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Keyboard and Haptic Feedback

osli said:
Holy crap. Just picked up my wife's iPhone 3G to see if I just have recall bias or if there really is much difference in the keyboard response and accuracy. It's not even close. Not even on the same planet. In fact, if the iPhone's keyboard is a keyboard, I wouldn't even classify the Hero's as a keyboard... maybe something more like a reverse Polish boolean alphanumeric input brain teaser game. Something designed specifically to be challenging and put the user through a battery of psychological profile testing.

Sorry to be harsh. I just thought I disliked the Hero keyboard before, but after getting a cold water splash in the face of what a keyboard should be, I'm just utterly dismayed. How can one phone with similar screen size and resolution, similar hardware specs, and also running on a unix variant OS be lightyears ahead? I could type paragraphs without it missing a single keystroke as fast as I could move my fingers. On the Hero I can't make it past a couple of words, if that. Usually several mistakes per word, and I have to really slow down my fingers and be very precise and deliberate in where I place them just to get that level of accuracy. Is it the capacitive screen technology? OS? Keyboard application? All of them?

All I know is that this one thing alone would have me swapping back yesterday if all things were equal. But all things are not equal. As it stands, the Hero is free and so is the service. I'd have to purchase an iPhone and the service to swap back. Not an easy choice.

I love a lot about my Hero, and the rest is growing on me. I've seen real promise in the community's ability to respond to problems and offer solutions. Some that I had just a few days ago have been addressed to at least some degree. But right now, there just isn't a usable input method on the Hero. I browse the web, but refuse to post to forums or send emails because the input is so atrocious. I dread getting a text because I know it will be an ordeal just responding.

Please... Google, HTC, community... if you're listening, FIX THIS!@!
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Funny you bring this up. I tried out my wife's iPhone last week and it felt like I was using a physical keyboard. Really strange how nice the keyboard is. I can just rip it up typing, with very few mistakes. Fast and accurate. I swear I'm not an Apple fanboy and I love my Hero, but I'm jumping on this one and putting it down for the record that the keyboard needs help.
 
Youcould.try downloading superdial from the market and use It Instead of the default phone app. I a big fan for several reasons. Even though the dial pad Is smaller, It Is layed out so that im not constantly hitting tye call button Instead of the zero. And it gives times In the call log... very useful. No haptic for me, probably not supported, so it might be an option for you.
 
I am very surprised with the keyboard. I can type really fast without thought of errors and the phone keeps up fine with me. And this is with the small qwerty keyboard. I am actually slower with the landscape mode.

No matter. Swype will change everything when it is released.
 
My post above yours is a prime example of how my Hero's keyboard works, when it is working well. I corrected about a dozen errors in that post but just get too frustrated and impatient to correct them all. It capitalizes words starting with the letter "i" all the time. Look above. It's slow, I'm usually a full word ahead, it makes a lot of mistakes, drops some letters I hit entirely (sometimes whole words are missing that I know I typed), randomly inserts the special character instead of the letter, which I have to manually correct, and the prediction/auto correction often changes a correct word to one I don't want (which wouldn't be so much of an issue, if the phone wasn't lagging so far behind... usually by the time I see that it decided to replace a correct word and insert something incorrect, I'm several words ahead and have to figure out whether to backspace all the way or use the painfully slow trackball to get back to the error since the phone's touch accuracy isn't good enough to select just where you want the cursor and it doesn't have a sorely needed touch-zoom feature).

This is stock. Portrait or landscape. Fresh reboot, very few apps installed. Stock browser and text app. Also in dolphin and handcent. Haptic and sound off. I've also tried betterkeyboard and crocodile keyboard. Disabling spellcheck, prediction, and autocorrection speeds it up but the mess that comes out is often unreadable.
 
osli said:
My post above yours is a prime example of how my Hero's keyboard works, when it is working well. I corrected about a dozen errors in that post but just get too frustrated and impatient to correct them all. It capitalizes words starting with the letter "i" all the time. Look above. It's slow, I'm usually a full word ahead, it makes a lot of mistakes, drops some letters I hit entirely (sometimes whole words are missing that I know I typed), randomly inserts the special character instead of the letter, which I have to manually correct, and the prediction/auto correction often changes a correct word to one I don't want (which wouldn't be so much of an issue, if the phone wasn't lagging so far behind... usually by the time I see that it decided to replace a correct word and insert something incorrect, I'm several words ahead and have to figure out whether to backspace all the way or use the painfully slow trackball to get back to the error since the phone's touch accuracy isn't good enough to select just where you want the cursor and it doesn't have a sorely needed touch-zoom feature).

