Using the HTC Hero's keyboard on the HTC Magic
It is possible to use the more advanced and comfortable implementation of the screen-keyboard from the HTC Hero on the HTC Magic without having to get root access on the device.
There is an excellent german description available how to Use the original HTC HERO Keyboard on the Magic, G1, Galaxy and Pulse without rooting (german readers should head there instead). I also tried to find an english description for this but since I did not find explainations without rooting the devices here is the translation for the curious.
- download the file HTCIME.apk(for Android 1.5) or HTCIME.apk(for Android 1.6 - Donut)
- make sure you have an application installed which can install APK files (for example eoeAppInstaller or the ASTRO File Manager)
- copy the HTC_IME.apk to the SD-card
- accept applications from unknown sources in Settings > Applications
- start the eoeAppInstaller (or ASTRO File Manager) and locate the file HTC_IME.apk
- long press the entry and choose to install the application
- after successful installation reboot your phone
- go to Settings > Locale and Text and activate the entry Touch Input
- now bring up some text-entry box for example in the SMS messages
- long press on the entry-field and choose "Touch Input", voi'la
Now you should have the new keyboard active. There are more variations of this keyboard layout available in the settings to try out. Furthermore if you're using tools to kill your running apps make sure, to set the keyboard application on the exclusion-list otherwise it takes longer to launch it every time.