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Fix the iOS keyboard before the timer hits zero or I'm switching back to Android

1306 pointsby ozzyphantomyesterday at 2:21 PM658 commentsview on HN

Comments

someanticsyesterday at 8:51 PM

"Now you're just a fruit that I used to know." Sounds like the title for a FANTASTIC song parody idea.

KaiserProyesterday at 4:44 PM

The website sucks because I had to do work to understand the problem.

HOWEVER, the bug is interesting.

I can't reproduce this bug, but I have a suspicion as to what it is. As pointed out in the linked video the hitbox for buttons changes size based on predicted next letters.

The hitboxes are dynamic based on the most likley next letter. But that changes depends on your typing style. For example my real name is similar but not the same to a common english name. however both auto correct and the dynmaic hitbox allows me to reliably type my name, now.

This took time, but when I recently got a new work phone, I had to train it to accept my name.

TLDR: I don't think its a bug, I think its a learnt behaviour based on your most common words.

someanticsyesterday at 8:51 PM

"Now you're just a fruit that I used to know." Sounds like a fantastic song parody idea.

puttycatyesterday at 4:29 PM

I keep an iPhone SE 1st gen as a secondary phone. It still has the last best keyboard iOS had. Almost zero mistakes. Probably because no AI and other overoptimizitation BS. Every time I go back to my primary 13 I want to cry.

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TheAtomicyesterday at 3:33 PM

"We want to surprise and delight our customers" turned into fuck with and frustrate.

system2yesterday at 6:22 PM

APPLE, this is real, stop ignoring it, I even looked at Samsung phones last week because of this. The amount of time I waste trying to correct or select mid-words is insane.

dubeyeyesterday at 3:57 PM

don't panic, he's bluffing

neuroelectronyesterday at 6:03 PM

Anyone else feel like they're doing this on purpose because they want people contributing less words to the Internet, kind of like a throttle on training data, social media and communications?

Think about how much slower the output of the entire human race is because of one software issue.

metabagelyesterday at 3:56 PM

What’s really disappointing is that Apple is making money hand over fist, and yet they seemingly make so little effort. Please Apple, for the love of all that is holy, fix cmd-tab, Ctrl-tab, and desktops on the Mac.

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riversflowyesterday at 5:46 PM

Maybe try this? I have great results on the ios keyboard by simply making two changes to the keyboard settings. I turn off auto-correct, and turn off slide to type. I made this transition when they first introduced slide to type, as that setting changes the touch algorithm to prefer where you lift from vs where you tap initially, or at least that’s how it felt. I also have turned off predictive text because I never use it, it’s faster for me to just type out the words than it for me to watch the predictive text.

Rover222yesterday at 7:00 PM

I swear the current IOS keyboard is gaslighting me for some reason every time I use it. It's like a low-key torture.

SilverElfinyesterday at 5:14 PM

They broke text selection and autocorrected things they don’t need it. Completely broken.

thenaturalistyesterday at 5:06 PM

Ain't gonna change nothing as long as the phones sell themselves.

Apple is beholden to its stockholders, not its customers.

jeffrallenyesterday at 4:39 PM

Apple: "you're holding it wrong"

kittikittiyesterday at 4:31 PM

I stand by this pledge. I even have a Clicks keyboard to avoid the iPhone one. I have an interesting hypothesis as to why, and it's counterintuitive. The larger the screen gets, the less accurate a touchscreen keyboard is. I picked up an original iPhone and started typing and it was outstanding how accurately and quickly I did.

Let's take an exaggerated example. Surely, a touchscreen keyboard the size of a flatscreen TV is too large. Maybe even the size of a regular computer monitor. So where is the happy spot, and why? I think it's because of our manual error-correction and the software error-correction. On the smaller iPhone keyboard, if I make a mistake, it's obvious and I click the backspace key. There's much less software error-correction on a smaller screen because of a smaller room for error per key. On larger screens, I find that if I touch a key at a certain angle, it will register an adjacent key through the software. I also find that my fingers have to travel farther, and that increases the rate of errors. Not only that, the obsession with decreasing bezel size requires me to hold the phone in weird ways so it doesn't register a swipe from the sides.

Personally, the iPhone 6 was peak iPhone. I find that the obsession with decreasing bezel size is also compulsive because it significantly increases miss-swipes and introduces weird work-arounds like the "notch", "island", or hidden sensors. The flat screen also made the keyboard desirable. It was also slow enough so that the surveillance from the autocorrect wasn't useful but fast enough for everything else.

deadbabeyesterday at 4:20 PM

> But I'd like to think it should mean something to the engineers, UX designers, product people, and whoever else had a hand in building this thing.

It means literally nothing. The people working at Apple now are just there for the paycheck. They push some prompts into an LLM, pick through the output, push something to production that satisfies the acceptance criteria, and move on.

There is no one staying up late doing extensive testing and refinement to get things perfect. There is no one taking pride in the work they’ve done when they push keys on the iOS keyboard. All that has been cut up and distributed through a system of tickets, teams, and managers so that the amount of pride that finally trickles down to engineers is barely more than the pride of taking a big shit.

varispeedyesterday at 3:53 PM

You would think someone had undergone a lobotomy or is having a stroke until you realise they have an iPhone. The autocorrect is so funny.

