One of the things that bugs me about software input panels is that when you're using a device in landscape mode, the panel shoves everything else off the screen to the point where you can't see what you're doing. Even in portrait mode, the popup panel can be a little annoying, and I can just imagine the angst with square screens. Tom Jaros at Empower Mobility thinks he has a potential answer to this problem - make a vertical keyboard (see pic above). The mockup displayed has the SIP coming out of the left or right, or alternatively split in two. As the owner of a fairly large device (ok, it's a brick), this idea is pretty attractive and I'd love to see something like this developed. But before that can happen, Tom wants some feedback from the community about what you'd like to see, and whether you'd use an app like this - bear in mind that the picture displayed is a mockup, and will definitely be refined. Thumb/finger friendly keys is one area of improvement, and layouts that would help increase data entry is another. If anybody has any thoughts on this you can drop in on the
Empower Mobility website and take the survey, or just post your comments right here. So, what do you guys think?