Notices

I'm a supporter of a portrait keyboards on mobile devices. I know it's a bit premature to ask developers to make a portrait keyboard for Fremantle, but I would be willing to pay up to $30 for a usable full-screen portrait keyboard for Diablo.

I know most people don't like full screen portrait keyboards, and I know the n810 was not really designed to be used in this orientation. I just find portrait orientation incredibly useful for some tasks. I know there are various other solutions, but most are *very* tiny and designed primarily for stylus use, while I prefer using my fingers.

So, I would like to encourage development for a Diablo full-screen portrait keyboard. Developers should consider the possibility of being able to port it to Fremantle as well.

What I would like to see in the portrait keyboard:
- A full english qwerty portrait style keyboard similar to the current landscape keyboard, with key layouts similar to the iPod or Android portrait keyboards, with all symbols, etc. included in the original landscape keyboard
- A keyboard that hides the default keyboard when it is run (and restores the default keyboard on exit)
- A keyboard that automatically opens when clicking in a text field (similar to the behavior of the current landscape keyboard)

Useful additions would consist of:
- Half-screen keyboard support, for those who prefer seeing background applications while typing
- Custom layout support (ex: I use the @ symbol more than the letter Z, so I would like to be able to replace the letter Z with the @ symbol. I also like the enter key to be bigger than the backspace key, so I would like to be able to customize that).
- Keyboard key animations (similar to iPod touch/iPhone) that show the letter you are selecting in a small bubble above the clicked key
- Keyboard sound support: where the keyboard makes a toggle-able (able to turn on/off feature) sound when keys are selected
- Automatic switching: where the keyboard somehow keeps track of when the screen is changed from portrait to landscape and vice versa with some sort of counter and automatically opens the correct keyboard when clicking in a text field.
- Numeric keyboard mode (number keyboard that supports letter input by selecting the number a certain number of times (ex.: select number 1 twice for b, three times for c, etc.) -- similar to most basic (non-qwerty) phone number-keypad entry)
- Custom theming support (would really be a nice touch)
- Additional language support (so more people can use it)

I have no comprehension of how difficult this task this is (or if it is even possible), so I don't know if the offered "bounty" is too small/big or acceptable. I *may* be willing to go up to $50, but I would expect a very nice keyboard (with all useful additions and several themes included). Sadly, that's my upper limit, since I'm a college student with limited resources.

Let me know if you think the bounty is good enough (I can't offer more money myself, but maybe we can set up a donation pool? -- just a thought).

Please post in this thread if you are interested. I would prefer that to a PM, since it will allow you to pick up on other suggestions, etc.

Please do not post in this thread if you do not have a constructive comment directly related to the topic. I would like to keep the thread extremely focused so that potential developers do not have to go though unrelated comments like "I won't use a portrait keyboard", etc.

I would like development to be completed on a decently reasonable time schedule (4 months maximum for a day-to-day usable product), and my final decision of who receives the bounty will be decided then (end of January) unless an extremely polished and final product is achieved before that time.

Groups of developers can submit as a "team" to receive the bounty and split it however decided.

I am currently considering awarding the bounty through Paypal; let me know if you have any other suggestions.

Note: I am not the most active member in the forums (and I know many people keep more up-to-date with applications developed here), so I would appreciate if someone would direct me to an already developed application that does what I'm looking for (if one exists).

Thanks!

As linuxeventually pointed out, this is a very doable task, but to get full screen support with advanced features it may have to be written from scratch.
Other keyboards (what I referred to when I said they were too small -- they work for some people, just not me):

I wonder if most people have seen this thread? I created it pretty late, so I'm bumping it to bring it to the attention of more forum members.

Please reply with relevant comments about:
- bounty fairness
- offers to develop
- suggestions on how I should pay out the bounty
- other similar portrait full-screen keyboard programs