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Text editing on mobile: the invisible problem

jenson.org

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Re: Text editing on mobile: the invisible problem

#181

Post by dredmorbius »

superkuh wrote: post #49

Nothing on mobile is okay. I know everyone loves their smart phones but they really are terrible computers in every way except for portability. Use a computer when you actually want to do things. Smartphones are just for when you're literally unable to use a real computer.

Strong agreement: https://diaspora.glasswings.com/posts/880e5c403edb013918e100...>

(Largely targeted at tablets, though it also applies largely to smartphones, and has a specific comparison including them.)

Even a minimal notebook computer vastly exceeds any smartphone or tablet.

Re: Text editing on mobile: the invisible problem

#182

Post by hexage1814 »

I honestly think this problem is unsolvable, like, you can only do so much with typing on screen.

Maybe with a device that read your mind and allowed you to type by thinking, but with that aside, I don't think there is a solution. I think this is a fundamental limitation of mobile.

Re: Text editing on mobile: the invisible problem

#184

Post by ghaff »

plaidfuji wrote: post #57

1000% agree with this post, wow. I can’t believe this is controversial.. it’s a disaster. I dread opening the mobile version of google docs, sheets, or even Notes for anything more than a grocery list. The problem is the target audience for this is business customers, and particularly those in management, so it’s a small market. ICs aren’t up and down as much between meetings and can largely stick to their desktop se…

I generally agree and also disagree with a few aspects of both your comment and the OP.

First of all, to the OP, maybe not for the leet kids, but I absolutely find large amounts of text input on a phone to be a pain. I can do it if I’m away from a computer and have to, but I don’t enjoy it and it takes more time and requires a lot of concentration.

As for cursor positioning, holding down the space bar on iOS works pretty well—although it took me a few years to learn about it.

I do think text editing could always be better and I actually think it’s a pretty broad use case. I’m also not convinced mobile is easily adapted to it, especially without really good text input [probably speech] which also isn’t suitable in a lot of situations.

Re: Text editing on mobile: the invisible problem

#185

Post by superkuh »

crazygringo wrote: post #149
superkuh wrote: post #49

Nothing on mobile is okay. I know everyone loves their smart phones but they really are terrible computers in every way except for portability. Use a computer when you actually want to do things. Smartphones are just for when you're literally unable to use a real computer.

> Smartphones are just for when you're literally unable to use a real computer. Which is literally extremely frequent, since we often need to do stuff on the go. Which is why an article like this is so important -- we should improve, not give up. There's no reason to think text editing on a phone has reached its final form.

The reason I think it won't get much better is that the size of smart phones will not change. It is size that's really the issue for text editing. No space for a real keyboard, no space for a real display.

Re: Text editing on mobile: the invisible problem

#186

Post by htk »

MobiusHorizons wrote: post #183

I recently upgraded from an iPhone 8 to a 13 mini. I thought I would miss the home button, but what I really miss is 3D Touch in the keyboard for moving the cursor. It doesn’t solve editing text on mobile, but it went a long way.

Hold the space key and it also becomes a trackpad.

Re: Text editing on mobile: the invisible problem

#187

Post by Someone1234 »

screye wrote: post #116
kibwen wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> before you say “sounds like you just want a tablet” One of my friends uses a GPD Pocket 3, which is an 8-inch computer that's small enough to fit in your pocket, with a full keyboard, touchpad, and touchscreen that swivels to become a tablet. It's pretty nifty. https://gpd.hk/gpdpocket3

I'd say purchase a folding phone. It's great.

It doesn't address this editing issue at all. It somewhat attempts to address multi-tasking, but this thread is specifically about how poor the text editing experience is, and I'd like to hear how a folding phone fixes that?

I have an iPad and even there without a mouse plugged in, the editing experience is poor.

Re: Text editing on mobile: the invisible problem

#188

Post by walteweiss »

dTal wrote: post #157
kibwen wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> before you say “sounds like you just want a tablet” One of my friends uses a GPD Pocket 3, which is an 8-inch computer that's small enough to fit in your pocket, with a full keyboard, touchpad, and touchscreen that swivels to become a tablet. It's pretty nifty. https://gpd.hk/gpdpocket3

Although they used the 'Pocket' brand for the Pocket 3, it is really a GPD MicroPC 2. The original MicroPC was 6 inches and is an even better candidate for "phone sized laptop". The crazy thing is that it's perfectly usable and much more productive than a phone - if it could make phone calls and had the same sensor suite as a smartphone, it would be superior along every axis .

Oh wow! I remember the 1st and 2nd Gen.! The 3rd one is so nice! I don’t need one any soon, but it looks like I’d love to have one later in the future. I’m very curious what would the next gens look like.

Re: Text editing on mobile: the invisible problem

#189

Post by superkuh »

tomjen3 wrote: post #66
superkuh wrote: post #49

Nothing on mobile is okay. I know everyone loves their smart phones but they really are terrible computers in every way except for portability. Use a computer when you actually want to do things. Smartphones are just for when you're literally unable to use a real computer.

They are much, much better for photos. I will even say they are better for most videos chats. They are better music players. They are better GPS nav systems.

They're better for some types of photos. For example, you'd never want to take a photo of something you'd want to measure quantitatively with a smart phone. They hallucinate all the detail.

Re: Text editing on mobile: the invisible problem

#190

Post by bshacklett »

mabbo wrote: post #62

When my wife was super pregnant and overdue, friends were consistently asking for updates. I made a website called "is stillpregnant.com" and put a very very minimal website there. It was literally just route53 and cloudfront in front of an S3 bucket. But that meant I needed to make updates from the hospital with my phone. I mean yes there were probably better options but I was a bit busy at the time to think of them…

Not exactly what you described, but I was reminded of this LLM-based prototyping tool:

https://youtu.be/nhTyuuDZe4w?si=5bVPU7g5-WXJitlY

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