There have been lots of posts by people looking to properly disable XT9 that is integrated in the HTC soft keypad and keyboard to make the "regular" word completion work when using the hardware keyboard.
For quick SMS messages, I still prefer a phonepad with XT9. I like the large layout of the HTC keypad, but XT9 drives me nuts. After trying about every SIP I could find, I think the smootest for T9 phonepad input is the HTC Phone Pad (also called Intellipad) that apparently used to be included on HTC roms. It's quick and T9 only rears its face when you're using it.
There are a number of skins out there for it, including a touch-style one that looks close to the new HTC Keypad (sorry for not looking up the creator) but the 0-9 keys are always smaller (due to the extra keys on the sides I guess).
I think it would be great if someone with some knowledge of creating SIPs and skinning them could create a new skin for this Phone Pad that is laid out just like the new HTC Keypad. I imagine this would take a little more modification than just a new skin due to the size of the buttons and the layout. For example, I don't see the need for the arrow buttons on the corners of the Phone Pad, but you can't scroll through the word suggestions with the hardware "D-pad" 'as is'.
I wish I could get this started myself, but unfortunately I have no knowledge of how to make/edit a SIP. I know there's plenty of people out there that can however, so hopefully someone might be interested in making a more usable version of the new HTC Keypad and interested in taking this on.
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I do a LOT of email and texting and i use a Tytn with hardware keyboard now. But my Tytn is slowly dying. I need a replacement.
I need a little help here:
- Any hardcore email/texting fans that happily work with an onscreen keyboard? Looks tempting, because the formfactor is way better. Or do i need a phone with a hardware keyboard?
- Are there any tests/reviews that compare hardware vs software keyboard in typing speed and typos?
I bought my TyTnII because of the qwerty hardware keyboard but I find I harldy use it.
I use Resco keyboard as welll as some of the other inbuilt ones.
WDawn said:
- Are there any tests/reviews that compare hardware vs software keyboard in typing speed and typos?
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The Hardware Keyboard was a main reason to buy my phone.
If you speak German you should read this.
http://www.golem.de/0711/56006.html
if not here´s a little summary
iphone keyboard VS Hardware Keyboard
-Both groups tipped equal fast
-5,4 mistakes per mail (iphone) 1,4 hardware keyboard.
-the people in the test voted for preferred method and 85% liked the hardware keyboard better.
It really comes down to you, but....
If you want my opinion, I have done a LOT of comparison between various on screen keyboards and hardware keyboards and for me I can type faster on my Touch with PCM Keyboard and my custom skins and layouts than any of my hardware keyboards.
The reason is simple. With a screen keyboard (and the right software/skin/layout) I am able to take elements from hardware keyboards and various other quicker input methods.
For example, on my PCM skins, I added a features from my BlackBerry 8310, where you press and hold a letter for a caps and press and hold the space bar for a period and a space. I added elements from the iPhone keyboard of holding and sliding your finger for numbers, symbols, .com, etc that is not possible with a hard keyboard. On the number page, the numbers are bigger than any hard keyboard I have seen.
For me size and weight is one of the biggest factors. I like to keep my phone in my pocket (don't like cases or clips) and all my hardware keyboards (with the exception of the S710) are too big and heavy. I use the touch over the iPhone because of weight and size as well.
Forget about keyboards, and get the phone you want, keyboard or not, then if its too bad, you can always pick up a bluetooth keyboard to put in a bag when you need to do some hardcore writing.
That's what I'm planning to do if I get a Diamond
I am new to WM as before had only a regular Sony E. cellphone and I hated T9.
I now use a touchscreen only phone ( atom life).
I use fitaly and lately created a PCM fitaly layout ( http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=2413491&posted=1#post2413491 )
its quick for me. i dont miss having buttons to press. but i dont always like covering up usually 20% to 50% of the screen
you should try using your tytn with just software kb for a week. see if it fits your needs. give it maybe 2-3 days per sip of your choice.
Popular finger sips: Diamond and similar HTCs, PCM , tengo thumb/regular, resco ... many others
for stylus only i do recommend fitaly, there are others...but im used to something.
