We talk about in the past the swyping virtual keyboard for multiple platforms SWYPE. It speeds up text input on your device but recently I have fallen out of love with it.
SWYPE comes as a default on my Samsung Galaxy S2 but no matter how I tried to use, I still go back to the standard keyboard application such as Ice Cream Sandwich or SwiftKey.
SWYPing is just not very normal. I still prefer good ol typing input. I am not sure about you guys.
Today’s update since SWYPE was acquired by Naunce comes the integration of Dragon Dictate technology into SWYPE. So now not only can you enjoy Swyping goodness but also quality voice to text input.
You can also download other language packs as well.
The update can be installed from the Swype preferences pane now, and you can join the beta from Swype’s website
Voice Technology Company Nuance have purchased Keyboard input technology expert Swype for 100 mil.
Nuance is a major player in voice technology and as I wrote about, speech is increasingly becoming mobile technology. That’s something we’re seeing more with the rollout of Siri on the iPhone 4S, which would appear to be powered in part by Nuance technology though the company has not been able to confirm that. But with the pick-up of Swype, Nuance is reminding us that it wants to control all forms of input on devices and while voice is intriguing for many, it’s not a perfect fit for everyone and can’t be used in all circumstances like really noisy environments or private meetings. As Nuance CTO Vlad Sejnoha told me, basically all of Nuance’s business is becoming mobile. By picking up Swype, Nuance can be the go-to resource for all kinds of input on a mobile device.
We will spend the next 2 years fighting our input culture, shifting from touch, mouse, keyboard to voice!
We have introduced BlindType, which I think is great and Swype which is also good. Now we have a whole new keyboard experience in 8pen.
8pen uses a lot of gesture based actions for input but what matters more is the way the letters are arranged. They are not QWERTY style. Why do I think it will not work?
1. Simply too much learning curve
Learning curve is steep. Most of us grew up learning to type on QWERTY which on a whole is not efficient, but after years of practice it has become second nature to us. While 8pen might ultimately be more efficient as a input method after 1 year of practice, most people are unwilling to learn this input mechanism.
2. Not standard from other devices input.
Imagine this, you take an effort to learn this method. Then when you go to your netbook or desktop and you need to input, it will likely impede the way you input on those device as your brain has to process 2 different sets of input for the same thing. I am not sure how big is the impact but we were able to do that quite well with the QWERTY keyboard and the T9 alphanumeric keypad.
Today I saw this blog post from WorkAwesome that discusses on the much understandable problem of improving the keyboard that we have been using since 50 years ago.
We didn’t all love the keyboard but after a lot of practice, we really don’t have much complains about it. The problem is, if someone sells you a keyboard concept that is much more efficient, will you change? what if it increases your WPM from 20 to 50?
You would probably not do that, because the cost of switching is too high. Imagine you can buy one for yourself at home, but what happens if you are at work? Likely case your boss won’t buy one of that for you.
But with the smartphone revolution, this could very well change. Why is that? On a 2-4 inch screen, your typical keyboard, without much prediction capability just will not work, especially for Americans since their hands are so big.
So Virtual keyboards like iPhone’s very good keyboard does auto correction, prediction to make your text input much faster.
Other virtual keyboards uses prediction in a lot of different ways to make our text input much faster.
So we are already changing the way we input, why not just change the layout to something more efficient?
Will habitual creatures like human beings do it this time?
“Something’s wrong with your keyboard,” a friend borrowing my laptop would say. “When I type, all that comes out is gibberish!”
“Nothing’s wrong with my keyboard,” I would reply with a grin. “It’s the layout on your keyboard that’s wrong!”
Click image to enlarge.
What usually follows is a long lecture on how the Dvorak keyboard layout is better than QWERTY in every way. My friends usually humor me — this has happened several times — but I’ll spare you the sermon and make it short. Out of the hundreds of reasons you should switch to Dr. Dvorak’s layout, here are seven:
1. QWERTY was designed for the typewriter, not the typist.
Christopher Sholes, who invented the typewriter, found that early prototypes of his invention had a mechanical flaw: When he struck neighboring keys in rapid succession, the typewriter jammed. He needed to replace the initial alphabetical layout with one that separated keys often struck successively. Thus the QWERTY layout was born. This did not solve the problem entirely, but it made the machine jam a lot less.
Good for the typewriter. But what about the typist? While QWERTY was designed so that the typewriter could work, Dvorak was designed so that the typist could work well.
2. Dvorak increases your speed.
Typists base their fingers on the home row of the keyboard. If you want to increase typing speed, the home row is where you place the most commonly typed keys . Which is exactly what Dr. Dvorak did in his layout — 70% of keystrokes are on the home row; 22%, on the top row; 8%, on the bottom.
In QWERTY, only 32% of keystrokes are on the home row. Which means most of the time, typists’ fingers are either reaching up for the top row (52%) or down for the bottom row (16%). So not only does QWERTY do nothing for typists, it actually hinders them.
