[Gta04-owner] Keyboard for GTA04

[Dr. H. Nikolaus Schaller]

Am 15.03.2012 um 13:29 schrieb Martin Jansa:

> On Thu, Mar 15, 2012 at 03:09:09PM +0400, Gennady Kupava wrote:
>> Hi, Nicolaus,
>> 
>> Actually detached keyboard is almost useless for phone. It is not
>> possible to use it any conditions expect then phone lays on some surface
>> and you not holding it.
>> 
>> This is because if you using one hand to hold phone, you have one one
>> hand free. Holding and using keyboard with one hand is not possible.
>> 
>> Before implementing such detached keyboard, buy bluetooth one in shop
>> and try it - you'll find it completely useless :)
> 
> I fully agree on this, I have bought smaller keyboard (with USB cable)
> for freerunner and I don't use it very much, because as you said it's
> not really usable e.g. while sitting in train and trying to balance
> phone + keyboard on your lap. So in trains I'm using n900 only and
> om-gta02 is sitting at home always connected to desktop (with real
> keyboard).
> 
>> So, keyboard on phone should be build-in and usable... and i don't know
>> how should look something better than keyboard on n900.
> 
> I don't have hands-on experience but keyboard on pictures of Motorola Droid 4
> looks even better then n900 keyboard, mostly because of extra row.
> 
> http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/10/motorola-droid-4-review/

Yes, but do you think it does help to dream about the best keyboards
made by (formerly?) big companies? They will most likely not do anything
for our GTA02/04.

So we have to roll up our own sleeves...

>> If gta04 have hw keyboard, i buy it immediately as a every-day phone.
>> Linux has excellent set of command-line tools and it's a crime not to
>> have a hw keyboard on linux device.
> 
> Agreed, that's why I also prefer more common layout with enough keys to
> map also '/', '|' etc. somewhere close to fingers.

That appears to be easily done when printing key caps at Shapeways and
making the keymap ourselves (open source).

Nikolaus