Dear Apple,
With the Christmas season rapidly approaching, I know you've got profits on your mind. Everyone loves their iPhone; the passion for this inanimate object stems from features and perks too numerous for this short note to you. Despite the sheer genius of the current iPhone, there is always room for improvement (possibly in the form of document support, basic copy and paste functionality, etc.) All of these items are likely in the works, I know, but keep in mind, you're talking to your devoted fan base that shelled out the original $600 when the iPhone was first released. We knew the price would probably go down. We didn't care. A keen sense for life-altering technology, we've got; a highly developed capacity to be patient, we don't.
Back the point of the letter: let me be the first to introduce you to the "iBerry."
One improvement to the iPhone that can be implemented now: A better keyboard. The iPhone's 31 letter keyboard is limited in functionality by the the size of its keys, which I estimate to be half the size of an M&M. My colleagues and I were setting records when typing on the Blackberry (7100 series), but typing on the iPhone leaves us feeling like we're pushing the pedal to the medal on a VW Bug when we used to own a Ferrari. I know you've told us that the iPhone's typing accuracy increases with time, but it will never improve to that of the Blackberry. Hence, I propose the iBerry: Our beloved iPhone in all its glory, with the advantageous keyboard of the Blackberry.
RIM equipped the smaller BlackBerry devices with a technology called SureType. SureType is an ingenious predictive keyboard that empowers users with exactly what its name implies: An "assured" or "sure" typing that senses what you are going to write even before you write it. Even better, the keyboard learns from its own mistakes and develops an improved ability to anticipate the words you type over time (the jury is still out on whether the iPhone is this quick on the uptake too). The real advantage of SureType is that instead of placing the full alphabet on keys that are half the size of a peanut, SureType reduces the letters necessary to 18. While the iPhone boasts abilities like no phone we've every seen, the SureType keyboard is noticeably missing.
The nobosh Bottom Line
Imagine it: 18 keys (compared to the current iPhone's 31) on the same surface area! Think of the relief you feel when you unbutton your pants after Thanksgiving Dinner). Am I crazy to ask for Apple to offer to such a keyboard on the iPhone? Fellow iPhone enthusiasts, let's hear your thoughts (WPM welcome).
So Steve, or even Fake Steve, I'd appreciate a SureType option in the iPhone's preferences in the next possible update. Let's have a good Christmas season this year.
Keep up the great work!
1 comment:
Um, internally, the iPhone keyboard does much of the same stuff as Blackberry's SureType, only it's able to be much more flexible about it since it's not constrained to the same two letters per key every time. The predictive typing model both proactively and retroactively enlarges each key's target area.
That said, RIM's typing model appears to be better-trained out of the box, but theoretically, iPhone's can get at least as good (if not better).
I only have an iPod Touch and I don't type on it very much (I bought it in anticipation of the SDK), so I can't really speak to how effectively it learns, but it seems to work at least as well for me as the Blackberry 7130 I had for a few days.
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