I just dashed off this quick video for my
Twitter followers to demonstrate that the DROID doesn't have a multitouch soft keyboard, and pretty much instantly realized that I should probably share it with everyone else, since we've been getting a lot of questions about it. Long story short, while
Android 2.0 and the
DROID's hardware support multitouch, the device itself doesn't do multitouch out-of-the-box, and the soft keyboard suffers mightily for it. Why it's missing is certainly
open for debate, but for now just know that no amount of hoping, wishing, or booze is going to make the stock keyboard register more than one press at a time. Don't despair, though -- while I'm not a fan, Chris Ziegler absolutely flies on this same keyboard on his DROID. Videos after the break.
posted Nov 5th 2009 6:31PM
And let me just nip it in the bud: I know I screwed up the phrase.
The quick brown fox?
That fox is neither quick nor brown.
Haha brown cow. Drinking milk while typing that?
It's ok. But I was able to easily beat you on my iPhone (around 3 seconds faster), same phrase.
That's not to say that it's a problem... 3 seconds out of 17 isn't going to kill anybody, and I bet the physical keyboard is better.
(BTW... 3 seconds the first try, no practice or warmup... haven't typed on the phone all day.)
Fanfare for the Common Man--Awesome.
Hm. I beat him by almost 7 seconds and I'm not a particularly fast typer. First try as well.
10 second, Blackberry Storm running 5.0.
10 sec as well on my G1 physical keyboard.
And if you notice on Nilay's video-- iphone doesn't popup auto word-fill, the droid does--which if you give it a millisec break, it will typically pick the right word making typing faster.
FYI Nilay, the 'G' key is in the middle *under your thumb*.
Just tried it on my iPhone, 9 seconds
@CaptainCaveman: It's not so much holding one while pushing another, but super fast typists (like me) with fat fingers will regularly hit the next key before lifting the last one.
Wow you guys are slow (other iPhone users), 6 seconds on my iPhone.
If you are THAT uncoordinated that you cant lift up your other thumb to type another letter you shouldnt have to worry about typing at all.
no offense but i could rape that typing with my iphone lol i think im the fastest iphone typer of all time.
seriously, NO ONE CARES how fast you can type it
@arcticpenguins... Funny, I thought that was pretty much the whole point of the article, comparing the keyboards.
But my bad, how dare I suggest something *could* perhaps be slightly a little better than the DROID! Hell, I might as well have posted ASCII art displaying an iPhone...
ROM flash coming?
Correct me if I am wrong Droid has physical keyboard, then why should they bother much with on-screen keyboard, you would do anything to get on Apples patent application won't you..
Some people like virtual keyboards.
Like, you know, me.
but, then you have to be smarter and buy phone without a physical keyboard like Eris or wait for HTC passion...
The Droid's screen is a half inch bigger than the Eris' and it has lots more pixels. Plus this has 2.0 and Google Nav.
Also, you can't tap out a quick text with one hand on a slide out qwerty.
Sigh, does anyone even read the articles or do they see an Apple mention and quickly try to get as many jabs in as possible. This whole thing is related to twitter followers saying the DROID has a multitouch soft keyboard and this proves otherwise. It's not saying the iPhone is better or that because it has a physical keyboard you should use it, in fact this doesn't even seem to be a knock its merely addressing the fact that some people think it has a multitouch soft keyboard so calm down people. jeez
You also have to rotate the device. Meaning looking at whatever you were looking at in landscape mode, which isnt always the best mode. Opposite problem the pre has.
i have a G1 and i use the onscreen keyboard. it just depends on the situation like, me for example. i use the onscreen keyboard (both landscape and portrait) to be discreet with texts.
I have an iPhone 3G for personal use a BlackBerry 8330 for business use, and I can type about twice as fast on my iPhone. Yes, some people prefer virtual keyboards.
@Lulu: You mean you don't like the SCHLACK noise to give away your "in meeting, so bored" txt?
I find it aggravating that the concept of a multitouch on-screen keyboard can be patented anyway. I am pretty sure I saw people typing on a screen in Star Trek when I was a kid... with multiple fingers. Among the other billions of sci-fi movies.
The actual touch screen device it self, the hardware that registers those touches, that deserves a patent. But since every "normal" keyboard on our desks IS a mutli-touch device, it stands to reason that any virtual keyboard would be too. It boggles me that someone should be awarded a patent on that.
