Lifehacker Australia

Do You Need A Physical Keyboard On Your Phone?

I felt like I needed buttons until I tried a soft keyboard. Now I definitely prefer the soft keyboard. My reasons:
1. Buttons take up more room, which means a larger device and less chance I’ll want to keep it in my pocket. Pocketable size is important to me, otherwise I’d just carry a laptop.
2. There are arguments that soft keys are hard to hit, and that haptic feedback is important. I don’t agree with either, and can type emails fast enough and accurately enough with soft keys.
3. A soft keyboard layout can be customised. Case in point for iPhone: 5-row QWERTY layout, dvorak keymap, emoji, different buttons depending on what you’re typing (URL, email, etc.).

My prediction: physical keys and buttons slowly die out on most small devices, including the “business oriented” ones.

Firefox 3.5 "Preview" Available With An Update Check

Or you could manipulate the download URLs a bit and strike it lucky: http://download.mozilla.org/?product=firefox-3.5b99&os=win&lang=en-GB .