On-Screen Keyboard Maliit Demoed With Gnome 3 66
Developer Jon Nordby has posted a video demo of the on-screen keyboard Maliit — intended "to be the input method project for MeeGo and other GNU/Linux-based embedded/mobile platforms" — working on a tablet running Gnome 3 under Fedora. Nordby mentions that Fedora packages are in the works for those who'd like to try it out. The keyboard looks impressively smooth and flexible (including language-specific character sets); I only wish it had the smooth-swiping predictive ability of keyboards like Swype.
swype sucks (Score:3)
Try using it to write anything that is not in the dictionary. It totally sucks for everything outside maybe text messaging. On a tablet it would only be worse.
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Huh? If it's not in the dictionary, you just type it in the normal way, one character at a time. Works fine. But maybe you're right and it's not all that great for tablets.
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One character at a time and you might as well use a better keyboard for that.
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And miss out on the swype functionality? Hell no. I wouldn't use it for a SSH session, but I wouldn't want to use any virtual keyboard for that
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Swype would never work screens much larger than a cell phone or a small tablet. Even on tablets of 10 inch size it takes way more effort sliding your finger, (which due to the screen size requires moving your whole arm) across the screen than simply typing.
Any time you have real estate approximating a small laptop, swype makes no sense at all.
Speed comes with better language prediction, as opposed to spelling prediction. Language prediction, like Swiftkey, knows what you are likely to say before you even
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Well, if you wanted to use Swype, you could just have a smaller keyboard. I think the HP's touchpad allows you to adjust the keyboard size.
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And when you type something in manually, it's automatically added to the dictionary for next time.
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What happens when you type something in manually and get it wrong?
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And when you type something in manually, it's automatically added to the dictionary for next time.
So what? Virtually all smart keyboards do that.
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Re:swype sucks (Score:5, Interesting)
Keyboards should also be sensitive to the application being used.
For example, if I'm using "vi", i'd like to have a big Escape key, and it should recognize the commands specific for this editor.
Maybe virtual keyboards should be assimilated by editors.
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Without any kind of (force) feedback, I think the normal keyboard paradigm sucks, even if it allows using multiple fingers at once.
Maybe they should make a kind of transparent rubber mat that one can overlay onto a screen, where the rubber mat contains small tangible edges, so that you can feel where each key is.
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Without any kind of (force) feedback, I think the normal keyboard paradigm sucks, even if it allows using multiple fingers at once.
Some keyboards have haptic feed back on each key entry, which use the handset vibrator to indicate key press. Other simulate a click sound, which can substitute for the force of a key press.
How well this scales to a large device, such as a 17 or 24 inch screen is anyone's guess at this point.
There is also this problem of on-screen finger prints and smudges, which is likely to be more of an annoyance than actually having a keyboard at a desktop setting. Constantly wiping my tablet is pretty annoying. I've
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All in all, its not clear to me that there is any reason for on-screen keyboards on the desktop
Sure. Gnome and others such as Enlightenment are trying to prepare themselves for running on touch screen devices. Whether the hardware manufacturers will ever allow this is another question.
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No kidding. Just this morning I was sending an email to my boss, and sure enough it couldn't find "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" in the dictionary. What a piece of junk!
Re:swype sucks (Score:5, Funny)
No kidding. Just this morning I was sending an email to my boss, and sure enough it couldn't find "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" in the dictionary. What a piece of junk!
That's because the sound of it is something quite atrocious.
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No kidding. Just this morning I was sending an email to my boss, and sure enough it couldn't find "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" in the dictionary. What a piece of junk!
That's because the sound of it is something quite atrocious.
Precocious bastard.
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Try using GNOME 3 to do anything. It totally sucks for everything besides annoying you.
Not to be discouraging... (Score:2)
But the fact it kept resizing the window instead of overlaying seemed very un-smooth to me. I would think you'd want to determine the location of the text input field and overlap the part of the screen not in use when possible instead of forcing the user to re-maximize their app every time they type something.
All that said, I can't help but to feel these tablet fanatics are screwing up the UI for laptops and desktops for the sake of touchscreen in pursuit of the misguided goal of a 'unified' UI.
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Even then I find their keyboard deficient. It *resizes* windows on typing. Even if not 'maximizing', it still shrinks your window to make room for the keyboard. This might be 'ok' if it put things back when done, but it doesn't, leaving you a blank set of useless space.
I would argue that 'most' people who want to have multitasking really want a laptop. If what you say has truth for 'most' people, I'd replace 'xoom' with 'tablet' and maybe I'd buy it. In tablet space, the biggest player is the iPad, whi
Maliit? (Score:2)
I guess the global namespace is getting full, and no more good names are left.
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My guess is it's from Tagalog (Filipino), where "maliit" means small.
The Tagalog pronunciation is three syllables ma - lee - eet, with the final 't' barely pronounced - the syllable is ended by touching the roof of your mouth, just behind your teeth, with your tongue, and your tongue stays there so there's no final puff of air.
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My guess is it's from Tagalog (Filipino), where "maliit" means small.
