Symbian-Guru - Latest Comments in R.I.P Pen Key, You Will Be Missed

Re: R.I.P Pen Key, You Will Be Missed

åke — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 09:38:00 -0000

About those symbols.. Just press and hold the * key for 0.2 seconds ans all symbols will pop up......

Re: R.I.P Pen Key, You Will Be Missed

Imran — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 18:00:44 -0000

Oh wow this sucks, this is gonna take some getting used to :( Loving the pen button since my 3650 <3

Re: R.I.P Pen Key, You Will Be Missed

Dotsisx — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 13:28:54 -0000

Antony,
I bet a lot of developers had to modify their software when the pen was removed, just like you. Just getting multiple selection to work with the # instead of the pen must have made a hundred developers angry.

Re: R.I.P Pen Key, You Will Be Missed

Antony Pranata — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 12:14:19 -0000

I'm with you... I was having a problem with my Screenshot application. After they remove Pen key, I have to re-introduce some new shortcuts. The thing is Forum Nokia doesn't recommend us to "capture" all keys in the numeric pad (0..9, #, *) -> http://wiki.forum.nokia.com...

Re: R.I.P Pen Key, You Will Be Missed

Another Stefan — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 02:46:04 -0000

The N82 being my first S60 device I have no previous experience but still find it awkward to do copy/paste this way. At least the functionality is there.

A pen key would make explaining it to other users easier I guess and tech savvy people will experiment with an unknown key. So a separate pen key definitely makes the functionality much more visible.

Re: R.I.P Pen Key, You Will Be Missed

Dotsisx — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 01:23:12 -0000

VJ,
I couldn't agree more. I was thinking about it myself, and I believe there's nothing appealing coming from Nokia now other than the S60 Touch devices. The N96 is good looking, but it's not THAT much of an improvement over the N95. I previously said that the N96 might not be the device for current N95 owners, but I didn't know any better, since I didn't have an N95 by then. Now I do, and I feel that S60 Touch is my next logical step. Plus as you said, a touchscreen would make a good replacement for the pen key.

Razor 1973,
I get that a lot, the Dotsisx name I mean. I kinda sorta agree with your explanation, problem is that I haven't met any user who was "afraid of" (or unlikely to) getting an Nseries because they didn't know how to use the pen. But that may be just my society. An Nseries is cool, no matter what it has, does or retails for.

Re: R.I.P Pen Key, You Will Be Missed

VJ — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 23:22:50 -0000

Well thank havens the Pen key is there on ma N95 GB.
I totally agree with the article that it plays a very imp. role &
should not be replaced.

To save my self the pain & agony of usinga device without the pencil key,
I would may be wait for Nokia's 5th Gen Touch UI phone.

LOL.... that ought to give some redemption ;-)

Re: R.I.P Pen Key, You Will Be Missed

Jakob — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 19:54:38 -0000

NOs i love the pen key. i use it almost every day for one thing or another. mostly when i write text messages its the key i press to switch between number mode and alpha mode on my n73. what a travisty! hopefully i'll get lucky and when they finally release the n82 with us 3g (not really holding my breath) it'll still have the key on it.

to be honest for the first 5 or 6 months i owned my n73 i had no clue what the pen key was used for. but after i figured it out, it was like opening up a lexicon of new possibilities.

damn man bad move nokia bad move. next you'll hear that they want to get rid of teh task manager key!

Re: R.I.P Pen Key, You Will Be Missed

mr. gunn — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 18:15:22 -0000

It's a classical problem, making your UI simple enough for first time users but not too dumbed down that power users get annoyed. I think this is a move in the wrong direction, especially for the high-end devices that are mostly bought by experienced users anyways.

Ahhh...at least Nokia isn't as prone to branding disasters as ATT! "Tab Top?" Gimme a break, losers!

