Forget the iSlider Keyboard, Howsabout the iPhone iClamshell?!
Last time Gizmodo gave us their version of an iPhone iSlider form factor. We. Didn’t. Want. It. Now they’re back with a compromise: a modular iPhone that could accept, among other things, a snap-on keyboard iClamshell.
Eh. Still doesn’t strike us as something elegant enough for Apple to consider releasing, though as a 3rd party accessory (if they can get both SDK and dock licensing in order), it would likely make many people happy. (Still not us, though, we loves the multi-touch and truly, deeply, strongly believe the era of on-device hardware keyboards is over).
It’s your opinions that matter most, however, so let us know if this is something you’d like to see, first party or third, and what form you’d most like to see it in.
January 3rd, 2009 at 12:12 am
If it were a third party accessory and worked in any apps that work in horizontal mode, I’d take one. It’d come in handy typing up little assignments as needed in class – ever tried typing a letter on that multi-touch keyboard?
January 3rd, 2009 at 1:03 am
I would buy 1 now just because i like the idea of having a hard keyboard but i would probobly rather see a slide out snap on keyboard another upside to a folder is screen protection
January 3rd, 2009 at 1:29 am
I don’t really understand the idea behind these mockups about the keyboard. The current state of the iPhone keyboard is what makes it unique and it’s fine as is. If a person really needs a hard keyboard, almost every single smart phone out there has that.
In other words, the current state of the iPhone keyboard is what made me buy the iPhone in the first place.
January 3rd, 2009 at 2:13 am
That seems hideous! Perhaps a Bluetooth keyboard in the future, but I can’t ever see Apple shipping a hardware keyboard for any future iPhones.
January 3rd, 2009 at 6:41 am
Who needs physical keyboards? I’m with you Rene, the on screen keyboard is better and fast. Although it does take a while to learn it.
January 3rd, 2009 at 8:04 am
I have to agree with most of the replies here: no physical keyboard please. Never thought I’d say that (coming from the Treo) but the iPhone is all about the elegant, artistic EXPERIENCE.
This is my first Apple product so it’s taken me a while to realize that. I now understand why copy/paste hasn’t arrived yet; it’ll happen when it fits the artist’s (Jobs) vision of how it should be. I trust in Steve. Lord, am I starting to sound cultish…;)
January 3rd, 2009 at 8:05 am
The days of keyboards are still with us.
The transition to voice recognition is still developing as an input method.
We’ll see more integration to speech to text integration as the desktop is doing with Dragon Naturally speaking.
Already Jott is my fav app & Google app has made some direction on this.
I would rather have voice entered this entry on the iPhone.
January 3rd, 2009 at 8:58 am
That’s just nasty
January 3rd, 2009 at 9:02 am
These people and their “yesterday” ideas. They don’t understand that Apple has never looked back and never will. Get over the past!
Pathetic.
January 3rd, 2009 at 9:45 am
Looks like something the wife would use to carry make up on a short trip or a night out. Only it is already filled with electronics and lacks a mirror.
Not for me, thanks.
January 3rd, 2009 at 10:58 am
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January 3rd, 2009 at 12:11 pm
I may be in the minority here, but I surely do hope you guys are wrong about the era of the on-device keyboard being over.
Fact is, I’ve been using the iPhone for months, and I can touch-type like a champ… but I still can’t get anywhere near the speed I can get on a decent tactile keyboard.
For that reason… and that reason alone… the iPhone will never be able to make it past “consumer electronic” for me. It won’t be a professional device for me until it can match the productivity I can squeeze out of a Blackberry.
Integrated iPod, App Store, gorgeous interface – these are some of the things that make me want to love the iPhone and leave my BB Curve (with its antiquated browser, comparatively sparse apps, and truly sad GUI) on the side of the road somewhere.
And if I could wring even 75% of the text/email productivity that I can get out of my wheezing Blackberry, I would.
So as far as I’m concerned, bring on the sliders.
January 3rd, 2009 at 12:13 pm
…but the clamshell form factor can sit and spin. Why anybody would even consider forcing me to open the phone just to get at the screen and its basic functionality is beyond me.