The Tagalog pronunciation is three syllables ma - lee - eet, with the final 't' barely pronounced - the syllable is ended by touching the roof of your mouth, just behind your teeth, with your tongue, and your tongue stays there so there's no final puff of air.
And who says you can't learn useful things reading slashdot... I'm gonna go around saying maliit all day now.
Um... what's a "malit"? (Score:2)
Looks unergonomic (Score:1)
Having to hold it with one hand while hunt-and-peck'ing with the other hand doesn't look comfortable. I'm almost getting cramps in sympathy. Why not just attach a keyboard?
Video reminds me of how great keyboards are... (Score:5, Interesting)
I was at a conference recently watching a fantastic speaker who spent his life's work on elucidating the pathogenesis of antiphosholipid syndrome, and next to me was someone attempting to take notes on an ipad. Clearly somewhere in her distant memory were ideas of happiness and bliss, of form and function coalescing on the future of technology that would be her companion for the conference. The reality was somewhat different. The 20 wpm typing speed was particularly hampered by the visual presentations, which frequently interrupted her fervered hunt and pecking of the keys and word suggestions. I dare say all the effort involved precluded any understanding of the speaker, but I can't besure of this. I can be sure that it proved finally to all who noticed that data input will never be a strong talent of a tablet.
Re:Video reminds me of how great keyboards are... (Score:4, Interesting)
The British economy has reached the stage where real work done is inverse to amount of disposable income. We're a land dominated by clown management consultants with stupid toys which would never be suitable for any real productivity.
I assume the US is going the same way: as far as our relationship goes, we either lead or follow y'all.
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That's weird. My Psion Series 3a with its beautiful physical keyboard has no fan, weeks of battery life and weighs less than any tablet I've ever used. Its screen is fairly small, but visibility under various light conditions is excellent.
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...My Psion Series 3a...
How has it been nearly 20 years and yet nothing has touched this machine with regards to form-factor, keyboard quality, OS responsiveness and sophistication of PIM applications?
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...My Psion Series 3a...
How has it been nearly 20 years and yet nothing has touched this machine with regards to form-factor, keyboard quality, OS responsiveness and sophistication of PIM applications?
It didn't have an app store.
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That's weird. My Psion Series 3a....
I guess now we know, people who don't "get" the tablet still live in 1993...
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And people who do "get" tablets are vacuous fashion-victims.
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I "got" a Compaq TC1000 about 7 years ago. Way more usable and useful than an iPad [blameitonthevoices.com]. But I sold it.
I still have my 3a.
Best of both worlds. (Score:1)
In order to get a low-end Android device as a test platform, I recently bought a cheap little tablet (Flytouch / ePad / MID) from China. Don't get me wrong, the implementation was horrible. I think this thing was a fifth-rate knockoff of a third-rate knockoff, and the stats (RAM, clock speed, installed Android version) were all lies. It is too slow and clunky, with too miserable a battery life, to use for almost anything (except testing software you really, really want to be fast and efficient, so yay).
B
Apparently, I can predict the present. (Score:1)
The "Asus Eee Pad Transformer" is (minus the e-reader/pen tablet fantasy) is basically exactly what I described, although the keyboard/folder/battery-pack is sold separately (I can't imagine getting one without the other, though). And it's selling faster than they can put them on the shelves.
I think we're going to be seeing a lot more of these, at lower and lower prices.
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That reminds me of how great paper is (Score:2)
I've had the same experience trying to take notes with a laptop. There are too many equations, graphs, diagrams, and characters not on my keyboard for me to possibly keep up with just a keyboard. I have ended up going back to pencil and paper every time.
Which is what really makes me shake my head about these new tablets. They completely ignore all the potential strong points of the tablet form factor. I would love to have something lightweight that I could take free-form notes on that were at least somewhat
The big problem with tablet keyboards... (Score:2)
(< and > are two shifts away on the iPad...)
Wow... (Score:1)
This is the most disappointing virtual keyboard I have seen in ages. It's not even big enough to let you hold your fingers over the home row.
Maliit means "small" (Score:2)
Maliit is the Tagalog (Filipino) word for small. Do I win a prize?
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Ay, salamat. Kainin mo nga! Natakot pa ako sa balut. Kinakain ko lahat - dinuguan, puwet ng manok, adidas, dila ng baka, tainga ng baboy - kundi balut.
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Irish talaga pero pilipina ang asawa ko.
http://ciaran.compsoc.com/learning-tagalog.html [compsoc.com]
Yay! Gudlak sa project mo! (Score:2)
Yay! Hindi pa ako nakapunta sa pinas pero ang asawa ko'y galing alamada, cotabato. Ilonggo/Hiligaynon ang unang wika niya pero maliit lang ang mga Ilonggo ko na diksiyonario. Maraming pilipino dito sa Brussels at nagka-kareko ako ng tagalog sa lahat ng party :-) Diyan ako natuto.
Gudlak sa project mo!
Is dasher any good for text input? (Score:1)
Im thinking it could be a bit slow but if you got good at it you might come close to typing on a touch screen. I don't have the phone tablet to test it?
Will there eventually be a nude tablet (Score:1)