Reluctant Galaxy S-5 Owner

I finally had to give up a physical keyboard phone. It wasn't for lack of trying: I limped along with the Nokia E90, the HTC Touchpro 2, and the Sidekick 4G, but other than the LG Optimus F3Q, which has its issues, starting with serious over-pricing, there was nothing new out there.

W/ the Sidekick, I was trying to check World Cup scores over the weekend and the internet delivery embarrassed me in front of my teen-aged daughter along w/ everybody else who passed by. So to TMobile and the S5.

In terms of cpu/ram/etc, it's an obvious upgrade. Kitkat, other than its maddening disabling of a writable sd card, is a good Android version (e.g. you can disable bloatware w/o rooting).

I haven't rooted it, which says something encouraging about its stock performance. The on-screen keyboard is as frustrating as I thought it would be.

Hacker's Keyboard allows for tabs and smart quote syntax (hard to believe such basic things were hard to find on the plethora of available keyboards). But the thumbs-only thing makes me despair. I imagine I'll get used to it, but it's very difficult for me.

Jake

I have an S4 mini and lime you, I was impressed with the ability to disable built in apps and Google spyware workout rooting and I'm still using the 4.2
2 image. Equally, Samsung have ruined their on screen keyboard. Swype under gingerbread was excellent, though buggy. Under Jellybean is atrocious and still buggy. My input rate must be down 30% compared to gingerbread.

You might try Hacker's Keyboard, much like a full computer keyboard, though your typing may vary--I'm not experienced enough to recommend one over the other; it was its right syntax keys that sold me. Hacker's Keyboard does give a Gingerbread 4-row option, which is what I've chosen.

So I assume that your set-up (4.2.2) gives you read/write to your sd card? I burn with envy though not enough to root yet.

Jake

What is that? Should i read it straight - smartphone can't write to SD card?

That's correct, if you're using KitKit, the current Android.

JAke

I can add things to the sd card, save photos etc. Yes.

I like Swype, much faster than thumb tapping. It's worse on Jelly Bean than gingerbread though.

There is a totally groovy bt keyboard for the S4 regular-size. It's the same size as the phone and the combination looks like a H/PC Haven't seen one for the S5 and don't know if one is available for your mini.

Jake

Quite a few out there https://encrypted.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=s4%20bluetooth%20keyboard&tbs=imgo:1
https://encrypted.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=s4%20bluetooth%20keyboard&tbs=imgo:1#q=s4+mini+bluetooth+keyboard&tbm=isch&tbs=imgo:1

Just for kicks, I ordered this:

http://www.cellphoneshop.net/s5btokey.html

20usd/free ship I imagine it's junk, but the price made the chance worth taking.

Jake

I totally sympathize with you with regard to tap-on-glass keyboards. I can't give up my physical keyboards, which means I'm a little outdated, using a BlackBerry Bold 9900 and an HP Pre 3. For a while, I had a work-issued iPhone, but they've gone BYOD, and they're fine with my old phones. I guess I'll probably get a BlackBerry classic when it comes out before Christmas. Who knows if there will be another physical keyboard phone after that?

I had no idea that new-model Blackberries were even in production. My wife works for the State Dept and State uses Blackberries much the way the US gov used Wang computers long after real people moved to pcs. I imagine when the US gov finally gets an idea, and that idea is to use smart phones, Blackberry will file for Chapter 11 the next day. Exactly what Wang did.

Not that it says anything about your age, but has anybody here ever used a Wang computer? An uncanny lack of intuition--Wang made DOS seem warm and friendly.

Jake

I used a Wang back in 1988-89, when I worked for a contractor at the US Embassy Moscow. Don't remember much about it, but I did use it.

You didn't run into Clayton Lonetree, did you

Jake

Has the keyboard turned up yet Jake? What's your verdict?

No, it was a US phone number, but it appears to be--literally--on the slow boat from China. I will post as soon as/if it comes.

In the meantime, I purchased "External Keyboard Helper Pro," an amazing app that allows for customizing bt keyboards without a rooted phone. I was able to map smart quotes, em dashes, etc to an Ipad bt keyboard and since it's unicode rather than hardcode, I suspect the key mapping will work with the corresponding keys of the arriving mini keyboard.

One Samsung caveat: once the Samsung connects to the keyboard, the phone will quickly default to the Samsung generic layout and no mapping will not register. You have to set a delay in the Helper before officially connecting, which will let you chose the Helper keyboard from the Input selection. Samsung simply assumes that you'd want their keyboard layout even on a bt keyboard.

But the app/help is a sight to behold. It's the best $2.48usd I've ever spent.

Jake