OK, I posted in the "new user starts here...." and got no reply.

So, how do you make the password input to turn into asterisks immediately without showing the actual letters/numbers first? By default, it takes about 0.5 sec to turn input password into asterisks. This is not the asterisked passcodes are used for lol. I'm paranoid when people can see me inputting my passwords.

No idea how to actually achieve what you require, but obvious question is, why are you letting people watch your phone so closely and intently while typing your password? They have to literally be looking right at it as close as you are to see the passwords you type. Also fwiw, one character obfuscates immediately when you type another one, so type more quickly and each character's barely even shown up before it gets obfuscated and the next one's in.

Ah ok then. It's just that I can't type as fast like on a bigger keyboard. Maybe people can't memorize it that fast like I worried .

Don't think this is user modifiable - it depends on the app which you ae interacting with, and how it's been coded.

TBH though, with the rather variable support within app's for the FN and CTRL keys to modify keyboard input, it's almost essential to be able to see the current char you've just typed (to verify that the app has really taken CTRL+q as "1" etc.)

EDIT - assuming of course you have passwords rammed full of non alphabetic characters like I have :-)

There are some app's where FN/CTRL will be persistant when pressed twice to "lock on"; others where FN/CTRL have to be pressed once before each individual character, and still others where the only way to activate them is to press and hold FN/CTRL for the duration of input. Grrr!

I agree with the OP. It would nice if this feature could be turned off, as a user setting. Maybe it's useful when you're a new user, but I've pretty much got the hang of the keyboard now and know what I'm typing.

The original N900 browser did just that. And then PR1.2 changed the browser to the typical cell-phone style of password hiding.

I'm sure there must be a setting somewhere, but it is probably application specific.