Keyboard

Try out iPad’s hidden floating keyboard in Swift Playgrounds

Developer Steve Troughton-Smith recently discovered a one-handed floating iPad keyboard in a beta of iOS 10.3. While it's unclear whether or not Apple will debut this handy unpublished keyboard officially when the software update releases for public consumption, Troughton-Smith has kindly provided a way for iPad owners to try it out early using Apple's free Swift Playgrounds app, here's how.

This tweak hides the background of the predictive keyboard

If you ever use the predictive keyboard to type faster responses to people from your device, then you’re likely familiar with those ugly separator lines in between the suggested words and the unappealing difference in background color that the buttons have when compared with the rest of the keyboard.

A new free jailbreak tweak called KB - NoPredictiveBackground by pxcex removes the background color and lines from the predictive keyboard buttons, leaving you with much cleaner-looking buttons.

Gboard gains voice typing, Google Doodles, new languages & iOS 10 emoji in latest update

Gboard, Google's iPhone keyboard that comes with Google Search, glide typing, GIFs, emojis and other advanced features built in, received a notable refresh on App Store. Bumped to version 1.3, Gboard includes support for fifteen new languages and brings a useful dictation feature that Google is calling Voice Typing. Additionally, you can now see a day’s Google Doodle right from the keyboard and enjoy Apple's latest iOS 10 emoji.

HapticKeyboard enables haptic feedback as you type on your iPhone

If you’re into the haptic feedback craze and enjoy feeling the ‘buzz’ in your hand when you perform actions on your iPhone, then you’re going to love a new free jailbreak tweak for called HapticKeyboard by developer Cole Cabral.

As the name suggests, this tweak enables haptic feedback as you type on your keyboard on your iPhone.

iOS 10.3 has hidden support for one-handed floating iPad keyboard

Another hidden keyboard has been uncovered in iOS, according to developer Steve Troughton-Smith who last night tweeted about his discovery of a one-handed floating iPad keyboard in iOS 10.3 beta code.

While not exposed to users just yet, Steve was able to activate this new keyboard by hacking Apple's iOS Simulator app that developers use to test work-in-progress code on their Mac.

How to change the behavior of Control, Option, Command and Caps Lock keys on Mac

macOS provides an enhanced keyboard remapping feature that allows you to change the behavior of the special modifier keys on your Mac's keyboard, such as Caps Lock (⇪), Control (⌃), Option (⌥) and Command (⌘).

For example, you could remap the Caps Lock key to trigger the Escape command.

This feature is especially useful if you’re familiar with a keyboard layout different from your current keyboard or are an experienced touch typist who finds some of the default modifier key actions a bit awkward to use. In this tutorial, you'll learn about remapping the Mac's modifier keys to non-default actions.

How to stop your Mac from inserting a period when you double-press the Space bar

Mac tips

Just like you can easily insert a period when you double-press the Space bar on your iPhone or iPad, this feature is also available on Mac running macOS Sierra and later. It seems to be disabled by default if you're upgrading a Mac to macOS Sierra, but it was definitely enabled by default on my brand new MacBook Pro.

While I find the feature helpful on iOS, it actually gets in the way of my typing habits on my Mac. For that reason, I have chosen to stop my Mac from adding a period at the press of a double space.

EmojiSuggest brings iOS 10-like emoji suggestions to the predictive keyboard

One of the cool new features of iOS 10 is the ability to input Emojis through the predictive row at the top of the keyboard that tries to guess what you're trying to say before you say it.

When you express certain words, iOS 10 will recommend Emojis to communicate the word instead, and a new free jailbreak tweak called EmojiSuggest brings this functionality to jailbroken iOS 9 devices as well.