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Keyboard Other Half [answered]

asked 2013-12-24 19:27:18 +0200

Faz gravatar image

updated 2013-12-26 14:54:51 +0200

eric gravatar image

I suspect there is enough demand for a physical other half keyboard that Jolla should provide this instead of waiting for a third party, as advised to date.

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The question has been closed for the following reason "the question is answered, an answer was accepted" by simo
close date 2015-04-26 22:50:50.177535

Comments

7

I am totally agree with you. But I think the problem is they are small and they are working hard on the OS side, may be thats why they are unable to deliver it yet. But I really want full QWERTY Other half

Saqib Iqbal ( 2013-12-24 19:33:05 +0200 )edit
2

Funkyotherhalf(.com) work on this solution, second revision ;-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrq7djS1PtQ

http://www.jollausers.com/2014/09/2nd-revision-of-qwerty-keyboard-otherhalf-demoed/

JonnJonz ( 2014-09-05 23:16:21 +0200 )edit

8 Answers

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28

answered 2014-11-04 14:54:44 +0200

tokaru gravatar image

Keyboard other half is being crowdfunded on Kickstarter now: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2028347278/tohkbd-the-other-half-keyboard-for-your-jolla

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Comments

2

And goal reached – that didn't take long!! :D

ssahla ( 2014-11-04 21:01:47 +0200 )edit
20

answered 2013-12-24 22:02:59 +0200

pcfe gravatar image

No, I'd rather Jolla concentrate on polishing the OS and phone and let third parties deal with the other half.

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5

Of course I agree these should be prioritised. Would be nice if they were still able to provide some/minimal resources to assist others (community?) to bring this about. Jolla are unlike after all. #NoPressure :)

Faz ( 2013-12-25 00:00:25 +0200 )edit

Agreed pcfe - The OS is so sketchy at the moment and there are those among us that couldn't care less about a qwerty keyboard.

Spam Hunter ( 2014-02-12 15:44:31 +0200 )edit

agreed as well. for a slider keyboard to be useful, the phone should support landscape mode everywhere.

droll ( 2014-02-12 16:04:01 +0200 )edit

Quite a while has passed, and still no sufficiently good keyboard alternative. I have Dirkvl's TOH keyboard, but a home-made device simply isn't good enough. The Nokia E7 was about the same size as the Jolla and had an excellent HW keyboard while still staying slim and comfortable in your pocket. This just can't be done without significant company resources. It will have to be done by Jolla!

00prometheus ( 2014-07-05 20:10:30 +0200 )edit

The problem is that there are no third parties... I think Jolla should at least produce one keyboard OH, to show the need, the feasibility and the potential market of OH

Bnurb ( 2014-08-25 09:39:37 +0200 )edit
10

answered 2013-12-26 00:11:37 +0200

LaruX gravatar image

I recommend that you check this thread at talk.maemo.org: Building OtherHalf keyboard prototype (http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=91535&)

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New video of prototype : https://vimeo.com/85914466

kimmoli ( 2014-02-05 14:25:42 +0200 )edit

The prototype is going into manufacturing, there are only 40 places left for pre-orders. It will cost about 100,- euro's ex shipping costs.

BonoNL ( 2014-02-12 23:55:57 +0200 )edit

Any warranty that after 2 days my 100 euro TOH will still work?

cropas ( 2014-04-02 14:53:31 +0200 )edit

The 100 prototypes are sold out, more will not be made by dirkvl. I'd still buy a qwerty TOH with scandinavian letters (å,ä,ö) should someone make and sell them.

Newa ( 2014-05-13 13:31:33 +0200 )edit
1

Maybe jolla could use its design, polish it a bit and find some manufacturer.

Cmdr_Zod ( 2014-05-18 15:03:00 +0200 )edit
8

answered 2014-02-03 14:37:19 +0200

bokal gravatar image

I'd like an Other Half with a vertical slider keyboard like that: http://pdadb.net/img/palm_pre3_2.jpg. Best form factor I've used yet, and it would fit great with SailfishOS.

