Friday, June 11, 2010

Where's the % sign on the Blackberry Keyboard?

I just got a new Blackberry cell phone and was most excited about having an actual keyboard to use to type text messages. I was tired of hitting the same button 4 times to get an “s” on screen. But when texting a comment about our rain chances, I was dismayed to find there is no percent sign (%) on the keyboard. After typing the word out, I realized I could have used the letter o, a slash, and the letter o which is probably what we used to type on manual typewriters. It’s ironic that the “QWERTY” layout of the characters on the keyboard was designed to prevent the metal keys from jamming while typing on a manual typewriter. I learned to use all my fingers on the keyboard when I took a typing class in high school, but today toddlers are using keyboards. So, I wonder if they might want to change the layout of the keyboard in the near future. Hopefully, the standard QWERTY keyboard won’t go away like 8-track tapes.
 

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