The Productive Organizer

Today I saw this blog post from WorkAwesome that discusses on the much understandable problem of improving the keyboard that we have been using since 50 years ago.

We didn’t all love the keyboard but after a lot of practice, we really don’t have much complains about it. The problem is, if someone sells you a keyboard concept that is much more efficient, will you change? what if it increases your WPM from 20 to 50?

You would probably not do that, because the cost of switching is too high. Imagine you can buy one for yourself at home, but what happens if you are at work? Likely case your boss won’t buy one of that for you.

But with the smartphone revolution, this could very well change. Why is that? On a 2-4 inch screen, your typical keyboard, without much prediction capability just will not work, especially for Americans since their hands are so big.

So Virtual keyboards like iPhone’s very good keyboard does auto correction, prediction to make your text input much faster.

Other virtual keyboards uses prediction in a lot of different ways to make our text input much faster.

SWYPE

BlindType

So we are already changing the way we input, why not just change the layout to something more efficient?

Will habitual creatures like human beings do it this time?

“Something’s wrong with your keyboard,” a friend borrowing my laptop would say. “When I type, all that comes out is gibberish!”

“Nothing’s wrong with my keyboard,” I would reply with a grin. “It’s the layout on your keyboard that’s wrong!”

Click image to enlarge.

What usually follows is a long lecture on how the Dvorak keyboard layout is better than QWERTY in every way. My friends usually humor me — this has happened several times — but I’ll spare you the sermon and make it short. Out of the hundreds of reasons you should switch to Dr. Dvorak’s layout, here are seven:

1. QWERTY was designed for the typewriter, not the typist.

Christopher Sholes, who invented the typewriter, found that early prototypes of his invention had a mechanical flaw: When he struck neighboring keys in rapid succession, the typewriter jammed. He needed to replace the initial alphabetical layout with one that separated keys often struck successively. Thus the QWERTY layout was born. This did not solve the problem entirely, but it made the machine jam a lot less.

Good for the typewriter. But what about the typist? While QWERTY was designed so that the typewriter could work, Dvorak was designed so that the typist could work well.

2. Dvorak increases your speed.

Typists base their fingers on the home row of the keyboard. If you want to increase typing speed, the home row is where you place the most commonly typed keys . Which is exactly what Dr. Dvorak did in his layout — 70% of keystrokes are on the home row; 22%, on the top row; 8%, on the bottom.

In QWERTY, only 32% of keystrokes are on the home row. Which means most of the time, typists’ fingers are either reaching up for the top row (52%) or down for the bottom row (16%). So not only does QWERTY do nothing for typists, it actually hinders them.

Dvorak further increases typing speed by placing all vowels on the left side of the home row, and the most commonly used consonants on the right side. This guarantees that most of your strokes alternate between a finger on your right hand (consonant) and a finger on your left (vowel). Alternating between fingers from either hand is faster — just imagine texting with one hand or drumming with one stick.

3. Dvorak lessens your mistakes.

Not only is Dvorak faster than QWERTY, it’s also more accurate. Errors occur more when you type away from the home row, or consecutively with the same finger. When you combine the two problems (using the same finger to type consecutive letters not on the home row) you make even more mistakes.

Reaching away from the home row, typing consecutively with the same finger — these happen more often in QWERTY. And so do mistakes.

4. Dvorak is more comfortable and better for your health.

Although its only your fingers that do the extra reaching in QWERTY, the distance adds up. A study compared the distance traveled by the fingers of two typists in performing the same task. In Dvorak, the typists fingers traveled 1.5 km per day; In QWERTY, 30 km per day. This extra distance increases not only the likelihood of errors but the stress on your fingers.

The discomfort is often temporary. But with the amount of typing we do today — plus the prevalence of QWERTY keyboards — it is not uncommon for the pain to progress to repetitive strain injury. Some RSI sufferers have reported some relief from taking breaks, doing stretches, improving posture, and of course, switching to Dvorak.

5. Switching to Dvorak is easier than ever.

Studies have shown that Dvorak is easier to learn than QWERTY. If you already touchtype with QWERTY, it’s even easier, because you already have the finger coordination needed for touchtyping. There are online resources on learning Dvorak and a ton of typing games for practice.

But where do you get the keyboards? Today, keyboards with the Dvorak layout (or that can switch to Dvorak) are available if you wish to buy one. But you won’t even have to. Most operating systems allow users to make Dvorak their default keyboard layout. You can also make it easy to switch between layouts, but trust me — you won’t want to.