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This kind of keyboard wouldn't be handier than the software one Sailfish OS provides. Other sliders foresee to put Jolla (or the device) horizontal (but Jolla was born vertical...). Well, I'd see a good choice for a physical keyboard a slide'n'rotate one: vertical phone, horizontal keyboard. Should Jolla make it? I don't know. It largely depends on how much money they can invest and which are their priority. They could design it and make it build to a third party. Whatever they do, they'll be unlike ;)

Gianluca ( 2014-02-03 15:39:45 +0200 )edit
1

I had both a N900 (horizontal slider), and a Pre 3 (vertical slider), and my favourite keyboard is definitely the Pre 3's. It looks small, but it actually works really well, much better than any on-screen keyboard.

Horizontal slider requires an horizontally designed UI, like maemo's.

bokal ( 2014-02-03 15:46:47 +0200 )edit

Also vertically slided out keyboard can be easily operated one handed and doesn't require both hands.

miska ( 2014-03-06 09:56:56 +0200 )edit

I used an Nokia E7with sliding keyboard in landscape mode which I didn't really like. On the other hand I loved the 'Backberry-style' design of the Nokia E71. Actually typing on the tiny Blackberry-style E71 was quicker than on the much larger landscape keyboard of the E7. I guess this was mainly due to the well formed keys on the smaller key board.

jollajo ( 2014-09-18 01:20:44 +0200 )edit
0

answered 2014-04-02 22:20:02 +0200

misterc gravatar image

let's see...

  • landscape support - very nice, now that i think of it, maybe they promote landscape in preparation of a Jolla hardware keyboard :o (never stop dreaming, right ?!?) - but seriously... when in landscape some application minimize to the home screen when swiped from the side (front camera => top of the phone) whereas others simply close; solution? put a post-it on the back w/ the a list of which is which,maybe?
  • i humbly refer to Chemist's post about calls hanging - actually one of the reasons i'm so pissed @ thumbs2 on the N900... use Jolla too seldom for phone calls to be able to say much about it
  • looking for contacts? good luck - as i mentioned i use the Jolla so little for calls it doesn't really bother me, but had a couple days where my N900 had run out of battery & the battery didn't want to charge. in a squeeze i had to use the Jolla to make calls & as often as not had to go manually thru the contacts / people to find the one i needed to call :mad: - as opposed to the N900 where typing anything which is in the names of a contact will list them :'(
  • again, for the sake of completeness, hoping to attract Android users w/out supporting Google Play (out of the box) is a joke - and i'm not kidding :( i can appreciate however that including this is legally impossible for Jolla w/out Google's ok :-\ maybe write a script that does that w/out user having to use SSH & knows gawd what? (i'm used to CLI so i was able to do it manually but a (qt?) app that does it "automatically" :-{
  • rambling nearly, but... three screens full of icons, pls :'( i know there was / is a program on the N9 / MeeGo which allowed to "group" them, maybe it would be possible to include that in the OS, "out of the box"?

still have my N900(s) so don't need to buy a dumb phone but...

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-2

answered 2014-04-02 20:49:11 +0200

misterc gravatar image

updated 2014-04-02 20:50:51 +0200

aaaa, i sooooooo much didn't miss TMO... maybe TMO misses me?!?

whatever, FYI i still use a N900 (without @#$%& thumb2 :double mad: ) as my primary device, mostly to message & exceptionally to answer e-mails on the fly. and to make & answer calls of course. got two Jollas, but honestly? the N9 was more mature even though it was born dead. Jolla / Sailfish OS has more potential but it is going to get wasted in a TMO slum :mad:

and i am forcing myself to use my Jolla every day. 1.0.4.20 is definitely a step backward. as i mentioned in intro, they would have spend their time better developing a proper hardware keyboard and develop the OS so that it supports it properly. alas...

(in case you missed it) Jolla is aiming at those very Android devices / users. why would those even care? thus, again, wasted time. the only Android users who will care to put sailfish OS on some old Android devices are those "nerds" that already have the latest Nexus X or whatever & want to play around with something. that's not going to sell.

