[amazinglygraceless]

No I didn't read that part. Doesn't change my mind though. It still should have been the Research In Motion Texting Championship. My whole point was this is a missed opportunity to show that texting is better with a BlackBerry. It's one of the few things RIM has going for them right now.

Again, this is purely subjective.

[_StephenBB81]

They do hold "fastest" texting competions..and touchscreens hold the records. As for DeRussets suggestions..blindfolded? What would that prove? That you need a physical kb in order to type blindfolded? As for the rest..im sure a touchscreen would still best any physical kb.

Does BB not have a typing speed app to measure your speed? I've already posted several screens of doing 80+ wpm on my touchscreen..it would be easy enough to start a thread on here where posters post their best times.

Blindfolded would probably be 20-25% of my typing,
Blindfolded is not looking at the screen, when hammering out long email you don't need to look at the screen, you can watch where you're walking, or be reading documents, that is what blindfolded proves.

[_StephenBB81]

80 words per minute with proper grammer, punctuation, spelling and no predictive text? Typing competition should be about actually typing the letters to create the words, not about the technology. I don't have a problem about the swype and the predictive text, but if those are utilized, then it is not a typing competition...it is a tech competition, in my slightly dated and humble opinion.

My Biggest problem with SwiftKey on the SG3 was that I had to fight it to use the proper punctuation. The only punctuation that Swiftkey seemed to like was was the period, any time I wanted to use a comma or a semicolon my typing speed was drastically reduced, and heaven forbid I was typing Canadian postal codes which are Letter number letter. A1A 1A1.


Technology has enabled me to type in the 100-120 WPM pretty consistently thanks to Autotext there are full sentences, and descriptions, and part number explanations I've turned into a few key strokes.

[Rickroller]

80 words per minute with proper grammer, punctuation, spelling and no predictive text? Typing competition should be about actually typing the letters to create the words, not about the technology. I don't have a problem about the swype and the predictive text, but if those are utilized, then it is not a typing competition...it is a tech competition, in my slightly dated and humble opinion.

Yes.. With proper grammar, punctuation etc. This is how the speed apps work, you have to match the sentence letter for letter and punctuation for punctuation exactly as shown or it docks your Accuracy %.

[Rickroller]

My Biggest problem with SwiftKey on the SG3 was that I had to fight it to use the proper punctuation. The only punctuation that Swiftkey seemed to like was was the period, any time I wanted to use a comma or a semicolon my typing speed was drastically reduced, and heaven forbid I was typing Canadian postal codes which are Letter number letter. A1A 1A1.


Technology has enabled me to type in the 100-120 WPM pretty consistently thanks to Autotext there are full sentences, and descriptions, and part number explanations I've turned into a few key strokes.

My guess is you never really took the time to customize SwiftKey. You can customize the long press duration so that for fast typers a simple long press of the secondary character enables it. The only thing SwiftKey doesn't offer is Autotext.. which is definitely nice. But the predictive engine is amazing.. which is obviously going to be a good thing for BB10.

[_StephenBB81]

My guess is you never really took the time to customize SwiftKey. You can customize the long press duration so that for fast typers a simple long press of the secondary character enables it. The only thing SwiftKey doesn't offer is Autotext.. which is definitely nice. But the predictive engine is amazing.. which is obviously going to be a good thing for BB10.

The Long presses required me to watch the screen more still and to pay attention to the predictive engine, the things that got the hardest were 2^10 and 2^12 which I was typing a lot, as well as numbers followed by " or '.

I'll admit the other problem was the SG3 was too big, holding it and typing with one hand slowed me down because of how far I had to always reach, the iPhone4S very much beat the SG3 in typing comfort
I'd like to try swiftkey on a device the iPhone size and give it another go.

BUT, I'm hopeful that BB10 N series gets the predictive engine of swiftkey and my autotext with the training and the physical keyboard I'd be pretty excited

[sallenthornton]

I've seen people type pretty fast on a blackberry, but I would think they would be faster on a touch screen

[gravymonster]

One thing I can't get right on a touch screen for the life of me is I can't seem to hit the damned spacebar. I always hit "B" when I'm trying to type quickly. Somehow not having the physical gap in the keys really messes with me. Am I the only person that has that problem (or a similar one)? It's really the only one that doesn't seem to go away with practice.

[z1nsane]

Would depend on the competition then

if the competition wasn't using real words, or mixed languages the physical keyboard would win, but as long as you stick to real words, with regular punctuation and no acronyms then swype has a better chance at winning with it's auto complete functions
NOW add the swype/swiftkey predictive text options to a physical keyboard and the game would me messed up again

Was going to post the exact same thing.

Also, not sure if it's common knowledge, but the BB's can type letters with accents by holding the letter and scrolling up/down with the trackpad before releasing the key.

[Rickroller]

One thing I can't get right on a touch screen for the life of me is I can't seem to hit the damned spacebar. I always hit "B" when I'm trying to type quickly. Somehow not having the physical gap in the keys really messes with me. Am I the only person that has that problem (or a similar one)? It's really the only one that doesn't seem to go away with practice.

Happens to me as well..usually either the "b" or the "n".

[crackcookie]

Yeah what about people who want to type in other languages, or use other languages in their words.....the accented letter (scrolling up on the trackpad after typing) is needed too....something that slows you down a lot on a touchscreen

[ALToronto]

The biggest advantage of a touchscreen keyboard is the ability to switch between different languages. I type mostly in English, but on occasion in Russian, so my Torch 9860 is perfect for that. But otherwise, I will take a physical keyboard over a touchscreen any day.