6. Dvorak is cool.

Aside from getting friends and coworkers to type gibberish on your computer (a useful security measure, by the way) Dvorak has other cool benefits. Using Dvorak puts you in an exclusive club — like having a Mac instead of a PC. But aside from mere prestige, you can flaunt your productivity and the ease with which you attain it.

You’ll also be in the company of some cool people, including Bram Cohen, inventor of BitTorrent; Matt Mullenweg, lead developer of WordPress; and Barbara Blackburn, world’s fastest typist.

7. Using Dvorak is a noble cause.

Dr. Dvorak created something great, but he died in vain.

“I’m tired of trying to do something worthwhile for the human race,” he said, realizing his failure to convince people to adopt his layout. “They simply don’t want to change!”

QWERTY has remained the default keyboard layout for over a century. It has outlived the purpose for which it was designed, yet its weaknesses still remain. By switching to Dvorak, you are joining a movement that empowers typists and honors the legacy of a great man.

[Read more at WorkAwesome >>]

Steve Ballmer is in the news these 2 days talking about the need for them to succeed in the Slate:

“We have got to make things happen. Just like we had to make things happen on netbooks, we’ve got to make things happen with Windows 7 on slates, and we’re in the process of doing that as we speak.” — quote via TechFlash.

The question is that they didn’t. The most prominent OS have been Windows XP and Linux OS. Why is that? Because they are light weight enough to run on a 2GB Flash hard disk.

Gotta Be Mobile:

Intel started offering their Atom line of processors, which were cheap enough for netbooks and fast enough to run Windows. Tiny SSDs were replaced with cheap 80-160GB hard drives. Screen sizes increased to today’s 8-10″ standard. Microsoft offered better pricing for netbooks, but technologically, they didn’t do anything specifically for netbooks. At most, they convinced vendors to upsize the hardware to accommodate Windows, but they didn’t change Windows.

Microsoft got caught flat-footed by netbooks, so I cut them some slack for Vista not being ready for them and offering XP as an alternative. But after some early back and forth, the Windows 7 Starter Edition for netbooks wound up being just the basic Windows 7 operating system without premium features. It offers no netbook-specific functionality. Yes, Windows 7 is a big improvement over Vista in terms of running on the hardware, but that’s an improvement on all hardware, be it new netbook, old desktop or anything in-between.

So basically, the only thing Microsoft really made happen for netbooks is better pricing. They didn’t squeeze out Linux as the main netbook OS. They just waited for hardware improvements to allow Windows to be an option, and let their dominance of the OS market do the rest. That won’t work with tablets. If they just want to make faster and cheaper Tablet PCs, then by all means, go the netbook route. I encourage it. But as much as I love Tablet PCs, I’m not going to pretend that price is the only reason they haven’t been embraced by the consumer market these past nine years.

If Microsoft wants to make things happen for tablets, they have to do it under the hood: improve the interface, make it as easy to control with touch as it is with mouse or pen. Making business deals and waiting for hardware improvements, like they did with netbooks, isn’t enough. Unfortunately, between his talk about working with vendors and waiting for Intel’s Oak Trail processors, that’s all Steve Ballmer has claimed they would do. Whatever else may be happening on the software side, Ballmer offered no reassurances about that.

I sometimes don’t understand why those Chinese Tablet or device manufacturers won’t commoditize this opportunity to provide a simpler solution.

Charbax from ARMdevices.net rant about these custom UI like Sense UI and Motoblur being bloatware and the user SHOULD have the option of turning it off:

I am an Android fanboy. But I don’t like the different custom Android user interface designs such as Motorola Blur, HTC Sense, Samsung TouchWiz, Sony Ericsson’s nor Acer’s custom user interfaces, I think they are confusing and they are like visual bloatware. Please investigate following:

1. Is there a home replacement in the Google Marketplace that returns the full UI in Android to the default Android UI in all of the different Android phones? If not, then why isn’t Google officially releasing this default Android UI in the Google Marketplace? Does anyone have any contacts at Google to whome they could ask about this?

2. Will that Default Android UI Home Replacement provide a way to have exactly the same UI as on the Nexus One? And without voiding any of the warranties? And without consuming any extra RAM memory or slowing anything down in any way?

It’s very simple, but we need simple and definite answer on this. And we need answers from Google officially. Thanks.

