<p>You can actually buy a Bluetooth slide out keyboard for the iPhone on eBay and amazon! Its basically a case that with a physical keyboard. That should be way easier for you to use.</p>
<p>My wife had similar issues: she really wanted a keyboard. She got a Blackberry Q10, which has a physical keyboard. Her verdict: it was an excellent Blackberry, but it was kind of a second-rate smartphone. If work had given her a Q10 to replace her current work Blackberry, she’d have been delighted. But as a replacement for her Android-based smartphone, it left something to be desired.</p>
<p>After about 10 days, she returned the Q10 and got a Samsung Galaxy S4. She’s getting used to the virtual keyboard.</p>
<p>But you could try the Q10. If you want to replace a Blackberry, you might like it–and its physical keyboard.</p>
<p>Siri doesn’t work at all for me. Not worth the effort to correct everything. Thanks though to whomever suggested upthread the microphone on the bottom. I tried and it worked!</p>
<p>Before I got it, I thought I’d never adapt to the iphone. I was horrible at texting on it and I was used to texting fairly well with T9. The iphone corrects though and I got fast pretty quickly. Yes, some of the autocorrects are rather amusing :)</p>
<p>I do like being able to access email on the go and wasting bleacher time on facebook and cc. I also use and love radar and weather aps, but after a year, I still rarely use any other ap.</p>
<p>Love the Swype app on my samsung.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>You don’t have to type accurately. As in, you type “dont” and it converts that to don’t. mistype agout and it will make it about. You have to make sure the autocorrection is the word you want, but it generally helps. </p></li>
<li><p>Siri is great for texts and short notes. I also use it all the time for dialing, for reminders, for calendar entries, etc. If you say something and it comes back wrong, you can say that part over and it will correct that part; it’s smart enough to realize you meant to correct, not to change the instruction. I often say, “Text Rachel”, slight pause and it asks me what I want to say, etc. You’ll be amazed at how easy setting up reminders can be and thus how much more you use them. Need to get something at a store? Reminder and it will put it on a list for you. And if you enable location services, you can be notified when you leave or get home - or to other locations you set up. I remind myself to pick up x when I leave the gym, something I’d forget because I’m so wasted from the workout.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>If you use Siri, get familiar with the setting for LTE, which is in General>Cellular. You don’t need 4G for phone calls and basic texting but oh my word is it fast when you’re talking to Siri or pulling down data. Flip it off when not needed to save battery. </p>
<p>If you’re getting email on the thing, a huge help to me has been setting up gmail’s priority inbox arrangement. You have to do this on the gmail website first and then you can select to be notified in the gmail app only for priority emails instead of all or nothing. You have to change the website first because the gmail app is really just a front end for the website. Neat thing is you get an email every once in a while that lists the number of emails in other categories - like “promotions” or “social” or “updates”. Makes it much easier to control your email.</p>
<p>H had so much trouble using his iPhone that he gave it to me. I had trouble using it at first (didn’t help that the kids laughed at me every time I texted using it). But I did get used to it, it just took awhile. Good luck.</p>
<p>A great thing for me is, being quite farsighted, I can use Siri for many things and other stuff - like the end button for calls - are really large. And if you take the time to set up basic stuff like favorites for contacts, then it’s really easy to do pretty sophisticated stuff without needing to look much at all and certainly without putting on reading glasses. </p>
<p>Big point: turn off the receipt in the settings for messages. Turn on “iMessage” but turn off the one below that “Send Read Receipts”. Those are texts that say when you’ve read someone’s text. Those annoy people.</p>
<p>
That’s odd. When I text other iPhone users it just changes “Delivered” to “Read 3:14 pm”. It doesn’t send another text. </p>
<p>I don’t use it because if I want to ignore a message but read it at the same time…they’ll know I’ve read it thus invalidating my “Oh, I didn’t see it” excuse.</p>
<p>I also have iMessage enabled but not a read receipt sent to others. All that happens, as the previous poster mentions, is a tiny blurb underneath giving a date/time stamp when the text was seen (and presumably read) by the person you sent it to. No notification text, audible alert, etc, is involved so I’m not sure what could be deemed annoying on the receiving side. Now, as the poster above points out, some people find it annoying on the sending end. Too big-brother and invasive, leaving accountability and removing plausible deniability. That’s another matter entirely.</p>
<p>start out with a stylus pen.Son bought me one when I was so frustrated. after awhile I got more used to using the virtual keyboard and realized I wasnt using the stylus much anymore.and nobody has fatter,more arthritic fingers than me!</p>
<p>Kids tell me it’s annoying. Adults may think differently.</p>
<p>I would love to have an iphone but I have one of those little flip phones that fits well in my pocket that I don’t want to give up. Texting on it though is realllly slowwww.</p>
<p>You all can text using your laptop if the person you are texting to has AT&T. That is how I text my son and husband most of the time. </p>
<p>Have the person with the iphone text you to your email address then you will have the return address to text them back using your laptop. Those “conversations” though do not merge with the actual phone number ones so you sort of have 2 identities.</p>
<p>You can text in general from a computer. For example, Verizon’s site is vtext.com. You can use it as a guest or you can log in as a Verizon user.</p>
<p>I have only used ATT but I know in order for the texts to come as a conversation, the ending has to have mms.att.net not txt.att.net or the texts come as new conversations each time instead of a continuous one like when you text with phone.</p>
<p>You can slightly enlarge the keys on iPhone and turn it sideways. That works the best, plus predictive typing that fixes MOST of the typos. That is the combo I use. I’m typing this on my iPhone and am embarrassed at how many typos the program corrected.</p>
<p>There is a setting that allowed the keys to be slightly enlarged; makes them much more user friendly. H and I both enlarged ours but are kids are fine with the itty bitty keys. </p>
<p>The iPhone is blue tooth enabled, so you can use most Bluetooth keyboards, including the cute little Belkin one I bought for the iPad mini.</p>
<p>I know a woman with very long nails that uses a stylus. That might be the answer if you are set on an iphone.</p>
<p>Missy, when you first started texting on your current (or first “texting” phone") were you able to master it immediately - or no? There’s a learning curve for everything!</p>
<p>One difference you might be feeling is this - on a BB or slide keyboard the keys have a “feel” - you tap one and feel the key give a little. An iPhone doesn’t have that - the surface is completely smooth so the accuracy at first feels awkward and random. I found initially though that having the volume up enough to “hear” the individual key taps helped me. So did autocorrect. 
For some reason while I thought that holding the iphone keyboard horizontal would be helpful, I actually seemed to make more errors - I was constantly pressing “send” prematurely!!!</p>
<p>Another advantage to an iPhone is that it sounds like your family all has them - thus, they will be able to share/show you lots of tips to make your experience more positive.</p>
<p>Now go get one. :)</p>
<p>I agree that it helps me to type with the sound on and autocorrect. Also invaluable that we all have the same phone as a family and can trade tips of what does and doesn’t work well on it, so learning curve is shorter. </p>
<p>I’d suggest asking H or one of your kids if they could adjust size of keys displayed to
make slightly larger. Made a huge difference for H and me!</p>
<p>I won’t do iPhone- I’m sticking with Android and Swype. The kids always say “How can you do it that way??” but I find it much much easier and the auto correct seems more accurate. There are still some funny ones, but less frequently.</p>
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<p>My first Blackberry phone was the type where there were two letters per key (as in, press once for A and twice for S) so when I got this phone with a normal keyboard it was so much easier!</p>