Although I do believe patents do serve a purpose, I also think that no company should be awarded a patent unless they have already built the technology and show true intention to bring said product to the market. This crap of people filing for 10000's of patents based on reading sci-fi novels and watching movies then suing the person who actually does the work to invent it... that is going to end up hurting technological evolution.
@Ryan
"Also, you can't tap out a quick text with one hand on a slide out qwerty."
Well if that's the case then why does multi-touch matter? You have two thumbs on one hand?
@Tes: I never said I wanted multitouch for the keyboard. I've said I want Multi-Touch for Android, but not for the keyboarding aspect. I suspect that Multi-touch is why the iPhone virtual keyboard is as good as it is, but I think Multitouch is more useful for Pinch-to-Zoom and games.
The droid's keybaord is multitouch. Here is the test:
-Slide it open,
-tap in a text box or other text field
-press and hold the "alt" key
-press other keys
-notice that the highlighted alternate characters are appearing on the screen.
What a useless demonstration for the iphone part. Why not demonstrate the iphone's multitouch keyboard by doing something useful like holding the shift key and typing multiple letters in caps.
It was only there to demonstrate the differences. I think it did a decent job. So this pretty much settles it, the Droid doesn't have a multi-touch keyboard. I wonder how long it will take for a developer to make one, since they have already made multi-touch pinch-zoom in some other applications.
Again why this is missing is still a big mystery. Hopefully its just because Google hadn't gotten around to it in time (the Euro Droid had it, but the multi-touch there was made by Motorola, if I am correct, and not Google).
And for those who don't know, you don't need a new ROM (or root) to install a new virtual keyboard, it's similar installing an app.
Not every video needs to show off the iPhone. This was a demo of multitouch vs. non-multitouch keyboards. Not a comparison of which is better.
Why do iPhone fans always insist on this kind of crap?
This demo is stupid. Android's implementation of the keyboard is different than the iPhone. He can't compare them that way.
Other then the point that Tony brought up about holding shift to type in all caps I can think of no other time that I wanted to hold one key while typing another. And with that said I would only hold down the shift key while typing only long words. And there was the times when I couldn't even do that if the keys were on the left side of the screen.
I'm sure I must be missing something here, but I don't know why anyone would even want to hold a key (other then shift) while typing out other keys...
@CaptainCaveman When you are typing really fast on something like the iphone sometimes your fingers wont be lifting up and coming down successively they may hit the letters at the same time, without multitouch you would just get double letters. Thats the best reason i can think of.
+1 Tsing Tao
This is the real feature.
I find for myself though that there is just so much farther that virtual keyboards could be taken. I haven't seen one that is usefully context sensitive for example. Or being able to rotate through numbers/punctuation and a simple number keypad. Lots of work yet to be done with Virtual Keyboards
@nikeairj
It's letters arranged in a QWERTY layout, placed on the bottom of a touchscreen. How different can they get?
Come on guys, bring the HD2 review already..
YES! I'm dying over here...
apple holding them back, They are like
Apple: NO!! You can't have a good review on our competitors devices!!
Engadget: But it is really that good,
Apple: No, say something wrong with it or you won't be on our patent application...
You sir, are an idiot.
@Dking : "Windows Mobile".
I think Apple should be satisfied now.
@Destricto_Ense:
Windows Mobile + HTC > Apple + er.... themselves.
HTC does a heck of a lot to make windows mobile nice, and i think they succeed.
With the presence of a hardware keyboard, is this really a big deal? I know my personal preferences would be to use the hardware keyboard.
I guess my real question is: given that the device has a hardware keyboard, will many of you still use the soft keyboard over the hard one?
well I for one am coming from an iPhone to the Droid so i probably will use the soft keyboard more, if nothing else but out of habit.
Think about all the times you're quickly looking at something and don't want to take the time to slide the keyboard out. Obviously when you're going to compose a lengthy email or you're just sitting, doing nothing else, the keyboard will be out and it won't be an issue. BUT I would bet most users are like myself and are typically just using the phone for a quick few seconds, usually while doing something else, and a solid virtual keyboard will be very important.
