboard that is barely bigger than a phone when folded, but gives an almost full-sized keyboard when unfolded. The Gemini's fixed keyboard makes it impractical to use as a phone, but isn't as good as a folding bluetooth keyboard. Loath as I am to admit it, I think it's simply an obsolete form factor. If the keyboard snapped on magnetically, I might have given it serious consideration. As it is, I just don't see where such a device would fit into my workflow. https://www.amazon.com/iClever-Portable-Keyboard-Bluetooth-Wireless/dp/B00YWLJNPQ/ https://www.amazon.com/iClever-Portable-Keyboard-Bluetooth-W...

maxxxxx 9y ago
I have never seen a keyboard as small as the Psion's that felt as good. I hope they can replicate that.
- stewbrew 9y ago
  The keyboard linked to above is a full size keyboard. The keys are quite ok. When folded, it's nearly quadratic, probably taller than a Psion 5. There are smaller versions of the keyboard that might use the same keys. While I loved my Psion 5mx and the keyboard was astonishing, especially in comparison with the Psion 3, I don't think it was better than these cheap Bluetooth keyboards.
  - throwanem 9y ago
    Even the Palm folding keyboards - especially the rebranded Stowaway XT, but not excluding the original three-fold Portable - were better by far than cheap Bluetooth keyboards are today. It's not even a contest. Sure, for a few keystrokes here and there, you don't really feel the difference - but if you're spending more than a few minutes a day typing on it, you surely do.
    - tluyben2 9y ago
      I tried cheap ones and you are right. After I bought the MS foldable keyboard I stopped looking. It is perfect imho.
      - stewbrew 9y ago
        The MS foldable has really nice keys but the gap between the two halves is rather annoying on the long run. The above keyboard has no gap like the original stowaway keyboard.
phonon 9y ago
You might be interested in this. https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/keyboard-mod-a-physical-keyboard-for-the-moto-z#/ https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/keyboard-mod-a-physical-k...
dingaling 9y ago
> Today, touchscreen keyboards work well enough They barely work at all, it's only autocorrection that makes them tolerable. And if there's any moisture on the screen then the input will be erratic and useless.
- jdietrich 9y ago
  Autocorrect is part of the input method. It's damned near impossible to input Chinese characters into a computer without some sort of predictive system. T9 was an integral part of text input on phones with a numeric keypad. I've just checked and I can comfortably type on a phone at over 25wpm. That isn't blazing fast, but it's within one standard deviation of the average typist on a full-size qwerty keyboard. It's not great, but I'd certainly call it good enough. The gap just isn't very big between typing speeds on a touchscreen or a small physical keyboard. I think the market bears that out - physical keyboards have all but disappeared from mobile devices, because they just don't add enough value for most users to justify the added bulk or the reduction in screen size. Incidentally, wet finger tracking has improved massively over the last couple of years. My current phone works pretty much impeccably even if it's soaking wet. https://imlocation.wordpress.com/2007/12/05/how-fast-do-people-type/ https://imlocation.wordpress.com/2007/12/05/how-fast-do-peop...
  - throwanem 9y ago
    I can barely manage 20wpm on my phone, and that's on a good day; the next-keystroke prediction and autocorrect both fail so often that I spend as much or more time correcting text as I do entering it. Meanwhile, I easily hit 120wpm when typing on a real keyboard. Typing on a phone feels like having both thumbs tied together behind my back, with one finger broken. One reason why I'm so excited by the Gemini PDA is that it might not feel that way.
  - jodrellblank 9y ago
    Speed isn't what bothers me, it's the feel of jamming my fingers into a glass slab, combined with the helpless frustration when I type something and autocorrect changes the preceding words, and I have no arrow keys and touch-moving-the-cursor is so poor. This happens several times for every sentence that isn't pure English literature and includes some kind of custom caps, word, abbreviation, number, code, contraction, name, or whatever.

maxxxxx 9y ago

I have never seen a keyboard as small as the Psion's that felt as good. I hope they can replicate that.

stewbrew 9y ago
The keyboard linked to above is a full size keyboard. The keys are quite ok. When folded, it's nearly quadratic, probably taller than a Psion 5. There are smaller versions of the keyboard that might use the same keys. While I loved my Psion 5mx and the keyboard was astonishing, especially in comparison with the Psion 3, I don't think it was better than these cheap Bluetooth keyboards.
- throwanem 9y ago
  Even the Palm folding keyboards - especially the rebranded Stowaway XT, but not excluding the original three-fold Portable - were better by far than cheap Bluetooth keyboards are today. It's not even a contest. Sure, for a few keystrokes here and there, you don't really feel the difference - but if you're spending more than a few minutes a day typing on it, you surely do.
  - tluyben2 9y ago
    I tried cheap ones and you are right. After I bought the MS foldable keyboard I stopped looking. It is perfect imho.
    - stewbrew 9y ago
      The MS foldable has really nice keys but the gap between the two halves is rather annoying on the long run. The above keyboard has no gap like the original stowaway keyboard.

phonon 9y ago

You might be interested in this. https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/keyboard-mod-a-physical-keyboard-for-the-moto-z#/ https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/keyboard-mod-a-physical-k...

dingaling 9y ago

> Today, touchscreen keyboards work well enough They barely work at all, it's only autocorrection that makes them tolerable. And if there's any moisture on the screen then the input will be erratic and useless.

jdietrich 9y ago
Autocorrect is part of the input method. It's damned near impossible to input Chinese characters into a computer without some sort of predictive system. T9 was an integral part of text input on phones with a numeric keypad. I've just checked and I can comfortably type on a phone at over 25wpm. That isn't blazing fast, but it's within one standard deviation of the average typist on a full-size qwerty keyboard. It's not great, but I'd certainly call it good enough. The gap just isn't very big between typing speeds on a touchscreen or a small physical keyboard. I think the market bears that out - physical keyboards have all but disappeared from mobile devices, because they just don't add enough value for most users to justify the added bulk or the reduction in screen size. Incidentally, wet finger tracking has improved massively over the last couple of years. My current phone works pretty much impeccably even if it's soaking wet. https://imlocation.wordpress.com/2007/12/05/how-fast-do-people-type/ https://imlocation.wordpress.com/2007/12/05/how-fast-do-peop...
- throwanem 9y ago
  I can barely manage 20wpm on my phone, and that's on a good day; the next-keystroke prediction and autocorrect both fail so often that I spend as much or more time correcting text as I do entering it. Meanwhile, I easily hit 120wpm when typing on a real keyboard. Typing on a phone feels like having both thumbs tied together behind my back, with one finger broken. One reason why I'm so excited by the Gemini PDA is that it might not feel that way.
- jodrellblank 9y ago
  Speed isn't what bothers me, it's the feel of jamming my fingers into a glass slab, combined with the helpless frustration when I type something and autocorrect changes the preceding words, and I have no arrow keys and touch-moving-the-cursor is so poor. This happens several times for every sentence that isn't pure English literature and includes some kind of custom caps, word, abbreviation, number, code, contraction, name, or whatever.