Valley Cottage, New York – Natural Designs Software is pleased to announce PadKeys Keyboard 1.3, an improvement to their well-regarded iOS custom keyboard for iPad users. PadKeys utilizes the extra real estate tablet screens have over phones to provide number, punctuation and cursor keys in accustomed places, and to display expanded autocorrect suggestions. The innovative layout is ergonomic as well, with frequently-used keys sized larger for typing speed and accuracy.
Why PadKeys was Created:
* Typing on an iPad in landscape mode can be surprisingly fast – until one needs to enter a number or common symbol like ‘%’ or ‘;’. Because there was no room for these keys on the iPhone, the iPad lacks them as well. PadKeys brings these keys back to where they belong, since the tablet screen is nearly as large as a laptop keyboard and has the space.
* Moving the cursor in text has been the subject of many clever and innovative approaches, but when the text is small and fingers large, dedicated arrow keys are still easier to use. PadKeys puts these in the accustomed place on the bottom right.
* The iPad system keyboard displays only three word suggestions in the middle of the screen, but these aren’t always useful. PadKeys on the other hand uses the full width of the screen to display suggestions, as in some other mobile operating systems, enhancing the chance of a “hit”. PadKeys also uses information about its specific layout as well as the language being used to catch typos when finishing a word.
“PadKeys was stimulated by personal need,” explains Adrian Robert, founder and lead developer at Natural Designs, “I own an iPad and like to use it on the road for keeping journals and making notes, but the stock keyboard and switching modes to enter numbers and symbols made this inconvenient. When iOS 8 came out and third-party keyboards started appearing, I looked around for one that addressed the needs of iPad users. I was surprised to find only one option available, and it was clear that only a limited amount of thought and effort had been put into it. I didn’t think it would be hard to come up with something better, though of course it was, and it took a lot of refinement to make it work well. But now that iOS 9 has followed with its focus on the iPad and productivity, PadKeys looks quite apropos.”
What’s New:
Version 1.3 brings enhancements for bilingual and non-English-speaking users. A new language quick-toggle lets users switch languages with a single touch and release. In addition, the Settings Panel and Enter Key labels are now displayed in the primary iPad language.
Supported Languages:
English (US, CA, UK, AU, and NZ), Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French (France and Canada), German, Italian, Norwegian (Bokml), Portuguese (Brazil and Portugal), Spanish, and Swedish.
Device Requirements:
* iPad 2 or later
* iOS 8.2 or later
* 9 MB free space
Pricing and Availability:
PadKeys Keyboard 1.3 is available for $1.99 US (or equivalent in other currencies) exclusively through the App Store in the Utilities category. Review codes are available upon request.
PadKeys Keyboard 1.3
Purchase and Download
YouTube Video (Intro)
Media Assets
Natural Designs Software, Inc. was founded in 2007 to bring innovative user interfaces to education, entertainment, and utility applications. Software should work the way the user perceives, thinks and acts, not the other way around. The current products are a Chinese language learning program for desktop and iPad, and an iOS custom keyboard extension designed for tablets. Musical and visual art creativity software is in the works. All Material and Software (C) Copyright 2007-2015 Natural Designs Software, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone, iPod and iPad are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. Other trademarks and registered trademarks may be the property of their respective owners.