For all the talk about how the iPad is transforming the way we work, the fact remains that, for many, working on an iPad is a frustrating experience. Nearly everything users want to do takes longer and is less precise on the iPad when compared to performing the same tasks on a Mac and it all revolves around text entry and editing.
However, to our delight this evening, we discovered a great solution to this problem proposed by YouTube user danielchasehooper. In a nicely-made video, embedded below, Daniel presents an elegant and seemingly effective alternative for text selection and cursor movement on the iPad.
His solution is to use context-aware swipes on the virtual keyboard to move the cursor and select text. Whether this would work in practice is unknown — the sensitivity required to detect swipes may degrade the typing experience — but it sure looks like something that frequent writers could benefit from.
Daniel didn’t make the video just to show off a concept; he wants this feature to be considered by Apple for a future version of iOS. To that end, he recommends contacting Apple via their Bug Reporter to suggest the feature.
It may be that Apple has already considered this method and found it to be impractical but, if they haven’t, we argue that it can’t hurt to bring it to their attention.
[via iDownloadBlog]