Do you prefer to do your typing on a real keyboard with your iPhone or iPad? iOS already allows you devices with a Bluetooth keyboard, but what if you don’t have a spare one handy? Let’s say, for example, that your Apple Bluetooth Keyboard is already paired to your Mac, or you’re on the go and only have your MacBook Air handy. What then?
Enter Type2Phone, a great new app that allows you to make your Mac show up as a Bluetooth keyboard to iOS 3.2 or above. Now you don’t need a dedicated keyboard to type on your iPhone or iPad… your Mac can do it for you.
The $4.99 app couldn’t be easier to set up: just download, install, make sure Bluetooth on your Mac is on and set to discoverable, and pair as normal. Once that’s done, anything you type into the Type2Phone app will automatically be sent to your iPhone.
What’s the point? Well, personally, I hate texting. Mostly it’s because I try to say too much in a text, positing theorems and reciting limericks and the like the class-A doof I am, while most of my friends are content with “c ya l8r rofl.” My thumbs are ill-fit for my own texting verbosity, so for longer texts, I’d prefer to do it on a proper keyboard, especially if I’m responding to a text I get while I’m at work. Type2Phone makes this as simple as just switching to another window.
A great app. It’s a little pricey at $5, but that’s still a deal compared to buying a dedicated Bluetooth keyboard.
[via Lifehacker]
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
22 responses to “Use Your Mac To Type On Your iPhone Or iPad Using Type2Phone”
This is one of those “neat”, but impractical ideas. It’s highly unlikely that everyone is going to carry around a Mac just to type on their iDevice. Even if I’m at home, I’m not going to trudge to my office to type something out when I’ve already got my iPhone with me.
F5ckin’ Stooopid!
You can also download the free app 1keyboard, it lets you do that with your iPhone/iPod/iPad and any other device that uses bluetooth.
Oh and it has keyboard shortcuts too!
Might be useful for replying to text messages at work so the boss doesn’t think your always on your iPhone
Sorry but useless 95% of the time. One reason I love the iPhone 4S is the speech to text abilities are so amazing. Speaking works so well, I don’t need another way to enter text….
too bad 1keyboard only works on Lion.
i’m still on snow leopard. But i’ve bookmarked it for future! thanks
LOVE IT! Been waiting for this for a long time. Simply leave Bluetooth on on my Mac, iPad, and iPhone and can instantly connect. Respond to texts/iMessages and type into Pages on iOS (love the iCloud simplicity but not the lack of Mac support). Think it’s genius for multitasking, as well. Only gripe and I’ve emailed the developer: let me turn OFF the flowing text in the app window. Super useless and distracting for me > I have the device in front of me!
couldn’t get 1KB to work… :(
Not to mention the fact that just about anything (that involves typing) that you can do on the iPhone, you can also do on the Mac. So if you’re already on your Mac, why bother firing up a bluetooth link to the phone? The only exception I can think of is texting, and… buying a $5 app so I can type elaborate SMS messages? Seriously?
I tend to write sms’s via Skype because I prefer typing them on a keyboard. With iMessage and no Mac-client, I’ve been waiting for something like this. So, this definitely fulfills a niche, albeit a small one.
I couldn’t get it to work either. :/ My phone wouldn’t connect.