I’m sure I could get used to the software keyboard — in fact, I see people from time to time who seem faster typing on it than a real one

//

Oh yes, I know a few.

Sent from my iPad :)

I can't get used to it. I'm gonna need something like Swype.

Do use iPhone? I've always been a fast typist on iPhone so iPad was a natural extension. Now the iPhone keyboard feels small. My hands are definitely bigger than average (long and wide fingers).

Seem is the key word. Obviously I type faster on a "normal" keyboard, but iOS features auto-correct, which (in)famously can help make up for lack of tactile feedback/accuracy.

I think MG's most salient point; we are already a generation behind. The 7-year-old, for him, iOS and touch screen input is his primary input. I learned to type on a standard laptop keyboard at his age with Mavis beacon. He will learn through repetition and on iPad. That's mindblowing, if only because at 24 it's unsettling to think that there are one or two generations of technology users already living who use technology different than I do.

iOS autocorrect regularly corrects with the wrong thing.

What's the key to fast typing on these devices? Using more than a pointer finger?

It does, but it also regularly corrects with the right thing.

Two keys.

1. Trust autocorrect but also review and delete when it doesn't deliver the right word. This allows greater speed because I'm not worried about the same kind of accuracy I'd need on a regularl keyboard. This paragraph I've had to re-type the words, but it also auto-completed or auto-corrected six words.

2. For an iPad, I type on it just like a normal keyboard in landscape mode (or with thumbs in portrait mode). For this reason I wouldn't buy a 7" iPad or tablet -- not big enough to type with two hands on a QWERTY keyboard. iPhone one thumb in vertical or two thums in landscape.

Hmmm, thumbs only seems like an inefficient way to type.

Something like Swype would be way better, no?

McKayla is not impressed: http://techcrunch.com/2012/06/20/nuance-supercharges-swype-adds-new-keyboard-options-xt9-predictive-text-and-dragon-powered-voice-input/