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Just bought it, it's VERY difficult to use, even harder than I expected. There's no control over the insertion of spaces, it automatically inserts one after yo
by JonnieCache 16y ago
Just bought it, it's VERY difficult to use, even harder than I expected.
There's no control over the insertion of spaces, it automatically inserts one after you release your thumb at the end of a word. So if you accidentally delete a space that you need, which is likely during the learning process, there is no way to get it back without also deleting the character before it and adding an auto space. Also there is no way of preventing this automatic space either, so web addresses and the like have to be entered as one very long continuous gesture, without any mistakes; if you make a mistake you must release your thumb to hit the backspace button, which you must now hit twice because an unwanted space was just added.
Finally, the learning process is heavily hindered by the fact that your thumb obscures at least one or two of the 'branches' during a gesture, which means when you have to visually consult the screen because you have forgotten the unusual spatial model (the direction matters too remember,) your only option is to pivot your thumb without it leaving the screen, and hold your phone at an odd angle so your can peer beneath your digit and decide where it should go next. Not very practical.
Give me a spacebar and the ability to disable autospacing and I'll try it again. Until then I'm sticking with swype, which allows me to type extremely fast.
- warfangle 16y agoJust got it, too. Had a short conversation via IM with it, and I'm already 100% faster. I agree with you on the spacing issue - I wish that you had to tap without a gesture on the center point to insert a spacebar instead of automatically inserting one. That way I could consult between letters. Eventually muscle memory will kick in. I'm forcing myself to use it for a week, and will compare typing speeds then...
- Kev 16y agoYou can avoid entering spaces by lifting your finger when it isn't touching the centre area. It disrupts the flow significantly when you do so but it does let you stop half way through a word without putting in an extra space. After playing with it for a while I think that it's an interesting idea. I'll stick with it until I'm familiar enough to make a fair judgement but it's difficult to imagine 8pen being as fast as the standard keyboard - there's just too much movement involved for every character.
- makeramen 16y agohere are some tricks I found regarding spaces: -To type a space, go from center to any sector, then back to center -To type a word without a space, don't end the word on the center.
- mmavnn 16y agoYou can just tap the center for a space as well. The 'don't end on the center to lift and then continue the word' behaviour is invaluable to me as I learn, and I have no idea why it's not mentioned in the tutorial. Also, if you make a mistake, you can go back segments as well as forwards as long as you don't touch the center. Useful if you go to far or (my favourite trick at the moment) realise that you've started in the wrong direction...