2 posts tagged “touch input”
A study suggests that the iPhone's touchscreen is cumbersome to use - but others question the sample. Photograph: Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP
Yes, but perhaps it's not as bad as a new study suggests. The net was aflame this week after one study from the US suggested that typing on the iPhone takes twice as long as on more traditional handsets.
User Centric, an American consultancy that looks at usability, attracted lots of attention by claiming that the buttonless touchscreen interface was seriously hampering those used to their old phone's ordinary keypads.
The impact was clear: "For Qwerty users, texting was fast and accurate," said Jen Allen, a usability specialist with the company. "But when they switched to the iPhone, they were frustrated with the touch-sensitive keyboard."
Imagine that frustration extrapolated from the US, where texting is still a minority pursuit, to the frenzied SMS cultures of Europe or to Asia. It could be a potential dealbreaker ... except for the fact that not everybody agrees with the study's findings.
"Typing on the iPhone is definitely slower than using a hardware keyboard, but I wouldn't say it takes twice as long," says Tom Dunmore, the editor- in-chief of Stuff magazine and an iPhone user.
He adds: "There's a bit of a learning curve, where you have to use the force and let Apple's error correction do its thing - but it's very impressive, and you end up touch-typing."
There were certainly some methodological sidenotes which indicated that the research doesn't necessarily tell the whole story: the study looked at only 20 American users of mobile phones, and gave them a mere 30 minutes to practise using an iPhone compared to their ordinary mobile handset.
In addition, the minimum texting threshold that User Centric considered was just 15 texts a week, which is barely a lunchbreak's work for text-hungry teenagers. And - perhaps crucially - none of them used predictive text, the system used by a large number of people, as well as the iPhone.
Despite these issues, User Centric's Allen claims that the small sample and heavy restrictions still produced "statistically significant results".
But few dispute the idea that a flat, touch-based interface will never adequately replace physical keys for very heavy typists.
It seems unlikely that fast-fingered teens will ever break speed records on a first-generation Apple handset.
Dunmore agrees that heavy users might still find that they can't manage speeds they are used to.
"The iPhone's keyboard is lots better than I thought it would be - but it still ain't a BlackBerry," he says.
I found this at
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2007/aug/23/guardianweeklytechnologysection.apple
- The Guardian
- Thursday August 23 2007
A small number of iPhone users are receiving help from Apple after reporting that their handsets have permanently lost responsiveness to touch input across portions of the screen.
Members of the AppleInsider and MacRumors forums have also spawned threads on the matter. They explain that the dead strips usually appear a half-inch from the top or bottom of the iPhone's display, often disabling access to critical controls or shifting the touch input to the wrong region.
"The bottom of my screen lost sensitivity after only about 20 days of use," explained one user seeking help via Apple's support forums. "First the very bottom of the screen went out so I could not hit the space-bar on the keyboard, or change to the number/character screen. Then it got worse a few days later, now I cannot hit any of the main function buttons."
The problem appears to be irreparable via software or resets. Applying the 1.0.1 update doesn't remedy the issue, according to reports, and neither does resetting or restoring the phone to factory condition. Cleaning the phone using Apple's recommended water-only method or a specialized cleaner likewise produces no practical results. In some cases, touch functionality has been briefly restored for users only to drop out again a short while later.
Most known instances have required direct replacements from Apple, whose technical support agents have commented to customers that they are "very familiar" with the touchscreen failures. While the company has yet to publicly acknowledge the issue, it's taking a proactive role in replacing the defective units with few if any questions asked. In some cases, Apple support agents are have even bypassed their usual protocol for replacements.One customer who had been voicing complaints on the Apple support forums was surprised to find the company was quietly monitoring his activity.
"Today I am in awe of Apple Support," he wrote. "This may not be true for everyone, but [I] got an unsolicited call at my office from Apple Support on this issue and they were helpful and we put together a return on the phone. "
Other affected owners have taken their iPhones to local Apple stores, where after a brief inspection, Apple Store Geniuses have routinely recommended that the handsets be sent into Apple for a 3-day repair. Apple offers customers a $29 iPhone rental in the meantime, though one customer speaking directly with AppleInsider observed that he successfully negotiated a waiver of the fee during his repair process.
The unresponsive screens represent the second known hardware anomaly affecting the Apple handset since its release in late June, with the other being a disproportionately high number of AC adapter failures that prevented some of the devices from charging through their external power bricks.
I found this at appleinsider.com
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/07/08/09/apple_addressing_dead_spots_on_iphone_touchscreens.html
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