Word Suggestion / Prediction with the Droid's hardware keyboard ?

[pushdrops]

This seems simple but I haven't been able to find an answer yet (searching this and other forums) :

Is there a way (or will there be in the future) to enable the (excellent in my opinion - so good I always use the virtual keyboard) Word Prediction / Suggestion feature of the Droid's Virtual Keyboard when using the Hardware Keyboard?

It doesn't make sense to have such an excellent feature that is available when using the virtual keyboard not be accessible when using the hardware keyboard.

I bought the Droid mainly because of it's hardware keyboard - I had an iPhone 3gs for work & with it and my wife's Eris , I always have problems entering text using the virtual keyboards (she doesn't) - but with the Droid I am really good with the virtual keyboard (so much I can even use it well in portrait mode).

The fact that I'm good with the Droid's virtual keyboard & that it has the great Suggestion feature (so I rarely have to type more than a few characters now that I have my custom dictionary setup) means I haven't even used the h/w keyboard very much - because it just doesn't feel to good to me - though if it had the same Suggestion / Prediction features as the virtual keyboard , I'd prob try to use (get used to) the Droid's h/w keyboard more - but the fact that I can't spell very well and the h/w keyboard doesn't cut it with the correction / suggestion - I simply just stick with the virtual keyboard (which I admit I'm pretty much used to enough to even forget about the h/w keyboard & possibly figure out how to move to a Nexus One since I have a week left to return the Droid).

If I could get the Droid's h/w keyboard to use the suggestion / correction avail with the virtual keyboard , I'd maybe start using it more making it worth keeping, so I'm hoping there's a way to enable what I'm looking for when it comes to the h/w keyboard (because canceling Verizon and trying to figure out how to move to T-Mobile for 2 phones when there doesn't seem to be a family plan for that model is gonna be a big pain, I want at least a reason to wanna keep the Droid cause knowing the Nexus One is already out there and I just bought the Droid and not being happy Whit it's h/w keyboard and smaller <width> washed out <hopefully contrast can be adjusted in the future> display ....)

Thanks for any info on getting the h/w keyboard to use the virtual's suggestion / prediction features.

[JonV]

Son of a gun. Never fails. I just read about an app on Market that supplied prediction to the hard KB. Now the trick is to find it. I check on a couple-three fourms so let me see. I recall it costing $1.99 and so I didn't grab it right away.

I hate getting old(er). The memory just ain't what it used to be!

EDIT. Thank goodness that Market retains its searches so I found it that way. Search "Talk To Me Keyboard" (not just Talk to Me as that's a different app). It's $.99 actually and it adds correction to physical keyboard it says. It also provides speech-to-text services. Discussion of 2.1's speech feature is what brought this app up in the dicussion I was reading.

[breakmyfootoff]

Good info I didnt know the Talk to Me keyboard added predictive text to the Physical KB

[pushdrops]

I will check out the Talk To Me Keyboard app & report back in a few days.

Thanks for the info (why couldn't Motorola have provided this stock?????)

[Adrynalyne]

Because it slows down the performance of a hardware keyboard immensely.

[pushdrops]

Originally Posted by Adrynalyne

Because it slows down the performance of a hardware keyboard immensely.

Do you mean because physically you'd find it to slow you down or are you saying that system resources will be pushed (resulting in poor performance)?

Before I purchase the app I'm curious. Thanks.

[Adrynalyne]

I dont know of any app out there that currently pushes the Droid. I mean, slows you down. I don't know that it would slow the phone down at all.

I reccomend you try a different approach first.

http://www.droidforums.net/forum/dro...u-welcome.html

[pushdrops]

That option would be ok if one didn't mind also replacing the stock Droid virtual kb with the HTC virtual keyboard.

Hopefully Motorola will add the same suggestion features to the h/w keyboard that are included with the virtual.

[Adrynalyne]

The paid option will still replace the stock keyboard too, though. I was just saying to use that, to see if its something you really want to do before buying something.

[pushdrops]

I see all of that, thanks for the info (that thread link) or i wouldn't have realized (that both / all options so far will change the entire keyboard system - not just add predictive text to the h/w) , in time i think we'll have a solution , also access to the contrast settings i bet too