#WRITEROOM UPGRADE DISCUSSION UPDATE#
#WRITEROOM UPGRADE DISCUSSION SOFTWARE#
#WRITEROOM UPGRADE DISCUSSION ISO#

#WRITEROOM UPGRADE DISCUSSION SOFTWARE#

Now, on this backdrop, it seems that there still is a counter-current of software that does get in the way of the user intentionally. The holy grail of great software: becoming invisible, transparent for the user. What remained was just the human experience, the long distance relationships and stories about people. See what just happened there? From the second sentence in giving feedback on software, the software dissapeared. It is so cool, it feels like being in the same room! Last week I was talking to my grandma, who has been living in Australia forвЂ¦. Well, I like how I simply click on my relativeвЂ™s name and then just click the green button and then she appears on the entire screen and we can just talk for an hour. (See: WriteRoom or Sparrow).ДЄlmost every time I ask a stranger about what they like or dislike about Skype software, it goes something like this: More than 30 years (an eternity!) have passed since the first word processor and email clients, but there are still new ones entering the market iterating further to remove вЂњunnecessary obstaclesвЂќ and to get out of the way from the userвЂ™s intent: to write stuff and send it away.

#WRITEROOM UPGRADE DISCUSSION ISO#

There is even an ISO standard that tries to define usability via effectiveness (task completion), efficiency (tasks in time) and user satisfaction. We praise the removal of clutter and friction, admire the software makers that are brave enough to remove features instead of adding them. That being said, the author is allowed to set his price, and it's not a bad one for those dying for e-mail landscape mode.A quite a commonly agreed measure of goodness of user experience design is that software should get out of the way from what the user wants to achieve. After talking to one developer, he pretty much confirmed my suspicion that an application like this would take only a couple of hours to code. However, the simplicity of the app makes you wish it was free. When it comes right down to it, $0.99 isn't much, especially if you do a lot of e-mailing on your device. Also, as far as I can tell, reply functionality is limited to only TouchType (hitting reply in mail and then opening WriteRoom or Text Guru and pasting creates a new mail message and does not paste it into the current e-mail like TouchType).

These two offer some added functionality, too, but at a cost.

It should be noted that there are other iPhone applications, like WriteRoom and TextGuru, that also allow you to type in landscape mode and then paste into a mail document. The application has no additional features it just has some basic instructions and the ability to clear out the current message. Upon pressing a UI element, it is pasted into a new e-mail. Instead, the landscape typing is done in entirely in the TouchType application, which can be used in landscape or portrait mode. This means you wont be launching Mail and suddenly be enjoying landscape keyboard goodness. The first thing that should be noted about TouchType is that it doesn't actually add the functionality to the Mail application. Instead, I will give you a quick look at an application called TouchType, which claims to bring landscape typing to the eager masses.

#WRITEROOM UPGRADE DISCUSSION UPDATE#

While I would like to be giving you news that Apple has seen the light and has released an update that will provide landscape functionality in Mail, I can't. For many, the portrait keyboard just doesn't cut it it's cramped, slower, and increases the chances of typos. Ever since the iPhone made its debut a little over a year ago, people have been pining for Apple's built-in mail application to support landscape mode text entry.

Writeroom upgrade discussion