I have had mine for 2 days now and I hardly ever use the hardware keyboard. Its not quite as easy as using the iPhone/iPod Touch's softkeyboard, but it is not a horrible software solution at all. It works quite well. The main reason I got the DROID over the Eris was the keyboard. If the Passion drops within 30 days, I may just upgrade to it. If not, I always have my wife's line to purchase another phone on and then Ebay to hock the Moto on.
Ok fanboys, start your fight now!
Umm.... Why do you sound so bitter?
Just a guess, but probably because of the hundreds of idiot Droid fanboys insisting that the keyboard is multitouch without ever having used one? That would probably get really annoying after the first 5 seconds. They deserve to be treated like children.
Just like Apple fanboys when they claim the iphone can multitask because it can open more than one tab in the browser? Yeah, good point.
@Special Steve No. People claim the iphone can multi task, because it can. I can be listening to music, playing a game and then get a call. Thats multi tasking. Now i cant have 2 THIRD PARTY APPS open at the same time. But i can be a call and use the internet. Droid Dont, thanks to the big V.
All of this apple hater/pc hater crap you guys do is ridiculous. Just calm the eff down, do some research and educate your selves.
Steve, you sound as dumb as those idiot Droid fanboys. To say the iPhone can't multitask is to say that you are completely ignorant about the iPhone. As was already pointed out, the iPod app runs in the background, you can get mail in the background, you can load web sites in the background, you can receive calls and continue to play games or do whatever else at the same time.
That's called multitasking. The truth obviously hurts.
The iPhone can *multi-process* with built-in apps. It's because 9/10 smart phones are duo-core cpus, one core for the phone/voice/data/audio control and one core for everything else. Ever try running iTunes during a phone call? Ever try controlling 10 audio playbacks at the bitstream level--I have an app for that in the store--not multitasking cause... the SDK doesn't allow it. Instead I use a round-robin function with stupid NSTimers all over the place (it's the only thing to make things appear multi-tasking/threading), it's a NASTY hack but works 98% of the time, yes, not 100%!.
Dual core designs are the core of any modern smart phone--give credit where credits due.
The AndroidOS can multitask within the *same* app as well as between apps and built-in apps, all at the same time and at the *choice/control of the user* (and sometimes not by choice, ehem, like the iPhone). With thread management and process management it makes for a flexible environment, but can cause hardware bottlenecks that require a different style of coding--hence Android has screen rotation and typing issues due to coding style of those features. The multithreading has advantages, like in augmented reality apps, when you can use the *live* view camera and pull wikipedia, overlay graphics and such on the fly in real-time. The iphone can sort of do it too, but in sequential steps, hence why it *requires* the Arm8 cpu and high-po graphics chip and faster network connection, when someone like HTC can create sense UI and augmented reality with twitter inserts on a 528Mhz Arm 11 cpu... It's like the difference between a 2.0Ghz x86 vs. a 800Mhz RISC.
So from my previous post, no the iPhone does not multi-task APPS. It does multi-process only phone/voice/sounds/data comm related REQUESTS, since they run on a different core.
So playing that iPod app and get a phone call -- it pauses, playing that game and get a call -- it pauses (you don't die during the call!), sending that email while surfing -- it's a async request to the core to send data, but the app pauses to send those *quick* requests.
Those apps appear "multi-tasking" but it's just clever Apple OS programming between 2 cores, and they do get kudos for that.
@Tsing
False. The GSM Droid can do voice/data simultaneously, because it's GSM. Oh and apparently the GSM Droid has pinch-to-zoom, so in due time (even if only by the dev community) it'll have multi-touch on the keys.
Sorry, THIS is multi tasking
http://www.maemo-guru.com/2009/10/multitasking-on-the-nokia-n900-is-awesome/
*iphone crickets*
@recharged95 How about playing iPod and surfing at the same time? Or how about surfing and talking on the phone at the same time? Its possible and it is multitasking (restricted) But iPod does not pause when you surf the web and you CAN play iPod and talk on the phone!
Chris, do you prefer a virtual keyboard? Which phone do you think has the best hardware keyboard? Blackberry?
I personally prefer soft keyboards, yes, and I'll admit that I'm fastest on an iPhone -- but just barely. Hardware keyboards are a matter of personal taste... I love the CLIQ's, for example, but I know several people who hate it (like Josh).
Holding the shift key and trying the upper cased letters would be a good example.
