It is true that it's harder to type on the glass of an iPhone or iPad than it is to use a real keyboard with full-size keys that depress under your fingers. You could argue how much harder, as we do get by every day without carting large keyboards around with our iPhones, but it is harder -- and there's one more thing. We don't cart our iPhones around as much as we think: we are often right there with them at our Macs. Our Macs which have keyboards. Now
Typeeto 1.0 lets you use that Mac keyboard with your iPhone.
Also with your iPad, your Apple TV, and just about any device that you type on which comes with Bluetooth and would be improved with a full-size keyboard. Android devices, for instance, would be greatly improved by a new keyboard at the front, and a better OS on the inside.
The thing with Typeeto is that at first you will wonder why this is any better than connecting a regular Bluetooth keyboard directly to your iOS device, and the answer is that it isn't. Most of the time, if you had a separate keyboard for it, then that is the best option. There are keyboard cases by the thousand for the iPad, rather fewer for the iPhone, but a separate and portable keyboard will be best because you can take both with you.
We're not sold on the idea of using it for our Apple TV, though. If your TV is close enough to your Mac that you can read the set's screen as you type, you need a bigger home.
When you are at your Mac, though, that separate keyboard is another thing taking up space. Use Typeeto, and whenever you get a text message -- that isn't already on your Yosemite-running Mac via Handoff -- then press a keyboard shortcut, and you're off. The Mac keyboard stops typing on your Mac, and instead starts writing on your iPhone.
You have to have already connected the iOS device to your Mac previously, and it does take a beat to get going each time you begin typing. However, after that there is no significant delay.
Finish your text, then press a different shortcut key, and you're now writing on your iPad. There is no equivalent to the Home button, because this is your regular Mac keyboard, so you will still be touching the screen a lot. You just won't have to type on the glass anymore.
If you use a Bluetooth keyboard on your Mac, then you can also set up a shortcut key to swap back to that, but you can't if you use a wired one. That seems like an omission to us: Typeeto only allows shortcuts for connected Bluetooth devices, but a wired keyboard is physically connected, it should be recognized as a device.
Typeeto is like a software equivalent of devices like
Logitech's Bluetooth Easy-Switch K811 Keyboard, which lets you pair three devices at once. Pair up your Mac, iPad and iPhone, then swap between them with the press of a button. Typeeto isn't as convenient as that, but then it also isn't limited to three devices: you can keep adding as many as you've got.
Typeeto 1.0 requires OS X 10.9 or later, and at time of review
costs $5 on the Mac App Store.
Who is Typeeto for:
Typeeto is best for when you spend much of your time at your Mac surrounded by your iOS devices. Face it, that's a lot of us.
Who is Typeeto not for:
If you need to write a lot on your iOS device, get a separate keyboard for it.
-- William Gallagher (
@WGallagher)
Top