Droid Keyboard Froyo 2.2
This post will be wordy, but hear me out. This is the answer you will need to hear if you hate the keyboard, and sorry, it's NOT a good answer but please read it so we can band together and complain to fix it.
The answer to your question is NO. No way to change the keyboard. I have been talking to Verizon and Motorola and searching for alternatives since last week. Hours on the phone, hours digging on message boards. This is the first time I've really joined a bunch of message boards searching for answers and suggestions. I'm so frustrated at trying to get a fix, answer, app, ANYTHING to get this damn Swpye to change their keyboard but nobody can help, nor do they really seem like they will escalate the problem because my promised call backs from supervisors who claim they would look into it didn't happen!
I'm ticked as hell about this new keyboard change. I purposely upgraded at Verizon from the Droid 1 to the Droid X at the cost of $350 "just" for this keyboard. I have acrylic nails and you can't use nails on all smart phones, well, except for a Blackberry crappy Curve but no way will I have a Blackberry, I've known too many unhappy people with them. Besides, those keys are so small. I honestly don’t know how men (or women LOL) with stubby fingers can use a Curve, or even the Droid 1 for that fact. I was happy as a clam with the Droid X until this update. I have to use the side of my pinkie to Swype. I have big hands, not stubby, but big. The buttons BEFORE were larger and dark. You could SEE the background symbols. I was just getting pretty good at the Swype when along came the crappy 2.2 Froyo update. ONLY good thing that came out of this update is the camera button is now on screen so you don't shake while taking photos. Trying to take a photo with the gel cover on was almost impossible to not shake since it’s such a hard tight cover. Clip it open and you will run the risk of damaging your button. So THAT was a good update. The Flash update is disappointing. So far I found it didn’t work on a few sites or it was super slow. NOT happy about that... However, I'm LIVID at this keyboard change because I can't Swype on it now. That was the MAIN reason I upgraded.
I'll have you know that I have spent hours on the phone with tech after tech at Verizon, and a supervisor has told me that they MUST get tons of complaints about it before they will change it. He said that I was the only complaint about the keyboard in their system. I have a HARD time believing that because there are tons of people *****ing on all of the boards over this very same thing. This LIGHT GREY KEYBOARD and SMALLER SWYPE buttons that lag lag lag, it's horrible!!! We are STUCK with this new crappy keyboard so it is IMPERATIVE that people bombard Verizon and complain. Do you realize that on Swype’s website in the help section it says that there is a way to resize the keyboard? Well, NOT on the crappy UNFINISHED version that was stuck on our phone. Everyone is blaming another company as to who is responsible for this update, (Google, Motorola, Verizon, Swype). Ultimately, you MUST complain and bombard Verizon with trouble tickets. I spent TWO HOURS on the phone until I got a second level tech at Motorola. And by the way, I was flabbergasted that the level 1 so called tech support knew less about this phone than I knew. I was calling the tech support for Android phones... OMG, unbelievable. They gave me wrong info how to navigate through the phone like three times, (and this was with more than one rep) so I asked for a supervisor. They don't know what they are doing, uhg! The supervisor thought I could go into the store and have them restore my phone back to non-Froyo, but that can NOT be done. There is NO WAY to push it back, NO way to install a beta Swpye, and NO WAY to uninstall Swype. I also tried downloading Better Keyboard and one other one, Smart Keyboard I think it was and both of those will not work with Swype, nor will any other apps. You have to chose ONE keyboard, they don’t co-mingle.
As for Swype, they had an apk file for their beta keyboard but the beta is over and there is NO WAY to uninstall the Swype from the Droid X to reinstall that file. (Oh, and they haven't replied to my three letters either). Even with the Motorola supervisor who tried to help me with a workaround to uninstall and stick that apk file in, but still no luck. Swype is integrated within the Froyo system. If you DO hack it out, you will VOID your warranty, period... and they were adamant about it.
So, PLEASE call Verizon and complain, and you can also do so on their website to make a suggestion… I did BOTH!
Personally, I can’t use my phone very well now nor can I even SEE the light keyboard without taking my bifocals off and on and that's a PITA, especially when the phone rings. I’m ticked off. I just bought this about 40 days ago and now it’s too late to return it. I LOVE LOVE LOVED this phone until they screwed it up.
Now, to tell you another story what Verizon did, on their Droid 1's first update, it had an "arc" that used to unlock the keyboard. You used to be able to just hold your phone in your right hand and slide open the unlock super fast when the phone rang. They updated it to this side to side unlock crap and I have missed TONS of calls because of it. That should be a setting so you can CHOOSE what way you'd like to unlock your phone. Can't set the pattern thing because the new Froyo will lock the screen, then you have to do your pattern. BTW, I don't recommend it because IF you try to unlock your phone without the correct pattern more than THREE times, (according to the Motorola supervisor), it will completely lock up your phone and it will become a brick. What's the point of the pattern if you have to first unlock it too? Stupid. Stupid stupid stupid! MY way around fixing the unlock is by using a free app called Tedd's Tools. You can set it to send a pop up to your phone and you just press and hold down the ANSWER so you don't have to use the slide lock. You can also answer with the camera button but I don't recommend it if you use the hard gel case cover, it's too hard to press that button. I honestly think this slide lock is a DANGEROUS thing. Why? Because tons of people try to unlock it while driving. Need two hands... IMHO, it's a car accident waiting to happen! Of course you should never text and drive, but people need to unlock their phone to call from some headsets! It's a CRAPPY UNSAFE lock! So be safe driving people, because trying to unlock this phone, especially if your hands are cold is a royal pain. Such a shame they got rid of the arc unlock system. Only first time Droid 1 users will know what I'm talking about. They got rid of the arc after like three months. I was upset about that too.
Who ARE these developers and WHY do they think their changes are good ones? Are they really USING this phone? I don't THINK so because if they were, they wouldn't have RUINED our phones! Such a shame.
Remember, PLEASE call Verizon and complain!!!