I do understand that the reason for each of these different layers of designs on top of Android is that each of the phone makers feel that they have to differentiate their Android offerings from the competition. That consumers have to think that they are buying a HTC phone and that only HTC phones can do that or look like that. And so on.

But I would rather that the Android ecosystem imitate the Windows world, let all the default desktop user interfaces look the same. Stop confusing the consumers. Let them recognize the true value of the whole Android ecosystem. And phone makers should preferably compete on hardware and features for the prices.

I understand this idea is disruptive to the current Android business plans of each of the companies. But please, could we at least just get a little basic Home Replacement somewhere deep in the Google Marketplace that offers anyone with any Android phone to set it back to the Nexus One styled basic Android UI design?

I’ve been told in certain comments that Launcher Pro and some other Home Replacements were good. But I am looking for a Home Replacement that offers exactly the same UI designs as on the Nexus One. Please let me know in the comments if you know of a near or fully Nexus One UI Home Replacement that is available for any of Samsung Galaxy S, Droid X, HTC Desire, Sony Ericsson X10 or any of the other Android phones, what your experience is with it and on which of the phones.

Having to void warranties on those $500 devices just to get a normal UI is a terrible thing.

I do have to agree with Charbax here. In my previous post, I have show a clip of how well Cyanogen Mod 6 enables an old non-snapdragon processor to run the latest Android 2.2 Froyo like ROM and its pretty smooth. much smoother than the stock ROM.

Android can be optimize to run with good performance, but the more they layer these UI that not every one will appreciate in, the more it adds to cost and the more it becomes a waste.

What we need is just:

1. The latest Android ROM 2.2 or 3.0 delivered to us
2. Good Capacitative 5-10 inch screen
3. Reasonable ROM (512 and above)
4. Small Storage but with a SD Expansion
5. Good Battery life

If they could just compete and come up with something like that a lot of people will be satisfied.

We talk a fair bit about the tablet wars and for me a lot of people are hoping that Android or Chrome or Meego beat the crap out of Apple.

What we are seeing currently are more functional tablet delivered from Apple and likely most notable Windows 7 based tablets.

The SDK provided by both Android and Apple allows you to format it easily for tablets.

But we are not seeing a lot of Android software developers do that.

Take a look at iElectribe which enables the users to synthesize music on the iPad

Korg is known for many things in the music industry, not the least of which is the company’s synth tech. Korg recently decided to dive into the Apple app store with iElectribe, a digital version of the company’s Electribe series of rhythm synthesizer. Does it stack up? If our experience is anything to go by, then you bet it does.

iElectribe offers up 64 pre-set patterns ranging in genre from House to Hardcore, which allow the user to get up and going without having to create anything from scratch. The application also has 32 templates in a similarly large range of genres; this gives a basic framework which, with a little work, can turn into some pretty elaborate beats. For those who want total control, iElectribe has 64 user banks that have nothing more than a single synth trigger on the downbeat of each measure. You can load or write to any of these files using the browser functionality located underneath the application’s faux LCD.

Korg gives you eight basic sounds to work with, including a handful of synths, an open and closed hi-hat, a cymbal, and a clap/snare that can be toggled by changing the waveform. Eight sounds might not seem like much, but with the software’s ability to manipulate sounds at the most basic of levels, the number of sounds that can be created is almost limitless.

We need more apps like this on the Android and Meego

Now here is my view on why facetime could be the push to bring more users to adopt video conferencing.

Till today, video  conferencing have been limited to desktop computers. Skype have been the game changer so far bring video conferencing to the masses from what seem traditionally used specific for corporate meetings.

Facetime could win because:

• It is easy to set up. You practically don’t need to as you can immediately choose to video conference with someone. No complex configurations.

• The process is simple. When you call someone you’ll see an on-screen FaceTime icon. You can tap it, and the other person, assuming they are on Wi-Fi and have an iPhone 4, will get an invitation. If he or she accepts you’ll be chatting in just a few seconds.
• It is a built in feature. Unlike a Skype or Qik app you might need to download it or purchase then download it. There is little hassle in this and human beings does not really like to evaluate much.

If you offer someone a value added feature like this, charge them through your hardware (zero additional charges) and make the process easy and smooth, you could have a winner here.

Now here is a good breakdown by Mobility Site on a rather interesting office app called Office HD.

