[StuartV]

Originally Posted by LancePipes

I saw a previous post where you made this same statement. I'm guessing you're thinking about it too hard. This is all speculation since I haven't handled a Storm, but I'm betting it's correct.

The difference between a selection (touch) and a confirmation (click) has nothing to do with the time of the contact at all. Rather it's dependent on pressure! If you touch the screen with a light tap, not strong enough to push the button (screen) in, it is a selection (touch). However, if you touch the screen with a bit more pressure, pushing the button (screen) in then that is a confirmation.

LTP

Now that I've played with one, I've seen how it works, and it's pretty much how one would expect. My "confusion" came from the fact that I had read earlier reports that claimed that, with the separation between navigation and confirmation, you could touch the screen to select what you want, and then click anywhere to confirm it. As it turns out, the reports that said that were simply not true.

[andrewfay]

I got 2 of these devices early Friday morning - 1 for me and 1 for my wife. I gave my wife hers and I went to work. I set-up mine throughout the day, and was pretty happy - overall. But as the day went on, I found that the screen wasn't as responsive as I had originally hoped. It was pretty good though, and I was just so excited after waiting so many months for the device.

Then I went home and set up my wife's device for her. What a difference! Hers was so much more responsive. The screen highlights followed my every swipe with great response. It took every click perfectly.

Later in the night, as I played with mine more, I realized that mine has a "catch" in the top and bottom left corners that I feel when the screen clicks. Something was wrong. Then I realized the lights behind the "End" and "back" hard buttons do not light up. When I hold the end button with some extra pressure, the light flickers. SOMETHING IS DEFINITELY WRONG! I have a hardware issue, and Verizon is working now to get me a replacement. My screen response in getting worse as the hours go by. I can now hardly write an e-mail due to the UNresponsiveness. I am getting pretty frustrated with it.

The reason I am writing this is to inform of this issue. I had the unique advantage of having 2 devices side by side to use and compare, and I could definitely feel the difference. I also noticed that our 2 devices have different versions of the OS. I went to "Options >> Advanced " and noticed that her phone has a "Wireless Upgrade" at the bottom of the listing - mine does not. However, they both showed the same OS version 4.7.0.65 (Platform 4.0.0.82) HOW ODD! Our pins are only 1 digit in difference too. Do other STORM owners have this "Wireless Upgrade" feature???

Well - I hope to have a replacement coming very soon. I didn't have good news from the local Verizon store ("May be some time in December before we have any?!") but I have had better response from the VZW customer service team, saying that they will take care of it right awy - we'll see! I can hardly use the device now because of how difficult it is for it to register a click. What a mess.

And to think that I switched from AT&T for this! I miss my good old steady Curve with all of Viigo's greatness. I need my daily jokes and political news. I am now a fish out of water - gasping for life

[dkmadrid]

Originally Posted by LancePipes

The difference between a selection (touch) and a confirmation (click) has nothing to do with the time of the contact at all. Rather it's dependent on pressure! If you touch the screen with a light tap, not strong enough to push the button (screen) in, it is a selection (touch). However, if you touch the screen with a bit more pressure, pushing the button (screen) in then that is a confirmation.

LTP

Pipes is absolutely correct; the entire screen is one button. It's the combination of finger position and how hard a user pushes the screen that drives what happens.

[TBOLTRAM]

First off, I do not own one but went to the Verizon store last Saturday to play with a Storm. I spent about 30 minutes with one which was interesting as only one other person during midday actually looked at the phone. This is in the Copperfield area of Houston and the store is normally fairly busy.

I found I could type faster by laying the Storm on a flat table and using the old "hunt and peck" with my forefingers as opposed to using my thumbs. Anyone else try this?

I am up for a new phone in January and my opinion is that by then some of the bugs or fixes around them will be out.

[dgburdi]

Okay, so my Storm order is stuck in RIM/Verizon limbo (I'm hoping it ships tomorrow). However, my friend got his today and honestly he hasn't stopped complaining about the keyboard and how much the "click" just didn't hit the spot.

My Suggestion:

Since we are talking primariliy about the "click" not working the best I would really like to see a hack that makes the Storm similar to the iPhone focusing on the touch and not the click. Is this possible?

I know people have mentioned some problems with "calibration" but that can hopefully be fixed via software update; problems with the "click" may unfortunately be due to a hardware flaw. That is what I'm afraid of.

[Poowill]

I was able to play with the Storm today for about a half hour. Overall, my impressions of the keyboard are good and bad.

Good: Navigation around phone
I've never felt more confident in navigating on a touch screen. The click really reinforces that it goes to the menu you want the first time instead of hoping you were accurate enough in your selection given no feedback. I was able to breeze through menus a lot faster than I feel I could with the rollerball on my curve. but, I do agree, you sometimes do feel the obstacle of an OS not originally intended for a touch screen, but at the same time, by knowing your way around the blackberry OS I think one could adapt very fast.

