IPad Dvorak Keyboard

Question

Hello all (sorry for the long message; the big discovery is down at the paragraph "The Punchline"),
I learned the Dvorak keyboard a few years ago and have enjoyed the amazing user-friendliness of the layout, and my typing speed now is even faster than it ever was before. (For those of you who haven't heard of the Dvorak keyboard, go here: http://www.dvorak-keyboards.com/Dvorak%20keyboard%20typing%20index.htm )
This means that my *purchasing an iPad* in contingent on iPad having the option of a *Dvorak keyboard layout option built-in* — the way that the Dvorak keyboard layout is built-in to all Macs and PCs. On my iPhone I am used to switching between English, Spanish, Italian and other international keyboards (which you should try if you haven't already for the usfel auto-spell feature in the other languages) so being able to switch between the standard U.S. QWERTY keyboard layout and Dvorak would be beautifully easy for the user and equally intuitive.
Dvorak also invented a version of the keyboard layout for someone who _only has use of the right hand_, and a version for just the _left hand_. Naturally, this would be incredibly useful for new iPad users! Just like we can switch between foreign language keyboards at will on the iPhone and iPad, we should be able to switch between two-handed Dvorak in landscape view and have right-handed (or left-handed Dvorak) in portrait view on the iPad. Wouldn't that be cool? The real crime is not that these layouts don't already exist for the iPad — but that they are only 3rd-party right now (I could program it myself if I had to), and one must jail-break an iPad or iPhone to activate what is built-in on every Mac since the Apple II in 1984.
(One-handed Dvorak layouts: http://www.dvorak-keyboards.com/rightand_left_hand_dvorak_keyboardlayouts.htm )
*The Punchline:* An hour ago, I wanted to check to see if there were right-hand or left-hand Dvorak keyboard layouts in OSX on my Mac burried somewhere in the International Preferences in System Preferences (I hadn't seen in it the past). To my surprise, "International Preferences" in System Preferences is now called "Language and Text" ! (this must be a new update very recently) and right next to the regular Dvorak keyboard layout in the list is "Dvorak - Right" and "Dvorak - Left"! Did anyone else notice this?
My theory is that Apple intends make these right- and left-handed layouts available to iPad users somehow — why else would they just mysteriously show up now? If one has use of both hands, they're not that useful for a regular computer, but on an iPad ...!
Comments? Theories? Ideas? I want an iPad but I won't get one until it has Dvorak — and if it has Dvorak Right and Dvorak Left I'll buy it tomorrow!
- Luke

Answer 1

As noted elsewhere, you can use the Dvorak layout with an external keyboard now, which is very nice. Many of us Dvorakites have written to Apple over the years about this issue since they have always supported Dvorak on Macs.
I do think it's unfortunate and odd that Dvorak is not support for the iPad screen. If this is something you need (as I do) I've found that the app SlideIT (about $3) designed for Android which I'm able to use on a Samsung 7" Galaxy tablet seems to work well in all the applications that I've tested it with.
In addition, SlideIT offers the ability to move you finger around the keyboard (whether querty or Dvorak is active) and built the word up that way. This is a particular nice feature for a tablet. As I recall this technology was first created by IBM and dubbed ATOMIC or something like that. Anyway, it is unique in my experience to be able to combine Dvorak and slide entry and I'm lovin' it!