Tenacious hacker brings the iPhone keyboard to a Nokia N800

One awfully clever Brazilian programmer couldn't stand not being able to experience the sometimes-maddening act of typing on the iPhone's notorious keyboard -- so he wrote an iPhone keyboard app for his Nokia N800. In what appears to have been a fairly short amount of time, Gustavo Sverzut Barbieri put together an Apple-copyin', typepad act-alike using Python, Edje, and a little elbow grease. Without ever actually using an iPhone, Gustavo seems to have clearly captured the essence of the keyboard, which is either really good or really bad for him... only he knows for sure. Check the video after the break to see the app in action.

[Via jkOnTheRun]

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 31st 2007 3:11AM]

I love when Engadget tries to be tech-elite-snarky and they just get the crickets in return. Engadget: people aren't hating on the keyboard. There is no meme for you to exploit. You just look confused and/or juvenile. You link to an article about the iPhone's keyboard written BEFORE it was released. WTF am I supposed to think when you pull these shenanigans? Is it some sort of trap where you do it, and then people call you on it, and then you get to say they are Apple fanboys or something?

In retaliation, I'm going to go write an article predicting that all of Engadget's articles written in August *might* suck. Then, years from now I can keep referencing that aricle and referring to Engadget's "notorious article quality".

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 31st 2007 4:11AM]

Wow, guess cloning the look wasn't much of a challenge. Has he implemented a word lookup that suggests only words that can be made by adjacent keys? Has he developed a statistical algorithm that uses successful keyboard taps to improve typing accuracy? Apple has done their home work on this keyboard. Before listening to the critics, go out and try one yourself, because the critics haven't, which is why they are commenting on something they can't even verify. I own the iPhone and (as a friend said about his iPhone) it rocks!

Cheers!

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 31st 2007 9:24AM]

The n800's landscape thumbboard is far, far superior to the iPhone. The only advantage the iPhone has is better auto-correction, because they're weighting the typos based on key proximity.
(E.g. if you have a typo with an out-of-place 'f', you probably meant 'd' because it's close-by, even though people don't normally mistype 'f' where 'd' should be.)

Give me that proximity-based correction and keep that stupid 'hiding all the punctuation on a seperate screen' crap.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 31st 2007 1:17PM]

You give people too much credit, sir ... I guarantee that the married-a-rich-husband chicks will happily take their eyes off the road to text with their iPhone as their Yukon/Expedition/H2/Range Rover hurtles down the road.

[Jamescb Posted Jul 31st 2007 11:44AM]

The autocorrection is great on the iPhone. I can type so much faster with on my iphone than on any other tiny qwerty. I can fly.