Dvorak further increases typing speed by placing all vowels on the left side of the home row, and the most commonly used consonants on the right side. This guarantees that most of your strokes alternate between a finger on your right hand (consonant) and a finger on your left (vowel). Alternating between fingers from either hand is faster — just imagine texting with one hand or drumming with one stick.
3. Dvorak lessens your mistakes.
Not only is Dvorak faster than QWERTY, it’s also more accurate. Errors occur more when you type away from the home row, or consecutively with the same finger. When you combine the two problems (using the same finger to type consecutive letters not on the home row) you make even more mistakes.
Reaching away from the home row, typing consecutively with the same finger — these happen more often in QWERTY. And so do mistakes.
4. Dvorak is more comfortable and better for your health.
Although its only your fingers that do the extra reaching in QWERTY, the distance adds up. A study compared the distance traveled by the fingers of two typists in performing the same task. In Dvorak, the typists fingers traveled 1.5 km per day; In QWERTY, 30 km per day. This extra distance increases not only the likelihood of errors but the stress on your fingers.
The discomfort is often temporary. But with the amount of typing we do today — plus the prevalence of QWERTY keyboards — it is not uncommon for the pain to progress to repetitive strain injury. Some RSI sufferers have reported some relief from taking breaks, doing stretches, improving posture, and of course, switching to Dvorak.
5. Switching to Dvorak is easier than ever.
Studies have shown that Dvorak is easier to learn than QWERTY. If you already touchtype with QWERTY, it’s even easier, because you already have the finger coordination needed for touchtyping. There are online resources on learning Dvorak and a ton of typing games for practice.
But where do you get the keyboards? Today, keyboards with the Dvorak layout (or that can switch to Dvorak) are available if you wish to buy one. But you won’t even have to. Most operating systems allow users to make Dvorak their default keyboard layout. You can also make it easy to switch between layouts, but trust me — you won’t want to.
6. Dvorak is cool.
Aside from getting friends and coworkers to type gibberish on your computer (a useful security measure, by the way) Dvorak has other cool benefits. Using Dvorak puts you in an exclusive club — like having a Mac instead of a PC. But aside from mere prestige, you can flaunt your productivity and the ease with which you attain it.
You’ll also be in the company of some cool people, including Bram Cohen, inventor of BitTorrent; Matt Mullenweg, lead developer of WordPress; and Barbara Blackburn, world’s fastest typist.
7. Using Dvorak is a noble cause.
Dr. Dvorak created something great, but he died in vain.
“I’m tired of trying to do something worthwhile for the human race,” he said, realizing his failure to convince people to adopt his layout. “They simply don’t want to change!”
QWERTY has remained the default keyboard layout for over a century. It has outlived the purpose for which it was designed, yet its weaknesses still remain. By switching to Dvorak, you are joining a movement that empowers typists and honors the legacy of a great man.
I would like to give another shout out to the developers of this. It really rocks! It is so smart that most of the time it gets what i want to type. of course im still not used to it and it has made my typing on iPod Touch worse (i kept thinking the iPod Touch can kept up with the input speed of how well i do on my Windows Mobile with Swype that i kept forgeting to put spaces)
I got an old O2 Atom Life Windows Mobile phone and have been trying to get around the idea of not using a stylus on a 2.8 inch resistive screen.
I am really good with the stylus either using Block Recoginizer,Transcriber but i can’t figure out why we had to make use of stylus last time before the iPhone comes about. It is such a hassle when you are commuting in the middle of a train station and you need to send a text and you have to pull out your stylus.
That is why with the advancement of virtual keyboard we hope to see some really cool and functional virtual keyboard. The iphone’s virtual keyboard have been one of the best. Very responsive and good for me.
However, on a resistive screen its a different matter.
Here is what a small company presented on TechCrunch 50 and i was more than impress by the video to download Swype to try on my Atom Life.
Take a look at how it works.
When i first tried it, it felt real awkward. But slowly i see the benefits of it. The intelligence of this small software really picks up words fast. Whats more if you use fingers on the small resistive screen on my Atom Life it actually work pretty well!
This video shows the basic way how to input text. What i like about this is that if you don’t get used to writing all the way by swyping you can still use a very functional virtual keyboard.
What if you encounter words like “balloon” or “good” with double letters? no problem.
This one shows a very fast way of Capitalizing your words. Never thought about doing that!
How to put your comma and fullstop fast.
This one shows the auto correct functionality. its easy if you have a friends name like Balakrishnan. Just type the name Balakrishnan and it auto goes into the dictionary. the next time you swype it the intellisense will be able to recognize it .
So where can you get it? The folks at XDA Developers have managed to port it. Do give it a try and comment how is your experience with it.
The productive organizer is one who is in control of himself as well as his surroundings.He studies how others define their system and works to improve on it and in turn, educate others how to change their lives.
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