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fragmedeyesterday at 3:48 PM

Google keyboard, anyone?

cloudheadyesterday at 8:41 PM

Uhm yeah, a touch screen is not a keyboard. It will never be one.

nixosbestosyesterday at 3:16 PM

> I caved to the blue bubble pressure

Had me until then. Zero respect for this, frankly.

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lpeancovschiyesterday at 6:48 PM

Just use SwiftKey

dwa3592yesterday at 3:28 PM

Apple's keyboard sucks on my iphone too. Everytime the autocorrect fucks up, I swear at tim cook in my head.

thepaulthomsonyesterday at 6:37 PM

"now you're just a fruit that I used to know"

mberningyesterday at 6:37 PM

It’s honestly embarrassing that no leader at apple has enough juice to get this done.

john_alanyesterday at 5:21 PM

If iOS/macOS 27 isn't a snow leopard I'm gone too, I've been a user for nearly 30 decades... fuck this, it's all so sloppy, too many grievances to even begin enumerating.

devguy2yesterday at 8:53 PM

Imagine being so full of oneself that you set up a webpage to tell a Trillion-dollar company you might not buy their stuff anymore.

ChrisArchitectyesterday at 3:44 PM

Ah yes, previously, the much-submitted, but took 2 months to get any traction, video:

iPhone Typos? It's Not Just You – The iOS Keyboard Is Broken [video]

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46232528

hnthrowaway0315yesterday at 7:09 PM

What's the point of this web page?

stackedinserteryesterday at 6:28 PM

HN, fix this stupid top navigation bar, or I'm leaving HN. Timer's started.

julienreszkayesterday at 4:23 PM

agreed, found an old android phone from 10 years ago it was better at typing than the latest (dogshit) iphone keyboard

learingsciyesterday at 10:45 PM

I for one enjoy the plausible deniability afforded by the iOS keyboard. On occasion I may make intemperate remarks online or curse at someone I shouldn’t. With an iPhone, I can just follow up with “sorry, iOS keyboard!” or “oops spellcheck” and nobody gives it a second thought.

carlosjobimyesterday at 3:17 PM

Impotent rage if I ever saw it. Where is the capacity of feeling shame or embarrassment?

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SamuelAdamsyesterday at 3:24 PM

This seem like an odd take. Android has bugs too, you just haven’t used it long enough to notice.

nekusaryesterday at 6:43 PM

Random whiner is whining.

News at 11?

everyoneyesterday at 6:28 PM

Bro just leave, and switch to Linux phone.. Android is also totally shit.

peteriszayesterday at 6:12 PM

just switch bro

ihaveoneyesterday at 4:40 PM

"Oh no. Anyways"

postflopclarityyesterday at 3:17 PM

it's so infuriating how bad I am at typing now.

noripcordyesterday at 10:47 PM

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lcfcjs6yesterday at 4:37 PM

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scottscambaughyesterday at 11:42 PM

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techsystemsyesterday at 4:58 PM

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abetancortyesterday at 11:43 PM

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knowitnone3yesterday at 4:03 PM

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PlatoIsADiseaseyesterday at 3:31 PM

>i'm weak

>I caved to the blue bubble pressure

This is basically how I view iphone users. They buy an inferior product because Apple exploited their lack of status. From moms, to teens, to low-middle income people... Heck, its even infected some perpetually single techies who are so insecure they buy the inferior Apple product.

These companies that exploit such psychology is disgusting. From Apple to Nintendo to Disney, there is something that feels immoral about how they market to their customers.

And you bet they have contracted out some marketing team to patrol every social media to downvote/upvote/comment as 'reputation management'...But hey they contracted them, plausible deniability.

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hyperhelloyesterday at 3:24 PM

I did a lot of classic Mac programming in its day. I knew how to react to the events, and how to use a Color QuickDraw window’s RefCon, and how to mark parts of a window for redraw.

I don’t understand how it works internally anymore. I mean I can program it, but none of the way linear logic used to apply.

I’m concerned that it’s internally very overcomplicated, because that’s how software is supposed to be designed now, but the “simplicity” is like a second system effect. A whole layer that makes clicking a button appear to work, when really there is no code flow that resembles the process.

notorandityesterday at 8:15 PM

There's clearly something wrong here.

Either this user is faking everything about the keyboard, or Apple is.

None is testing (the keyboard) at Apple? Possible, but unlikely.

None is checking test results at Apple, possible and much less unlikely.

They want you to forget about the keyboard and go all vocal because "it's easier"? Sure.

That user wants his/her 15 minutes og glory? Possible, but unlikely.

shevy-javayesterday at 6:38 PM

It's a bit strange because why purchase from Apple but then complain? If the quality is below the expectation; and/or the price too high, people can choose with their money to purchase something else. Viewed more objectively most people probably don't consider this to be a main impetus for people abandoning iPhone. I have not purchased any apple-specific hardware, but to me it is strange to e. g. make Apple big (by purchasing their stuff) and then assume there would be many people who are angry at Apple. That does not appear to make a whole lot of sense.

speak_plainlyyesterday at 3:24 PM

Terrorizing Apple with a countdown threat is probably not going to accomplish much.

You could try installing Gboard (https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/gboard-the-google-keyboard/id1...), or SwiftKey (https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/microsoft-swiftkey-ai-keyboard...)...and there are probably other options.

It may be even more obvious, but there are settings in general/keyboard that you can toggle.

I noticed a bit of a shift in the stock typing experience, but I adapted and it's fine.

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