Comments on: iControlPad 2: The Open Source Controller

By: eppukoo

eppukoo — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 06:20:49 +0000

My comments are about the four layout drawings of http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1703567677/icontrolpad-2-the-open-source-controller . But now I see that its fourth photo already uses the layout that I suggested. So, please do not use the layout above “A suggested keyboard layout …” but that of the 4th photo.

To improve further the possibilities to localize the Qwerty for the øost demanding languages, about 3 keys for Esc, Tab and Del would help enormously. Sorry, I meant them to be below the analogue controls..

By: JollaTides

JollaTides — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 19:05:53 +0000

It’s a shame – maybe if there is enough demand for the product they would consider specific country variants – I guess there would have to be a demand first because that’s how they took the original design into production.

By: eppukoo

eppukoo — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 18:54:39 +0000

I forgot to write “… and move all keys one step to the left, which will allow using the three letter keys for the extra characters (letter or accents) of each localized language.

Instead of stickers, it might be more practical to deliver the keyboard with language-specific keymats. One for the French AZERTY, one for the German QWERTZ, one for Scandinavian QWERTY, one for Spanish QWERTY, one for Russian layout, etc

By: eppukoo

eppukoo — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 18:34:32 +0000

I agree completely with akismet-…
Fir balanced and natural use, it should be the phone designer and manufacturer who adds the electro-mechanical qwerty keyboard. Like the sliding keyboards of Nokia N810 Internet Tablet and Nokia N900 (with 4 rows of keys, though).

Sorry to say, but for me your keyboard remains only as a play controller and an ad-hoc solution for those who insist on using a physical Qwerty while waiting for an “N950i ” phone with incorporated physical Qwerty.

By: eppukoo

eppukoo — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 18:18:04 +0000

The layout is quite insuitable for the languages of continental Europe. For example, when localized to the German, Swedish and Finnish languages, on the right-hand side of the L there should be two keys: for the Ö and Ä keys. The same applies to the Ø and Æ keys of the Norwegian anf Danish languages, and the extra letters of practically all European languages. And a couple of additional keys will be needed by some languages, such as French, Russian and Hungarian.

This defect is easy to correct: move the three leftmost keys to the free space above number keys (Esc, Tab, and the key on the left side of the Z key). They are practically never needed with smartphones, for example. This modification will make the layout more balanced: the TGB keys (of the left hand or thumb) can be reached better with the left-hand thumb.

There are innumerable other details which zhould be changed for European and Latin American market, but I will comment them later.

By: JollaTides

JollaTides — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 12:02:23 +0000

I agree to an extent, but for those who want the touchscreen form factor with the ability to add QWERTY function when they need it, this is still a good option.

By: JollaTides

JollaTides — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 11:57:15 +0000

Oh I didn’t think the iControlPad 2 (the one with the QWERTY part) had been out for public release yet ? Was that your experience with the original iControlPad – the one with only gaming buttons ? If so, that’s a little disappointing.

By: ewedel

ewedel — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 08:19:36 +0000

+1 to the built-in keyboard. Even if it worked well I wouldn’t want to charge / haul around a separate BT keyboard. In the poll results interesting arguments have been made both ways. For my own part, while I’d very much like to try Meego and switch away from Android, if Jolla’s phone doesn’t have a keyboard I’ll continue to wait.

By: akismet-ae43be8a621489f9d33ff39d2c74ca1f

akismet-ae43be8a621489f9d33ff39d2c74ca1f — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 08:08:25 +0000

It looks awful and awkward. Thanks for the contribution, but I would vote for a builtin slideout. Don’t want to carry extra hardware, less mounting it every time using the terminal.

By: Aaron

Aaron — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 07:38:29 +0000

I tried this with the swivel out yet antoerh i targetted accessory keyboard and what happened is that the weight of the phone makes it fall forwards out of your hands plus the bluetooth performance was super lousy with many missed keys and double key presses since it was targeted at iphony.