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Help HELP - HATE the Optimus V virtual keyboard

I've come to really love Swype but when I'm not in the mood, I use speech to text. It's pretty accurate with my normal speech and dead-on if i speak slowly and clearly.
 
jetfactor said:
the voice to text thing is HILARIOUS. i dunno if it's the way my boyfriend and i talk or something, but when we **** around with it and try to send messages to friends, it always comes out with the funniest stuff. we were cracking up for nearly a half hour the other night using it.
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I too, find it giving me very odd feedback if I talk to fast or not clearly enough lol.I've sent a few gibberish messages because I didn't read it over when I'm done lol
 
Can't stand Swype, although truth be told, I've not spent all THAT much time with it. I just kept having trouble seeing where to move on the keyboard because my finger kept blocking my view.

So I do 99 percent typing, and 1 percent voice to text.

MY keyboard preference is Thickbuttons. Took a little getting used to, but it resizes the buttons based on the words you're typing, so the keys for your upcoming letters get bigger and easier to hit accurately. One of the first apps I reinstalled when I restored my phone this morning. :)
 
GoHybrid67 said:
Can't stand Swype, although truth be told, I've not spent all THAT much time with it. I just kept having trouble seeing where to move on the keyboard because my finger kept blocking my view.
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I understand, I had the same problem. But remember, Swype is looking for a pattern, not necessarily the exact keys. Once you get the hang of it, it won't matter that you can't see where you finger is. :D

Swype also doesn't care how fast you go, so you can move your finger slowly while you are looking for the right key. But again, remember that ultimately Swype is looking to match the pattern.
 
I downloaded 'Keyboard from Android 2.3' and 'Swift keyboard' from android market. Both of these keyboards makes it easier and faster to text.
 
The Handcent messaging app has its own keyboard included which you can switch to for all purposes. It's way, way better than the stock Optimus keyboard. Plus, it has a word complete feature, where it will pop up suggestions after typing a few letters.

Haven't gotten into swype yet, but do use voice-to-text. At first, V2T printed out everything in what looked like Spanglish/Esperanto, but you need to train it first. By now, I'm sure you have a Google/Gmail account. If so, do a few Google searches from your phone using voice. That will train it to recognize your voice. After that, it will be fairly accurate (though not perfect). You can also use it for voice commands ("call xxxx", etc.).

All in all, I do like the idea of a virtual keyboard. Less clunky, fewer moving parts, and a few more bells and whistles (like swype).
 
If you text a lot when your at home liiike me download PDAnet and use the SMS function. Or you can download WifiKeyboard and type from there. Both work really well. I went from using a qwerty keyboard for 2 years to the virtual keys and I still have a hard time. I usually only text when im at home anyway so its all good.
 
For those who have a love/hate relationship with Swype, try the FlexT9 keyboard. It has Swype type tracing features that seem to work better than Swype, as well as handwriting recognition and built in voice recognition that can be used offline.

One thing I really like about it is if you get a wrong word result when tracing, a single press of the backspace key deletes the entire word instead of having to press it multiple times to erase the word, much easier IMO.
 
I use the Flex 9 Text Input from Amazon apps. I'd try that but be warned, it'll cost you $5. Since Amazon does a free app of the day deal, try waiting and see if they'll offer another texting keyboard app for free. The really good keyboards for androids will cost some cash sadly.
 
Frojoe186 said:
I use the Flex 9 Text Input from Amazon apps. I'd try that but be warned, it'll cost you $5. Since Amazon does a free app of the day deal, try waiting and see if they'll offer another texting keyboard app for free. The really good keyboards for androids will cost some cash sadly.
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I agree, I love the Flex T9 keyboard, I've actually stopped using Swype and the stock keyboard due to it. The voice dictation and finger tracing don't work well for me, but the trace is nowhere near as annoying as Swype.

Now I just need to find a old-school T9 keyboard to use in Portrait mode and I'd be happy
 
Flex9 is what I now I've tried allot of different keyboards and this one works the best. Speech is built in dragon speak so you don't need service to use it and the pen is neat I've only played with it a few times though it reminds me of graffiti from Palm OS. Was free but well worth the charge to buy it.
 
Thanks to all for your contributions- I'm still trying out the various methods- Swype, Grafitti, T9, speech--- I'd be of and running with Grafitti if I could find a stylus that really worked on a capacitive screen- and when the 2.3 update comes I'll be interested in a bluetooth keyboard.

I had planned on a hardware keyboard to start, but when I read the reviews here it seemed that all the other plusses for the Optimus vs Intercept made the V seem like the best choice at the time. Virgin Mobile was the one and only choice for service- just couldn't handle $70 a month for service no matter what phone I could have gotten.
 
A few notes for those still working out whether or not to Swype:

1. As xrae pointed out, long-pressing a key will pop up the assciated symbol character. Longer-pressing will pop up a choice menu of the letter & several symbols.

2. JerryScript complained about having to press repeatedly to erase a whole word--not so, just long-press the backspace key. Holding it down longer continues erasing, a word at a time.

3. This one rocked my world: swiping from the Swype key to the SYM key gets you to the editing keyboard, with cursor arrows, Home, End, &c. Press ABC to get back.

4. And to rock my world again: when Swype pops up a word-choice menu, if the word you want is the first entry, just ignore it swype the next word--the top one is chosen automatically.


Happy swyping, & be safe out there.
 
The Swype beta version is at .20 the version in our phones is at .8. With the newest version I don't ever look at what I swype as long as it is an english word. So delete the version on your phone after signing up for the beta program.

Root your phone. Backup your phone as precaution.

Download titanium backup free version. Backup the ROM Swype version in case you want to go back. Use titanium to uninstall ROM version. Get Swype beta installer install beta. Use titanium to load it back into protected system area on your phone (long click). It works as normal without any issues. If your phone ever crashes badly beta licence may get corrupted generate a new one with the installer. Hasn't happed to me on my Optimus V but it is possible.
 
Big hands? Try MessagEase.

I've tried Swype, Gingerbread, SwiftKey, FlexT9, Graffiti, but always come back to MessagEase, because I just can't get accuracy when I am forced to tap those tiny keys.

There's a learning curve for sure. But it's robust and well-developed, because it came from Palm (where it was my choice of keyboards). Be grateful you can get it for free now. Enjoy one-handed thumb typing, and access to all sorts of special characters.
 
jj2me said:
Big hands? Try MessagEase.

I've tried Swype, Gingerbread, SwiftKey, FlexT9, Graffiti, but always come back to MessagEase, because I just can't get accuracy when I am forced to tap those tiny keys.

There's a learning curve for sure. But it's robust and well-developed, because it came from Palm (where it was my choice of keyboards). Be grateful you can get it for free now. Enjoy one-handed thumb typing, and access to all sorts of special characters.
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+1
I've been using it for about a day, and I'm really liking it!
 
I have the optimus v and had a terrible time typing. Then I got the Big Buttons keyboard which helped me improve tremendously. Recently I added a stylus and now I pretty type error-free. By the way, I love the optimus V ...
 
I like swype, but it took me a few days to get used to it. My main problem is it's rather limited recognition dictionary which leaves me with quite a few words that I have to tap out on those microscopic virtual keys...
 
I use SlideIT keyboard. It's like Swype, but the buttons are spread out so it's easy to just to tap type when you need to.
 
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