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Pro1 X: A Linux smartphone with slideout keyboard

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Re: Pro1 X: A Linux smartphone with slideout keyboard

#151

Post by Yizahi »

tifadg1 wrote: post #23

For english language, swipe typing coupled with autocorrect works astonishingly well. So much so that I use it regularly because of lazyness. What segment does the physical keyboard appeal to? Youngins were born and raised touching the screen, so it's archaic to them. Old timers are jaded at this point to either wait for their dream phone or buy any cheap crap. So who's the target for this 900 usd device?

I have yet to see an even half working autocorrect on phone (even in English). I'm using Samsung S10P and when typing autocorrect can't correct even a simple 1 character typos (e.g. "cha4acter" or "5ypo"). Also trying to put a cursor in the desired place happens usually only after several tries.

Re: Pro1 X: A Linux smartphone with slideout keyboard

#152

Post by SamBam »

anotheryou wrote: post #137
blandflakes wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, I find that it works astonishingly poorly. Autocorrect is often wrong, sometimes showing the right thing milliseconds before second-guessing itself into a totally wrong word, so now I'm having to backspace because for some reason typing the actual letters I want is bad user interface. Agreed regarding target audience, though.

Apple? My swiftkey on android is sooo much better.

I used Swype for a long time and loved it.

Then it was killed, and Android shipped its default keyboard ("gboard") with one that included swiping. I've used it ever since, not thinking about it, but it has never been as good as Swype, and about 20% of my words are errors. I don't think about it much because their autocorrect suggestions are pretty good when you tap on a word, but it really is annoying. Honestly, it's insane that I keep swiping because it would be faster just to type than to swipe and correct every fifth word.

I have now downloaded Swiftkey. We'll see if it's any better. My first gripe is that the backspace key doesn't delete a whole word, which, when you're swiping, seems natural to me (either the whole word is right or it's not), but I'm sure there are settings and improvements I can make as I get used to it.

(Edit: The translate as you type feature is a perhaps-niche but killer feature for me. I often have to write to people in my poor Spanish, and always had to go back and forth between the Translate app and the app I was writing it. Doing it as I type is amazing.)

Re: Pro1 X: A Linux smartphone with slideout keyboard

#153

Post by yellowapple »

Wildgoose wrote: post #94

I have another British 'phone with a better keyboard on order for delivery starting in June: The Astro Slide 5G from Planet Computers: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/astro-slide-5g-transforme... I bought their Gemini offering which is a great PDA but not so good as a mobile phone. Their new offering promises to provide a solution for both.

Yep, I'm in the Astro early bird group, too. Looking forward to trying it out; I haven't used the Gemini or Cosmo, so I ain't really sure what to expect, but it looks nice enough.

Re: Pro1 X: A Linux smartphone with slideout keyboard

#155

Post by lawtalkinghuman »

tifadg1 wrote: post #23

For english language, swipe typing coupled with autocorrect works astonishingly well. So much so that I use it regularly because of lazyness. What segment does the physical keyboard appeal to? Youngins were born and raised touching the screen, so it's archaic to them. Old timers are jaded at this point to either wait for their dream phone or buy any cheap crap. So who's the target for this 900 usd device?

If you can't type on an actual keyboard, touchscreen typing is barely a downgrade from hunting and pecking.

If you can type quickly, touchscreen typing is really fucking awful.

Re: Pro1 X: A Linux smartphone with slideout keyboard

#157

Post by throwaway744678 »

Yizahi wrote: post #151
tifadg1 wrote: post #23

For english language, swipe typing coupled with autocorrect works astonishingly well. So much so that I use it regularly because of lazyness. What segment does the physical keyboard appeal to? Youngins were born and raised touching the screen, so it's archaic to them. Old timers are jaded at this point to either wait for their dream phone or buy any cheap crap. So who's the target for this 900 usd device?

I have yet to see an even half working autocorrect on phone (even in English). I'm using Samsung S10P and when typing autocorrect can't correct even a simple 1 character typos (e.g. "cha4acter" or "5ypo"). Also trying to put a cursor in the desired place happens usually only after several tries.

For the cursor part, most keyboard allow precise cursor movements by swiping the space bar.

Re: Pro1 X: A Linux smartphone with slideout keyboard

#158

Post by moistbar »

bdcravens wrote: post #88
moistbar wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to do it on a Blackberry, which had an even smaller keyboard.

I think that actually is easier on a smaller keyboard, since you can reach the keys without stretching your thumbs. On this phone, you'll definitely be stretching your thumbs (on my iPhone 12, I can barely touch my 2 thumbs when holding the phone horizontally)

I have long thumbs so Blackberries were actually a bit too cramped for me to properly enjoy it. Touch typing was still possible, but less comfortable for me than on a side-sliding keyboard like the Droid line had.

Re: Pro1 X: A Linux smartphone with slideout keyboard

#159

Post by alpaca128 »

tifadg1 wrote: post #23

For english language, swipe typing coupled with autocorrect works astonishingly well. So much so that I use it regularly because of lazyness. What segment does the physical keyboard appeal to? Youngins were born and raised touching the screen, so it's archaic to them. Old timers are jaded at this point to either wait for their dream phone or buy any cheap crap. So who's the target for this 900 usd device?

> For english language, swipe typing coupled with autocorrect works astonishingly well.

That's great. Meanwhile text input on phones is astonishingly frustrating in many other languages; for one because we also use english words and expressions in our native language, and this alone will already completely derail >90% of text correction and completion systems. Now add another "smart prediction" layer on top with swipe input and the result switches between "decent" and "totally unusable" from one sentence to the next.

And without swype I find touchscreen-based text input just as frustrating. It's a constant cycle of fixing typos using the worst UI possible. We need a "UI dark pattern from hell" award just so we can give one to the genius who came up with Android's pixel-perfect cursor placement mechanism to select text(which Google, for whatever reason, just refuses to fix in any way).

Re: Pro1 X: A Linux smartphone with slideout keyboard

#160

Post by andagainagain »

tifadg1 wrote: post #23

For english language, swipe typing coupled with autocorrect works astonishingly well. So much so that I use it regularly because of lazyness. What segment does the physical keyboard appeal to? Youngins were born and raised touching the screen, so it's archaic to them. Old timers are jaded at this point to either wait for their dream phone or buy any cheap crap. So who's the target for this 900 usd device?

swipe typing is great until you fudge it just a little bit. Then it gets hilarious horrible really fast.
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