Touch screen vs QWERTY keyboard

This is a very interesting debate and one that may affect your views about iPhone insurance.

Let’s dismiss at the outset that this is a debate about technology – it isn’t. The basic technology surrounding the QWERTY keyboard has been stable for decades and goes back to typewriters ultimately.

Touch-screen technology has also been around for many decades, even though it’s use in modern mobile phones (such as iPhones), pads, and PDAs etc, is more recent.

In the end, this debate becomes about two things far more mundane than technology:

• your fingers
• your personal preferences

The problem has arisen because all smart devices need you to tell them what you want them to do. Whether that’s making a phone call, browsing the net, sending an email or taking a photo – you have to communicate to your gadgets what you want them to do.

Clever as the techies are, they still haven’t found a way of doing anything about the size of the human finger.  Yes, there is the stylus but many people find that to be a little tedious and limiting so we’re stuck with the digit.

At least that’s the case until someone finally cracks voice recognition.

As we demand ever smaller and more portable devices, there is a real limit as to how far that can go before the device becomes too small for a typical human finger to ‘use’.

So, using a touch screen whether via apps icons or QWERTY keypad on the screen itself may suit some.  However, others may find that for bulk text entry (such as emails or letters) then a ‘real’ keyboard is a plus – as per many of the BlackBerry range.

However, the smaller size of gadgets and the standard unshrinkable size of the human hand also mean that the gadgets are becoming ever easier to drop.  That’s why thinking about your iPhone insurance cover might be prudent.

If your iPhone is in multiple pieces on the floor, you may be a lot less concerned about the respective merits of keyboards vs touch screen than about just how effective that iPhone insurance really is!