Hi Sarah,

The only thing quirky was getting the initial Bluetooth pairing established.  
That actually worked for me once I understood what I was doing, lol.

The ability to do cut and paste of text from your Mac is also very nice.  Also, 
if I want to type in another language, the ability to review text in the higher 
quality Infovox voices I already have on my Mac. is a plus. 

Cheers,

Esther

On Dec 22, 2011, at 18:18, Sarah Alawami wrote:

> Interesting. Althought I wonder why they made it so quirky. I already have a 
> bt keyboard  attached to my phone so  would it even make a difference? That 
> same keyboard is also attached to my mac or was last I checked.
> 
> Take care. and again it sounds interesting..
> On Dec 22, 2011, at 8:02 PM, Esther wrote:
> 
>> Hi All,
>> 
>> A few weeks ago I read about an app in the Mac App store that lets you use 
>> your computer keyboard to type to your iOS device through a Bluetooth 
>> connection.  It's called Type2Phone ($4.99), and is aimed at letting iOS 
>> developers who are writing code on their computers to easily switch over to 
>> testing applications on their iPhones and other iOS devices by using the 
>> same keyboard to enter text.  It's a little bit quirky to get the original 
>> connection set up, and I don't think I'd use it all the time, but there may 
>> be instances where it can be handy.  For example, if you're working at your 
>> computer and you get a text message, it can be convenient to just switch 
>> over to the Type2Phone app with Command-tab, and type your response.  
>> 
>> The somewhat quirky part comes from getting the Bluetooth connection between 
>> your iPhone and laptop paired.   You don't actually have to type in a 
>> pairing code, or at least I didn't have to on my MacBook Pro.  I gather that 
>> if you have a desktop Mac, such as an iMac, you may actually have to typing 
>> in the pairing code.  What happens is that once you turn on Bluetooth on 
>> your computer and start up Type2Phone, and then go to the Settings > General 
>> > Bluetooth menu of your iPhone, you get dialog messages about the 8-digit 
>> pairing code that is supposed to be typed in.  On my MacBook, the same 
>> 8-digit pairing code gets displayed as shows up on my iPhone screen, and I 
>> just have to either press "return" or VO-Space on the button to accept the 
>> connection.  The first two times I tried this, I although the pairing codes 
>> matched, and I accepted the option, I still got the message that the pairing 
>> had failed.  (In one case it seemed to go through initially.)  So I put this 
>> aside until I read a blog post about how to establish the pairing.
>> 
>> Here's the link to the article on Type2Phone by Dr. Drang:
>> http://www.leancrew.com/all-this/2011/12/type2phone/
>> 
>> Basically, he summarized that he had to use the "trouble-shooting" tips to 
>> get his Mac to see the device:
>>       •      If the Mac is listed with a blue arrow, tap that arrow and 
>> select “Forget this device”.
>>      •       Disable Bluetooth on the Mac
>>      •       Reenable Bluetooth on the Mac
>>      •       Set Bluetooth on the Mac to be discoverable
>>      •       Launch Type2Phone
>>      •       Now restart your iPhone / iPad
>>      •       On your iPhone / iPad, go to Settings > General > Bluetooth
>>      •       Enable Bluetooth on your iPhone
>>      •       Tap the name of the Mac to start the pairing procedure
>> It turned out that this worked for his MacBook Air, but for his iMac, it 
>> still required 5 tries to get through the pairing.  (For the iMac he had to 
>> actually type the pairing code in on both devices, and not just accept it, 
>> as was the case for his MacBook Air and for my MacBook Pro.)  What seemed to 
>> make things finally work for him was a tip to turn off WiFi before starting 
>> the Bluetooth pairing with his iMac. 
>> 
>> After I read this post, I turned off Wi-Fi on my MacBook Pro, and followed 
>> the bulleted instructions (with the exception that I didn't need to 
>> "restart" my iPhone after launching Type2Phone).  On my MacBook Pro I then 
>> accepted the pairing key in the dialog window (without typing any numbers).
>> 
>> As described in the blog, using the app after the quirky pairing is easy, 
>> and apparently you only have to get through the pairing once per computer:
>> Using Type2Phone is blessedly simple:
>> 
>>      • Launch Type2Phone, which brings up a long, horizontal window.
>>      • Choose your phone from the popup menu of paired devices.
>>      • Tap in a text field on you phone to get the cursor blinking.
>>      • Type.
>> 
>> For VoiceOver users. of course, you double tap in the text field where you 
>> want to start typing.  The Type2Phone window on your Mac is like a key 
>> logger -- it registers the series of keys that you type.  That means, if you 
>> mistyped, and had to delete letters and then re-type them, if you navigated 
>> to the previous keystroke entries (with VO-Left arrow), you'd hear the 
>> correction letters, then the delete key, then the mistyped letters.  You 
>> don't actually need to do anything with the Type2Phone window on your Mac, 
>> since you can read and check the content of what was typed on your iPhone 
>> with a two-finger flick to read all, for example.  The Type2Phone keyboard 
>> connection is only for typing -- not for all the other commands that 
>> VoiceOver users can perform to activate keys, etc. with a general paired 
>> Bluetooth keyboard.  Any VO-left arrow, etc. commands move you through typed 
>> letters in the Type2Phone window on your Mac, and don't affect your iPhone.
>> 
>> You can also copy and paste  from your Mac clipboard into your iPhone text, 
>> and accented text combinations are supported.  So if I select text from a 
>> document on my Mac, I can paste it into a note, text message, or email 
>> message on my iPhone.  The setup should work with any iOS device, by the 
>> way, although I haven't tried this with my iPad or iPod Touch. You just have 
>> to accept the appropriate device for theType2Phone window on your Mac.
>> 
>> Despite the initial quirks of Bluetooth pairing, I found Type2Phone to be an 
>> interesting capability, and completely accessible with VoiceOver.  (I'm 
>> running Snow Leopard, but that shouldn't make a difference.)  Here's the 
>> link to the Type2Phone app at the Mac App Store:
>> • Type2Phone ($4.99) Houdah Software
>> http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/type2phone/id472717129?l=es&mt=12
>> Incidentally, the store preview page has the links and headings in Spanish, 
>> although the descriptive text is all in English.  Version 1.2 of the 
>> Software support multiple keyboard layouts.  There's a Houdah support page, 
>> and associated discussion forums and FAQ at:
>> http://www.houdah.com/support/
>> 
>> HTH.  Cheers,
>> 
>> Esther
>> 

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