Concerns: Texting
I'm an avid texter and I'm just not sure that given the hardware properties of how it was designed, that it can keep up with how fast I want to type.

Think of it this way. If you took a thin piece of plastic to represent the storm's screen and placed on top of a BB (ball). Then you rolled it around on top of it to sort of feel it teeter-totter on the bb (This would represent the "click"). There is then a point that putting little pressure close to the same side as you chose to "click" down, would prevent it from registering with the device since it can only register one "click" at a time. In comparison, a keyboard allows you to push down a letter and simultaneously push another one at the same time, sort of think of it as "rolling" your finger between two keys. The device reads the input in order of initial push, not necessarily which button came down and up first. On a normal touch screen, like the iPhones, the phone can read two "points" on the screen at relatively the same time and decide which one was intended first.

So in other words, you sort of find your self "Stabbing" at the keyboard instead of typing in smooth or continuous motion on the keyboard because the "click" has to release before anything else is pushed since the entire screen acts as "one button".

I don't know if this makes any sense at all but I hope someone has an idea of what i'm talking about ha. My analogy could be very well over simplified as far as how it is actually designed, but to me that seemed to be the limitation of my typing.

Whether software can improve this "issue" I don't know, but those are my feelings on it.

Overall I think the build quality and beautiful picture quality make up for the limitation of the keyboard. It just feels good in your hand, its tough to describe, so I'd suggest getting to a store to play with one!

[larhode]

I've had my storm five days now and I'm probably going to return it. There are lots of good features, but the keyboard is a show stopper for me. It's simply too difficult to type messages. When I type, the number of errors is unacceptable. You press on one letter, and the next letter over gets typed. It took me 15 minutes to enter one contact with a phone number, email, and address. Forget using your thumbs to type, I've had to switch to other smaller fingers and even that doesn't solve the problem completely. Perhaps my fingers are too large and if you have tiny hands, it might work just fine.

The screen is beautiful to look at, but you can never be sure what letter is going to be entered when you press a key. I send lots of emails and messages each day and after 4 days of continuous use, I find it very difficult to accurately type. I thought it might get better after several days use, but the problem is spacing on the keys and lack of a way to calibrate the screen. Overall, compared to my BB curve, it takes me about 200% longer to type a message.

[KimMazz]

Originally Posted by larhode

Perhaps my fingers are too large and if you have tiny hands, it might work just fine.

I didn't get one yet but I have been to the VZW store 3 times to play with it. I am only 5'2" tall and have very thin fingers. I can not type correctly on the keyboard. I have spend at least 30 minutes trying to type messages and add contacts and the keyboard is unresponsive, slow and just down right bad. I think I will stick with my 8830 for now.

The rep at the store tried to tell me that the problem was with the display model. All the people playing with the phone had caused the problems. Maybe there were apps running in the background that could be causing the slow response time. I don't know what it was, but the keyboard is just not what I expected. If you do have large fingers I can only see that it would be a nightmare if you are a fast typer like I am.

[Jim2991]

Keys? I don't have any on mine ....

I was going to dump mine yesterday......uhg what was I thinking.

I loved the screen but could not handle the key-less keyboard and NO trackball. But, as I recall, I hated my 8830 too when I got it, never thought I could adapt to the keypad and track ball.

So I worked on it last night and got better. I gave it to my daughter and she took about 3 minutes to be texting like a pro. I will give it a few more days but I think this will grow on me and I won't be grieving the loss of my 8830 anymore.

So I am not 100% sure it will be a keeper, but I don't plan to list it on e-bay today anyway.

[lambdacoreaz]

I actually agree as just typing this message was a pain in the ass especially when you're trying for speed, but I must say new technology is difficult to adjust to
I'm hoping they do actually release an update soon I can't stand the fact that the kb lags the keypresses aren't certain especially when in landscape! I haven't tried the paper trick
yet but I'm hoping it works and my mind is changed. I also find that hovering over a key brings up symbols which gets very annoyong very quick and to topy off even of I start gaining speed it can't catch up lol

Ima give it a week seeing as how I just got it and even as I type its becoming slightly easier, but I'm using SureType...
Oh and I'm not sue if anyone has found that by holding the BB key down it activates the switch application screen which is neat

All in all, I'm keeping my fingers crossed for an optimization abd upgrade soon

[lambdacoreaz]

Wirelessly posted

I actually agree as just typing this message was a pain in the ass especially when you're trying for speed, but I must say new technology is difficult to adjust to
I'm hoping they do actually release an update soon I can't stand the fact that the kb lags the key presses aren't certain especially when in landscape! I haven't tried the paper trick
yet but I'm hoping it works and my mind is changed. I also find that hovering over a key brings up symbols which gets very annoying very quick and to top it off even of I start gaining speed it can't catch up lol
Ima give it a week seeing as how I just got it and even as I type its becoming slightly easier, but I'm using SureType...
Oh and I'm not sue if anyone has found that by holding the BB key down it activates the switch application screen which is neat

All in all, I'm keeping my fingers crossed for an optimization and upgrade soon

[correia]

Originally Posted by Jim2991

Keys? I don't have any on mine ....

