Unhappy with the texting ergos

[N10S]

I just joined the ranks of the Droid owners/users a week ago. I recently changed jobs and the company I work for uses Verizon and as an exec I get a Droid. I am coming from a Blackberry Bold which I still have minus the data plan and use for a personal phone. Prior to that I had the original Motorola Moto Q on Sprint, and before that a Treo on Sprint back in 2005.

So far the Droid has been a pretty cool device, with lots of neat little bells and whistles, but I have to say that for having to respond to emails its the pits in comparison to the BlackBerry Bold. Even the original Moto Q was much easier to text on. I have small hands, but the flat keyed keyboard is useless and the ability to move within a sentence/paragraph to edit is next to impossible since the cursor doesn't show visually when you move it. Overall very weak as a business tool. High marks for cool gadgetry though. I may end-up having to turn my BlackBerry data back on to cover my business needs. I was watching TV tonight and the Droid commercial was on and I told my wife I guess I need pointy robot fingers to accurately press those flat little keys.

I had read that a thread where someone recommended an app that provided a different soft keyboard for the Droid that was supposedly pretty good. I hate soft keyboards, but at this point I am open to any reasonable options.

Thanks

JR

 

[ISUVetMed]

Some of the more popular soft keyboards are "Better keyboard" and one called swype which is a different soft keyboard that you dont pick your fingers up from. You move from letter to letter and it figures out the word. I havent tried it but have heard lots of good things, you apparently have to commit to it for at last a week though to get the hang of it. people who use it swear by it though.

 

[eliassami5]

swype is fantastic but i stopped using it because you need really dry fingertips to be able to use it, otherwise its takes twice as long trying to text with swype rather than the stock keyboard since you can barely move your finger across the screen. The more you use the hardware keyboard the more natural it becomes. You have only had the phone for a week so you haven't had that much practice with it. Give it time and if you still dont like it then go ahead and return it.

 

[crspang]

Admittedly it takes some getting used to, but there are options, like swype or better keyboard. I've gotten used to the stock keyboard and I'm pretty quick with it.

It takes trusting in the auto correct feature though.

BB is a good business phone but this Droid is just so dang cool!

There has also been speculation by some on this forum that the more the physical keyboard is used the more defined the keys get.

BTW you can use the d-pad to move the cursor around until you get used to doing it with your finger.

 

[jgorman13]

Coming from 4 blackberrys, motorola q and treos, i know exactly where youre coming from. Since i forward all my personal and work emails to gmail accounts i find it just as easy to use this phone for emailing purposes. I get a verizon phone as well from my company and i chose the droid because of what i heard about it. Just give it some time and youll get used to the keyboard and how it works. I mean, every phone has a learning curve of some kind and all soft keyboards are pretty awful.

I would have to disagree with you about using the phone for business though. I think if youre a tech savvy individual the phone is great. Having my portfolio on a home page with up-to-date quotes is the easiest thing i could imagine.

 

[N10S]

I do use the Dpad to move around. Even as I type this reply, if I need tomove back in the sentence line to edit there is no visual cursor to reflect where you are actually at. This alone is a serious fault that makes asimple edit a maJor issue.

Admittedly it takes some getting used to, but there are options, like swype or better keyboard. I've gotten used to the stock keyboard and I'm pretty quick with it.

It takes trusting in the auto correct feature though.

BB is a good business phone but this Droid is just so dang cool!

There has also been speculation by some on this forum that the more the physical keyboard is used the more defined the keys get.

BTW you can use the d-pad to move the cursor around until you get used to doing it with your finger.

 

[N10S]

I do need to give it a little time. I hope it can prove to be a decent business phone. I guess. my positive experience with the Bold has set the bar pretty high. It really requires no. learning period to use and was totally intuitive to me personally.

Coming from 4 blackberrys, motorola q and treos, i know exactly where youre coming from. Since i forward all my personal and work emails to gmail accounts i find it just as easy to use this phone for emailing purposes. I get a verizon phone as well from my company and i chose the droid because of what i heard about it. Just give it some time and youll get used to the keyboard and how it works. I mean, every phone has a learning curve of some kind and all soft keyboards are pretty awful.

I would have to disagree with you about using the phone for business though. I think if youre a tech savvy individual the phone is great. Having my portfolio on a home page with up-to-date q. uotes is the easiest. thing i could imagine.

 

[takeshi]

So "intuitive for you" means that a device is a good business device? Interesting, as intuitive is going to vary from person to person. I know plenty of people given BB's who didn't find them intuitive at all.

