By One of the top complaints of Android’s first phone – the T-Mobile G1 – is the fact that it doesn’t have an onscreen keyboard. The full physical QWERTY is a godsend, but having to slide open the keyboard for simple keystrokes, searches and passwords can be a real drag.
Introducing the un-drag: Android’s On-Screen Keyboard poised to hit the G1 as a software update in late January 2009! The update will come with the recently unearthed Cupcake development branch – have a look for yourself:
While it’s hard to believe this was left out in the first place, the key here is that on MOST phones if this had been left out, you’d be lucky to see a fix at all. But the always yearning for improvement Android OS was built for the future and the on-screen qwerty is a perfect example of that.
We can’t wait for this update to hit but I bet there are some people that are MUCH more excited… the Android Phone Manufacturers who have plans to build full touch-screen devices with only on-screen keyboards!
[Thanks Sorin!]
I posted this up on your forum yesterday?
Nice to hear there G1 creaks as well LOL
That’s not the keyboard coming in ‘cupcake’, it’s something else — looks neat though ;)
Amateur hour. They never heard of 1) tripods; 2) turning down the brightness; 3) using macro mode.
TRY CHOMPSMS IT HAS AN ONSCREEN KEYBOARD TO FILL IN THE GAP WHILE WE WAIT AND PRETTY NICE UI!!
omg…felicia….thank you so much for chompsms…love it…totally filling in the gap between now and january 2009….i love my G1… BEST PHONE EVER
OK, so if Android is Open Source, can’t I write my own “input method” and put up a standard phone keypad, use the T9 system and send my SMS messages that way?
As long as I can ‘reset to defaults’, I’m good, right?
I don’t want to lose my T9 texting skills.
– Ralph
When am I gonna receive the update?