1. Turn off all off all unnecessary sounds (keytones, alerts).
One of my biggest pet peeves is how most phones these days come with keytones on. Do people really like hearing their phone beep, strum a musical note, or chime every time they press a button? You might like it, but ask your neighbor. Plus, turning these off will save you a good amount of battery juice. Think of all of the processing it must take to load up those midis (or whatever they are) when you touch a key – plus, they’re annoying.
2. Use either a ringer or vibrate, but not both.
I understand if you’re in a concert or loud party you want to increase your chance of actually realizing your phone is ringing, but other than that, pick one or the other. There’s no need to have your ringer all the way to the point where it has both the sound and vibrate alerts active, so I would recommend against it. I personally have my phone on vibrate at all times, regardless of where I am. If you’re worried about not hearing your phone when it’s on vibrate, put it on a table and I promise you’ll hear it. …
it winge
Okay, we admit it: a physical QWERTY keyboard on a smartphone is nice. Tactile analog feedback for pressed keys is still what our digits throb for, and the haptic vibration of a touchscreen just doesn’t quite do it for us yet (although our brains our rapidly getting retrained).
But is a physical keyboard on a smartphone nicer than a larger screen? No. Which is why the iPhone’s solution is so nice: although the virtual, onscreen QWERTY keyboard is less precise than, say, a Blackberry’s, the iPhone’s auto-correction does wonders, and it’s all worth it for widescreen video and browsing capabilities.
But wouldn’t a “best of both worlds” compromise be nice? Sure it would. Too bad Mobile Mechatronics’ iTwinge iPhone and iPod Touch keyboard isn’t it.
Mobile Mechatronics is being a bit vague about what exactly the iTwinge is. All they are claiming is that it is super lower power and doesn’t require any software to work with the iPhone 3G or 3Gs.
The promotional images makes it all even vaguer. Clearly, the iTwinge supplies users with a physical QWERTY keyboard… albeit one overlaid half of the touchscreen. But are depress buttons simply pushing against their applicable virtual key on the touchscreen, or does…
