Apple iPhone keyboard lag: odd workaround discovered

by Julian Prokaza
on Mon 01 Sep 2008 7 Comments

Hands up – how many of you have considered throwing your iPhone 3G against the wall when the dreaded keyboard lag strikes halfway through composing a text or email? One, two... yep, that’s everyone.

Right, so while we wait for Apple to fix this particular interface annoyance (not to mention this one, oh and this one), the good news is that there's is a strange, but effective workaround, We found it by accident while nosing around the MacTalk forums and you can read the full story after the cut.

Over at MacTalk, a poster called markhellewell has described how a bit of finger work can overcome the iPhone keyboard’s awful lag. Here’s what to do: the next time the slowdown kicks in type a single letter and then, using the magnifying glass, move the entry cursor to the point right before that letter. Now, just continue typing and full speed should be restored. Note that, as markhellewell himself pointed out, this only seems to work with letters – not numbers or punctuation.

And it works. One of our iPhones is particularly beset by the lag problem and time and time again, markhellewell’s tip has sorted it out. Okay, so it’s a bit of a faff to enact, but the process is not nearly as agonising as watching the iPhone’s keyboard confirmations appear seconds after you’ve hit the keys. Well done, markhellewell.

[ MacTalk forums]

Originally published on www.mobilecomputermag.co.uk, now incorporated into Broadband Genie
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Comments

  • neutral

    by Jacob at 21:09 on 1 Sep 2008Report abuse

    Also it seems that if you clear the cache in safari under settings that it speeds it up like new

  • neutral

    by Jill at 23:37 on 1 Sep 2008Report abuse

    Does anyone know what I would do to MAKE this 'lag' happen?I've done an awful lot of typing in the past 2 months... and have never seen it happen at all.

  • neutral

    by chad at 20:02 on 5 Sep 2008Report abuse

    It happens to me only when I'm replying to emails. If i start a fresh email it's fine. text messaging is fine. for some reason it only happens while i am replying. I HATE IT!!

  • neutral

    by Gabriel at 19:27 on 11 Sep 2008Report abuse

    The culprit must be the auto-word hinting. Adding the extra letter throws it off, but notice that if there's space before that last letter, the slowdown returns.

  • neutral

    by Leon Bailey at 12:16 on 12 Sep 2008Report abuse

    Yep, this lag is certainly related to the auto-correct feature. Essentially, by typing a letter behind the one in front, the user disables auto-correct (and thus kills the lag). But, as Gabriel notes, the lag will return as soon as there's a space in front (and the auto-correct has kicked in again).

  • neutral

    by iphonemaster at 01:18 on 23 Sep 2008Report abuse

    if u remove the plastic piece from the top left the log stops completely.

  • neutral

    by john at 21:59 on 4 Oct 2008Report abuse

    This was happening to me - I turned off the auto capitilization feature in general settings / keyboard and it seems to have gone away.

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