Database Develop

Kaiser pad really sucks !

Me again, my Kaiser is for sale now on Ebay and I'm waiting for the end of the auction; I complained a lot about the fact it is a very bad device for entertainment, but the pad really sucks also for everyday usage !
The two windows buttons around the pad, on the top, are too small. I tried to use my Kaiser as a phone for the first time today, but when I wanted to access the contacts using one of these two windows buttons, most of the time I also pushed the pad at the same time, I was about to throw my Kaiser away !!! Of course same problems when using the other apps of the Kaiser (calendar, etc ...).
Why the hell HTC designed this ****ing pad like that ??? It is too large, and the buttons around it are too small.
If only they would have reduce the pad to make it square (like on the old TYTN) then the buttons around it would be bigger and easier to use !!!!!!!!
A child could imagine that !!!
How much was paid the ergonomic designer of the Kaiser ???????!!!!
And to that I add the fact that the looseness of this pad is really annoying for me, it makes me think I'm using a cheap device.
I really want now my Kaiser to be sold quickly because as long as I will still have it, I will always want to give it another try, and each time I'm getting so nervous that I want to break it !
This is the first pocketpc, out of the seven I had, wich makes me so angry each time I'm using it. And it will also be the one I will have owned for a so short time ! (less than a month)
Too bad because its size is very good when you think about everything it has inside, on the paper it should be a close to perfect device, but the realisation and some conception defaults makes it really a "not worth it" device for me.
The only thing I really appreciated is the integrated GPS, and that's it !!!

Actaully, I like the Kaiser pad for the most part.
The flat keypad on the original Tytn is a pain in the ass to use, as you can't really navigate by feel (useful if you are trying to hit the answer key while reaching into your pocket). Using a completely flat d-pad means you hit the center button almost every time you try to navigate, and it makes diagonals almost impossible.
(Note: I never tried the sculpted keypad of the AT&T flavor of the Tytn - thought it was ugly and liked the flat look of the HTC branded Tytn better. Never will I choose esthetics over functionality again)
There's a Kaiser variant from T-mobile that uses a similar flat keypad design, though the d-pad is a little more sculpted. I don't understand why HTC doesn't stick with one D-pad design for all of it's models. It's pretty sad when the phone that has everything you need at the moment is ruined by a lousy physical UI.
Now, I do agree with you that the elongated d-pad takes some getting used to -- and I can definitely see that being either a love it/hate it thing.
My previous PPC/phones were a Tytn I, a Toshiba e800, and an HP 4150 (HTC design). If you think the Kaiser pad is bad try the e800! HTC got it right on with the 4150 design though, possibly the best Pocket PC I've ever used.

rob.ocelot said:
Actaully, I like the Kaiser pad for the most part.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But there are still people who complain and cry for there own stupid mistakes.
A little tip: go to a shop next time and try a device before you buy.

marco899 said:
But there are still people who complain and cry for there own stupid mistakes.
A little tip: go to a shop next time and try a device before you buy.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
in a shop, using the device for 5 minutes, does not tell you if you will get use to it (if the seller does allow you to play with it for 5 minutes !).
I also would be glad to know the interest of such a large pad.

Just sell it and buy an other pda and go on with your live.
Don't make such a difficulty of it.
It's not good for your stress level.

I've never had problems with my D-Pad. I'm able to use it just fine without feeling that it's that small. It cold have been a little prettier but it's okay. About the loussiness, maybe it's made that way to protect it from heavy usage. Maybe it' the same principle of ventilators that are never fixed that well on the ceiling. You can notice that it's shaking and that makes it look like it's properly placed, but that happens to protect the device from tearing the ceiling apart over the years.

