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A comment on Not an iPad Pro Review: Why iPadOS Still Doesn't Get the Basics Right. Parent comment

Re:Not an iPad Pro Review: Why iPadOS Still Doesn't Get the ... by walterbell on Monday May 13, 2024 @09:55PM (#40350865)
> Apple (nor Google, as far as I know) has done zero to fix it in years (a decade?)

On iOS/iPadOS, touch-hold the virtual space bar and it becomes a trackpad for fine positioning of the cursor.

Magic Keyboard is a laptop-quality input device where capslock can be remapped to Esc for vim editing in ssh.

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Re:Not an iPad Pro Review: Why iPadOS Still Doesn't Get the ... by gcanyon on Monday May 13, 2024 @09:59PM (#40350887)
Yes, I know about the virtual trackpad, and it's still a pain in the butt to use. Before touch-and-hold, there was the faster deep press, which was better albeit not great, and the current setup is a regression.

"add a keyboard" isn't an answer.

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Re:Not an iPad Pro Review: Why iPadOS Still Doesn't Get the ... by walterbell on Monday May 13, 2024 @10:01PM (#40350909)
> "add a keyboard" isn't an answer.

The best keyboard in the history of mobile computing was by Blackberry.

Blackberry (original and clone) physical keyboards are now available for both Android & iPhone, with some effort.

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Re:Not an iPad Pro Review: Why iPadOS Still Doesn't Get the ... by dgellow on Tuesday May 14, 2024 @06:15AM (#40353532)
IMHO the best keyboard was from the N900
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Re:Not an iPad Pro Review: Why iPadOS Still Doesn't Get the ... by walterbell on Tuesday May 14, 2024 @11:47AM (#40356474)
Psion/Communicator palmtop derivatives did have the space advantage of a landscape form factor.

Sadly we never got a hardware successor for the dearly departed N900 Maemo and N9 Meego.

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Re:Not an iPad Pro Review: Why iPadOS Still Doesn't Get the ... by ako on Tuesday May 14, 2024 @06:57AM (#40353793)
Add a keyboard is an answer. On-screen keyboard will always be more limited, but I can accept that, as long as it’s good enough for situations where i can’t use an external keyboard. In situations where I know I will have to do a lot of text entry, it’s easy enough to add a keyboard, or use dictation. I use the same Bluetooth mechanical keyboard, Nuphy air 75, on both my MacBook Pro and my iPad, so keyboard experience is same for both, and both come with a suboptimal keyboard out of the box, including the MacBook Pro.
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Re:Not an iPad Pro Review: Why iPadOS Still Doesn't Get the ... by gcanyon on Tuesday May 14, 2024 @09:03AM (#40354791)
"Add a keyboard" isn't an answer to the point raised, which is that the virtual keyboard on iOS is highly-sub-optimal, and Apple isn't working hard enough to improve it.
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Re:Not an iPad Pro Review: Why iPadOS Still Doesn't Get the ... by ako on Tuesday May 14, 2024 @01:50PM (#40357947)
For an on screen keyboard I find it far from highly-sub-optimal, I think it’s pretty decent.

More importantly, it’s not realistic to think it will ever be as good as a real keyboard for lot of text entry. I expect dictation to do a better job for data entry.

In fact, this comment was created using dictation on an iPad, almost flawless, not much editing needed afterwards, and you can always use a keyboards if you prefer.

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Re:Not an iPad Pro Review: Why iPadOS Still Doesn't Get the ... by ashconnor on Tuesday May 14, 2024 @03:28AM (#40352535)
Even when using that it can still jump the cursor to a unwanted location.

Demo - https://twitter.com/ashconnor/status/1776689029700075749/vid...

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Re:Not an iPad Pro Review: Why iPadOS Still Doesn't Get the ... by wordofx on Tuesday May 14, 2024 @04:14AM (#40352779)
What messaging app is that? I tried Line, iMessage, Signal, Twitter. I cannot reproduce that.
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Re:Not an iPad Pro Review: Why iPadOS Still Doesn't Get the ... by ashconnor on Tuesday May 14, 2024 @01:55PM (#40358007)
It’s Messages. The Apple app.
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Re:Not an iPad Pro Review: Why iPadOS Still Doesn't Get the ... by wordofx on Tuesday May 14, 2024 @02:37PM (#40358552)
Yeah. I can’t reproduce that. The image is above the text not below it. Have NFC how you managed that.
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Re:Not an iPad Pro Review: Why iPadOS Still Doesn't Get the ... by ashconnor on Tuesday May 14, 2024 @05:03PM (#40360146)
Copy and paste an image using the clipboard.
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Re:Not an iPad Pro Review: Why iPadOS Still Doesn't Get the ... by dgellow on Tuesday May 14, 2024 @06:14AM (#40353519)
I have a niche complaint that makes physical keyboards a non-starter for me: there is no way to add keyboard layouts to iOS/iPadOS. If you’re used to a layout that isn’t in the subset Apple supports you cannot use a physical keyboard.

I have my own keyboard layout that I use since at least 2011, with drivers for macOS, windows, and Linux. I have no way to make it available on my iPad.

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Re:Not an iPad Pro Review: Why iPadOS Still Doesn't Get the ... by least on Tuesday May 14, 2024 @09:12AM (#40354875)
I definitely think you should be able to add keyboard layouts at a software level on iPadOS and iOS, but one possible solution to the problem right now is using a programmable keyboard using QMK [1], ZMK [2], or some other open-source firmware. There's even a usb-usb converter [3] that will convert keystrokes from any keyboard into ones that you map using TMK or QMK, so you can use your own.

[1] https://qmk.fm/

[2] https://zmk.dev/

[3] https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=69169.0

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Re:Not an iPad Pro Review: Why iPadOS Still Doesn't Get the ... by dgellow on Tuesday May 14, 2024 @10:02AM (#40355335)
Neat, thanks for sharing
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