The Better Keyboard app will probably add multtouch support. Hopefully
Apple doesn't have a patent to multi-touch because multi touch has been around for years. Long before iPhone was drawn on Steve Jobs toilet paper.
You can't get a patent on something you didn't invent, therefore Apple can't get a patent on multi touch (and it's too late now anyway cause it has been more than a year past public disclosure).
Check out the 2005 multi-touch demo by Jeff Han on youtube. Also, look on youtube for a clip of the movie Minority Report's UI (maybe Tom Cruise should own the multi touch patents?).
youtube minority report ui http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwVBzx0LMNQ and also the jeff han demo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zGDNFpOMcA
since multitouch so simple and patent-free, and been around for so long, and even in made up fiction movies, why doesn't the super advanced Droid have a multi touch keyboard out of the box? You seem to know so much about it, I figured you could shit out a good answer quickly.
Because Apple patented the way it's implemented in the iPhone. Happy?
Multi-touch or not, my iPhone 3GS gets bogged down and loses a bunch of my keystrokes anyways. That coupled with the helpful autocorrection turns anything more than about 17 wpm into gibberish.
Strange, mine doesn't usually unless in Safari loading a page or something... too many users are having inconsistent problems, I hope Apple fixes it soon.
I have a 3GS and I'm calling trolling. The keyboard never has bogged on mine or my wifes. If I'm really flying I can crank about a similar speed to the keyboard on my Dell Mini 9.
Oh, there was one app I downloaded, Loopt Mix that was horribly coded and typing seemed slugish. Deleted right away.
Can't speak for the 3GS, but I upgraded from my iPhone to the T-Mobile G1 largely based on keyboard errors. Namely this one.
troll
I agree. Its good to point out....but what you did alla multi-touch on the iPhone doesn't really show why its even useful.
I wouldn't care if the only reason to have multi-touch was to type other letters while not lifting my other finger. Using multiple keys at the same time for functions would be a better way to show.
I only ever type 1 letter at a time so holding N and being able to press other letters doesn't really matter
Unless you are typing really fast and your fingers arent coming down and lifting up exactly at the right time, which ill bet i do quite often.
Tsing is right.
It seems most people think the multi-touch is useful for holding shift or a function button and pressing another key. That doesn't increase your typing speed at all. When people do type fast, however, they touch the screen with two fingers at the same time almost every time especially after getting used to a multi-touch keyboard. That is the only reason, imo, multi-touch MUST be incorporated into all capacitive touch screen phones with on screen keyboards.
Thanks for the demo, but I'm pretty certain that I'll be sticking with the DROID's hardware keyboard when typing long messages.
Note: At least the DROID affords the option of hard or soft keyboards, and Options Are Always Nice
Honestly who sits there holding a e down while typing on the iphone... multi touch for keyboards really isnt important. as the other video showed... he types on the droid as fast as i do on my iphone
It matters when you type multiple strokes quickly, or want to hold down the shift key and type multiple capitalized letters.
To everyone asking why this matters because the phone has a hardware keyboard, it matters because it's quicker than opening up the phone and maybe some people won't like this hardware keyboard. Every keyboard is different. I know a lot of people that like the G1 keyboard, but I can't stand it. Everyone has different sized hands, etc., etc.
Dare I say it, but that fact that multi-touch was left out of this device is inexcusable. The iPhone has it, the Pre has it, the Hero has it, and the HTC Desire will have it. If I were a Verizon customer, I would wait for the HTC Desire.
the part that shows it is no big deal is the video after the first one.. was he slower because of it? no. are people now obsessed at shaving a half second off a long text message? i guess so
This is silly. This is the developers choice for software keyboard implementation. I am sure there will be many mods and upgrades to make the keyboard do anything you want.
count me in
I really see this as a non issue for two reasons: The Droid has a real keyboard, and I don't believe multitouch is all that special. I prefer resistive, I'm a sucker for styli. That said I understand how multitouch is usefull but not for the reasons thost most people get giddy about (pinch zooming). As others have said it would be usefull on a keyboard for shifting and such but other thatn that you not really going to be pressing multiple keys at once.
After using an iPhone 3G and now a 3GS, I've come to believe that the stylus is a crutch. It's there so that lazy OS developers can shoehorn legacy controls onto a
smaller platform instead of coming up with a paradigm that works better. It would be nice if Apple were to fully embrace this smaller screen interface and get rid of that stupid control bar at the bottom of web browser on the iPhone. But I digress, I've already got ten stylus' attached to my hands, why do I need another?