I do agree that BB's are great in a business environment but mostly because of their limitations, and built-in device management (with BES). Those two factors make them much easier to manage from an IT standpoint. If we deployed Droids here we'd certainly need more staff to deal with the issues which would probably not be business related for the most part.

 

[Bostonsfavson]

Give "Smart Keyboard Pro" a try. I can't recommend it enough.

 

[StupidGenius]

I do use the Dpad to move around. Even as I type this reply, if I need tomove back in the sentence line to edit there is no visual cursor to reflect where you are actually at. This alone is a serious fault that makes asimple edit a maJor issue.

Admittedly it takes some getting used to, but there are options, like swype or better keyboard. I've gotten used to the stock keyboard and I'm pretty quick with it.

It takes trusting in the auto correct feature though.

BB is a good business phone but this Droid is just so dang cool!

There has also been speculation by some on this forum that the more the physical keyboard is used the more defined the keys get.

BTW you can use the d-pad to move the cursor around until you get used to doing it with your finger.

I'm sorry, perhaps I'm missing what you're saying. I use the Dpad to move around emails and text I'm writing and there is a visible cursor.

 

[JP 5.56]

I lovvveee swype. I can't imagine inputting text on a phone w/o it now.

 

[crspang]

I do use the Dpad to move around. Even as I type this reply, if I need tomove back in the sentence line to edit there is no visual cursor to reflect where you are actually at. This alone is a serious fault that makes asimple edit a maJor issue.

Admittedly it takes some getting used to, but there are options, like swype or better keyboard. I've gotten used to the stock keyboard and I'm pretty quick with it.

It takes trusting in the auto correct feature though.

BB is a good business phone but this Droid is just so dang cool!

There has also been speculation by some on this forum that the more the physical keyboard is used the more defined the keys get.

BTW you can use the d-pad to move the cursor around until you get used to doing it with your finger.

Well I don't know what else I can say other than; practice some more or take the phone back, because its not an issue for me. I really believe the more you use the phone more comfortable you'll get.

 

[lschicky]

Give it a little longer, It was a bit of an adjustment when you first started using it. I've had mine for month now, and maybe a week and a half ago, something clicked and typing on it was much easier to type one.

You haven't mentioned if you had tried the stock on screen keyboards. I often would end up switching between the two.

 

[N10S]

I do use the Dpad to move around. Even as I type this reply, if I need tomove back in the sentence line to edit there is no visual cursor to reflect where you are actually at. This alone is a serious fault that makes asimple edit a maJor issue.

Admittedly it takes some getting used to, but there are options, like swype or better keyboard. I've gotten used to the stock keyboard and I'm pretty quick with it.

It takes trusting in the auto correct feature though.

BB is a good business phone but this Droid is just so dang cool!

There has also been speculation by some on this forum that the more the physical keyboard is used the more defined the keys get.

BTW you can use the d-pad to move the cursor around until you get used to doing it with your finger.

I'm sorry, perhaps I'm missing what you're saying. I use the Dpad to move around emails and text I'm writing and there is a visible cursor.

This is exactly what I needed to know. When I am trying to move around in any text box I have no visual cursor reference whatsoever. If I did then I think I would be Ok. Right now I literally move the d-pad and then enter a space to see where I am! If I tough the text point nothing shows and no indication of tactile feedback either. This is very frustrating, and perhaps just something that isn't set properly in the set-up? I will revisit the settings again and see if something is turned-off.

Thanks

Jeff

 

[N10S]

So "intuitive for you" means that a device is a good business device? Interesting, as intuitive is going to vary from person to person. I know plenty of people given BB's who didn't find them intuitive at all.

I do agree that BB's are great in a business environment but mostly because of their limitations, and built-in device management (with BES). Those two factors make them much easier to manage from an IT standpoint. If we deployed Droids here we'd certainly need more staff to deal with the issues which would probably not be business related for the most part.

Yes...you have me on that one Takeshi, the BlackBerry was an intuitive device for me to learn personally, and I realize that will vary from person to person and will not be the case at all for some folks. BTW- I did not use my BlackBerry with BES, even though the company had a BES server I used it set-up as a BIS device because it was a personal phone used for business and I didn't need big brother controlling my phone.

Lest anyone think I am not a "techie" kind of guy my background is 30+ years in telecommunications and data communications in operations and engineering as a senior and executive manager. One of the telephone companies/CLEC that I worked for as a CTO a couple of years back was also a Sprint affiliate and we would always get new phones to test out and try every 3-6 months. Bottom line is that I am not unfamiliar with technology and in particular not cell phones.

I do want to like this phone because it is definitely a cool phone.

Thanks for the feedback.

JR