Posts tagged Keyboard
Beta Review: Swype
Mar 6th
Swype – Actually pretty awesome.
The onslaught of touch-only Androids hitting the market has created a bit of dilemma for me. You see unfortunately, I was blessed with fingers that may as well be physically allergic to on-screen keyboards. I’d literally take a T9 keypad over those ridiculous on-screen “mock ups” of the real thing… So for now, I’ve been patiently waiting with my T-Mobile G1 for an awesome new Android packing a full QWERTY. It’s felt like an eternity already…
While time will tell if I’ll ever get my new phone-of-my-dreams, a new app has been released in beta that I’ve been lucky enough to have a few weeks to try out, and I must say, that while it’s not perfect, almost would make me consider a touch-only device.
Swype is an app that replaces the stock on-screen keyboard with a new gesture-based way of typing. It’s a novel concept that, surprisingly, works pretty well! Let’s say for example you wanted to type “Hi android.” All you have to do is touch down on H, then slide your finger to the i and release. After you lift your finger, touch back down on the a to begin typing android, and continue the same way you did hi, but sliding from the a to the n, the d, r, o, i and finally d. The spaces are automatically added every time you start another word. Most common words are automatically guessed and used. If it’s not 100% sure of what you wanted to type, an on-screen predictive text type box comes up with some suggestions of what you might have meant. If your word isn’t in there, you hit an x and just touch type your word the old fashion way, adding it to your message and to the predictive database. It’s really simple and intuitive. There are a lot of little hints and tricks on the official website for Swype (www.swype.com), but I’m just going to recommend you start trying it out for yourself to see all that it can do.
Swype is still in beta at the moment, but it’s already proving itself to be a truly unique and worthwhile alternative to typing. It has regular touch screen typing beat by a long shot, and while I’m still not ready to let go of my beloved physical QWERTY’s, I’d at least consider a touch-only phone if I could use Swype on it.
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Beta Test This: Swype!
Mar 5th
Swype, the gesture-based virtual keyboard that to date has only been legitimately available to OEMs, just sent beta testing invitations out to Android users who’d previously provided their email address to them.
The beta, starting today, March 5, is limited to a small number of participants but will expand “soon.” It’s a limited feature set compared to the OEM version and will work for devices with HVGA and WVGA displays.
You can register to participate at beta.swype.com.
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TouchType Looking for Alpha Testers
Feb 12th
Wanna do your part to help put the final touches on an Android app? TouchType wants to hear from you! They are currently looking for alpha testers for their upcoming SwiftKey keyboard. By their own billing, SwiftKey is “revolutionary text prediction” for Android handsets. According to them, it’s said to be upwards of 50% faster than other text prediction solutions. Using text that has already been entered, their keyboard client is able to predict your next word with “incredible accuracy”. Sounds like something we’d be down for trying, how about you?
If you’re interested in signing up, head right over to their page and fill out the form. Let us know what you think!
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T-Mobile myTouch 1.2 Featuring Swype?
Feb 7th
In just a few short days, T-Mobile is expected to release the updated version of their myTouch 3G handset. Among the notable changes in design are a 3.5mm headphone jack and more memory. A leaked internal screenshot for T-Mobile indicates a software enhancement will be joining the party too.
The folks over at TmoToday have a screenshot shows the myTouch 3G with 3.5mm headphone jack (catchy title) will also offer the unique soft keyboard, Swype. For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, Swype works by dragging your finger from letter to letter, rather than pecking them. It’s rather unconventional, but we hear it’s pretty awesome.We’re not sure what kind of learning curve it has, however, it appears it could be a preferred way of typing.
It’s interesting to see something like this being bundled with a handset, but it does help differentiate it from other Android phones. At least out of the box. Swype also comes preloaded on the Samsung Omnia II.
Fun Fact: Swype was founded by the same guy (Cliff Kushler) who invented T9 texting.
Thanks for the heads up, Jim!
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Early Look: Probability-Based Keyboard “qwerted”
Jan 13th
Check out this new take on the traditional Android soft keyboard. Rather than just changing the color or general shape of the buttons, qwerted changes the actual size of them based on the probability that they’ll be hit next. For instance, if you type a ‘c’, the letter ‘h’ will be larger than say, a ‘z’. All Android users will be happy to know that it was designed for 1.5 or higher.
qwerted was created and developed by Moritz Haarmann who expects to have the app available later this month. No word on pricing just yet.
qwerted for android – basic example from Moritz Haarmann on Vimeo.
Features found in qwerted:
- Punch-through recommendations – Depending on the individual probability, an accented or uppercase key is shown by default instead of the normal, downcase, key.
- Self-learning - remembers the words you type, and knows them the next time you want to type them. So it’s always up-to-date with your vocabulary.
- Customizable – Set up the size of the keys depending on your preference. Later versions will also allow skins and custom keyboard layouts ( e.g. dvorak ) to be used.
Swype: learning to type all over again?
Nov 28th
Maybe I went a bit far with the title, but that’s what I think whenever a “revolutionary” new method of inputing text comes along. The first time I encountered handwriting recognition was when I purchased an orange handspring visor. I tried to learn the chicken scratch equivalents for each letter, but decided in the end that it was much quicker to simply type with my stylus.
My first impression after watching this video of Swype – an alternative keyboard that is headed for Android next year – was that it looked like an excellent solution to the problem of typing on small screens. Then I started wondering about the potential downsides. How long does it take to adjust to this app? Erick Schonfeld of TechCrunch was able to match the speed of the Swype user in the video below on his iPhone. Will I get fatigued using only one hand to type? Will it be faster or slower than a standard keyboard if I alternate hands for each word? That sounds awkward, doesn’t it…fumbling the phone back-and-forth between hands so you can avoid typing fatigue?
Maybe I’m thinking too much about possible faults when I should be praising the invention. It was developed by the creator of T9, after all. And we all know how pervasive that technology is. I’ll be waiting to try this one out in the next several months.
Via TechCrunch
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