Weird that the two buttons he is talking about correspond to 1) the soft menu buttons on the screen and he could thus just tap the screen as a workaround or 2) when you use the keyboard, the buttons are replaced with the hardware buttons at the top of the keyboard.
I found it weird for a while moving from a Hermes to a Kaiser - different buttons, screen sliding open the other way but YOU GET USED TO THE CHANGES!

unwired4 said:
Weird that the two buttons he is talking about correspond to 1) the soft menu buttons on the screen and he could thus just tap the screen as a workaround or 2) when you use the keyboard, the buttons are replaced with the hardware buttons at the top of the keyboard.
I found it weird for a while moving from a Hermes to a Kaiser - different buttons, screen sliding open the other way but YOU GET USED TO THE CHANGES!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was talking about the "soft menu" buttons, but not only, also about the buttons wich are below it. All buttons around the pad in fact.
You say I can use the on screen buttons, yes ,for sure !
But then you can also say that the soft menu buttons are useless ...
I don't think they are useless, they are very usefull, they allow us to use the device with only one hand, and also I hate pressing the screen with my fingers.
If HTC would not put these soft menu buttons around the pad, I would just not buy the Kaiser. But if they put it there, they should make them easy to access (and it was very easy to do !).

I just want to say that I have quite large hands/fingers and I have no problems with those buttons at all. If I go to push one, I dont wind up pushing the ones next to it. If you have such trouble you must really have some sausage fingers. If that's the case, I dont quite see how you can blame HTC for it.

Goanna said:
I just want to say that I have quite large hands/fingers and I have no problems with those buttons at all. If I go to push one, I dont wind up pushing the ones next to it. If you have such trouble you must really have some sausage fingers. If that's the case, I dont quite see how you can blame HTC for it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lol. i feel the same way. i have big hands and fingers, and i have no troubles with the keyboard. Must be some brought wurst fingers.

No problem for me either. Other than the Dpad should be a bit tighter, I like it better than the rest of the HTC devices.

Unresponsive/heavy QWERTY keys

Hello fellow Kaiser users,
I don't know if this happened only with me or others have experienced the same.
TyTN II keys on the QWERTY after a year of use has some keys responding after the 2nd or 3rd stroke of the key.
Did anyone else experience this?
Is there a solution?
It is really bugging me when I'm typing an SMS or typing something down.
Any suggestions are appreciated.
Hardware suggestions also I will try on my own risk.

fireblade63 said:
TyTN II keys on the QWERTY after a year of use has some keys responding after the 2nd or 3rd stroke of the key.
Did anyone else experience this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same problem here, but I started noticing it after 4/5 months of use. Would like to know about a solution also.

I feel your pain, this is what is really killing me because the keyboard is a very big part of the phone, and I've only been using it for 7 months. If i knew it would become this unresponsive i would of got an i phone because this phones on screen keyboard and transcriber is useless.

It happened to me after 7 months. The "c" key on my tilt started to become unresponsive so I called up at&t and had it warranty exchanged for a refurb. This second one was already even worse than the one I'd just sent back, so I had them send out another one. This third one is fine, although the "c" key (again, oddly enough) doesn't click like the others. It's responsive, but feels a little different. I didn't feel like going through the exchange process again, so for now I'm living with it.

My 1 month old refurb tilt doesn't type the keys when I press them sometimes. I should have that fixed. I thought it was a software problem...
My brand new XPS M1530 does the same thing sometimes. I guess I reckoned it was just me not pressing on the keys hard enough or something like that...

So I'm not the only one with the problem...
But no solution?!
Even a hint of what might be causing this would help..

have you guys tried using the disable XT9 cab ?

yes
I think it is H/W cleaning related
How to clean is the deal...

you can find disassembling guides on mikechannon's web. just follow the disassembling instructions and after you remove keyboard, try cleaning it.

Same problem for me.
I'm always very carefull with my device, and don't use the hardware keyboard very often.
Now for some letters I really have to press harder to make them work.
I have my device for only 6 or 7 months.

Have had my Kaiser for 6 months now and the Y and B keys are starting to go out. For the past couple weeks I have been considering sending it in for warranty exchange but I have taken very good care of my Kaiser and worry about what I would get back...

Anyone eager enough tried disasembling and cleaning?
Moreover, did it work?
funny thing here is that I get more unresponsiveness in the right side of the keyboard (enter; L; P; direction keys).
It is a real pain...

Most prolly will do it soon
Will let you all know of the outcome

Same here.
Had mine 8 months, the W key is worst, takes a really heavy press to get it to work, has been like that for about 5 months.
Now the B is also getting bad, so is the S.
If i'm likely to get a refurb back i guess i'll just put up with it until my contract is up.

