Group items tagged

"Yesterday I mentioned a useful tip for using physical keyboards with iPads in my guide to unlocking the full potential of the iPad Pro. The tip actually works with all iOS 9 iPads connected to external keyboards over Bluetooth, Lightning, or the Smart Connector: hold Command (⌘) to see a list of supported keyboard shortcuts for the Home screen or app you're in. This works in most of Apple's built-in apps and plenty of popular third-party apps as well, but it can be monotonous prompting that sheet in each app to get a sense of what keyboard shortcuts work. Instead, I've compiled a cheat sheet of which keyboard shortcuts work in all the system apps and several popular third-party apps. Whether you're using Apple's Smart Keyboard for the iPad Pro, Magic Keyboard, Logitech's excellent K811, or any other physical keyboard, these will make you more efficient when working on your iPad."

"I am a bit mobile keyboard challenged. While I type like a maniac, I'm what anyone would call a slow texter.  I have trouble with tasks others find simple-finding the perfect emoji, as well as basics like copying and pasting.  So, for me Gboard is a major keyboard shift. Last week, the Official Google Blog announced Gboard. Available at the App Store for iPhone and iPad, Gboard is the essential keyboard app you didn't know you needed.  (Well, I kinda did.)"

"The onscreen keyboard on the iPhone 4S and iPad (3rd Generation) has a new feature, Voice Dictation. This will provide speech recognition capabilities integrated right there via the keyboard."

"Immediately after updating your iPad to iOS 9, you'll get the new features. Some of the new features you'll get are, then new multitasking features enable a new slide-over mode, where you can peek and use an app on the edge of your screen. The split-view which gives you the opportunity to make use two apps at the same time. You can even watch a video while using another app with the new picture-in-picture feature. Last of the new multitasking features is a new virtual keyboard. The keyboard which automatically turn into a trackpad for quickly navigating and editing text, and constantly offers tool shortcuts just above the keys for simply editing."

"Soundplant turns your computer keyboard into a versatile, low latency sound trigger and playable instrument. Via drag-and-drop, easily assign sound files of any format and length onto 72 keyboard keys, creating custom soundboards that put hours of instantly-playing audio at your fingertips with no extra hardware needed. Soundplant is used for live music and sound effects, as a drum pad, as a unique electronic instrument, as an educational aid, and just for fun - in radio, television, theater, podcasting, presentations, studios, classrooms, arenas, clubs, museums, and churches - by DJs, musicians, engineers, sound designers, composers, teachers, magicians, puppeteers, comedians, public speakers, gamers, and more."

Are you still using the same plastic keyboard that came with your PC? Then it's time to go for a change. Just go through this tutorial and choose an apt keyboard for your PC.

"I recently tweeted a photo of my iPad connected to classic Apple keyboard. It seemed to strike a chord with a lot of people - it was my most popular tweet ever by a wide margin actually - so I figured I'd put together a guide explaining what I was doing, why you might want to do it, and how to go about it."

"Some users have noticed that certain older iPhone and iPad models feel slower after updating to iOS 7. We've offered a variety of tips to speed things up, but one persistent issue that has we've been contacted about regards the mysterious keyboard lag and typing delay that seems to only apply to older devices, where there is a sizable delay between tapping a key and the character appearing on screen."

Listed are links to sites for practicing keyboarding. Have fun checking it all out!

"As many people with dyslexia already know, the iPad has developed into an indispensable tool for various language-based activities. During the last five years, Apple has put a great deal of effort into steadily improving the accessibility features of its mobile operating system, iOS. Currently, users can take advantage of built-in dictation, word prediction, and multiple text-to-speech options. In addition, the newest version of the operating system, iOS 8, allows for the installation of third-party keyboards. These mark an increase in the amount of assistive technology (AT) that can be used universally with iPad apps involving reading and writing."

"A screencast giving tips on how to make best use of the keyboard on an iPad"

"Learning to type well on the touchscreen keyboards of an iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch can take some time. To speed that process up, here are a handful of great tips to make typing on iOS virtual keys much easier and faster. Some of these you'll probably know and some you probably won't, but all are very worthwhile to learn and master:"

"Pen Mightier Than Keyboard for Making Imprint on Brain"

A great collection of keyboarding games for kids

"Apple may never give us a touchscreen MacBook, but, for now, we have the next best thing: The iPad Pro and its companion Smart Keyboard. This once-fabled behemoth of a tablet is now real and, to be frank, rather remarkable. At 12.9 inches, its screen is as large as two iPad Air 2 screens side-by-side (portrait-style, of course), and with a new A9X chip, it has power to burn and seems up to virtually any task. It's the iPad that finally makes sense of Apple's dual-paned, multi-tasking metaphor the company unveiled with iOS 9. To call it simply "the next iPad," however, is misleading. When paired with the Smart Keyboard and Apple Pencil, the iPad Pro's tablet personality recedes, and a workhorse steps forward."