January 3rd, 2009 at 12:39 pm
I can’t see covering the screen, a slider would be better. Coming from a Treo, I still like a hard keyboard, but would be happy to have (would pay good money for) a bluetooth keyboard when on the road and want to write. Of course, then I need Notes, ToDos, Cut/Copy/Paste too…
January 3rd, 2009 at 1:38 pm
@Pip,
:shrugs. I hear you…maybe Apple will consider making a “Prosumer” line? It wouldn’t be the iPhone, but instead a different phone aimed at enterprise. Who knows? I just want them to leave the form-factor of the iPhone alone.
@Quinovator
I think a BT keyboard would be acceptable (for those that absolutely need a physical board) – again, I wouldn’t want to see the basic form factor so drastically altered. BTW (on another subject) from the App. Store, you CAN get notes/memos (”Notebook”) and To-Dos (”Toodledo” or “Todo”). I’m using my iPhone the same way I used my Treo 700p + a ton of other ways.
January 3rd, 2009 at 3:43 pm
@Pip:
I don’t understand anyone not being able to “get anywhere near the speed [they] can get on a decent tactile keyboard” on a touchscreen. Pushing something always has to take more time than touching something. Also, touching only requires a tiny curved spot of the thumb area, while pushing and smashing more tissue down on a real button takes up twice the area (thus slowing things down).
January 3rd, 2009 at 6:23 pm
iphone will never have a physical keyboard – bluetooth, slider, prosumer, or otherwise. Including it will signal failure of the touchscreen and not as expanding the universe to business users because thats not the target market. Because if you want a physical keyboard, you will get a blackberry because it means you are more into typing email, messages, productivity than playing Motoracer and browsing covert art for Coldplay.
That’s not to say aapl comes up with a different device altogether someday that is basically a blackberry but i think r&d is best spent on improving mac quality where they can make more margin and hopefully penetrate the corporate world at which point making a business device will make economic sense.
Seeing all these people pray for a keyboard is quite sad. Perhaps the iphone just isnt for them so why try to change a device that is meant for a completely different type of person? Someone who needs an SUV isnt going to be happy with a Civic even if you attach a wheelbarrow to the side to hold more ****.
January 3rd, 2009 at 7:20 pm
@Steve Jobs
I don’t play Motoracer (or know what it is) or have any games on my iPhone… and I email and message perfectly with it. Anyone who has problems being productive or using email on the iPhone should just put a revolver between their lips because they’re a useless individual, and far too stupid to be walking around.
January 3rd, 2009 at 7:35 pm
@steve
chill dude. no cut and paste, no BES support so there are prob millions of corporate users who may find the email client difficult to use.
stop being so protective..its just a phone.
January 3rd, 2009 at 8:34 pm
No BES/BIS support is to smartphones now what no ActiveX support was the browsers a few years ago.
How’d that end up again?
January 3rd, 2009 at 8:44 pm
The “Apple is for fun” and “not for business” is extremely old and tiresome. I’ve been hearing it for twenty years and it’s bullsh*t.
I got your BES right here.
January 4th, 2009 at 5:24 am
Theres nothing original about the iphone keyboard thats built in ,its only a copy of what pocket pc’s have had for the last 10 years and resco software brought out larger skinable keypads way before the iphone , least the ppc has 2options of input fingers and the pen. Just a shame the ppc is so fiddly but most of the iphone ideas sprung from the ppc only apple seem to have got it right , but for how long till win mo and android over take?
January 4th, 2009 at 9:36 am
i think what makes the iphone great is that is does not have a keyboard and it is not trying to be a blackberry AND a great media device. It irks me that there are so many that wish the iphone had a physical keyboard. especially one with an ugly clam shell or ghetto slider. I think apple would throw up in its mouth if it tried to take the pretty iphone and make it look like a Sidekick.
@steve: sorry you dont like BES and I wish it didnt exist either and apple’s integration with Activesync was a nice compromise. But I think the iphone mail client needs to improve a little before it can be adopted by the corporate types.
January 4th, 2009 at 1:02 pm
Geez, the responses here are so reminiscent of the NO TWO BUTTON MOUSE EVAR! crowd. Don’t want a physical keyboard? Don’t buy one. I’ve got an iPhone and really like it, but I could do so much more with it if I could plug in a keyboard when I needed one.
