Will the iPhone be undone by its keyboard?

For those in the audience enamored with the iPhone -- especially those willing to look past the lack of 3G and requisite 2-year service agreement -- there's really only one x-factor left: the touchscreen keyboard. We've all seen it done, but no one's ever seen it done right -- and Steve seems to think it's going to be off the chain. So why is Dvorak, noted tech pundit, and goader of Mac users and iPhone fans, reporting that he's got insider information that the iPhone's keyboard is complete crap and "people are going to return the phone in droves"? Well, that might have something to do with the fact that he's Dvorak, but we did consult a trusted and well connected source who, as it turns out, has heard the very same thing from multiple iPhone users, and who further noted that an accessory keyboard to go with the device may become necessary if the touchscreen keyboard doesn't cut the mustard. Of course, we can only reserve judgment until we wrap our paws on a real production model, but we hope it all turns out well -- even if only because we're sincerely frightened of an iPhone-incited fanboy riot in the streets.

[Jerry @ Jun 8th 2007 12:55AM]

This has been my biggest fear of all of the upcomming full screen touch screen devices.

[Dave @ Jun 8th 2007 2:14AM]

It's software. It will evolve. Don't get your panties in a wad.

[andres @ Jun 8th 2007 7:46AM]

There is a real problem with smartphones UI's, there is too many functions and not enough realstate for keys and screen (at the size we like our gadgets anyways). Apple's bet is that the hardware keyboard has been holding back the smartphones and that a multi-touch screen with a dynamic UI would be a much better system. People always seem reluctant to give up established standards but somethings they become outdated, we should be a bit more open to change. If it works... goodbye keys.

[Frankenstein Black @ Jun 8th 2007 10:11AM]

If tactile is the issue then the fears are understandable. But if its layout, why? Its software and can easily be changed with an update...

[Dave @ Jun 8th 2007 11:51AM]

I like it when people say stuff like "anyone willing to put down $600"
It makes me realize other people think that's a lot of money.

[coprock @ Jun 8th 2007 3:43PM]

MR. DAVE: ""I like it when people say stuff like "anyone willing to put down $600"
It makes me realize other people think that's a lot of money."

Gee they really don't teach much common sense in business school. Fortunately 99% of us were not born into money and know what value means.

I suggest restricting your comments to the country club.

[Q @ Jun 8th 2007 5:56PM]

Considering most mac users are middle-upper to upper class, I think Dave's comment is relevant.

[guchdog @ Jun 10th 2007 5:57AM]

People say software can be changed but they will have a hell of a time changing the size of the screen. Right now the screen is 2.3" x 3.5" wide. For 10 keys across you only have .23" (5.75mm) per key. For being a flat surface it makes it impossible to type. Maybe Apple expects us to grow out a finger nail to act like a stylus? They keyboard is a weak link that will hurt the iphone.

[thejedipunk @ Jun 8th 2007 12:59AM]

Why should we be taking Mr. Dvorak word into consideration when he himself hasn't even used the phone?

[AC @ Jun 8th 2007 5:30AM]

Because it will get engadget a whole load of traffic.

[brendan Sheehan jnr @ Jun 8th 2007 6:28PM]

"Why should we be taking Mr. Dvorak's word into consideration when he himself hasn't even used the phone?"

I'm gonna redo your sentence the way I thought it was going to go as I was reading it ok.
'Why should we be taking Mr. Dvorak's word into consideration when he constantly talks lies and bullshit.'
Sure according to Dvorak, a top guy in AT&T testing the iPhone told him the iPhone's battery only lasts 30 minutes. Good one.. 'Mr. Dvorak'.

[mail8 @ Jun 8th 2007 1:01AM]

How many of these are out in the wild anyway?
I have heard so many "I know a guy who has a friend who's sister dates a guy who delivered a pizza to a guy who works at Apple..." stories by now that I'm starting to believe it's been released... Gonna get me one on Ebay right now!

[Erik @ Jun 8th 2007 1:02AM]

Same guy who said that his "inside" sources told him the battery will last under a hour.

Why don't people wait to actually use the things before they judge them?

[Sam @ Jun 8th 2007 1:08AM]

Where's the fun in that?

[brendan Sheehan jnr @ Jun 8th 2007 6:35PM]

The truth isn't always fun. If you want fun, go for a swim at the beach or something.

[Bob @ Jun 8th 2007 1:08AM]

Dvorak is the best! He's so very, very cranky!

[Nick @ Jun 8th 2007 3:57AM]

I hear that he is even a cranky geek! :~

[Juan @ Jun 8th 2007 1:08AM]

In other news, 'W' and 'E' removed from English (*nglish) alphabet. Replaced with a new, larger 'S'.

