Apple’s introduction of the click wheel on the iPod is still revered for its iconic efficiency back in the days. Sometimes, nostalgia takes priority over productivity and that is exactly what one developer is looking to help you achieve. Enter – Click Wheel Keyboard, the third-party keyboard app which replaces your stock iOS offering with the classic click wheel.
The keyboard has been developed by Adam Bell, who has released the app as a free grab on the App Store, looking to share his love for the iPod’s click wheel with more Apple fans. The wheel sports those classic click and scroll sounds that owners of the iPod would be well familiar with, and includes that center button for entering your selection as well.
The keyboard is good to go with any app supporting text entry, be it Messages, Notes, Safari etc. but do bear in mind that given all that time you’ve spent on that effortless iOS keyboard, you will actually need to dish out some serious patience and effort to construct sentences using the nostalgic keystrokes on this new offering.
Once the keyboard is up and running, spin the wheel left or right as you scroll through a selection of characters, and once your choice is highlighted, hit that center button on the click wheel. I bet now you understand what I meant by “serious patience and effort”? Constructing a sentence is pretty much out of the question if you intend to use the app for everyday use.
Now the tricky question is: how would you add spaces or type in capitals? Apparently, tapping the left or right side of the wheel moves the cursor which should help you add a space, while hitting the top of the wheel deletes characters. To write in capitals, hit the bottom of the click wheel.
That said, the app comes bundled with support for your favorite emoji characters too, and all you have to do is spin that wheel of patience once again to reach them. All other standard symbols and numbers are also well accounted for, it’s just that you would have to keep scrolling to get to them which sounds like a pain, but then you did just rewind it back a decade.
(Download: Click Wheel Keyboard for iPhone on the App Store)
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