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Are there any multi touch keyboard apps or can this even be done?
hmarcus said:
Are there any multi touch keyboard apps or can this even be done?
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Despite what you may have heard, multi-touch IS available on Android 2.x out of the box. It is just turned off on built-in apps in the US and this includes the keyboard, Maps, Gmail, Browser, etc. There are two ways to get a multi-touch keyboard. Either someone develops one (if it hasn't already been done, I've never checked) or we way for a ROM to be developed and have the dev enable MT in the ROM, as well as the keyboard.
I'm starting to see a bunch of multi touch apps in the market mainly drawing apps and there are a bunch of gallery apps too. Multi touch keyboard is needed very badly I hope we can get one soon.
Technically, the keyboard is already multitouch. You can see this by holding down a key and pressing another key. The instant you press the second key, it triggers the first. You can compare this behavior with the pre-2.0 behavior where it would simply act like you had a single finger on the key in the middle of your two fingers. It might not quite be as nice as the iPhone's implementation(you can't hold down shift and press a letter), but it is multitouch.
Smart Keyboard is supposedly multi-touch, but it's a rather infant app...
The stock Android Keyboard is multitouch enabled. I don't get why people think it's not. It only shows the large letter under the first finger, but that's by design... let me explain:
Press 'A' with your left thumb, then 'P' with your right. You'll only see the large 'A' under your thumb, and 'P' will look unpressed. If you release 'A' now, however, it will be typed, and the large 'P' will now appear under your right thumb. But if you release 'P' under your right thumb first, it won't be typed if you're still holding 'A'. The reason is, if you press one key, and then press and release a second so quickly that you still haven't released the first, then this is probably not an intentional tap of a letter, but an accidental brush of the screen, and it is ignored. Letters are always typed in the order you touched them, otherwise typing would be much harder at high speed. The second touch is recognized, but you don't see it until you release the first touch, because if you release the second touch before the first, it will be ignored. So type at high speed, with two thumbs at a time, and the keyboard will 'just work' and keep up. Trust me.
the dolphin browser lets you use the iphone zooming method. european N1's will have this ability anyways (I guess) since its not protected by a patent (illegal to patent such a development).
carnegie0107 said:
The stock Android Keyboard is multitouch enabled. I don't get why people think it's not. It only shows the large letter under the first finger, but that's by design... let me explain:
Press 'A' with your left thumb, then 'P' with your right. You'll only see the large 'A' under your thumb, and 'P' will look unpressed. If you release 'A' now, however, it will be typed, and the large 'P' will now appear under your right thumb. But if you release 'P' under your right thumb first, it won't be typed if you're still holding 'A'. The reason is, if you press one key, and then press and release a second so quickly that you still haven't released the first, then this is probably not an intentional tap of a letter, but an accidental brush of the screen, and it is ignored. Letters are always typed in the order you touched them, otherwise typing would be much harder at high speed. The second touch is recognized, but you don't see it until you release the first touch, because if you release the second touch before the first, it will be ignored. So type at high speed, with two thumbs at a time, and the keyboard will 'just work' and keep up. Trust me.
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Right, but that leaves you with no ability to say, hold down **** and push a letter to capitalize. What people want is for both keys to register when you are holding two keys down, in the order that you pressed them.
hondamx525 said:
Right, but that leaves you with no ability to say, hold down **** and push a letter to capitalize. What people want is for both keys to register when you are holding two keys down, in the order that you pressed them.
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Why do you need to hold down shift? Taping shift once does the same thing as holding ****, think of it was "sticky keys" if you're from a windows machine. Theres never a need to hold the shift button. Double tap it for capslock if you really need caps
严重鄙视标题党！我代表月亮惩罚你！
callant said:
严重鄙视标题党！我代表月亮惩罚你！
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you win the game
hondamx525 said:
Right, but that leaves you with no ability to say, hold down **** and push a letter to capitalize. What people want is for both keys to register when you are holding two keys down, in the order that you pressed them.
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I agree with this guy. I don't know what the other guy is talking about. The letters don't queue. I have trouble typing fast because every other letter doesn't register.
so silly to have disabled such a useful funtion, only to most likely enable it at a later date, or at least we would hope.