[O.I. @ Jun 8th 2007 1:30AM]

I take it you haven't seen the commercial yet? As you type, the key you're on gets blown up above your finger so you know what key you just hit, I guess. It could be part of the reason people seem to hate the keyboard.

The problem for me is that in the commercials they make typing look so easy, granted, it's a commercial. But everytime Apple demos something (like the iPod interface) it really does work as well as advertised... if they are making the typing look flawless on the iPhone when it's a mess in real life, then this could very well be the first time Apple has purposefully misled its customers regarding interface and UI.

[drtekger @ Jun 8th 2007 4:07AM]

Dude, you are AWESOME! You just made my day here in stinking China. I am still laughing

[Hawkman @ Jun 8th 2007 8:58AM]

"Steve" begins with an S....
W + E.... "We"...

Steve Jobs wants to replace us!

[Keith @ Jun 8th 2007 2:17PM]

Shat ars you talking about?

[D.P.Mania @ Jun 8th 2007 1:10AM]

I’ve been using touch screen devices for a while... pocket pc, palm, etc. They all suck when it comes to touch... Spongy, insensitive, unresponsive, (like my wife). The iPhone is using a different kind of technology for its touch screen. Trust me, when you use it 3 times you'll be sold. Yes, the first time is like uhhhh. The second time is like "ok" and the third is "that’s what I’m talking about"

[Erik @ Jun 8th 2007 1:16AM]

Cause you have played with the iPhone, correct?

[Staticoranges @ Jun 8th 2007 1:26AM]

I think he's Steve Jobs in disguise.

[David @ Jun 8th 2007 3:44AM]

FAKE STEVE JOBS! AHH MUTHERLAND

[Ein @ Jun 8th 2007 1:12AM]

Read the article, he's suggesting shorting Apple stock. Hope Apple doesn't lose another few billion dollars due to another rumor. :-)

[Hawkman @ Jun 8th 2007 9:04AM]

Heh. It's Dvorak, I doubt anyone would actually trust his advice on financial matters :-)

In other news, he's a self-confessed link whore who gets paid by page hits. Please, please, everyone stop linking him - and maybe he'll do sensible stories.

Pretty please?

[Kyrra @ Jun 8th 2007 1:13AM]

I work in the same building where they are doing (some) training for the iPhone tech support (they are hiring 300+ people just for tech support of this product). They are on a 2-week binge training to support the iPhone. Sadly, everyone is doing a very good job about not saying anything, so I know nothing new at this point.

[Matt @ Jun 8th 2007 9:52AM]

That was helpful................
"NOOOOTTTT!!!!" (Sorry, I know Borat references are SO 2006.)

[Mr. Picklesworth @ Jun 8th 2007 1:14AM]

I actually wouldn't be hugely surprised. Predictive text can get pretty annoying when you aren't typing what the "normal" (read: Generic) "person" types.
This happens in most of real life situations.

Here is an example: You know that autocomplete feature in most word processors,w here pressing Return will finish the word for you? Have you turned that feature off? If you haven't, how often is it actually useful?

Going letter by letter is a lot less dangerous with some clever engineering, but here there is the problem that the expanded letter is distracting and VERY big. Quite hard to get around.

However, since Apple generally leaves few stones unturned when it comes to their own designs, I am sure we will see an option to turn that off that even an idiot could adjust.

[TheMayor @ Jun 8th 2007 3:18AM]

I think I might be the only person whose phone will auto predict "bootloader" when all i've typed is "bo". =P

[eric @ Jun 8th 2007 12:04PM]

I use the T9 auto-complete constantly on my current cell and it saves a ton of time. The only thing I'd really like is some contextual sensing, so I don't have to specify every time between "good" and "home", or "in" and "go".

These problems are from typing on a number pad, so I assume that a QWERTY keyboard would fix that.

A crap keyboard/word prediction would be a major bane to the iPhone, so let's hope they get it right.

[D.P.Mania @ Jun 8th 2007 1:34AM]

I have... ;) all i can say.

[Jeff Snugglebutton @ Jun 8th 2007 1:17AM]

so, lets say just like the photo is that you actually wanted to type the letter "R" and not "S" could you just move your finger a fraction of an inch to the right and the R would then grow in size so you could hit it... if that is the case then this keyboard will be awesome, awesome...If the S is just that size after you have hit it then, who cares.

[matty @ Jun 8th 2007 1:23AM]

I think a fraction to the right would give you a 'd'... :P

[zoara @ Jun 8th 2007 4:10AM]

Jeff, check out the ads; I think you misunderstand how this works.

The large S isn't there for you to hit, it's an indication of the key you *have* hit. When you hit S, it shows a bigger S 'popping out' so you can tell which key you just hit. I guess that's to make up for the loss of tactile feedback.

