Auto-capitalisation on physical keyboard

[MalteM 21]

This feature seems to be missing from settings? Is this correct?

[ToniCipriani 194]

The keyboard itself doesn't have the functionality, it comes down to the keyboard software you pair it with. Swiftkey provides the said functionality.

[MalteM 21]

Really, Swiftkey does this also with regard to the physical keyboard?

[ToniCipriani 194]

Yes.

Edited July 29, 2020 by ToniCipriani

[MalteM 21]

Alright, cool! Thanks 🙂

[MalteM 21]

It's greyed out for me. Have rebooted but still the same. Hmm

 

[MalteM 21]

Actually, I find the physical keyboard on the Pro1 cumbersome to use. Too big? I have small hands. And find it hard to get up to typing speed. In fact, I have hardly tried to do so - find myself using the touch keyboard almost all the time. Do others have an experience that the keyboard can take some time to get used to? My fav keyboard phone was the Blackberry Priv which has a whole different kind of setup with a very small keyboard, comparatively. 

[MalteM 21]

7 minutes ago, MalteM said:

It's greyed out for me. Have rebooted but still the same. Hmm

 

Lol, forget it - after 15 hours this notification showed up

[FlyingAntero 871]

11 minutes ago, MalteM said:

Actually, I find the physical keyboard on the Pro1 cumbersome to use. Too big? I have small hands. And find it hard to get up to typing speed. In fact, I have hardly tried to do so - find myself using the touch keyboard almost all the time. Do others have an experience that the keyboard can take some time to get used to? My fav keyboard phone was the Blackberry Priv which has a whole different kind of setup with a very small keyboard, comparatively. 

For me, it took about 1-2 weeks to get used to the size. Also, I had to change my grip little bit. First I tried to type while keeping my palm "behind" the phone but then I kind of "dropped" the phone more to my fingers. Now it is much more natural. My previous QWERTY phone was Droid 4 so it was big change.

If I need to type few words I might use virtual keyboard but for everything else I use physical keyboard.

[EskeRahn 5,471]

24 minutes ago, MalteM said:

Actually, I find the physical keyboard on the Pro1 cumbersome to use. Too big? I have small hands. And find it hard to get up to typing speed. In fact, I have hardly tried to do so - find myself using the touch keyboard almost all the time. Do others have an experience that the keyboard can take some time to get used to? My fav keyboard phone was the Blackberry Priv which has a whole different kind of setup with a very small keyboard, comparatively. 

I would say that a drastically different keyboard always takes some getting used to.

I'm not typing fast on it (neither on a pc), but physical keyboards give me a LOT fewer errors than on a fake keyboard. And clearly faster on the Pro1 than the Priv for me, simply due the Priv's limited numbers of keys making Danish far from easy to type on the Priv. The swiping on the Priv could often help guessing the words with ÆØÅ before I needed to type it. On the other hand I got a lot of unwanted swipes trying to move the fingers quickly. So certainly do not miss the Priv keyboard.

[_DW_ 628]

I also find the Pro1 keyboard that bit too big so I find I use the on screen more.  But anything lengthy I use the physical and always use it when SSH/RDP into a remote box.

I decided to get a astro slide which is even bigger but I liked the look of the keyboard 😄 and wanted to back more keyboard devices been made 😉

 

[ToniCipriani 194]

On 7/30/2020 at 6:47 AM, FlyingAntero said:

If I need to type few words I might use virtual keyboard but for everything else I use physical keyboard.

And this, is why a portrait slider is superior. I much prefer using my BlackBerry Priv than my Pro1, but I can't pass up the performance difference.

[ToniCipriani 194]

On 7/30/2020 at 6:50 AM, EskeRahn said:

simply due the Priv's limited numbers of keys making Danish far from easy to type on the Priv

I guess you didn't use the swipe down gesture for accents.

[Hook 3,043]

22 minutes ago, ToniCipriani said:

And this, is why a portrait slider is superior. I much prefer using my BlackBerry Priv than my Pro1, but I can't pass up the performance difference.

Again, this is a matter of personal preference and various factors like hand size.  I found the keyboards on all of my work issued BBs unusable and 95% of the time typed the sentence "I'll get back to you." 😄   I find the Pro1 keyboard a joy to use and these days snap it open for even the shortest text.  At this point, I very rarely use an on-screen keyboard.

So neither is superior.  We just have to hope for many different styles of keyboard phones because one will never satisfy everyone.

