Ok, so the Samsung Galaxy K4 firmware update includes a new virtual keyboard alternative, named "Samsung keyboard", in addition to the stardard "Android keyboard". 
(Sorry, I have yet to succeed in taking screen shots; I will post some if I find any.)
What are your thoughts on this?
There are a bunch of different layouts ("Qwerty", "12 keypad", "20 keypad"), all accessible from a popup menu.
All layouts seem to be missing a shift key (relying instead of a popup selection for "abc"/"Abc"/"ABC"/"Numeric and symbols"/"Emoticons"), and there seems to be no press-for-variants feature to access characters with umlauts.
You can set the keyboard language. Available languages are: Automatic (based on carrier?), English, German, Dutch, Polish, French, Czech, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese.
All layouts use T9 prediction, and the dictionary adapts to the selected language. Also, it appears that the dictionary is not shared with the Andoid user dictionary (accessible within Settings->Locale).
Personally, ...
I like that they've done it. It shows that Samsung have not completely given up support for this device, that they do have developers assigned to it.
The keys are nice and large, and they've made good use of the landscape format. I don't know if they are using a context-sensitive key-enlarging-function like HTC have, but my typo rate seems to have decreased.
I find the lack of a shift key very inconvenient, especially when entering passwords. Having to open a popup to enter a capital is two, three, maybe four additional taps -- they could have made much better use of long-press and off-key swipes.
The lack of the press-for-variants feature means that, if you require umlauts, you must either switch to the appropriate language or, if it doesn't exist, use another keyboard. Since none of the Scandinavian languages are supported, I cannot use this keyboard. What a shame.
(Sorry, I have yet to succeed in taking screen shots; I will post some if I find any.)
What are your thoughts on this?
Personally, ...
I like that they've done it. It shows that Samsung have not completely given up support for this device, that they do have developers assigned to it. The keys are nice and large, and they've made good use of the landscape format. I don't know if they are using a context-sensitive key-enlarging-function like HTC have, but my typo rate seems to have decreased. I find the lack of a shift key very inconvenient, especially when entering passwords. Having to open a popup to enter a capital is two, three, maybe four additional taps -- they could have made much better use of long-press and off-key swipes. The lack of the press-for-variants feature means that, if you require umlauts, you must either switch to the appropriate language or, if it doesn't exist, use another keyboard. Since none of the Scandinavian languages are supported, I cannot use this keyboard. What a shame.
