Does it pain you to type on your smartphone's tiny keyboard? Are your messages error-laden? Do you love your phone's touch screen--but long for a physical QWERTY keyboard? 8pen, a typing application for Android devices, might be the solution you seek.
As 8Pen's creators point out, the original keyboard was made to fit two hands comfortably. But today we frequently find ourself typing on tiny multitouch devices, barely a few inches wide, with screens that are too small to type on comfortably, even with a single finger.
8Pen proposes that it's time we reinvented the keyboard with our mobile needs in mind--and that's exactly what the creative app does.
"If the keyboard was invented today for mobile devices, would it have looked the same?," the makers of 8Pen ask in a YouTube video. "Probably not. We need something new."
Aiming to provide a faster and more accurate means of composing text on a small touch screen, 8pen rejiggers the traditional keyboard layout and separates letters into four quadrants, arranged around a central point that functions as the space bar.
The typist navigates the 8pen "keyboard" by gesturing around the quadrants, rather than pecking at individual letters. The system is designed to mimic the feel of handwriting and even recognizes gestures for greater typing ease.
Watch the video (below) to see how 8pen works, then visit the8pen.com to learn more about this revolution in smartphone typing. Then share your thoughts about this app. Do you see 8pen as a much needed innovation, or are you satisfied with your smartphone's virtual keyboard? Let us know in the comments.