True about the bluetooth KB for when u need it
Thank you for your replies! Will try type with the software keyboard on my Tytn. Great test between the Iphone and Blackberry btw, wich makes me think that'll have to stick with the hardware keyboard.
Bluetooth keyboard! I did try all three methods for more than a year each and external folding keyboard is wayyyy better.
can someone please tell me were to get the htc software keyboards from!!
i put 6.5 on my phone but there are no software keyboards but the windows 1..i need them please please help!
the default HTC keyboard is called "EzInput". Searching for that will yield you better results.
Also check out the new "FingerKeyboard" I find it works alot better then the default one. It is one I use currently.
Another keyboard I found worked very well was Spb Keyboard. It allows finger gestures for backspace and space. Helps alot.
Also PocketCM Keyboard is REALLY sweet if you can get it set up properly. This keyboard allows for "sloppy" typing. Using this keyboard, you don't have to press the keys exactly. It references your taps against a dictionary and is pretty accurate.
I like the look and feel of FingerKeyboard but find the way PocketCM Keyboard works simply amazing. Both keyboards allow skinning. A mix of the two would be amazing.
Hi there,
Thanks as always to all of the developers and pros for indulging my questions.
This post is in 2 parts.
First, has anyone else noticed the different ways that android presents auto completion? For example, with the ION keyboard, when using the mms app, the contact prefill comes in a vertical scrolling menu that has the persons name and part of the phone number. Like so, "John Smith <212-55". This font is medium size and at least gives you part of the persons phone # although it does not give you the number type i.e. mobile.
Sometimes the mms app will display the contacts in the horizontal scroll similar to the spelling auto correction. This is far more convenient in my mind as it alloes me to see all of the phone #.
At the same time, the gmail/mail apps display the contacts in a vertical menu but in a much larger font. So I end up with "John Smi" and no idea which email address. I essentially have to figure out which email address it is by selecting them one by onr until I get the one I want.
Similar issues arise with the HTC/haykuro keyboard except that sometines it's the vertical menu and other times it the floaty horizontal/expandable menu. This particular menu is really annoying in that it will cover half of the screen if there are many contacts that it prefills.
Is there a setting or preference file that can be edited so that the auto corrections/prefills appear the same way?
The second part is to get your opinion in the best keyboard. I understand that there arw three distinct keyboards. The ION keyboard. The HTC keyboard. And haykuro's keyboard.
It appears to me that the ION keyboard is the least liked of the three. I actually prefer the look of it and ot feels to be the fastest, however the spelling correction and predictive text on it is retarded.
HTC's keyboard I find is good for spelling correction and learning user words, but I find that it gets quite slow. Also, I find the keys are harder to hit as they seems smaller but that just might be in my mind.
Haykuro's keyboard doesn't really have anything wrong with it but I just don't like the fact that it doesn't have a uniform look from the alphabet pad with the long press keys to the number pad that just has the single character on each "button".
Anyone want to add their thoughts on their keyboards? Ultimately I'm looking for a fast and smooth typing experience.
Thanks for your time!
I've used Resco Keyboard off and on for quite a long time. But while I continued to use it on my iPaq I more or less shelved it on my last two phones because the "thumb board" never seemed to be what it was advertised to be, and the normal mode wouldn't resize to take advantage of the higher resolution and larger screens. Fast forward to last night.
I downloaded the trial of the new version (6.0), and installed it. First thing I noticed is that the thumboard works. It looks somewhat similar to the Full Qwerty kb that comes on the HD2, though there is a space between each of the keys. And this makes for fewer mistakes while typing.
What makes Resco's kb so appealing has always been the extra things and customization that you can do with it, and in this new version the process of customizing it is extremely easy. I had modified the old version to work for me in terms of key layouts but it was tough to do. This new version uses only two files, and both are in the MS Siliverlight format. They are csv files and I only had to modify one of them, _Symbols.csv in order to make the two numeric boards appear exactly as I wanted them to, and it only took me an hour or so to do it. I had no prior experience with the format used, it's just that easy to modify the files. I was even able to reassign the values of the two center keys at the bottom of each of the numeric keyboards to act as a spacebar of sorts. And now, between the qwerty and the first numeric board I have all of the keys I need for 99% of my typing. There are only 2 keys on the 2nd numeric board that I need to use it for.