I find selecting and copying text very difficult.
For example, from calendar. Which by the way I have to "edit" because you can't dial a phone number from a calendar. ( Seriously google are you just kidding around with that by the way? )
Mainly the selecting part.
I find this impossible to do easily, takes multiple tries because of not getting the cursor positions right, and I don't think it's just me.
Here is my workflow. Can anyone see what I am doing wrong?
1. First, the keyboard takes up half the screen so now I'm left with only about 5 lines of text so I have to scroll around the meeting text entry to field to find the text I want to select. ( If I hide the keyboard with downswipe or other method it does not come back! )
2. When you find the text you want say a phone number 1-752-555-5234 I try to touch immediately before the 1, but as soon as I touch the screen, the entire field scrolls to the bottom.
3. Now I have to repeat step 1
4. I seem to have to do steps 1 to 3 twice for some reason (not kidding) it does not seem to give me the vertical cursor hairline (calling it a hairs width thickness is being generous ) the first time.
5. Now, I will have the cursor correctly at 1. Because if I am one digit off, I have to repeat steps 1 through 4 until I get it correctly positioned.
6. Now, long press on screen, choose select text.
7. Now repeat steps 1, 3 and 4 (skipping 2) until get the cursor at the correct ending position.
8. Once this is done, which for me can take up to several minutes to do, I can easily copy and paste the text.
If you've used an iPhone or even Windows Mobile 6.x you know how hard it is to understand that google failed so miserably at this.
bwolmarans said:
I find selecting and copying text very difficult.
For example, from calendar. Which by the way I have to "edit" because you can't dial a phone number from a calendar. ( Seriously google are you just kidding around with that by the way? )
Mainly the selecting part.
I find this impossible to do easily, takes multiple tries because of not getting the cursor positions right, and I don't think it's just me.
Here is my workflow. Can anyone see what I am doing wrong?
1. First, the keyboard takes up half the screen so now I'm left with only about 5 lines of text so I have to scroll around the meeting text entry to field to find the text I want to select. ( If I hide the keyboard with downswipe or other method it does not come back! )
2. When you find the text you want say a phone number 1-752-555-5234 I try to touch immediately before the 1, but as soon as I touch the screen, the entire field scrolls to the bottom.
3. Now I have to repeat step 1
4. I seem to have to do steps 1 to 3 twice for some reason (not kidding) it does not seem to give me the vertical cursor hairline (calling it a hairs width thickness is being generous ) the first time.
5. Now, I will have the cursor correctly at 1. Because if I am one digit off, I have to repeat steps 1 through 4 until I get it correctly positioned.
6. Now, long press on screen, choose select text.
7. Now repeat steps 1, 3 and 4 (skipping 2) until get the cursor at the correct ending position.
8. Once this is done, which for me can take up to several minutes to do, I can easily copy and paste the text.
If you've used an iPhone or even Windows Mobile 6.x you know how hard it is to understand that google failed so miserably at this.
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While I admit copying/pasting does not seem particularly easy on our phones, the Calendar app we have is NOT the stock Android one so you should actually aim your criticism at Samsung. Same with the Messaging app (Samsung's work, not Google's). I'm slightly more used to the iPhone long press technique and it's magnifying glass technique, but I'm sure it's something they'll (they being Samsung) will attempt to improve
if you are using the Samsung keboard. Long press the 123? key, that will take you to an editing menu.
cesierra said:
if you are using the Samsung keboard. Long press the 123? key, that will take you to an editing menu.
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This works on the swype keyboard as well; swipe your finger to the right from the info button to the SYM button and it brings up a selection keyboard. Very useful
-deuX`
cesierra said:
if you are using the Samsung keboard. Long press the 123? key, that will take you to an editing menu.
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And your point is? Have you ever tried selecting test with that? Clearly not.
EDIT: My Bad. THANK YOU, Cesierra.
With a little practice that works great. For those who are curious, it works. It positions the cursor start position at the bottom of the calendar entry. From there you can up-arrow to position the cursor exactly where you want, then selection is easy. A very good kludge as kludges go, I am impressed.
you are welcome
Thank you cesierra/deuX!
