Re: [NTLK] iPhone - Text input methods

Quoting Morgan Aldridge <makkintosshu@mac.com>:

> I personally have felt for years that the advancements to the iPod
> would always slowly morph into a Newton-like device with all the
> modern functionality that is offered by their full line of products.
> "Slowly" being the key word.
>
> When they started adding read-only calendar & notes, then adding
> photos, I knew it would happen. [snip]
> I think the iPhone is actually a huge leap in the direction of a
> modern Newton [snip]

One of the many brilliant things about the iPhone is its leap outside
the keyboard-vs.-stylus dilemma with a new finger-based interface.
But that's also its biggest weakness when compared to Newton: the
lack of an easy data input method for stuff like text and drawing.
The little pop-up on-screen keyboard is OK for small stuff like
changing contact info or typing a short URL or Google search term, but
not for jotting down your thoughts or writing a story. (Although I
guess it would be easy to put voice recorder functionality in there if
it isn't already.)

So that got me wondering if it would be feasible to actually write on
the iPhone screen with your fingertip. I just tried a very
unscientific simulation by writing on an area of my Newton screen that
approximates the iPhone screen size. It seems like it could work. It
requires a bit of getting used to, but not much. Obviously the iPhone
screen would have to be -- and I think it is -- much more sensitive in
terms of the pressure required; otherwise you'd have to use your
fingernail which wouldn't be as good. But if you write fairly large
and if the digitizer responds to very light pressure, you can do it
fairly easily with your fingertip. So I could see the Newton HWR
being tweaked to work nicely on the iPhone. (Drawing might be a
little more difficult without a stylus, though.) Since apparently
there's already a version of that in OS X, it doesn't seem farfetched
at all for HWR to show up on the iPhone. (I guess it would then be
"fingerwriting recognition".)

Also, it should be possible to connect a keyboard to the docking port,
just like we can add a keyboard to our MessagePads if we want to do a
lot of text inputting and need better speed and accuracy than HWR can
give us.

Once you add an efficient text input method, and assuming the system
is open so the user can install other apps, the iPhone starts to look
like something that finally *might* be able to lure me away from my
Newton. (I can't believe I said that! I hope it's not listening.)

As many people have pointed out, the iPhone doesn't do anything that
other devices don't already do, but as usual with Apple, the genius is
in *how* they did it - the integration, the attention to detail, the
intuitive and beautiful user experience, etc. And there is definitely
some innovation there. I've shown the MacWorld keynote to initially
skeptical people and their jaws usually drop when they see the the
zooming in and out with the two-finger "pinch". And putting all the
controls on-screen instead of in little plastic buttons is brilliant
because it makes the iPhone vastly more expandable, adaptable, and
obsolescence-proof than any other such device. (Come to think of it,
that's a major resemblance to the MessagePad, which has only one
button and is almost all screen!)

Anyway, I defy anyone to watch the MacWorld demo and, even after
discounting for the Steve reality distortion field, say you don't want
an iPhone! As someone said, even without cellular service there's a
lot you can do with it.

Michael

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