In addition to making the process of changing the key values much easier Resco continues that idea with their FX board. This feature allows you to store phrases, date and time stamps, hyperlinks and just about any kind of string you use frequently, each to be added to your open document, appt. etc, with the press of a single key. And this time, just as with the keyboards, the process of adding these special strings is so much easier than with previous versions.
I only needed to use this for as long as it took me to figure out the reassignment of keys to realize that this was worth the $9.95 price. I've been using it as much as possible today and have no regrets, it's a very slick keyboard. And it seems to work just as well in landscape. Because you can try before you buy I would recommend it to anyone. It's worth a look imho.
edit: Almost forgot to mention, one of the screens contains large buttons for all four arrow keys, and also Cut, Copy, Paste, Del, Select All, and an extra backspace key. Pretty slick.
so, can u tell me why when i use resco keyboard pro 6 as default the windows mobile UI seems to be sluggish.. the menu scroll is not as smooth when using HTC keyboard..
sorry for my bad english.. hope you understand..
does anyone know of any skins for resco 6.0
I have seen no difference at all in the performance of the phone or the UI with Resco 6.0 installed. Of course I'm running a very clean ROM. And I'm not using Sense. I have Spb Mobile Shell installed. Works like a charm
Resco doesn't have any skins showing on their site, though I haven't yet checked their forum. I am sure the skins from previous versions would not be compatible. I wouldn't mind a little color but I wouldn't mess with the layout I have with it now. Just my personal preference, that.
resco keboard registry product key
I have HTC p6500 Mantle wm6.5 with a resco keboard installed and running. I need to factory reset and will need the product key which I have lost all trace of.
Can the product key be found in the registry?
Or!
Can a product key be found somewhere else?
Regards William
Which of these keyboards have the biggest keys when using the phone in portrait mode; the android keyboard, the ime mod keyboard or better keyboard? I am looking for one that makes it less likely for those of us with fat fingers to fat finger what we are typing.
Um, i'd have to say Smart Keyboard Pro with the HTC Skin has the biggests keys. And it's not as big of a file as the HTC IME mod so there isn't that much lag when using it
come keyboards i have used
There is a keyboard called thick buttons which resizes the keys as you type making the keys that are most likely the next letter in the word larger and the rest smaller, you can also set the resize rate (small,medium, large)
SwiftKey is a pretty cool keyboard that scans your chat history to try to predict what word you will type next. They keys are pretty much the same size as the htc keyboard though. feature updates to the app will be able to scan sms, twitter, email and then create different recommendations based on the app you are typing in i.e. sms, email, or twitter.
Right now my fav keyboard app is touchpal. Don't be afraid that a lot of the text about the app is in chinese in particular parts of the tutorial they board can be set to english and all your txt recommendations will be in english. This keyboard has three layouts (my fav is the compact keyboard which gives you two letters per key but with txt prediction enabled typing is not a problem. they keys in this layout are pretty big to making it hard to miss the one you want) What is really cool about this keyboard is the ability to swipe either side ways to change keyboard layouts or down to access the secondary key (e.g. swiping down on say e will give you a 3) or in full quwerty keyboard swiping up gives you the capital letter of the letter.
Another keyboard you might want to put on your radar is blindtype. It is not out yet but it looks really awesome. It functions similar to swype but instead of swiping your finger across the keys you type normally. Look it up and you can see videos of it being demoed. It is not aval right now though but it looks like the keyboard to have for us with big fingers lol
blindtype DOES look amazing!
cant wait for it.
umm, it does not show up in my market. wth
you might want to check out ultra keyboard it allows you to re-size the keyboard making it bigger or smaller and it also has incorporated swype style typing and it also allows you to use better keyboard themes it's a paid app but in my opinion well worth it
been using big buttons keyboard for months. since i only type one handed in portrait this works perfect. it's laid out different but within a minute of typing im a pro.
itrackit said:
umm, it does not show up in my market. wth
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No offense if you looking for blindtype they said in the post its not in the market. Don't feel bad I didn't completely read it the first time
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