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An intense debate is raging in the tech world these days. No, I’m not talking about Google+ vs. Facebook (though that debate is raging as well). I’m talking about physical vs. virtual keyboards on tech devices. Laptop computers, Blackberry phones and Kindle eReaders have physical keyboards; iPads, iPhones and Nook eReaders do not.
Some people simply won’t buy a device without a physical keyboard. They have difficulty typing on virtual keyboards and become frustrated with the speed and inaccuracy of their typing. The Droid 3 Android smartphone was released earlier this month for those who want the benefits of an Android device with the benefits of a physical keyboard.
Other people prefer virtual keyboards because of the versatility they offer. Virtual keyboards can accommodate foreign languages, symbols and emoticons. :> They are able to type quickly on a virtual keyboard and don’t understand what the fuss with physical keyboards is all about.
Some gadget-lovers are in between. While they may prefer physical keyboards, that doesn’t stop them from buying devices with virtual keyboards. These people either adapt their typing to virtual keyboards or purchase external keyboards that connect to their devices, giving them the best of both worlds.
(Go to Wingstand’s website to learn more about its prototype keyboard http://wingstand.com)
What is your opinion on this raging debate? Do you prefer a virtual keyboard? Do you insist on a physical keyboard? Vote in the poll and let us know!
If you’re hunting for the best of both worlds, many touchscreen phones with a physical keyboard also have a virtual keyboard. My first smartphone, a Palm Treo 750, had my favorite physical keyboard (for a smartphone) plus the benefits of a virtual keyboard. The screen was tiny so a small stylus was included (and much needed) to use the virtual keyboard. I use virtual keyboards now, but I still miss my Palm Treo keyboard.
What is the best keyboard you have encountered on a device, whether virtual or physical? Are you passionate about your keyboards? Do you crave the apps of an iPhone but need the keyboard of a Blackberry? Let us know in the Comments section below!
* Image by powerupmobile.com
Hi Carolyn,
I actually prefer the old cellphone alphanumeric keypads.lol I can text fast with my eyes closed using that keypad. But since its almost obsolete, I bought a phone with physical and virtual keyboard (SE xperia mini pro). I only preferred it over the top smartphones because its small. By the way, I voted on the second option on your poll. Maybe I can tolerate the virtual keyboard on cellphones but not laptops. I think it can really slow down my work…
Hi Calli, Welcome back to The Wonder of Tech! Great point, one of the advantages of a physical keyboard is that you can type (letters or numbers) without looking. With a virtual keyboard, you have to be looking where you type because you can’t feel the keys.
I agree with you about laptops. I have an iPad, but for extensive typing I much prefer a laptop.
Thanks so much, Calli, for your visit and brilliant comment! 🙂
I’m not even sure what a virtual keyboard is! I want to be able to type at least 30 words a minute! I also need my keyboard dyslexia checked! I think you can probably switch between them depending on what you want to do. I can’t imagine writing a 1,000 word blog on a smart phone complete with photograph. I would like that option if I was out somewhere and had a hot story to blog though! I suppose the Victorian railway station I plan to photograph would look good on a blog if I could take the photo, enhance it, edit it and upload it straight away? We are looking at Victorian buildings now. My friend did a hospital yesterday and I have a railway station and bridge in mind!
Hi Mike! Naughty me, I used a tech term without explaining it. I humbly apologize. A goal of mine in writing this blog was not to use tech terms without explaining them.
A virtual keyboard is an onscreen keyboard that you use by touching the screen. The iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, some Android phones and other devices use virtual keyboards instead of physical keyboards. By using virtual keyboards instead of physical keyboards, devices can be slimmer and lighter. Virtual keyboards can also make greater use of symbols and foreign language characters.
You can write a 1,000 word blog complete with pictures from a smartphone (there are apps for that), but that would be my idea of a nightmare, even from an iPad (which has a larger virtual keyboard than a smartphone).
But if you had a smartphone, you could take the picture, edit it and add it to a blog postyou had already written (or type in a few words for a new post) and publish the article “on the go.”
I will be over to your amazing blog soon. I can’t wait to see your new pictures in Neodigital Art!
Thanks, as always, for your visit and incredible comment! I deeply appreciate your pointing out that I needed to define “virtual keyboard!”
Do you even have to ask me? I know you are aware that I just got the iPod Touch but since I don’t have a WiFi connection I’m not able to use those features, at least not yet. Hey, I’ll get there though… Eventually!!!
Thanks Carolyn. Who would have known this was such a big deal! I can see where I wouldn’t be comfortable trying to type on such a small device. With time, I’ll find out though.
Adrienne
Hi Adrienne, If you have a free moment (and I’m thinking you probably don’t!) you can head to a Starbucks and log into their Wi-Fi for your iPod Touch. More and more stores are adding free Wi-Fi to bring in customers so you may be able to check email, your blog, Twitter, etc. on the go!
I will be very interested in seeing how you like typing on a virtual keyboard. I suspect those of us who are accustomed to a physical keyboard have a more difficult time switching gears to a virtual keyboard. But you might adapt very easily! Please let us know.
Thanks so much, Adrienne, for your visit, comment, tweets and very kind shoutout on your blog! 😀
I know that Starbucks does have free WiFi and I have one in walking distance. It’s just so convenient to do everything I need to do online but if I want to figure this app out I’m going to have to just go someplace where there is a connection. Do I need to do anything once I get there? I will just be able to connect?
I had one other question for you that I just remembered. Hope you don’t mind me asking here. Can you upload your address book to the iPod so I don’t have to retype everyone’s information? That would be SO much easier.