I'm facing the same problem on my HTC herald. HTC keyboard quality has gone way down. I never faced such problem when I had htc universal.

Hey man,
since you had quite some ppls share of PPCs;
did you disassemble any of them before?
Do you think it's a good idea to do it myself?
I'm extra careful normally but I'm having doubts
kdskamal said:
I'm facing the same problem on my HTC herald. HTC keyboard quality has gone way down. I never faced such problem when I had htc universal.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

Similar problems here with my Tilt. FN, CAP/SHIFT, N are all problematic for me.
Has anyone tried a spray liquid electronic "contact cleaner" on a device like this before?

Weird
Oddly enough, I have had this problem a little bit with mine as well. However mine is the space bar. I, like many others I am sure, have hopped from ROM to ROM. When I changed ROMs the last time, it seemed to fix the issue. It was really weird because a lot of the times I would type something, and the letters would turn out something like this:
Iw antt oe at atj oes.
Like I said, I just swapped ROMs and it seemed to fix it. maybe the t9?

killerbeans said:
Oddly enough, I have had this problem a little bit with mine as well. However mine is the space bar. I, like many others I am sure, have hopped from ROM to ROM. When I changed ROMs the last time, it seemed to fix the issue. It was really weird because a lot of the times I would type something, and the letters would turn out something like this:
Iw antt oe at atj oes.
Like I said, I just swapped ROMs and it seemed to fix it. maybe the t9?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are correct sir! Just run "disable xt9" (found plenty of places on the kaiser forum) and your problem should be fixed.

I too have had this problem. I noticed it with the d, r, and space bar keys. Interestingly enough the keys that i press often (Take A for example [I have it mapped to the A button in PocketNesterPlus]) aren't hard to press at all. What I'm trying right now is pressing the problem keys over and over again to see if they "loosen up". Best Case Scenario: It works. Worst Case Scenario: I ruin an expensive piece of equipment.
Update: This might be working. To test which keys were unresponsive i typed abcdefghijklmnop.... without exerting any extra effort. The keys w and r didn't show up so i kept working them. I repeated the test and I got r to work. perhaps i am unknowingly pressing r harder, or perhaps not.

Some keys not responsive

I have been using my Xperia X1 for couple of months and since I'm a heavy user of the slide-out keyboard (for Internet, SMS, e-mails etc), I noticed that some of the keys especially on the lower side, such as the Fn (blue) C, V, N, spacebar and dot (.) keys are not as responsive as other keys. I need some extra "push" on the affected keys compared to other keys. This is irritating since the letters would be "skipped" if I type fast and I always need to backspace and correct it.
I suspect it might be due to some mechanical issues on the keys and not related to the phone's software, is there a way I can fix this? Shall I bring it to the service centre since it's still under warranty?
Thanks in advance.

im starting to experience this thing too. For some reason the spacebar button needed to be press harder. ITs quite irritating because i dont like to prees button that hard when im typing

I am also experiencing a similar issue, mainly the 'v' key that irritates me, it will either not respond or be like 'vvv' when I press it.. I presume this is a hardware issue?

im thinking about getting it back to shop for a repair. But that'll take a while or so to fix the keyboard etc.
And yes, i think it is a hardware issue.

Looks like the same problem
I can't realise that I have to press harder, but the issue with the lost or double letter seems the same it's the 'n' and 'm' in my case... very annnoyinnng
below is my post:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=495897
So, if it's hardware, means they fix it and after two month it starts again on heavy users???

i have the same problem too. my friend(use to work at SE service center ) suggest i go down and change the keyboard. as long and it's under warranty it's free.
my space button on the 'right' side needs extra effort. while on the 'left' side it's fine, but i'm use to using my right thumb to press space. and my fullstop button too.

my space is kapo!

Yes, my left space bar is less responsive as well and it can be quite irritating sometimes...

random multiple letters
Meh, I seem to be getting keyboard issues with mine too. Example:
o, p, l, a, i, f all seem to repeat 3 times, n gives an n and a space at the same time, m gives m and :, e repeats twice... Much annoyance, as I am usually meticulous with my spelling on emails and sms - none of this text speak crap. I have to re-read my messages before sending them now!
Anyone had any experience sending them off to K&N in the UK?
I'm proper miffed that Sony's "Next day replacement" thing only works if you are out of the country from which your device was purchased.
/rant!