[cs0875 @ Jun 8th 2007 10:10AM]

@zoara

Why do I need to have the keyboard tell me what letter I just hit? I can see that clearly by looking at what I just typed. I just made a typo typing this, one of my keys didn't grow in size, I reazied I hit 's' instead of 'd'. And if the letter is wrong, I gotta go back and change it anyway. The letters grow large for the same reason Vista's windows flip, to look cool.

[G$ @ Jun 8th 2007 11:41AM]

> Why do I need to have the keyboard tell me what letter I just hit?

So you're not constantly glancing up at the text you just wrote then back down to the on-screen keyboard. It's not like you can touch-type with an on-screen keyboard.

[Clauie @ Jun 8th 2007 11:58PM]

Am I the only one noticing (after watching the commercials) that the letter you hit only highlights as you touch it and the instant the finger is off the screen, it goes away?! So why are you guys even talking about the letter-highlighting thing as being a problem for writing?

[matty @ Jun 8th 2007 1:21AM]

What's good about this implementation, is that if this iteration of the keyboard doesn't work; who's not to say a simple software patch can't do something new? I don't like the idea of a touch-screen keyboard (give me my tactile feedback dammit) but at least they have SOME room to maneuver here (at least from a layout standpoint).

[Jeff Harrison @ Jun 8th 2007 10:46AM]

I see no reason they could add something like Palm's Graffitti. The beauty of a soft interface!

[jaysins @ Jun 8th 2007 1:22AM]

It's to the point for me where speculation is pointless. We will all know soon enough how good or bad the phone is. The only people that will be getting it day one are people don't care if they burn some money, complete apple fanboys, or not that smart because that must trust in a consumer electronics company is ridiculous imo. I'm not bashing the iphone, but you should think of it this way. If you get it the first day you would be paying five or six hundred dollars to use a completely new, though exciting, interface for the next two years and all the fees that will come in those two years. That's a lot of money and possible frustration to be a beta tester. And I'm assuming reviews don't come out till it's release which will probably be the case. I have a nokia N95, but read at least ten reviews on it and handled it at a store that sells unlocked phones. That's a lot of money to just throw around on a whim or possible fad. I'll do the same with the iphone.

I'm awaiting the reviews from credible sources and looking forward to playing with the phone myself, but until than I'm not going to be looking to buy one. It's a wait and see game. Though I doubt the typing input will suck outright, it very well could pale in comparison to a normal keyboard. I look forward to finding out. I also hope though that their multi-touch is a revolutionary way to interact with the phone because even if I don't buy an iphone it will trickle down into other products and the consumer wins.

[zoara @ Jun 8th 2007 4:14AM]

jaysins; I agree, but the same applies to almost anything over a certain amount of money (and that amount depends on how much you're willing to waste). I wait for reviews and try out most gadgets before I actually buy them (and it winds up store owners no end).

I don't think that the iPhone is any different to any other reasonably-priced gadget.

[jaysins @ Jun 8th 2007 1:28PM]

Yep, that's the point I was trying to make. Yea the commercials were cool as hell, and the buzz around this thing is amazing. But after plan and possible data plan you could be looking around $3000 over the two year course of your plan. That's a lot of money to be spending and not be happy. Or you'd have to shell out even more money to rectify your mistake. It's the two year deal that makes me the most cautious and it is a pretty big decision for the majority of people including myself.

[drtekger @ Jun 8th 2007 1:23AM]

I am the guy who dates your pizza delivering daughter whose granny of her retarded brother know a guy who knows the neighbour through combats in Schweinfurt at WW II who sez that he couldn't give a crap about how things are until the messias-phone is released

[Spyrus @ Jun 8th 2007 1:24AM]

Come on kids. Did anyone actually read the article? Dvorak is not saying that he believes what he heard about the keyboard being a complete disaster and that folks will be returning it in droves. He merely mentions it, and then states that he doesn't believe it will happen and goes on to say that he believes the iPhone will be popular for a short length of time. -After which other vendors will catch up and Apple will slip.

Direct Quote from the Dvorak: "As for the iPhone keyboard leading to disappointment and returns, I'm not convinced. I'm sticking with my scenario where the phone is hugely successful for a couple of quarters until the fashion goes stale. By then, the functionality will be duplicated by others and Apple will be treading water."

[Ignacio @ Jun 8th 2007 10:53AM]

"Come on kids. Did anyone actually read the article?"

No. Dvorak = link whore. Clicking on the link = encouraging him to write even more crap.

[brendan Sheehan jnr @ Jun 8th 2007 6:41PM]

If Apple became bigger than Microsoft (and I've no delusions of this) people would still be saying they are doomed.

[mullingitover @ Jun 8th 2007 1:26AM]

o noes, tech prophet dvorak says it is teh suck!

Seriously, Dvorak saying it will suck pretty much means it is going to kick ass. If I were Apple I'd be thrilled to hear this. Nobody ever went broke betting against that guy.