Steve@16: “I don’t understand anyone not being able to “get anywhere near the speed [they] can get on a decent tactile keyboard” on a touchscreen. Pushing something always has to take more time than touching something. “
You have got to be f’in kidding me. Pushing something probably does take more time than touching something… but when the thing you have to touch is the size of a matchhead, is spaced very closely with other matchheads, and oh, by the way, you can’t feel them… you’re going to have the choice of 1) going very slowly, 2) making lots of mistakes, or 3) both. The idea that the iPhone onscreen keyboard is as good as a physical keyboard is ludicrous.
But again, no one’s trying to force you to buy one. Just let those of us who want to, do so. But since Steve rules this platform with an iron fist, we get we he wants, rather than what we want.
January 4th, 2009 at 5:27 pm
@Sean Peters:
No, I’m not f’in kidding you. Try just touching your real keyboard’s keys and see how much faster it is. It’s not rocket science.
I never suggested that the iPhone’s keyboard was “as good” as a physical keyboard… because it’s much, much, much “better” than a physical keyboard.
And if I “let those of you who want” a clamshell iPhone, have one… then that means I AM forced to have one, genius… and I DON”T WANT ONE!!
March 30th, 2009 at 5:12 pm
I’d love a physicial keyboard and I am convinced that Apple could “elegant, artistic” as Tunnelrunner said. And yes I have tried the onscreen keyboard for a while and didn’t like it. Sure I am not a fun guy at all as far as photos, videos and music is concerned so not to spoil this nice device what about calling it iSmart?
March 31st, 2009 at 10:41 pm
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September 28th, 2009 at 5:12 pm
I used to have a more or less full size folding keyboard for my PDA – it folded up to the same size and the pda. this is what I would like to see. I do not want to make the iPhone bigger – but would like to sit down on occasion and type in more substantial notes than i can with either the apple keyboard or a hard thumb keyboard.
December 3rd, 2009 at 12:03 pm
Definitely need a physical keyboard. I recently switched from blackberry to iphone in order to take advantage of the Daylite Touch app. I switched my company to mac desktops and macbooks about 2 years ago so we can start using Daylite. The Daylite Touch iphone app is awesome! But the virtual keyboard sucks! I find myself making typos all the time. Texting while walking or driving is now impossible. I can’t do anything on the iphone without staring at the screen. It’s even difficult to safely dial a phone number while driving.
On my blackberry I could write long emails, texts, facebook entires, whatever, without even looking at the device. Typos were rare. If I made one it was easy to scroll back thru the note to make the fix. Fixing typos on the iphone is a nightmare. Moving your finger and watching the screen closely to fit the cursor on the correct letter requires several seconds of undivided attention.
I’ll be sticking with the iphone because I need the Daylite app, but my productivity has taken a nosedive without the physical keyboard.
Also annoying is the iphone has a proprietary port to hook up for recharge and connect to macbook. Great, now I have 1 more cord to carry that won’t fit anything else. It’s getting ridiculous, everytime I leave the office for a trip, there are now 5 different cords I have to be sure I get packed or I’ll wind up on the road with a device I can’t use… This is apple’s biggest error. Make the headphone jack match every other phone’s headphone jack size. And make the charging/syncing jack a common mini usb port…
December 10th, 2009 at 1:34 pm
Adding 2 cents, almost a year late…
I am, right at this moment, needing to replace my iPhone 3G, and am seriously torn. It is primarily a business machine for me, and I TRULY wish for a tactile keyboard. However, the larger touch screen and browser are far superior to the blackberry, and I use the browser for business as well.
So – in response to the statement that “the era of on-device hardware keyboards” being over – NO WAY. I am tied to AT&T, but if I weren’t, I would be strongly considering a Droid as a beyond-adequate compromise between BB and iPhone; and, as it stands, I am not jumping to replace my 3G with a 3GS precisely because I need to go try out some BB keyboards, and see how much I’ll actually miss the full screen, browser, and apps.
In response to the other open questions, above:
Clamshell – no, not for this.
Slider – perhaps, yes.
External bluetooth or USB keyboard – maybe, but I don’t need to necc. use this like a laptop. An onboard keyboard that allows me to walk and type at once would be great.
I, personally, would love a small extension that adds a BB-style QWERTY to the bottom of the iPhone, and that could be snapped on and off as needed/wanted.
Just my two cents…