Is it impossible to replace the keyboard with a different one? Other apps do it all the time. Doesn't seem like it would be that hard to take a custom keyboard and replace the core Apple files on the device. Anyone have a solution?

The magnifying glass is a piece of cake with a stylus. I bought a boxwave stylus just to see if it was useful. Took a while to get used to but I am fast with it now and the added benefit of no fingerprints is cool too.

As for virtual keyboards, the fellas that wrote Itap RDP did a wicked job on the keyboard. It is SO much better than the default keyboard and I really miss all the functionality when not in Itap. And yes it has the arrow keys. And much more.

But again, with the stylus, the magnifying glass is easy to master.

Some apps (e.g. Wyse PocketCloud to name one) have arrow keys as well as other missing but useful and important keys including option/alt, fn, control, f1-f12, apple/command, and a few others.

While I can appreciate Apple's end-state vision where the multi-touch gestures work work flawlessly or good enough that not having a couple of arrow keys doesn't impede your work, that is obviously not the current case.

What the hell is the the big deal to just add them in like Wyse has done so nicely for enhancing the overall usability at the least. It obviously is possible and not altogether a major development affair and makes a huge difference. (Same applies for iPhone too in my opinion).

Maybe someone can hack something out for the community since Apple is still a little too proud of their whole touchscreen technology.

Johnny Ives has stated that they often put more effort into what they leave out than what they include.

I'm certain they looked closely at including arrow keys and decided against them.

Life is about learning to live with restrictions, both individual and environmental .....
Enjoy your iPad for what it can do.

Originally Posted by Matth3w

Not really. Long press and a little magnifying glass will come up and allow you to position the cursor. An arrow key would be nice but that works pretty well.

Seriously!?

*goes to check this feature on his iPad*

Oh my god... OH MY GOD. Thank you, a hundred times thank you. A thousand internets to you my friend, THANK YOU.

Christ and all I was going stir-crazy because I was convinced you couldn't place the type line (technical term for it is the "insertion line" I believe) in the middle of a word. I thought that every time you wanted to correct or edit a word you had to erase everything up to the point you wanted to change.

Thank you again for pointing out this magnifying glass feature.

Originally Posted by Hasty

Life is about learning to live with restrictions, both individual and environmental .....
Enjoy your iPad for what it can do.

Wow, Apple really does brainwash people. I would shudder to think what a world that lived by that principle would look like.

Originally Posted by Philippe

Originally Posted by Matth3w

Not really. Long press and a little magnifying glass will come up and allow you to position the cursor. An arrow key would be nice but that works pretty well.

Seriously!?

*goes to check this feature on his iPad*

Oh my god... OH MY GOD. Thank you, a hundred times thank you. A thousand internets to you my friend, THANK YOU.

Christ and all I was going stir-crazy because I was convinced you couldn't place the type line (technical term for it is the "insertion line" I believe) in the middle of a word. I thought that every time you wanted to correct or edit a word you had to erase everything up to the point you wanted to change.

Thank you again for pointing out this magnifying glass feature.

You may want to download and read the iPad Users Guide in iBooks. Just go into iBooks and search for iPad. Should come up. There are probably other things that it will enlighten you on as well. I am not done flipping through it, but I will probably read through the whole thing over time.

Chris

There's a little app called Arrow Keys Mail. It cleverly adds an other row of keys on top of the rest that contains sideways arrow keys, an apostrophe, quote marks etc.
Unfortunately it seems to only work in their text editor in preparation to send mail.

I bought the Pogo Sketch stylus at the Apple store just to see what it could do, and I use it whenever I get tired of having to position my fingers just so. Works fine in the lack of arrow key situation. (I do NOT have fat fingers.) LOL

I don't have fat fingers I'm just a big man.