I learned something new here.
I really like it when someones first post is a helpful one
deuX` said:
This works on the swype keyboard as well; swipe your finger to the right from the info button to the SYM button and it brings up a selection keyboard. Very useful
-deuX`
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Cool thanks for sharing... never knew that!
Does anyone know of any browsers that either have the ability to "bind" keys, or have directional buttons?
What I need to do is mimic the left and right arrow keys found on a normal keyboard.
I know there are a few keyboard apps that have these, but the problem is the page I need to use this on doesnt have a text box so the keyboard 1. does not pop up, and 2. does not interpret the arrows correctly.
Basically the page Im trying to do this on is a flash based page where you press either the left or right arrow key to get your next assignment. There are no visual "next" and "back" buttons on the page, which is making this really hard!
I just tried this app, and set my search key to "dpad left" and it didnt work in the browser... Maybe its not possible, idk.
Can someone please help me?
for as long as I've had my phone, which, of course, is as long as I've had it rooted, my messaging app has acted extremely odd.
Using the arrow keys and the back-space key causes strange, and often app-breaking, behavior. it seems to be registering the key presses in at least 2 other areas of the app. it always scrolls to the top of the conversation, it highlights conversations in the main message window, and it highlights options in the menus before I even have them open. it seems that the window that lists the conversations, as well as the options menu, are still listening to key presses, even when I'm writing a text. often, the arrow keys and the back-space key stop working all together until I back out of the text-input and re-open the keyboard. this happens litterally every time i write a text message, which is a lot.
all I want the arrow keys to do when I'm in a text field is move the cursor, not jump the highlight to the send button, not scroll through auto-complete options, not jump to the conversation window and scroll through individual texts, and certainly not control the selection of items in windows and menus that I don't even have open.
Also, when pressing 2 keys in quick succession, it often only registers one, TH, especially. I'd say its just registering the second press as a movement of the first contact point, istead of a second touch, like old laptop track-pads, but this device is more than capable of registering multi-touch. also, if you hold one key, and press another, the letter from the first appears on the second key for a brief second...
I'm using virtuous ville v.1.4.0 stock, but I've installed and uninstalled a couple other keyboard apps, can I re-install the stock ICS keyboard? is it a sense keyboard? is this happening to anyone else with this rom or with the 4.0.3 os?
thanks for your help
-Peter
god I miss my G1... stupid friggin slabs. this was the first, and will be the last phone that I ever buy without a real keyboard. this touch-screen only nonsense is ridiculous. it would be fast if it were possible to be accurate and keys weren't literally touching each other. why can't I tell it how much space I want between the keys, so I press nothing, instead of the wrong key? there would be no haptic feedback so I knew to press it again, and I wouldn't constantly be pressing the shift, space, and num keys, which the auto-correct doesn't account for in the slightest, instead of the A key or any of the bottom row of letters .I'm tired of sacrificing so much functionality just so phones can look slicker and break easier.
Don't know why it fails, sorry.... The stock ICS keyboard is not a sense keyboard, there is one on market looks like this one https://play.google.com/store/apps/....android.inputmethod.latin.ice_cream_sandwich
Or you could grab a keyboard from any CM9 or AOKP rom zip file, it's named Latin-IME.apk iirc. The jellybean keyboard is similar but nicer somehow, possible it works on ICS. Also SwiftKey is really good.
Thanks for the suggestions! I do, in fact, have a sense keyboard and I do need arrow keys, which the non-sense keyboards, including the jellybean apk don't seem to have. I still can't fathom why anyone would ever prefer these to a real keyboard and a d-pad... also, the jellybean keyboard still has the same trouble with TH's. has anyone here, who shares my frustration with soft keyboards, found a decent keyboard app?
I wish there were decent quality, mini keyboards, too. Wireless or micro-usb would both work, as I'd probably make a case to hold it with my phone. I've only seen a couple, and they're either too big to be practical, or poor quality.
I apologize for my negative attitude. this is just frustrating, as texting is my main form of communication, and I post to forums from my phone quite often, so typing is important to me.
thanks again
-Peter
This is what SwiftKey 3 looks like if you activate the arrows and the Holo theme... One month trial.