Some of us picked this phone OVER the HD because of the keyboard. At the time I bought this phone, the THD is cheaper than the X1.
And guess what happens? The main defining feature of this phone messes up. We did not buy a cheap phone, or at least back then. It is stupid.
Having to press the space bar harder than other keys is lame. You can't type with confidence, having to correct the errors again and again. You can also choose to press extra hard on either the keyboard, which use alot of concentration, or press equally hard on all keys, which tires your hands out.
I can't even compose a email without my hands and mind hurting, or having missing keypresses. Miss those days, only 2 months back when I can type like a champ. Kudos to Vodaphone for discontinuing phone. Potential buyers should wait for TP2

Many face the same problem...
I think it's worth to complain officially and refer to this thread... I saw someone else opend another one... Anyway, with both threads there are a lot of users already. BTW, mine is getting worse, it's like a virus and infecting the other keys, slowly but steady. I go to a SE shop tomorrow...
AND YES, I ALSO PURCHASED IT MAINLY BECAUSE OF THE KEYBOARD...

is "au:" button workable??cos i press mine,it dint show anything..i remember it used to show something on the screen..and "n" annoy me the most,usually come out nnn when i press it..sad i only having it for 3 months..

okay i also got this problem... kinda funny 2 explain.. so looks i'm not the only 1.. but since obviously only we few have this problem (an here http://indrapr.blogspot.com/2009/03/annoying-sony-ericsson-xperia-x1s.html) it might really b hardware related...? anybody sent it in ?
pls XDA experts... could this b somehow software related?
dont think so coz i'm hard resetin and flashin the whole time and always have the same issue...
this problem really makes a huge part of the X1... useless..
plssss help...

superweijie said:
Potential buyers should wait for TP2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, sure, buying another 500 € device which is produced by HTC. HTC is not capable of producing quality. All my HTC phones (Magician, Hermes and X1 - which is produced by HTC) had heavy quality issues. It's damn chinese (no) quality control, sorry for being politically incorrect, but that's the impression I get with many products these days.
My hope was that Sony Ericsson would check the quality of HTC better than themselves but I guess I was wrong. Even though the housing is quite solid, the coat peels off by nothing more than putting it into the pocket. And now, half a year after I have bought it for 500 €, the keyboard, which has been lousy since day one, starts to get even worse, making the X1 a ripoff. I think I will send the device in, also because of the coat peeling. I can, here in germany, exchange the device three times until they have to give me my money back - I really hope this will happen.

this has just started happening to me down one side of my keyboard (the right-hand side).
does this only seem to be happening to the right-hand side of the keyboard ?
is this happening to anyone with the standard rom ?

mine is exactly the opposite. The space bar from the right hand side is too sensitive lately, when i press it is adding three or even four spaces at a time!

Sony Ericson service know this problem as well.Like they also know crack in case problem.As i explain in 'do you regret' thread they know all this problem but they dont do anything to fix.Shame on them.You have to book your phone 3 times.Afterwards they ll give you new unit.That is it.Cheers

just read your blog post, (mr creator of the thread) and it describes exactly my situation, even they sucession in which keys started having issues.
anyways, your lucky you could fix it. I couldnt even if i wanted cuz i bought it in USA from a store that sold vodafone unlocked X1s and brought it to Latin America, so im basically screwed :S
im thinkin of opene it myself and clean it or something, but if guysand SE service had to replace it, i guess that wont help much :S

I have the same problem, with button 'a'. I just need to press it harder than the other buttons. That is very very annoying, to have BK issue with device, bought because of it. And ofcourse I have the "crack" issue, and I used a glue to stop the crack from spreading out.
Such quality issues are very annoying when you buy a 500 Euro smartphone.
So I either remove the glue (I hope SE won't make a problem of that) and return it to SE for KB replacement, or clean the keyboard by myself (there is a tutorial for that, but it doesn't look very easy). But ofcourse I have to wait until the 'a' button stops working completely and than wait for SE to do something about it.
I have a question about the SE service: do you think that they will refuse to take care of the phone because I used a glue for the crack on my X1? Could that be an excuse for them to refuse my warranty?

lol...this is just ridiculous...i got the same problem, but i thought to be too stupid to hit the keys correctly. on my device the "broken" keys are m,n,dot, right space bar...
going to send it in for repair...
first had this cracked case problem and now this one...

