Archive for category iPhone Keyboard

iPhone Tip: Label Your Folders With Emoji

Jul 4

Posted by Alan in emoji, emoticons, iPhone Keyboard, iPhone Tips, iPhone Tricks | 7 Comments

This iPhone tip was inspired by a similar one discovered by iPhone J.D. on how to use special glyph characters in iPhone folder names. Our tip takes it one step further, adding the cartoonish emoji to add a little color and graphics to your folder names. Combining emoji with words makes for a neat label, or you could just use the emoji alone. They also look sharp and detailed on the iPhone 4′s Retina Display screen.

To use emoji to label your folders, you must first have emoji (which are Japanese emoticons designed for cell phones) activated. See the next section for instructions on how to do this. Once activated, simple tap the globe icon on your keyboard until you see the emoji keyboard, and start labeling!

How to Enable Emoji

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Will the iPad Keyboard Work With the iPhone?

Jan 27

Posted by Alan in Apple iPhone, iPad, iPhone Keyboard | 1 Comment

Along with the introduction of the iPad, Apple announced a special hardware keyboard and dock accessory that essentially turns the iPad into a netbook. The iPad keyboard comes with a 30-pin connector, the same as on the iPhone. So in theory, it could work with the iPhone. But the real question is, will Apple allow it? We’ll find out for sure in 60 days, but we’ll be watching Apple’s site for official specs on the keyboard.

Regardless of whether you’re buying an iPad, the keyboard could come in handy for iPhone users for, say, manually entering a lot of contacts into the iPhone or typing up a shopping list before heading to the grocery. The iPhone is still a much more mobile device than the iPad. For me, the iPhone is the only device that goes everywhere I do, and it’d be nice to hook it up to a keyboard now and again.

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ION Introduces iType Full-Sized Keyboard for the iPhone

Jan 9

Posted by Tim Barribeau in News, iPhone Accessories, iPhone Keyboard | No Comments

ION audio has announced two new upcoming iPhone accessories at CES, the iType keyboard and the iDiscover music keyboard.

The iType is a full-sized keyboard that you can dock your iPhone in and use as the iPhone’s keyboard in conjunction with an upcoming app from ION. The downside is that you can only use the keyboard with that particular app, although it’s conceivable other apps could be updated to work with the iType. The keyboard has a built-in battery which helps power your iPhone, and comes with a full suite of keys. It should hit the streets in Q2 2010 for $110.

The iDiscover Keyboard will turn your iPhone into a mobile music studio and music creation tool. The iDiscover has 25 velocity-sensitive, synth-action keys, pitch and modulation wheels, and physical buttons for the most commonly used controls. It also comes with stereo RCA outputs and a headphone jack for connection to playback and recording systems, as well as MIDI output. ION will be releasing a custom app for the keyboard, with soundbank functionality. The iDiscover will be released in Q2 2010, but no word on the price yet.

[via RegHardware]

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Poll: Would You Use a Full-Sized Keyboard With the iPhone?

Nov 21

Posted by John Hawkes in iPhone Keyboard, iPhone Poll Questions | No Comments

I’m one of those people who dream of attaching a full-sized keyboard to the iPhone and getting some serious word processing done. I’d much rather carry the iPhone plus an Apple wireless keyboard in my bag than a full laptop. What are Apple’s objections do you think? I mean, even the Newton had an attachable keyboard:

This leads us to our poll question:

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Fast Writer Adds Extra Row of Keys to the iPhone’s Keyboard

Oct 7

Posted by Alan in 99-Cent Apps, iPhone App Reviews, iPhone Keyboard | No Comments

I’ve come across a lot of recommendations for replacing the iPhone’s default Notes app, but none have really sold me until now. Fast Writer ($0.99, iTunes link) is a basic text editor with one killer feature: it adds an extra row of customizable keys to the iPhone’s keyboard. Depending on how you customize the keys, this means you no longer have to switch screens to add punctuation or numbers to your text.

The row of 15 customizable keys appears above the normal keyboard. You can change which characters appear on the keys in the app’s settings menu. The keys can have numbers, punctuation, or a variety of other symbols you normally find buried in the keyboard’s sub-screens.
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The iPhone Gets a Foldout Keyboard, Transformers Style (Cool Video)

Sep 20

Posted by Alan in iPhone Keyboard, iPhone Typing, iPhone Video | No Comments

Here’s an amazing video featuring a Transformers-esque concept of a foldout keyboard for the iPhone. Heck, I’d settled for just a Bluetooth keyboard.

How to Make an Em Dash and Ellipsis With the iPhone Keyboard

Jun 25

Posted by Alan in iPhone Basics, iPhone Keyboard, iPhone Tips, iPhone Tricks | No Comments

The iPhone’s keyboard has a few extra characters that only become visible if you press and hold down keys. Two frequently used characters you might find useful to know about are the em dash (–) and the ellipsis (…).

Em Dash–

To make an em dash—often used to interrupt a sentence for parenthetical remarks like this one—hold down the hyphen key until you see an em dash appear next to the hyphen. Slide your finger over to highlight the em dash and release your finger.

Ellipsis…

To make an ellipsis, hold down the period key until the ellipsis appears next to the period. Slide your finger to highlight and release.

Be sure to check out more of our posts on iPhone Basics.

iPhone Defeats Asus Netbook in Stunt Typing Test

Apr 29

Posted by Alan in iPhone Keyboard, iPhone Typing | No Comments

The folks over at Crave, a UK gadget blog, put together a crazy (and somewhat dumb) typing test using an iPhone and an Asus Eee PC (a $300 netbook) in a rally car pulling some serious G’s on a dirt track. The iPhone wins, but only because the iPhone’s predictive text doesn’t actually require you to type the correct letters to form words. See below for the entire misadventure.