What i like about it is that it can assess and save documents that you have in cloud storage such as

1. Dropbox
2. Box.net
3. Mobile Me
4. Google Docs

Now the good thing is that i can envision me doing alot of productive work on the iPad. Most of my documents are stored at 1,2,4 really so this application will be interesting.

I blog abit on using QuickOffice [review here >>], which essentially enables me to assess, create and save documents on my iPhone

Whats the pet peeve? Doing Excel! How can you perform excel on a 3.5 inch!

Thats where a 10 inch comes in.

[Review of Office HD @ Mobility Site >>]

Watch this and tell me they are not trying to pick a fight here >>

Google just announce to developers what are the features that will be park of Android 2.2 Froyo and I must say that almost all the features and enhancements are good enough to compete with iPhone Ecosystem.

Speed  – The New Dalvik JIT Compiler

This was announce some time ago that it could speed up the processing and the just in time processing of the apps on the phone by 2 times to 5 times.

This is the most awesome announcement out of all the announcement.

I am a user of iPod Touch and my decision to not get an Android or a WM 6.5 device was mainly because their apps do not run as appealing or as well as fast and smooth as the apps on iPhone.

When i scroll up and down my app that takes up CPU, when i zoom in and out it takes up background processing as well.

iPhone does an awesome job on this. And they are using a much weaker CPU than most of the SnapDragon Android Phones.

Google Android needs to get it that people continue to use the iPhone because they have never had a device that experience no lag! That is one of the subtle things that keep people to use the iPhone

On most Android devices i see and with more background apps running, this lag will occur and if Android can address this lag issues with the Dalvik Compiler than it is something that can swing me to testing out this platform.

Android Cloud to Device Messaging – Push Messaging Made Easy?

Android Cloud to Device Messaging (C2DM) is a service that helps developers send data from servers to their applications on Android devices. The service provides a simple, lightweight mechanism that servers can use to tell mobile applications to contact the server directly, to fetch updated application or user data. The C2DM service handles all aspects of queueing of messages and delivery to the target application running on the target device.

This could potentially spawn off alot of good cloud apps on the platform. This is like the Push Notification for the iPhone, where your app server will be able to update your phone via this Google Cloud Application service.

App Backup and Restore

This is good. This will enable applications such as To Do List to be able to backup the data to a server through this known service and restore it from the cloud.

If this is what i am getting from the explanation. On the fly back and restore for specific app is another subtle gain changer.

Move App from Memory to SD Card

Abit like copying what Microsoft did with SD Card app installation. I personally don’t like such a feature as there is no control over the apps for a person managing their handphone

Portable HotSpot and Tethering!

I wrote alot about how you can turn your smartphones into wifi routers and Android came up with such a great inbuilt feature. Wifi Router software used to be very expensive and with this feature, you will not need to get one!

Android Market App Auto Update and Update All

This is another subtle game winner for iPhone. Alot of geeks don’t get why this feature is so big, but to us normal folks i don’t want to go somewhere and re-download an application or worry about it overriding my current data.

The Auto Update can be self destructive but Update All is a very good feature.

Full least of enhancements

• Speed
• App data backup
• Improved Enterprise / Exchange Support
• Push services – “Android Intent”
• Tethering / Mobile Hotspot
• Much faster browsing experience – V8 in browser
• New functionality in browser- Camera, orientation, geolocation
• Support for Adobe Flash and Adobe Air
• Search the Android Marketplace directly from Quick Search
• The ability to install applications on the SD card automatically
• One-button update or automatic update for apps
• The ability to purchase music from Android Marketplace
• The ability to stream your own music from your desktop

Video Intro of Froyo 2.2

A demo of Froyo

Folks who have not read my previous review can read over here what a good suite Quick Office have provided us to edit and create word documents and excel spreadsheets on the iPhone and iPod Touch.

But what if you are the savvy folks who would like to edit documents that are stored on the cloud such as Google Docs and Box.net? or my favorite application Dropbox?

The current version of Quickoffice allows you to do that!

I am an extensive user of both Google Docs and Dropbox so QuickOffice Connect is great and simple to use. Just sign in to your Google Account and your Dropbox account and you can download and edit documents from these cloud storage!

When i heard that Opera is sending their browser for the iPhone for proposal, my thoughts is that there is a 75% chance that it will get shoot down

But it didn’t and surprisingly its free! Do give it a try and tell me what you think.

From my initial experiment it is pretty snappy. Does not load up as fast as Safari, but its multitouch zoom is damn responsive.