I find searching through lists with the clickwheel to be OK, but far from perfect. It's fine for the iPod because it's very simple and elegant design wise and it's pretty good. But it's not perfect. It lacks accuracy for quick selections. A numpad is not inherintly bad at this. Both in combination could possibly be quite effective. *scratches chin*
*looks at Wikipedia* You have to
PAY to
RECEIVE an SMS in the US!? Our phone networks make an absolute
KILLING off text messages. They are very profitable as they only cost a couple of cents to send but kids will still go crazy at 20c a pop.
If we're going to slide out something for alphanumeric entry, maybe it should be like this:
5 columns of buttons instead of 3 (middle 3 have numbers), 2 letters per key so predictive text is a
lot more accurate and non-predictive is a lot quicker. QWERTY format.
EDIT: Found a clearer image