This may be true *right now*, but as proven on Phandroid, both the Droid and Android 2.0 support multitouch, so apps you download from the market can and do support it as well. considering that there are already several 3rd party keyboards out there, having a addon multitouch keyboard is pretty much guaranteed pretty quickly. This is the advantage of Android over almost every other mobile OS out there, if you don't like the way one of hte built in apps (browser, home screen, keyboard, etc...) behaves, you can download and use an alternative.
From what I understand, Google implemented it's keyboard differently.
If you press down E,
then you press down N,
then you lift off of E,
then you lift off of N
then both E and N will be registered.
The point being, the down status of E does not block the key down event of N. When would you use this? It reduces errors while typing fast. Does the Droid actually have this? I'm not sure.
What you are describing can only be done with multitouch. For the "E" keypress not to block the "N" keypress the phone must be "smart" enough to know "okay the user put their finger N key has been pressed but the user hasn't lifted the their [other] finger with the E key."
If you don't have multitouch the phone registers you hitting the N key as either you hitting the E key again (as demonstrated on video) or (I may fangle this, but if you know how touch screens in general work you will understand this), the phone thinks you hit the key at X location of one finger and the Y location of the other.
Also, multitouch isn't only beneficial for instances like holding the shift key (infact it is rarely used for that seeing how soft keyboards only have 1 shift key) but also for users who type very fast. Without multitouch another key may be hit before the user has lifted (or the device has realized the user lifted the finger) and not register the keypress correctly.
In general, multitouch is an amazing addition to touch screen phones and its a wonder why Google still hasn't implemented it. Its actually a phone killer for me and is still having me hold off on upgrading my G1. I was thinking about getting an X10 but if the soft keyboard has no multitouch, I can't move.
Killa, you've had a G1 for this long, and you still don't know you can replace the soft keyboard? That's sad, dude. Really sad.
@Killa
I get all that. From what I can gather from the nets, the Droid implements this and that is why people say it has a "multi-touch" keyboard even though it doesn't perform exactly like the iPhone's.
Wow, this guy comes off really smarmy and fanboyish.
Yes, hence he works for engadget they are all iphone fanboys. I only come here for news on other things not smartphones (iphones always win) and just pictures of other phones i can care less for the swarmy fanboyish comments on other phones besides the iphone
Don't be stupid. He's annoyed because of all the moron Droid fanboys insisting that the Droid keyboard is multitouch when it VERY CLEARLY ISN'T. It would annoy me to have people contradicting me when I'm holding the device in my hand too. They deserve to be handed a nice tall glass of STFU.
Maybe I'm missing something but how does that multitouch help? You can't actually type multiple characters at the same time. It just lets you press somewhere and then press somewhere else.
For a sloppy typist it does allow overlaps which could be beneficial. But if we're going to really talk about keyboards hardware keyboards are always faster than soft ones.
I was thinking the same thing. I have an ipod touch, and i've never ever typed on it with two fingers at the same time like this video.
Not for sloppy typists - for fast typists. I type fast enough on my iPhone that I don't have time to completely lift my finger between presses. You do this on a real keyboard as well if you type fast - just as one finger is beginning to come up, the next is going down. If you have to completely lift your finger off the screen between each key press, it will slow down typing significantly for those of us who are able to really fly through the virtual keyboard.
Sorry, but no, I am faster on a soft keyboard, with the exception of T9.
really... you have twitter followers? the world is a sad, sad place.
what's wrong with Chris? The man is in love with Android according to the Em podcasts, and when he is pro-iPhone he has some valid points.
First thing anyone jumping to Android should do is download and install HTC's Touch Input keyboard (same as is on their Hero Sense UI). Android's stock keyboard is pretty weak.
agreed. Anyone who uses the stock Android keyboard is a noob
Why are you holding regular keys and pressing another one? Do you use your PC or Laptop keyboard this way? Except for a few keys (hello SHIFT key; which can be handled without having to hold it) I don't understand what your trying to do here? The second video shows how you should use a keyboard (even the iPhone keyboard).
Oh, by the way, you can side down the real keyboard on that DRIOD and multi-touch all you want.
John