I'm thinking of moving to T-Mobile, and I've seen some pics of the myTouch 4G Slide / HTC Doubleshot. However, the qwerty keypad seems to be missing arrow keys... Is there any arrow keys (or equivalent) on the qwerty keypad? I do some manipulation on spreadsheets and arrow keys are important for me.
The middle sensor button replaces the arrow keys.
AndroAsc said:
I'm thinking of moving to T-Mobile, and I've seen some pics of the myTouch 4G Slide / HTC Doubleshot. However, the qwerty keypad seems to be missing arrow keys... Is there any arrow keys (or equivalent) on the qwerty keypad? I do some manipulation on spreadsheets and arrow keys are important for me.
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If you notice on the bottom of the phone in the center there is an optical trackpad. It takes the place of arrow keys, you can use it to position the cursor. It also moves the homescreen back and forth and with stock roms can be pressed to wake up or put to sleep (some other roms have managed to implement that, as well, but not all).
I have the Slide. Since you asked on XDA I assume you are a coder or an aspiring coder.
I'd like to share my thoughts on the optical trackpad. To me as one who uses vi in ConnectBot console, the trackpad is no replacement for the keypad. The difference is that the keypad has the typomatic function where you want to go way to the right, just press and hold the right button. Can't do that with the optical trackpad; you have to slide your finger to the right 80 times to go there. (I know the vi $ command does it, but that's a 2-key action instead of 1 key because there isn't a dedicated '2' key: alt+2).
I'd add that the optical trackpad does implement the ctrl function when pressing the optical trackpad button when used under ConnectBot.
l00g33k said:
I have the Slide. Since you asked on XDA I assume you are a coder or an aspiring coder.
I'd like to share my thoughts on the optical trackpad. To me as one who uses vi in ConnectBot console, the trackpad is no replacement for the keypad. The difference is that the keypad has the typomatic function where you want to go way to the right, just press and hold the right button. Can't do that with the optical trackpad; you have to slide your finger to the right 80 times to go there. (I know the vi $ command does it, but that's a 2-key action instead of 1 key because there isn't a dedicated '2' key: alt+2).
I'd add that the optical trackpad does implement the ctrl function when pressing the optical trackpad button when used under ConnectBot.
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I prefer using adb on computer instead of using a built in terminal
Riyal said:
I prefer using adb on computer instead of using a built in terminal
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To be quite honest, i'd rather do everything I would do in adb through the terminal directly on the device if possible.
Especially anymore with the times few and very far between (at least at the moment) that I have access to a real computer, terminal capability has become more of a necessity then a preference.
About the arrow keys:
If you root then you can replace the keylayout file to add them, the pictures on the physical keys won't match up is all.
My first modified keylayout changed home to up, menu to down, back to left and genius to right arrow keys on the slide out keyboard - leaving those same keys in-tact for functionality on the face of the device.
When you slide out the keyboard, those four keys have the same function as the four keys at the bottom of the screen on the face of the device - seemed to me like they were begging for the change.
Aside from that, though, as nifty as the optical trackpad button is, and how incredibly useful it can be at times, it remains a poor substitute for actual arrow keys themselves.
Seriously considering getting a mytouch 4G slide, but the lack of arrow keys is the current deal breaker.
Can the trackpad be used efficiently to replace arrow keys? I do a lot of spreadsheet manipulation, and was wondering if it's going to work as well as arrow keys. It seems to be immensely irritating whenever I enter data into a cell, I need to move my fingers away from the QWERTY keyboard to the trackpad in order to move to the next cell, and then move my fingers back to the QWERTY board again...
Other posts here commented on key remapping, do the remapped keys alleviate the problem somewhat?
I think yes it's possible to remap some of it's keys into arrow keys.
It's possible to create new combination keys like pressing the www/.com + the letter O key would make up for the up arrow key. Some of the people here know how to mess with the keyconfigs so it's really good asking help with them. I just brought up the idea that it's possible but haven't really invested time looking into it but yeah I'mm 100% sure it's possible.