Keyboard doubles n and m when typing

I don't know if it's the new rom or just the 'age' (3 month now)...
But since approx. two weekes, by typing messages on the x1 keyboard it doubles or even tripples the letter n, sometimes m? This very annoying...
Anyone have the same problem? All other keys work normal...
Anyone knows how to set a delay at the keyboard? When I press a key and hold it, it take half a second or so until it multiplys the letter. This time i would like to change. Any registry entry?
Thanks for the help...

same issue .. not only m and n on my side..
refer to this post 4 further infos...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=483644

same mine. it's only dust

Mine's the opposite. My 'M' doesn't seem very sensitive. My words always seem to miss that 'M'. But the one that's real sensitive is the '.'. That seems to appear all the time.

it started like this with me .. the "M" alone was the problem ..
now the whole keyboard triples EVERYTHING ! -.-''
we really need help

I had that issue briefly with a R2A German Generic I tried. Never happened again though .

You can improve the situation by lowering the rate at which your key strokes are repeated by going to Settings > Buttons then on the "Up/Down Control" tab if you move the first slider to Slow and the Repeat Rate slider to Slow then the problem sort of "disappears"

I had the same issue with a lot of keys, i, m,n,k,l etc...
I did a hard reset and upgraded my rom, installed sms-chat... did everything but the issue persisted.
Finally i took it to the service center and they replaced the plate underneath which senses the keystroke.
It works fine now...

i dunno about u guys
but i spent all night cleanning the keyboard & its working fine now
its hard ,i used a YouTube video.

hatlo0or said:
i dunno about u guys
but i spent all night cleanning the keyboard & its working fine now
its hard ,i used a YouTube video.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly how did you cleaned your keyboard? I want to clean it by myself too.. Which tools did you use?

I used this vedio Xperia X1 - Disassembly Rear
Its harder than it looks , if you try it be VERY carefull as the parts can be easily broken​

hatlo0or said:
I used this vedio Xperia X1 - Disassembly Rear
Its harder than it looks , if you try it be VERY carefull as the parts can be easily broken​
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks a lot man!.. i'll give it a try and post the results cause this is a very common problem with the x1's. And probably as common as the cracks on the silver x1's.
Again.. Thanks a lot!

try this fix
i got this cab a while back for this problems, seems to work on wm6.5 also

disassembling did not help - there was no part to clean or to mechanically tighten.

vrbcik said:
disassembling did not help - there was no part to clean or to mechanically tighten.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you try the disassembly and clean the keyboard?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=535664

aww wut? i have a problem with my X key as well! i have to push harder to use it and i really dont want to fiddle around with the parts into to clean it.

Great
Hkt said:
Did you try the disassembly and clean the keyboard?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=535664
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, I have done it oncemore - and it seems it helped. Although I am sure it was not dirty from "outside". I would say, it was the sticker or the glue from the sticker which made the contacts dirty.

madjokeer said:
i got this cab a while back for this problems, seems to work on wm6.5 also
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
how does this work what does it do any idea?

I haven't read through all the thread, but I can tell everyone who has this keyboard problem of multiple keystrokes and no keystrokes that it is HARDWARE and it can get worse over time. It can be sometimes lessened by some software tweaks but.... don't expect anything major.
I had the same issue, first starting with "f" then spreading over to space, l, m, n and a lot more keys.
The phone was sent to repair three times with no improvement until the third time when it was replaced. I sent it to Flextronics in Newmarket, ON with an RMA# from Sony Ericsson. I still have the worksheets and everything else if anyone wants to make a sticky because I see a lot of posts about this.
My original phone was a 08W36, I now have a 09W30 with no problems so far...
Better get it fixed before it goes out of warranty.
For those of you out of warranty, I think there were a few threads about this explaining how to disassemble the keyboard and clean the plates.

