Thumb Keyboard
Encyclopedia
Personal digital assistant
A personal digital assistant , also known as a palmtop computer, or personal data assistant, is a mobile device that functions as a personal information manager. Current PDAs often have the ability to connect to the Internet...
s, mobile phone
Mobile phone
A mobile phone is a device which can make and receive telephone calls over a radio link whilst moving around a wide geographic area. It does so by connecting to a cellular network provided by a mobile network operator...
s, and PDA phone
Smartphone
A smartphone is a high-end mobile phone built on a mobile computing platform, with more advanced computing ability and connectivity than a contemporary feature phone. The first smartphones were devices that mainly combined the functions of a personal digital assistant and a mobile phone or camera...
s which has a familiar layout to an ordinary keyboard, such as QWERTY
QWERTY
QWERTY is the most common modern-day keyboard layout. The name comes from the first six letters appearing in the topleft letter row of the keyboard, read left to right: Q-W-E-R-T-Y. The QWERTY design is based on a layout created for the Sholes and Glidden typewriter and sold to Remington in the...
. The inputting surface is usually relatively small, and is intended for typing
Typing
Typing is the process of inputting text into a device, such as a typewriter, cell phone, computer, or a calculator, by pressing keys on a keyboard. It can be distinguished from other means of input, such as the use of pointing devices like the computer mouse, and text input via speech...
using the available thumbs, while holding the device.
Devices with Thumb Keyboards
- BlackBerryBlackBerryBlackBerry is a line of mobile email and smartphone devices developed and designed by Canadian company Research In Motion since 1999.BlackBerry devices are smartphones, designed to function as personal digital assistants, portable media players, internet browsers, gaming devices, and much more...
- Some Nokia phones including Nokia 6800 seriesNokia 6800 seriesThe Nokia 6800 series are a selection of Nokia Series 40 phones with an unusual fold-out QWERTY keyboard. This type of keyboard is also used in the more recent Nokia Series 60 Symbian-based Nokia E70...
- HTC TyTNHTC TyTNThe HTC TyTN is an Internet-enabled Windows Mobile Pocket PC smartphone designed and marketed by High Tech Computer Corporation of Taiwan. It has a touchscreen with a left-side slide-out QWERTY keyboard. The TyTN's functions include those of a camera phone and a portable media player in addition...
, HTC TyTN IIHTC TyTN IIThe HTC TyTN II is an Internet-enabled Windows Mobile Pocket PC smartphone designed and marketed by HTC Corporation of Taiwan. It has a tilting touchscreen with a right-side slide-out QWERTY keyboard...
, HTC Touch ProHTC Touch ProThe HTC Touch Pro is a smart phone from the Touch series of Internet-enabled Windows Mobile Pocket PC smartphones designed and marketed by HTC Corporation of Taiwan...
, HTC Touch Pro2HTC Touch Pro2The HTC Touch Pro2 is a slate smartphone, part of the Touch series of Internet-enabled, Windows Mobile, Pocket PC smartphones designed and marketed by HTC Corporation of Taiwan... - Some SonySony, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
CLIECLIÉThe Sony CLIÉ was a series of personal digital assistants running the Palm Operating System developed and marketed by Sony from 2000 to 2005. The devices introduced many new features to the PDA market, such as a jog-wheel interface, high-resolution displays, and Sony technologies like Memory Stick...
PDAs - Some Hewlett Packard PDAs (HP iPaq 4350/4355/63XX series)
- Motorola MPx220
- Palm Treo smartphones, with the exception of the Treo 180gTreo 180gThe Treo 180g is a dual-band GSM smartphone made by Handspring. Released in 2002, it was the third device in the Treo family. The 180g is essentially the same as its predecessor, the Treo 180, except that it uses Palm's proprietary Graffiti handwriting recognition software.It features a Graffiti...
- PalmPalm, Inc.Palm, Inc., was a smartphone manufacturer headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, that was responsible for products such as the Pre and Pixi as well as the Treo and Centro smartphones. Previous product lines include the PalmPilot, Palm III, Palm V, Palm VII, Zire and Tungsten. While their older...
Tungsten C - Samsung Blackjack (SGH-i607)
- Motorola QMotorola QThe Motorola Q is a Windows Mobile smartphone first announced in the Summer of 2005 as a thin device with similar styling to Motorola's immensely popular RAZR. Motorola in a partnership with Verizon Wireless released the Q on May 31, 2006...
- Wibrain: B1, B1L, B1H, I1
External links
- "An Empirical Study of Typing Rates on mini-QWERTY Keyboards" by Edward Clarkson, James Clawson, Kent Lyons, and Thad Starner, 2005.