Re: R.I.P Pen Key, You Will Be Missed

Razor1973 — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 17:43:20 -0000

Dotsisx (hey, I just got your name! *LOL*), this seems to be nothing but a marketing move. Yes, the new method is still obscure to most users (actually, even more obscure than the PEN key), but at least they don't see a key there that they don't understand and may drive them away from buying their first S60 phone afraid they will not know how to use it. So Nokia may have made this move in favor or getting new S60 adopters, but alienating their current following. Still a bad move in my opinion.

Re: R.I.P Pen Key, You Will Be Missed

Dotsisx — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 14:48:09 -0000

Sirul,
I never paid attention to the fact that we could still use # to copy/paste (and not only select files or text and then use Options to c/p). Thanks for mentioning it, but that also brings me back to my question: now that there's no dedicated key for it, people are less likely to discover it. I just don't get it.

Re: R.I.P Pen Key, You Will Be Missed

Tarek Ghazali — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 14:22:43 -0000

Totally agree with you in every point Rita

Re: R.I.P Pen Key, You Will Be Missed

Dotsisx — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 13:50:45 -0000

Al7AIR
I am glad you got used to it, as you see not many people can even think about it. I had the N81 for two weeks and there were moments I swear I was going to start banging my head against the wall.

Re: R.I.P Pen Key, You Will Be Missed

Sirul — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 13:30:14 -0000

The copy/paste and select functions are almost intact in the # key. You just have to keep it hold and move arrows to select for copy/past (when editing text) or to mark when in a list. To paste just keep hold a short time and you'll get the same menu as with the pencil. It's almost identical, I'm using now the N82 coming from the N80 and I don't miss anything but the shortcuts from NStarter or Screenshot... but this is 3rd party software using just this for hotkey specifically. The Shift/Capslock/Numlock is identical for me, at least compared to the N80. And the symbols as åke says are just there holding *.

Perhaps the problem is the same as with the pencil, functionality is there but not clear enough. Maybe the welcome wizard should show these things or some kind of popups tips should waiting for the first time this keys are pressed or maybe used to show how they work for 1st time users.

Re: R.I.P Pen Key, You Will Be Missed

Cribbagegeek — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 12:58:08 -0000

I use the pen key all the time. In fact, the copy/paste capability it gives me is one of the major reasons moving to a non-touch screen PDA (I previously used Nokia Series 40 phones and a separate Windows Mobile PDA) was a viable avenue for me.

Without it, I fear I will grow annoyed, enraged, and prone to look for other alternatives. Most likely in that order.

Re: R.I.P Pen Key, You Will Be Missed

Razor1973 — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 12:48:09 -0000

I couldn't do without the PEN key in a non-QWERTY S60 device, period. Luckily, I currently use QWERTY devices (E61 and E61i) and plan upgrading only to the successor (E71?) or the upcoming Nseries QWERTY. Bad move on Nokia's part, I agree.

Re: R.I.P Pen Key, You Will Be Missed

åke — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 11:33:36 -0000

About those symbols.. Just press and hold the * key for 0.2 seconds ans all symbols will pop up......

Re: R.I.P Pen Key, You Will Be Missed

AL7AIR — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 08:05:39 -0000

I was actually surprised to see the pen key again on some newer devices, because my Nokia 6290 which launched alongside the original N95 already replaced it with the hash key.

And no, new device, new means of input, so no trouble adapting from pen to #.

The only key replacement that bothered me a little was the "4 way launcher", on my 6290 I pushed it and was presented with an additional configurable shortcut menu, on my N-Series device however it launches the spinning menu which is okay if you need quick access to both your latest pictures and videos, but the contacts one for example is redundant in my humble opinion as you can access more contacts quicker using speed dial, so is the bookmark pane which has more options and entries in the browser directly.

Re: R.I.P Pen Key, You Will Be Missed

mixrdrivr — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 08:02:19 -0000

Thankfully, I havnt reached the point of having a device without the pen key.. Im using am N95-3. In thinking about this new mapping sequence though, it sounds like its going to be one hell of an annoyance. I use the pen key all the time, and have used it since my first S60, the 3650. I am not relishing the thought of having to retrain my keypress techniques.