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Apple iPhone
 
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Anthony Fiti
Kurtis
N/A
Jul. 8, 2007
User Experience - the Keyboard

One of the biggest worries of the phone would be how well the keyboard works. I can say that even after only a few days, I was able to type fairly well, and I am improving at a rate much greater than I had expected. The keyboard will also rotate with the device when the active application supports landscape mode (Safari).

One of the points Apple makes with respect to the keyboard is that you shouldn't worry about getting each character in the word right, rather just keep typing and when you get to the end of the word you'll be prompted with their suggested word if it didn't find it in the built-in dictionary. You tap the space bar to accept the suggested word, or tap on the word to ignore the suggestion. If you heed their suggestion you'll find that typing becomes much faster as their suggestion system works very well.

Apple also uses a predictive input, which dynamically sizes the window for each key as you type. An example of this would be if you had typed "thi", the window for the letter "S" would be larger because there are only a few words you can spell with this combination of letters.

I have tested traditional smart phone devices that have the button-based keyboards, and I found that the tactile feedback from the keys was useful, and it didn't take me long to get up to speeds on those keyboards as well.

However, I believe that the benefit of having a screen the full size of the device was far greater than the button-based keyboards. Coupled with the excellent suggestion software and predictive input, the touch-based keyboard is a suitable replacement for button-based keyboards.

 
<< Previous
Page 7 of 14
Next >>
Page 1: Introduction
Page 2: The Line
Page 3: What's In the Box & First Looks
Page 4: Plans and Activation
Page 5: User Experience - Interface
Page 6: User Experience - Battery Life
Page 7: User Experience - the Keyboard
Page 8: User Experience - Widescreen iPod
Page 9: User Experience - Mobile Phone and Text Messaging
Page 10: User Experience - Internet and Email
Page 11: User Experience - Widgets and Other Features
Page 12: AT&T's Network - From Fine Edge to Broken Edge
Page 13: Missing Features
Page 14: Conclusion
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5 User Comments
1 - Posted by ebernet on July 9, 2007 - 3:05 pm

Instead of buying another apple cable, I bought a car charger that included both a USB>Mini USB that works with my camera and will charge a blackberry, and a USB>Dock connector cable. Both cables AND the cigarette lighter dohicky were the same $20 as just the cable, AND they were black. I even bought it at the Apple store. It was made by Griffin, I am sure others do it.
Eytan

2 - Posted by ebernet on July 9, 2007 - 3:53 pm

Some more comments - Yahoo provides free push email, and will sync your address book up to Yahoo - a great feature and a way to get address book syncing between machines without paying the .mac tax.

As for the battery issue, a full charge cycle is a full discharge/charge, which I have had 2 so far. After the 350-450 FULL cycles you are at 80% of your battery.

As a longtime iPod owner, the battery has never been an issue for me. My hope is that by the time I need a battery replacement (2 years down the line or more) an after market of doing the installs will exist - and while it will not be 35 like it is now for the iPod, it will be a cheaper $50 or so then Apple's 80+, and by then the battery capacities will be higher. I think we need to wait and give the battery grief when the battery deserves grief, when problems start...

3 - Posted by Kurtis on July 9, 2007 - 7:37 pm

Thanks for the comments, ebernet. And welcome to TheTechLounge forums. :)

BTW, regarding battery life, I think it's a valid concern, considering that the brand new battery under heavy use only lasts a single day. 2 days tops for moderate-heavy use. My treo650 used to go for a week before I'd have to charge it, and after a year and a half or so, now it dies in 2 days. Of course, mine is easily replaceable, but the point is that if it has such short battery life NEW, any decrease in that battery life is going to be a big issue down the road, and that is inevitable.

4 - Posted by ynYmpmTbMbfl on December 3, 2007 - 9:57 pm

IXiMcB post, Thanks. That’s Ben. a super ,

5 - Posted by Max Slowik on December 3, 2007 - 11:02 pm

snorkt.

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