[EskeRahn 5,471]

10 minutes ago, Hook said:

We just have to hope for many different styles of keyboard phones because one will never satisfy everyone.

Exactly.

All devices are made with a number of decisions / compromises. Different people got different usage patterns, different hand size, More or less sharp vision.... etc

So we will never have a single device that is optimal for everyone. But hopefully a wide range of products fitting a wide range of people.

[EskeRahn 5,471]

58 minutes ago, ToniCipriani said:

I guess you didn't use the swipe down gesture for accents.

Correct, that slowed typing down to a degree where touch typing is competitive.

[Craig 1,435]

For a thumb keyboard, actually smaller is better.  Less travel, less thumb stretching, etc.  As long as its not so small as to cause you to press two keys at once or be uncomfortable, and as long as you have some bezel right and left so far right and left keys arent so close to the edge to make it uncomfortable.

I think Pro¹ could be improved if every key a little narrower and thus screen and device a little smaller.  I think Photon Q keyboard a good physical size, but add a few more keys like Pro¹ so would still end up wider with same sized keys.

Edited July 31, 2020 by Craig

[Hook 3,043]

21 minutes ago, Craig said:

For a thumb keyboard, actually smaller is better.  Less travel, less thumb stretching, etc. 

Again, in my case, my right thumb reaches 7,T,F,V without stretching.  My left thumb reaches 6,T,G,V without stretching.  I remember trying out the first Droid way back when and saying, no, keys too small and close together for comfort.  Maybe I've got bigger hands than most, but finally someone has accommodated me. 😉

Also I hate screens that re less than 6". 😄

 

[ToniCipriani 194]

10 hours ago, EskeRahn said:

Correct, that slowed typing down to a degree where touch typing is competitive.

Frankly if typing speed was what I was after then I really wouldn't have got the Pro 1 at all. 

It's about the keyboard feel but the Pro 1 is actually helping me wean off the PKB at this point.

[ToniCipriani 194]

11 hours ago, Hook said:

Again, this is a matter of personal preference and various factors like hand size.  I found the keyboards on all of my work issued BBs unusable and 95% of the time typed the sentence "I'll get back to you." 😄   I find the Pro1 keyboard a joy to use and these days snap it open for even the shortest text.  At this point, I very rarely use an on-screen keyboard.

So neither is superior.  We just have to hope for many different styles of keyboard phones because one will never satisfy everyone.

And I'm actually getting cramps reaching for the left side of the keyboard on the Pro 1. But I rather live with that than to only have a touch keyboard. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

But I've said this before and I'll say it again: landscape works best if it's a desktop like app. On a phone it just doesn't work when most apps just end up forcing you back into portrait. I've only used the keyboard extensively with RDP-esque apps at this point.

Edited August 1, 2020 by ToniCipriani

[Hook 3,043]

 

36 minutes ago, ToniCipriani said:

But I've said this before and I'll say it again: landscape works best if it's a desktop like app. On a phone it just doesn't work when most apps just end up forcing you back into portrait. I've only used the keyboard extensively with RDP-esque apps at this point.

I guess I just don't use many apps that force portrait, and for the ones that do I just use split screen.  Works for me.

[EskeRahn 5,471]

5 hours ago, Hook said:

I guess I just don't use many apps that force portrait, and for the ones that do I just use split screen.  Works for me.

For many of the poorly coded portrait-only apps, alternatives exists. Though many proprietary apps like banking apps unfortunately leaves no alternatives.

[ToniCipriani 194]

6 hours ago, EskeRahn said:

For many of the poorly coded portrait-only apps, alternatives exists. Though many proprietary apps like banking apps unfortunately leaves no alternatives.

Not testing for a corner case that likely won't happen to 99% of the devices isn't exactly "poorly coded" but rather a design decision.

[Slion 1,201]

4 hours ago, ToniCipriani said:

Not testing for a corner case that likely won't happen to 99% of the devices isn't exactly "poorly coded" but rather a design decision.

Poorly designed then 😁 All devices can do landscape. Sadly way too many applications do not support landscape mostly for cost saving reasons.

[Slion 1,201]

17 hours ago, ToniCipriani said:

Frankly if typing speed was what I was after then I really wouldn't have got the Pro 1 at all. 

For me too, speed is not the main reason for wanting landscape physical keyboard. Redacting and formatting large posts and articles or files is where Pro1 shines over virtual keyboards.