Adding a Period

Jack, I've never used an iPad, but I'm surprised to hear that the keyboard on the iPad doesn't have the usual punctuation available on the same layout as the letters. Did I misunderstand you? My only experience is with the built-in keyboard of the Nexus 7 and a different one that I ultimately chose. But both of those have the most common punctuation marks (period, comma, question mark, etc.) on the main keyboard with the letters. It's also possible on the keyboard that comes with the Nexus to hit the space bar twice and get a period, though that seems not to be the case on the keyboard I prefer (SwiftKey). Anyway, now that I've taken the tablet plunge, I find myself interested in all kinds of things I would have ignored a month ago.

On my Android (Sony) "smart" phone, the double space makes the period. With the size of my thumbs and the size of the "keyboard", that was an early, and entirely inadvertent, learn.

Hi Mark,

I also have a "dumb phone". I even have it set to block all text messages and I do not text. My time I spend away from my PC is exactly that...time away from the PC. I did not choose this way because I am getting older and resist new technology, but because I do not want the side effects that comes with some of that new technology. Just because there is some new technology that lets you do something that you couldn't before doesn't mean that you should do that something or that the new technology is an improvement. Communication example: Communication is the transfer of the thoughts, ideas and opinions of one person to another. This is accomplished with words, expressions, body language, tone and volume spoken, and with many hand gestures. All these components work together to improve the communication so what is communicated is understood completely. As technology removes a component of communication, the ability to totally understand what was communicated decreases. Thus you get more understanding from a face to face talk than a phone call, a phone call yields more understanding than a text message, and a text message yields more understanding than a Facebook entry. In my opinion these new advances in technology are not improvements, especially when you consider the side effects of utilizing that new technology. Texting and surfing the Internet on smart phones has caused numerous near misses and accidents, and the only communication being totally understood is that the person doing the texting and surfing is dangerous and that person feels that what they are doing is more important than their or other people's safety. Communication is how we understand each other, thus decreasing the understanding part of communication in order to communicate more is a step backward not forward.

Yes, I am older; but older doesn't mean an unwillingness to embrace and learn new technology. It means that I use the knowledge and wisdom I gained while growing older to determine which new technology is good for me and which is not good for me.

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