[IxDA Discuss] Tog on the iPhone keyboard

[Will Parker]

On Jul 2, 2007, at 7:35 AM, Manu Sharma wrote:

> On hovering over iPhone keypad, Tog wrote:
>
>>>> The iPhone needs a two-level touch-sensing system. That would
>>>> allow the user to press lightly on the keyboard to cause the
>>>> dialog balloons to appear, then press harder as they confirm
>>>> that  the correct letter is displayed.
>
> Todd Zaki Warfel responded:
>
>> Except that it already does this. When your finger is on the touch
>> screen, if you move over the letters, they balloon up.
>
> That's correct you can indeed hover over various keys. Just slide
> over the keypad without releasing the finger until you find the key
> you're looking for. Gizmodo's Brian Lam demonstrates this neat trick
> in this video http://tinyurl.com/2eqmuc and says it bumps up the
> accuracy up to 99%.

Manu:

That's great news -- thanks for passing it along! Now let's hope that  
Apple gets busy popularizing the trick. However, I have no doubt that  
Andy Ihnatko will fill in any lapses on the part of Apple's  
documentation department.

BTW, please note that this is _not_ an example of differentiating  
between a light press and a heavier touch based on capacitance  
changes or coverage area, both of which deserve further research. I  
look forward to seeing that research coming from those of you who  
have research budgets. };->

On the other hand, this also shoots a hole in Tog's assumption that  
the appearance of the key popup indicates acceptance of the keypress.  
He's thinking it's 'key-press accepted on key-down', when it's  
actually on key-up.

- Will

Will Parker
wparker at ChannelingDesign.com

“I wish developing great products was as easy as writing a check. If  
that were the case, then Microsoft would have great products.” -  
Steve Jobs