I was going to dump mine yesterday......uhg what was I thinking.

I loved the screen but could not handle the key-less keyboard and NO trackball. But, as I recall, I hated my 8830 too when I got it, never thought I could adapt to the keypad and track ball.

So I worked on it last night and got better. I gave it to my daughter and she took about 3 minutes to be texting like a pro. I will give it a few more days but I think this will grow on me and I won't be grieving the loss of my 8830 anymore.

So I am not 100% sure it will be a keeper, but I don't plan to list it on e-bay today anyway.

At first I was also having problems typing with the virtual keyboard, but started to get better at it with more usage. One thing that I found that helped me out a lot was to basically split the KB in half (between the T and Y keys) and only use the thumb that corresponded to that side of the keyboard. This has helped me out a great deal. I have been able to type faster with much fewer mistakes. I may be wrong, but it almost seems like RIM factored this into the usage of the keyboard, and that they took into account the angle at which your thumb would be touching the screen for typing.

Others may be already doing this, but just thought I would tell everyone about what helped me.

[mosssj]

I just picked mine up yesterday at Best buy and I have to say I'm rather impressed with the how flex screen thing. I still can type rather quickly and it does give you a much better feel for where you are exactly pushing.

[PDXbyStorm]

Just like everything else, typing on this device will become easier with time. I think people expect a regular laptop/keyboard experience are never going to find it. I came from a Palm 700 to this. I thought the Palm was a great keyboard for on-the-go, but certainly would never have typed a novel on it. Same with this. Although I found when I told myself to barrel through and Email and not think about it, I was pretty fast with minimal errors, and that's after just a few days of having the Storm.

While I only had a half hour with my friend's IPhone, I found myself typing way too many characters by mistake on that. On the Storm, that doesn't happen. I tried the folded card behind the battery trick and didn't really feel a difference. Maybe I will fold it again.

All in all, I think people who aren't used to typing on a screen (which at this point is almost everyone) are being too critical. In time, it will be easier. We're all spoiled these days. Take this device back in time, say five years ago, and it would have seemed utterly amazing in every way.

It's a beautiful on-the-go computer/Ipod that happens to have a phone attached.

Those who complain need a reality check, although if they are happier with a different device, all the power to them.

[dylanleonard1122]

Originally Posted by PDXbyStorm

All in all, I think people who aren't used to typing on a screen (which at this point is almost everyone) are being too critical. In time, it will be easier. We're all spoiled these days. Take this device back in time, say five years ago, and it would have seemed utterly amazing in every way.

Put this phone anytime pre-iphone and verizon would be backed up with orders until like january, rather than dec 8

[Vertioch]

I'm using it stock... haven't tweaked any keyboard settings, so perhaps changing some will change my perception...

Cross-clicking (if you mean using the "wrong" thumb... yeah, it yields worse results than using the thumb closer to it... not sure why, but it just does work better to use the left thumb for keys on the left side of the screen...

I think calibration will be very good... I have trouble clicking buttons on web pages, but... I just discovered if you turn the "cursor" on, it is really a lot easier, since it shows exactly what will click w/ an arrow. I'm not sure if you can set this as default or not.

[SaintlySins]

Additional observation - and explaination to landscape keyboard errors;
When typing in Landscape mode, (personal favorite), there's a noticeable gap between the two sides of the keyboard running right down the middle. If I reach across the middle line when typing (right to left/vice-versa), I'm bound to get a wrong key. After studying this a little more, I realize the phone's been programmed for you to "short-the-key" (my own definition) when typing as you're fingers touch the screen in a slightly different place than your eye shows you - because your fingers are rounded and contact isn't quite where you visualize it to be.
I hope I've explained this well enough. If you "landscape" type, you'll see what I mean if you try and speed-type across the middle of the keyboard from the opposite end. This could explain some of the continued complaints from those who hunt-and-peck -vs- those who thumb-type with both thumbs.

Also posted on other Key Board thread currently running.

Hope it helps.

[Rocki]

I really like landscape mode because I was fat fingering more often when it was vertical. I've since noticed when I'm using the keyboard in the vertical format if I press on one side or the other of the key (to select the desired letter) rather than in the middle, my mistakes are decreased dramatically..

Hope this helps..

[michael12005]

The Keys are very nice but there is not much to do there. I prefer Miami and Fort Lauderdale, more action for sure.

[TreyS]

Originally Posted by plakius

genius !... thank you for that ... i knew there was an easier way than having to just delete it all

Ditto! I was getting annoyed when I had to edit a word. This is sweet.