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Larger Keyboard

Basically, I am looking for a QWERTY soft keyboard with larger keys than the built in one in Portrait mode.
I apologise if there really is a well known solution to my aggravation. It must have trekked over the horizon, cos I spent atleast 6 hours last night trying to find it.
So, I find the most convenient way to type is with thumb or fingers, and I can do this on the built-in keyboard, with a moderate accuracy. It's still more convenient than getting out the stylus.
I have demod perhaps 15 different SIP Keyboards now and NONE of them have a larger keyboard in Portrait mode than the built-in keyboard.... WHY? They either have large keys and a stupid gimmick or small keys and a standard QWERTY. Could the calligrapher keyboard be any smaller?
Here is my ideal SIP Keyboard: a qwerty keyboard with just the letters (and . , ?) on screen, but taking upto half of the screen. The numbers can be hidden under a shift or alt key.
Does this exist? All the large key keyboards I have found take up the whole screen, which I find very irritating in itself.
We've all the seen the iphone and its keyboard right? Is there not a single program with good size keys for ppc? I found one that is ABCD etc. not qwerty and the guy wanted to charge over 100 dollars on handango.
Please Please Please. Help me and suggest a solution. Thank you.
PS. I have found ideal software for the Palm OS, is there a version for PPC? Look here:
http://www.handango.com/PlatformPro...e=english&platformId=1&N=96804 95766&R=165068

I just found a good one for all those interested.
Its called Happy Tapping Keyboard. It resides on some obscure korean site i think. Do a google search and use the translate option. It works enough to understand.
So far it is hands down the best keyboard available. Its larger than the built in one and even larger in landscape, but most importantly it only takes up a little bit of the screen, so you can still see stuff.
I highly recommend. And it is free and skinnable. You can also add a WAV sound to the tap, an audio aide so you know when you have hit it. That is if you dont want to enable all screen tap sounds in WM5.

some details
Thanks for this HTK program,
this is the link for download :
http://d.hatena.ne.jp/KOTETU/00000103
once it is downloaded, you need to move the cab file directly to your device (don't run it from your computer).
and this is the one for some skins :
http://blogs.shintak.info/articles/979.aspx
put them in the picture folder or a folder that you will easily find on your device.
choose the right VGA/QVGA mode
to change the skin :
go to setting then choose the keyboard icon and find the skin you put in your folder.
et voila !
rq : would be nice if the button could be bigger !
and it is obsure japanese not korean,
cheers

I can't seem to find "\" char... anyone enlighten me pls

Why do you want to translate a Korean site when you can just get it next door.. yes, next door here. http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=296455&highlight=

Keyboard gaming

Recently I've been getting into some gaming (particularly NES/SNES emulation) on my PPC. I'll be buying a PPC Phone Edition soon and was wondering if anyone can tell me whether the slide-out QWERTY keyboard of some models such as the TyTN/Herald could be used for gaming purposes (or do they only work for text entry)?

They are useable by ANY program aslong as it is coded for
Unfortunatly my experience of SNES emulation was that on my TyTN (Hermes) the gamepad was the touchscreen, and half the screen was taken up with the GUI for it.
But this thread cropped up a while ago and i think a version using the keyboard is on the cards.

Thanks for the quick reply mrvanx. I was originally thinking that we could have a real landscape screen with a full QWERTY keyboard for the emulation - similar to how it is on a desktop PC now. That would add a whole new dimension to PPC gaming. It would help immensely with other emulators such as FPSEce as well. It seems from the thread that the emulator in question would need to specially detect the keyboard - and that you couldn't just assign a key on the keyboard to an action in the emulator (as you would a normal softkey).
Now can someone tell me if it is technically possible to write a program that runs in the background, which simulates softkeys? For example, the program could do something like this:
create Fake softkey 1 = 'a' on keyboard
create Fake softkey 2 = 'b' on keyboard
etc.
and then feed "Fake softkey 1", "Fake softkey 2", etc. to the emulator (specify Fake softkey 1 as the X button, etc.)? That way, it should work for most games without them needing special reprogramming for slide-out QWERTY keyboards - and you can have let's say 10 fake softkeys (much more softkeys than you physically have on your device).
Just a thought...

Software keyboard vs hardware keyboard.

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.

Large t9?

Hi, i was wondering if anyone knows about large t9/xt9 keyboard that works with TD2. I like the htc phonepad, but I feel it's a bit jittered, and would like one with larger buttons instead of the arrow and symbol keys around the sides.
Thanks in advance

Too many different options to list but do a search on SIPs.
I know there is Finger Keyboard developed here and many other SIPS such as Touch Pal, Zoom Board, Resco Keyboard, etc.
I use Touch Pal because it is functional and acts like Zoom Board by magnifying the pressed key.

Captivate - No D-Pad

Hi All,
I'm looking at getting the Captivate as my first Android phone. I noticed that it doesn't have a D-Pad like the original Galaxy S or a trackball. Is that going to be a problem? Is Android still usable without it?
Thanks for the help,
Josh

The Galaxy S does not have an optical d pad/track pad. It is just a big square button

Swype an and samsung keyboard have directional buttons. No real need for physical ones I can see so far.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

emulators?

With the 4 inch screen, I suspect emulators and other games requiring a D-Pad could fit a virtual one at the bottom of the screen. Perhaps a virtual trackpad would work too? A little circle that you swipe your finger over and it acts like an optical trackpad?

For the short while that I had an EVO 4G, I never did think about a D-pad. Before the EVO I had a Samsung Epix and I used the optical pad as D-pad and I was very used to using it in that configuration. The EVO was my first android phone and all of the menus are easily accessible with finger swipes and touches. I did not miss the D-pad at all.
I'll definitely pick up the Captivate. The android experience is so much better than wm6.x.

jhulst said:
Hi All,
I'm looking at getting the Captivate as my first Android phone. I noticed that it doesn't have a D-Pad like the original Galaxy S or a trackball. Is that going to be a problem? Is Android still usable without it?
Thanks for the help,
dont need it , with the 4" touch screen ...lol just played with it at at&t......the speed is incredible....
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Some ROMs don't have dpad enabled keyboards, the TrueDvorak Pro keyboard has a nice gesture based dpad. Multilingual keyboard also has a press and hold to access dpad option, like the samsung one.

oldarney said:
Some ROMs don't have dpad enabled keyboards, the TrueDvorak Pro keyboard has a nice gesture based dpad. Multilingual keyboard also has a press and hold to access dpad option, like the samsung one.
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Click to collapse
What press-n-hold Samsung d-pad? I hate the Samsung keyboard but I do need a d-pad sometimes and I don't want to install a third party keyboard (I usually install Full Keyboard though, it has one).

oldarney said:
Some ROMs don't have dpad enabled keyboards, the TrueDvorak Pro keyboard has a nice gesture based dpad. Multilingual keyboard also has a press and hold to access dpad option, like the samsung one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What does that have to do with the Captivate and why did you resurrect an almost year old thread to say it?

Welcome to pretty much all samsung android phones. If you need a d-pad or trackball look elsewhere.
Though most high end HTC, LG and Motos dont have them either.