That keyboard is so much smaller and I had to learn to touch things a certain way. I don’t have big hands but you can’t tap it with your nails, you have to use your fingers. It’s going to be slow going for me since I’ve been typing on a keyboard for oh I don’t know over 30 years! Stay tuned for that report! 🙂
Thanks Carolyn again for all your help.
Adrienne
Hi Adrienne, To connect your iPod Touch to Wi-Fi, go into Settings => Wi-Fi and see if any networks are available. If a free Wi-Fi network is within range, it will show without a lock symbol.
Make sure Ask to Join Networks is switched to Yes. That way you will get a pop up notice when you are within range of Wi-Fi networks.
Yes, you can transfer your address book to the iPod Touch without typing, depending on where your address book is. If it’s written in a paper address book, you will have to do some typing, but if you have it electronically, you should be able to transfer the files.
Check out the app The Thumb, which will time test your typing and give you practice typing.
Enjoy! 🙂
Thank you again Carolyn, you’re the best!!
I do have my contacts in my Yahoo email address, it’s my personal one. Will that work?
Adrienne, when you are connected to Wi-Fi, go to Settings => Mail, Contacts, Calendars => Add Account and add your Yahoo email account to your iPod Touch. Unless you want to practice your typing! 🙂
I’ve always had a device with a physical keyboard. With my big fingers I thought I had no choice. Recently I upgraded to an HTC ThunderBolt. I can type very fast using SwiftKey with it’s predictive text. Plus, the voice recognition is very accurate and I use it often.
Hi J.J., Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! How do you like your Thunderbolt? Thanks for the recommendation about SwiftKey! I just grabbed it from the Amazon App Store. It’s free today: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005D9MUWY/ref=mas_ty
I will have to check out that app, the reviews are great. Anything to make typing on a virtual keyboard easier is fantastic.
Another wonderful feature of my beloved Palm Treo was its predictive text capabilities. That Treo could predict entire sentences I wanted to write. Of course, that was a feature of the Windows Mobile 6.0 operating system, not necessarily the Treo. But when my iPhone can’t even guess a word correctly, I wish it were more like the Treo.
Thanks so much, J.J. for your visit and helpful comment! 🙂
In simple words, the physical keyboard on a mobile device is overrated. The virtual keyboard on iPhone is way better than the real keyboards on some of those Android devices or that on your Crackberry – not only the virtual keys are actually bigger than real keys, it also saves weight of the device.
Hi iRewardChart, Welcome back to The Wonder of Tech! I hadn’t considered that the size of the keys on the iPhone are actually bigger than the keys on physical keyboards of other smartphones.
You’re absolutely correct, the lack of a physical keyboard reduces the weight of the iPhone. The device is more svelte than devices with physical keyboards.
I am finding the results of this poll fascinating. The “Other” votes are split 50/50 between physical and virtual keyboards (this polling software doesn’t show the Other comments, but I see them from my dashboard).
Thank you very much, iRewardChart, for your visit, insightful comment and awesome tweet! 🙂
I think apple has done a terrific job with their keyboards, I’ve tried various setups and I think its a key reason apple has done so well. The palm line is especially bad when it come keyboard. Qwerty is so slow that web browsing is severely hampered compared to iphones.
Hi John, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech! I’m glad you’re enjoying your iPhone keyboard so much. Apple has indeed designed a versatile keyboard.
As important as keyboards are, only about a quarter of people who voted in this poll insist upon a certain keyboard. So manufacturers don’t have to worry too much about keyboards being the deciding factor for purchasers.
Thank you so much, John, for your visit and insightful comment!
I think it’s just a matter of familiarity. If only users have enough experience with virtual keyboards, they will get to know everything and their accuracy in typing would increase. But of course it all depends on the users like or compatibility.
Hi Samantha, Sorry I missed your comment earlier somehow! I don’t think I’ll ever get used to virtual keyboards. I like the feel of keys on a physical keyboard. I like to be able to type without looking at the keys which is difficult with a virtual keyboard.
But there are plenty of people who have no problem with a virtual keyboard! 🙂
Hi Carolyn,
I’m a little of both. I love my iPhone and my iPad and I don’t have any problems using them at all. But, I’m thinking about buying a physical keybord for my iPad. That’s mostly because I write a lot faster with a physical keyboard, and when I’m using my iPad to write longer texts, my hands kind of hurt (they get tired). So, I mostly use my iPad to type short messages via Twitter and Facebook and I don’t think I’ll ever write a blog post unless I have a physical keyboard. I have written a few comments, and that’s it.
Hi Jens, I just bought a physical keyboard for my iPad because I’m using it so much and I’m rubbish with the virtual keyboard. But I’m not a big fan of my physical keyboard either. I used it once and didn’t like it.
The iPad suddenly felt like a netbook. The keyboard felt cramped and I made more mistakes typing on it than I did on the iPad keyboard.
Also, I kept looking for a touchpad on the keyboard, like on a netbook, forgetting that I was really typing on an iPad.
If I had it to do all over again, I would get a full sized keyboard that connected to my iPad.
That’s very interesting. It’s a good thing that I haven’t bought the keyboard yet. I have also been thinking about buying the bluetooth keyboard from Apple. That should be full size and connect with the iPad?
Hi Jens, My ideal iPad keyboard would be portable and full sized. I saw a keyboard at a store the other day that was a rubber-like material and rolled up so you could take it with you. The keys were soft though so I didn’t get it.
I don’t think my ideal keyboard for the iPad has been invented yet! 🙂