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@misterc I do not want to engage in dispute, but I have to state that for me(and MANY Jolla users) 1.0.4.20 is a leap forward. You can have your opinion about it, but that does not weight more than any other such.

zlatko ( 2014-04-02 21:14:56 +0200 )edit
1

@zlatko 1.0.4.20 made my Jolla start acting up in actual "phone" parts (voice-calling stalls, ofono hangs, telepathy does not find dbus names etc)... yes it stopped rebooting all the time, now I need to reboot it myself. If my N9's modem would work reliable I'd swap back to it and I am already thinking about buying a dumbphone for 30bucks till Jolla releases a stable version of their "stable release"

chemist ( 2014-04-02 21:41:41 +0200 )edit

@chemist I do respect your opinion, I just wanted to say that for me 1.0.4.20 improved the usability of the device substantially. And also for many others as well. But that Jolla team has a lot of work to do is out of question!

zlatko ( 2014-04-02 22:27:48 +0200 )edit

@zlatko yes the overall usage improved, just introducing other show stoppers with a so called "stable release" marks something pre beta. Compared to game-development 1.0.4.20 is like the mouse-button does not work in an ego-shooter all for a sudden and restarting the game does not bring it back, not even unplugging the mouse - only rebooting the whole system brings it back - 1.0.3.8 was rebooting the system when mouse or keyboard was used - that is called alpha stage!

chemist ( 2014-04-03 15:46:57 +0200 )edit
-2

answered 2014-06-01 11:45:01 +0200

misterc gravatar image

i guess, the Chinese don't care that much about a hardware keyboard, do they...

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-5

answered 2014-04-02 12:05:50 +0200

misterc gravatar image

updated 2014-04-02 12:14:40 +0200

maybe instead of f###ing up the OS like they did with the last release (1.0.4.20) they SHOULD concentrate on the hardware keyboard; a few examples of "wasted" time?

  • before the alarm went on for EVER until stopped by the user; now? 2 or 3 times & gone
  • android applications? running on Android devices? worthless as long as Google play is not available standard
  • TMO? don't even get me started... bunch of rag-tag hackers more busy with their infightings then anything else. the HW keyboard? looks chunkier then the 7710 ¦-)))). if Jolla plans on depending on TMO for it's business development, bye bye Jolla - they have learnt NOTHING in all those Maemo years @ NOKIA, have they?

selling my 2nd (unopen) Jolla - starting to feel i should sell the 1st one as well before the jolla sinks :(

in fact my GF is getting a new Samsung Note shortly - maybe i'll use her current one instead to run any android apps i need & stop losses on Jolla :'(

as much as i hate the Android mess, Jolla simply doesn't strike me as getting any further then Maemo / MeeGo did :(

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Comments

1

not even beta stage

misterc ( 2014-04-02 13:40:05 +0200 )edit
2

i agree. (i agree is too short to add comment)

cropas ( 2014-04-02 14:57:21 +0200 )edit
4

1.0.4.20 is a better release than the previous one, not "wasted time" by any means. If you need all android applications and Google play running perfectly out of the box, then you really should sell both your Jollas and stick to an Android phone...

thisisme ( 2014-04-02 16:57:12 +0200 )edit
1

@misterc How exactly does this relate to the suggestion, except that the word "keyboard" appears in your answer? FYI: I have had no problems with the version update and agree with @thisisme: if you want ideal Android support, get yourself an Android device.

tokaru ( 2014-04-02 18:21:02 +0200 )edit

I consider NOT having the whole battery-consuming Google mess on my phone a FEATURE. If I wanted that I would have stayed with Android. The Amazon app store is a valid alternative for getting paid apps. BlackBerry users also have to find alternative sources for Android apps, try searching for it on the web.

StaticNoiseLog ( 2014-06-01 16:11:31 +0200 )edit

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Asked: 2013-12-24 19:27:18 +0200

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Last updated: Nov 04 '14