Does an iPhone-integrated keyboard for your Mac or PC sound interesting? The Korean tech company, Omnio, thinks so.
The WOWKey device is a desktop keyboard that boasts iPhone integration through a built-in dock. This "made for iPhone" keyboard is the first of its kind, offering extensive integration with iOS. This inventive gadget opens up a world of possibilities...
No matter how much you love your iPhone, there's one thing you have to agree on: the auto correct sucks! Until Apple makes this better, there isn't much we can do but laugh about it all.
That's what DamnYouAutoCorrect.com does. The website compiles all those hilarious auto correct suggestions for your browsing pleasure.
What the duck! I should have thought of that earlier ;)
Excuse me if my biased opinion comes out for the following mod. I loathe slider keyboards as much as I dislike any smartphone feature. That being said, accessory company Nuu unveiled a concept that adds a physical keyboard to the iPhone 4.
Nuu showed off the idea in Berlin and it is said to be hitting the market around the holidays. ModMyI has more shots of the product that works using an adjustable sliding hinge. Yes, a hinge on our beautiful phone...
Please meet the KeyCase iPad Folio, an interesting iPad case that integrates a Bluetooth keyboard to the casing. It seems that the iPad really wants to be a netbook killer and it's getting closer to it. Or is it?
I love the concept, but personally, if I had to carry that stuff around, I'd rather just buy a netbook, which let me remind you, can be a much better business companion than the iPad if you need to do some real work while on the road.
At about $95, the KeyCase iPad Folio is not a bad deal though, if that's what you're looking for. It's currently out of stock but I'm sure it will be available again soon on the company's website.
[Simon Blog]
Do you remember last year when Mobile Mechatronics released a physical keyboard that attached to the iPhone 3G and 3GS called the iTwinge? It turns out that it was a big enough hit for another company to put the click button feel to the iPhone 4.
A designer by the name of Altamash Jiwani has created a prototype that is a bit more complex than the previous accessories. The design resembles the Apple Bumper with the keyboard on rails that make the home button clearable with a slide. It would disable the functionality of the keyboard by way of its dock connect-ability. Not stopping there, the bottom would serve as a female dock port which would allow syncing without removing the keyboard.
BlindType is a keyboard that learns from your keystrokes and predicts what you intend to write. Additionally, BlindType constantly adjusts to the user's "perceived" keyboard and typing style. Does that sound impossible? Then check out this video.
Don't rush to the App Store yet as BlindType hasn't been released yet. The chances of seeing BlindType in the App Store one day are actually pretty slim but it might get its way to Cydia.
Thanks Git59 for the tip.
If having emoji icons on your iPhone keyboard is not enough, maybe you can follow this little trick that will easily allow you to add symbols to your text entries.
To do so, go to http://mrgan.com/gb/ from your iPhone and follow the onscreen instructions. It will add a bookmark to your homescreen from which you will then be able to copy/paste various symbols.
There are 48 symbols right now but more will probably be added in the future.
If you ever tried to type such words as "fuck", or "fucking" on your iPhone, you most likely ended up with "duck", and "ducking", if you didn't manually select the right word you wanted to type. While the iPhone is supposed to add words you typed several times to its dictionary, it doesn't work for some words (fuck being one of them).
My favorite iPhone blogger, Erica Sadun, posted a great tip about this issue over at Ars.
That database is stored in the "mobile" user directory, in /private/var/mobile/Library/Keyboard. The file is called dynamic-text.dat. It consists of a (mostly) plain text list of words that the iPhone has marked for special attention. Once a word appears in that list, the autocorrect feature updates itself and accepts those items as proper spellings. It's really convenient for jargon words and last names that are part of your normal typing but don't appear in the standard dictionary.
How to fix this? Simply go to Safari, and open a new browser (very important!). Now tap the Google search field and start typing the word you want to add to the dictionary. Tap "Google" to launch the search. Now you can close Safari and open your Notes app and type "fuck". No more "duck"! Your iPhone finally learned a bad word!
This is an interesting concept developed by Ralf Ackermann...
An external iphone / ipod touch keyboard - using a more "mainstream approach". The keyboard (it's a standard Freedom Universal Keyboard) uses the Bluetooth SPP (Serial Port) profile to talk with a Robotech Bluetooth module ( www.tigal.com/product.asp?pid=1124 ). This module is placed in a modified iphone battery sleeve and connected to the iphone serial port. The jailbroken iphone runs veency (a VNC server) and a tiny libvncclient based VNC client for keyboard event injection to whatever application you use.
All schematics and source code to appear on www.ubiqkom.org soon.
More photos here.
If you've been complaining about the lack of external keyboard on the iPhone, rejoice! Well, don't rejoice too much as this hack is very close to being useless but I guess what's interesting is that some people spend time on that kind of stuff.
It seems that the person behind this hack is running some type of Ruby code on a jailbroken iPhone and plugged and external keyboard via USB. You can see the final result in this boring video.
I know that most people have figured this one out, but to be complete, and for Newbies, I thought it would be good to add this. When you press on a key and you hit the wrong letter, simply slide your finger to the right letter (without lifting it) and lift up to correct your mistake.
Slide to Period TappingInstead of switching between letter and punctuation modes, slide your finger to the @123 button, but don’t release it until after sliding and releasing over the period key. The keyboard will switch back to letter input automatically. This makes a big difference. Be sure to measure the improvement of the slide method on your typing speed. This is also known as the McCallum method via Pogue. An otherwise, well documented shortcut, but addresses a very common complaint about the iPhone keyboard.
Misspelling ContractionsYou can intentionally spell it’s incorrectly as “itsp” or “itsa” and “it’s” will be suggested. The A and P keys are ideally positioned for this kind of a shortcut. To get popular contractions filled in automatically just add a third repetitive letter to get Safari to suggest the contraction word. Examples include “helll” -> “he’ll” , “welll” -> “we’ll”, “weree” -> “we’re” etc.
Keyboard SwitchingPress the space bar from the .123 keyboard to return to the alpha keyboard. This can be good when you just need a number or a period. If you have the iPhone 1.1.1 update you can simply double-tap the space key to get a period.
Automating Other URL SuffixesOn the keyboard press and hold the .com key to see other tld extensions based on your selected languages. For example in the U.S. you will see .net, .edu .org, with German you will see .edu .org .de, and with Spanish you will see .edu .org and .es in a pop up list.
Don't Even Bother Typing .COMJust like a real browser, it appears that the iPhone will allow you to type in most .com URLs without having to type the actual .com or pressing the button. Simply press Go after typing the site name and iPhone's Safari browser should automatically insert the .com for you.
Magnifying GlassWhen typing in an email message, URL, web page text box, or any other item that requires the keyboard, you may make a spelling error. To fix any errors that aren't at the tail end of the string you just typed, hold your finger over the text until a small magnifying glass appears. You will now be able to position the cursor at the proper location in order to make your change.