The iPad poses a typing conundrum (
http://www.macworld.com/article/151030/2010/05/ipad_typing.html) for some users. It’s wider than a smartphone so thumb-typing is mostly out (even in portrait mode). In most circumstances, you have to hold the iPad with one hand, meaning your typing productivity is diminished. The Keyboard Upgrade (
http://www.macworld.com/appguide/app.html?id=519631&expand=false) app, from G.P. Imports, takes a creative approach to making the iPad’s keyboard more usable.
Now before you get too excited, you should know that Keyboard Upgrade cannot change the iPhone OS’s system-wide keyboard because Steve Jobs doesn’t allow such apps. So Keyboard Upgrade is essentially a stand-alone text-editor that lets you move, resize, or even split up the iPad’s keyboard to make it easier to use. You can type the text you need, then copy and paste into the app that you actually want to use it in.
Keyboard Upgrade is a fairly interesting 1.0, but it would be great to see better integration with other apps in future versions. TextExpander (
http://www.macworld.com/appguide/app.html?id=297333&expand=false), for example, lets you draft text, then add it to a new Mail message or tweet in a variety of Twitter clients with a single tap. It would be great to see an update for Keyboard Upgrade that gains some of these convenient cross-app pasting features, or even just integration of TextExpander’s namesake text snippet features.
Customer Reviews
Poorly described, not as advertised ★
Great idea, not very practical ★★★