This is stock. Portrait or landscape. Fresh reboot, very few apps installed. Stock browser and text app. Also in dolphin and handcent. Haptic and sound off. I've also tried betterkeyboard and crocodile keyboard. Disabling spellcheck, prediction, and autocorrection speeds it up but the mess that comes out is often unreadable.
Click to expand...

Seems like the Hero is not the best phone for you.

So you can either
A) suffer with it and tell us all how much you hate it
or
B) get a phone you are happy with and tell everyone how much you love it.

I hope you choose B and are happy.
 
BSki said:
Seems like the Hero is not the best phone for you.

So you can either
A) suffer with it and tell us all how much you hate it
or
B) get a phone you are happy with and tell everyone how much you love it.

I hope you choose B and are happy.
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or C) Quit b!tchin about it to people who don't care anymore lol
 
D) keep bitching about problems with a phone running an open platform with a community of developers and supporters such that talented people In said community might actually make the product better.

If this were a Ford I wouldn't be bitching... not much anyone here could do about problems. But bringing to light software problems to a community containing software developers? Makes supreme sense to me.

If you are correct In your assertion that no one here cares, then the promise of the Android platform is empty and it will die before it gains sufficient momentum.

I tend to think your assertion is wrong, so if YOU don't care, shut up and stop bitching about my bitching.
 
eyebeam said:
Seriously osli, I don't think you've given option B due consideration.
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Lol, you are right, and I'm sure it seems strange that I have a phone I'm not really satisfied.with. as I've said another threads, the hero was free, and for now so is the service. Would you make do with a blackberry, or a treo, or iPhone, or even a lesser Android phone for that much savings?

The thing is that thete really is a lot about my hero that I love, and I know the hardware is caplable of much more. The platform is open, and Im optimistic that improvements will come. But the really are some basic issues that need addressing, and Ill keep bringing them up in the hopes that someone takes notice and does something about it.

If I had the time, Id learn the development environment myself.
 
ok, let me rephrase option C: Be patient and wait for the fixes to come through with updates. It certainly seems like HTC is pretty good about updating their phones (especially compared to Samsung, right?)

Oddly enough, I have NO problems with the Hero keyboard. I tried the 3 keyboards on the Moment (hardware, 2 on screen), and couldn't type with the damn things at all. I don't even always look through my glasses when I'm typing on the Hero, so I'm getting two different angles at the keyboard, and yet I still manage to type without making many mistakes. To be honest, I make nearly as many mistakes on my laptop as I do on my Hero lol
 
I wonder what my issue is then? I've used a good touch keyboard on another phone and was perfectly accurate and lightning fast, so I don't really think it's my ability to use a touch keyboard. My fingertips aren't very big (I'm tall, but not a husky guy). I don't have many apps installed. I'm not rooted. I've soft rebooted the phone several times hoping it might improve.

I wonder why I seem to have so much more trouble than others? Look at my other thread on this page about it capitalizing words starting with "i" all the time... a few others are having the same or similar problems. Maybe there's some real software issues that plague a few phones? Perhaps I should consider a factory reset or even a reloading of the current software ROM? Something is just wrong with my phone. I guess I could try exchanging it? I've been to the Cellular South local store, and the guys there are not help... they tell me all Hero's are exactly the same. A few of them aren't that happy about the keyboard either, when reading through their facade of "it's terrrrific!", so I didn't really think it was just my phone.

Oh well. Still praying for 2.0+ sometime sooner than 6 months... maybe that will contain some miracle updates!
 
CMank said:
Funny you bring this up. I tried out my wife's iPhone last week and it felt like I was using a physical keyboard. Really strange how nice the keyboard is. I can just rip it up typing, with very few mistakes. Fast and accurate. I swear I'm not an Apple fanboy and I love my Hero, but I'm jumping on this one and putting it down for the record that the keyboard needs help.
Click to expand...

I'm thinking finger size has a lot to do with it too. Mine are like sausages, I have problems typing both on my Hero, or my buddy's iPhone.
 
Was just looking for assistance on keyboard lag and found this ancient thread. Have followed the advice above on my Desire and hope it works - I thought it might be the Handcent app but uninstalling it didn't make any difference (and I like it better than the basic phone message app).
 
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