andreitu said:
I haven't read through all the thread, but I can tell everyone who has this keyboard problem of multiple keystrokes and no keystrokes that it is HARDWARE and it can get worse over time. It can be sometimes lessened by some software tweaks but.... don't expect anything major.
I had the same issue, first starting with "f" then spreading over to space, l, m, n and a lot more keys.
The phone was sent to repair three times with no improvement until the third time when it was replaced. I sent it to Flextronics in Newmarket, ON with an RMA# from Sony Ericsson. I still have the worksheets and everything else if anyone wants to make a sticky because I see a lot of posts about this.
My original phone was a 08W36, I now have a 09W30 with no problems so far...
Better get it fixed before it goes out of warranty.
For those of you out of warranty, I think there were a few threads about this explaining how to disassemble the keyboard and clean the plates.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
how long did you spend without your x1? sending it to getting it back because obviously if its gonna take 2 weeks then i'll be hesitant to send it :S

Anyone try cleaning the keyboard?

From searching this forum, I can tell that others are having the same issue I am having. It started out with just a couple keys and now about 50% of my keys require me to push really hard for them to type. It is not a lag issue as covered by another thread. It just feels like the there may be dirt or something under the keys that makes it harder to type. This issue also is not ROM related as I have flashed my device with several ROMS with the same result.
Has anyone had any luck taking apart the keyboard and cleaning underneath the keys? If so -- maybe post some tips on what worked or not.
Thanks.

I'd vote for compressed air

I agree. You might be able to disassemble the phone and take the keyboard out and use compressed air. That would make certain that all the dirt is really out of the board...

A work mate of mine did this the other day. He took it fully apart and cleaned it out with contact cleaner. Ill ask him wether it worked or not but I think it did because I saw him using the phone today.

contact cleaner
I've never heard of contact cleaner. I'll have to try that. After looking at this video for disassembly, it doesn't look like you can get underneath the keys. How did your co-worker do it? Pop off the keys like a laptop keyboard?

I guess some older thread on how to replace Kaiser keyboard will be useful.
Found this
About screen, but went through keyboard also ..

anagarika said:
I guess some older thread on how to replace Kaiser keyboard will be useful.
Found this
About screen, but went through keyboard also ..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I found that as well and it was not of much use. The problem is not removing the keyboard from the phone. The problem is getting underneath the keys. You can see the keyboard front/back removed from my attached image. According to this other thread #119, #126, #127 they say it is impossible to get at the keypad underneath.
I might just take a can of compressed air and spray on top of the keys as best I can to see if it helps.

mwoelmer said:
Yes, I found that as well and it was not of much use. The problem is not removing the keyboard from the phone. The problem is getting underneath the keys. You can see the keyboard front/back removed from my attached image. According to this other thread #119, #126, #127 they say it is impossible to get at the keypad underneath.
I might just take a can of compressed air and spray on top of the keys as best I can to see if it helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmmm, seems that no other way but perhaps replace the keyboard ..

You cant get under the "actual" keyboard without breaking it off the housing. The keys can be pulled off from the top, but the actual buttons are sealed below.
For what little it cost, just replace the whole thing and problems are solved. Just did my son and daughters couple weeks ago.

Im foolish I forgot to ask him about it. Thinking back he may have damaged it lol. He does kind of charge into things and then realise he cant fix it.

Agree with carhigh, just replace the whole thing. Kaiser parts not that expensive nowadays. Just need time to open it up.

I have the same problem. Tried blowing compressed air from the top, but didn't have much success with the keys. I'll probably get a new keypad and replace it!

Sorry if this is a common question but where do people recommend getting kaiser parts? My N key and spacebar dont work without pressing it really hard and it's doing my head in!
Cheers.

Dommo said:
Sorry if this is a common question but where do people recommend getting kaiser parts? My N key and spacebar dont work without pressing it really hard and it's doing my head in!
Cheers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your problem will slowly get worse. More and more keys will require extra pressure. Not sure where you could buy a replacement now (the phone is kind of old). After attempting to clean the keyboard, I gave up. I am just using onscreen keyboard program that is included in TPC's ROM. I think it is called finger keyboard. After a little practice, I am actually faster typing on that than I was with sliding the keyboard.

Try this guys - worked for me in fixing my S key:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=431925

Ah. Did not realize the keyboard did not come out of the housing...