[wuulfy]

biggest advantage a physical keyboard would have over a virtual, would be that you dont have to learn it or configure it.

Well its an advantage to me.....maybe im just lazy lol

[416to604]

biggest advantage a physical keyboard would have over a virtual, would be that you dont have to learn it or configure it.

Well its an advantage to me.....maybe im just lazy lol

^this coupled with the fact that i text many ethnically diverse people with heavy use of slang in most cases. physical keyboards for me forever until they find a way to pull the words right out of my brain.

[Ben1232]

They do hold "fastest" texting competions..and touchscreens hold the records. As for DeRussets suggestions..blindfolded? What would that prove? That you need a physical kb in order to type blindfolded? As for the rest..im sure a touchscreen would still best any physical kb.

Does BB not have a typing speed app to measure your speed? I've already posted several screens of doing 80+ wpm on my touchscreen..it would be easy enough to start a thread on here where posters post their best times.

There is an app for typing speeds on Blackberry's..."King typist" - App World.

As I remember the fastest people were 90+ words per minute and the phone was NOT a 99XX strangely.

The app tells you the top fastest of different BB models.

[galleon]

My question is, in this age of technology, if touchscreen IS faster, why are we using physical keyboards at our desktops?

And is there actually an official competition that uses the 9900? I don't know of anyone (personally) that can type as fast as me on their touchscreen vs my 9900. And does this competition not also have "business terms" in the competition such as dollar signs, numbers, dashes, pecents, names, etc?

And in order for people to say this or that is faster, they need to type on both keyboards for months to prove one way or another. Some people may be faster on touch screen, and some faster on keys. Personally I think professional typers would favor physical, but really what we're looking for is an average opinion from a group of users to determine what's actually the best.

[Ben1232]

I don't know about the competitions or why no glass keyboards for desktops but since getting my Z10 I've found I can type faster on it compared to my 9900 but it isn't as enjoyable. It kind of feels dead in comparison.

I would have never thought that typing would be enjoyable either.

[ubizmo]

My question is, in this age of technology, if touchscreen IS faster, why are we using physical keyboards at our desktops?

Because keyboards are faster if you can use all ten fingers. On touchscreen phones, you can't.

I was surprised to learn that I could type faster on a touchscreen using Swype than I can on a 9900, even with hundreds of word sub shortcuts. Swype is useless for one-hand input, which is important to some people, but once you get used to it, it's very very fast and accurate. I hope that BB10 offers a Swype-like option eventually, especially considering that SwiftKey has one in beta now.

[Rickroller]

My question is, in this age of technology, if touchscreen IS faster, why are we using physical keyboards at our desktops?

I'm guessing glass keyboards for desktops aren't the most cost effective things, not to mention the amount of crap that gets spilled around a computer...

[Rickroller]

My question is, in this age of technology, if touchscreen IS faster, why are we using physical keyboards at our desktops?

And is there actually an official competition that uses the 9900? I don't know of anyone (personally) that can type as fast as me on their touchscreen vs my 9900.

If I could race you, I would I don't know about you, but I can do 60-80wpm (and have gone over 90) on my touchscreen. The biggest problem i've had is the software not being able to keep up..

[raysgrumpy]

Because keyboards are faster if you can use all ten fingers. On touchscreen phones, you can't.

I was surprised to learn that I could type faster on a touchscreen using Swype than I can on a 9900, even with hundreds of word sub shortcuts. Swype is useless for one-hand input, which is important to some people, but once you get used to it, it's very very fast and accurate. I hope that BB10 offers a Swype-like option eventually, especially considering that SwiftKey has one in beta now.

Swype is not useless at all for one handed use. My whole family uses Swype (I am using SwiftKey Flow Beta) one handed and always have. The new SwiftKey Flow Beta is great with it's predictive text and word recommendations. I'm typing this one hand (holding in my right hand and typing with my thumb) and I have a Nexus 4

[Emu the Foo]

You do know it's the "LG U.S. National Texting Championship", right?

Yeah I know. LG seems to Always be putting on this texting championships. But blackberry should put one on now with the q10 and even the 9930. It would be grand. Like the OP said it would be great marketing.

[ubizmo]

Swype is not useless at all for one handed use. My whole family uses Swype (I am using SwiftKey Flow Beta) one handed and always have. The new SwiftKey Flow Beta is great with it's predictive text and word recommendations. I'm typing this one hand (holding in my right hand and typing with my thumb) and I have a Nexus 4

You, sir, are my hero. Lets hope Swiftkey Flow comes to BB10.

[raysgrumpy]

You, sir, are my hero. Lets hope Swiftkey Flow comes to BB10.

Wow, quite the sarcastic comment. I contradict one of your statements, with personal experience, and you return with an obnoxious response.

[ubizmo]

Wow, quite the sarcastic comment. I contradict one of your statements, with personal experience, and you return with an obnoxious response.

I sincerely apologize. I was being playful but in fact I genuinely admire your ability to use Swype one-handed and I'm glad you corrected my comment that Swype was useless for one-handed text entry. I really am hoping that SwiftKey Flow comes to BB10, the sooner the better. Now that I'm accustomed to Swype and its "cursive" feel, I find any kind of "tap" system, whether it's a hard or virtual keyboard, to be a step backward.