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Most of them do unfortunately. E.g. SwiftKey does. Also SwiftKey used to be an indie dev house but that got bought by Microsoft. It'd be nice to think that Microsoft selflessly love Android users and want to support a good keyboard application for Android and iOS even though they are competitors to Windows Phone. However it's more likely that they bought it because it had a bunch of user data they could monetize in various dubious ways.

https://swiftkey-keyboard.file...

Potentially dangerous permissions
GET_ACCOUNTS: Allows access to the list of accounts in the Accounts Service.
READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE: Allows an application to read from external storage.
READ_SMS: Allows an application to read SMS messages.
WRITE_EXTERNAL_STORAGE: Allows an application to write to external storage.
Other permissions
ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE: Allows applications to access information about networks.
ACCESS_WIFI_STATE: Allows applications to access information about Wi-Fi networks.
INTERNET: Allows applications to open network sockets.
RECEIVE_BOOT_COMPLETED: Allows an application to receive the ACTION_BOOT_COMPLETED that is broadcast after the system finishes booting. If you don't request this permission, you will not receive the broadcast at that time. Though holding this permission does not have any security implications, it can have a negative impact on the user experience by increasing the amount of time it takes the system to start and allowing applications to have themselves running without the user being aware of them. As such, you must explicitly declare your use of this facility to make that visible to the user.
VIBRATE: Allows access to the vibrator.
WAKE_LOCK: Allows using PowerManager WakeLocks to keep processor from sleeping or screen from dimming.
com.android.vending.BILLING
com.google.android.c2dm.permission.RECEIVE
com.swiftkey.languageprovider.READLANG
com.swiftkey.swiftkeyconfigurator.READCONFIG
com.touchtype.swiftkey.permission.C2D_MESSAGE

So does Swype

http://forum.swype.com/showthr...

Hi there, I just spotted Swype in the Google Play store and had exactly the same concerns.

Outside of reading the dictionary, I would not have expected Swype should not require any special permissions, and yet it wants a big long list of permissions:
Record audio
Get my approximate and precise location
Read my text messages
Full network access
Pair with Bluetooth devices
Read my contacts
Read terms I've added to the dictionary
Read call log
Read phone status and identity
Modify or delete the contents of my USB storage
Find accounts on my device
View network connections
View wifi connections
Access protected storage

So does Google Keyboard

https://www.xda-developers.com...

Let's take a look at what's going on here. First off, Google Keyboard has access to your own contact card, and accounts on your device. This means it has the ability to know who you are, and all of the Email (and other) accounts you have available on your device. That means it's possible for them to see what Google/Dropbox/ Twitter/Microsoft Exchange/Facebook accounts you have available on your phone. I have absolutely no idea why this is needed, nor why people are willing to give this information over.

Next up, the app can read your contacts. That's fair enough-Google obviously want to add your contact names to the spell-checker and auto-complete databases. This makes sense, and is something justifiable for a keyboard. The ability to modify or delete the contents of USB storage is somewhat strange, but while it does allow access to all your data stored on your "SD card," there's unfortunately no real

Swype, not Swipe. It's the one I use. It's got its pros and cons.

http://www.swype.com/

On my android phone, I can type words by swiping between letters, rather than simply poking at them with my fingers. I'm amazed how well this tech works and how fast I can write with it.

I know that eye trackers exist (and that one can select letters by hovering over them) but does eye tracking + swipe exist? If it doesn't, it would be straightforward to prototype it easily (originally you had to buy it, but now it seems to be part of the main OS. http://www.swype.com/

...actually, after a bit of googling it looks like others have thought of this: http://sciencenordic.com/texti...

Other human computer interaction options would be the various brain wave headsets which are now appearing (e.g. from google I see http://neurosky.com/ http://interaxon.ca/ etc). They tend to be less accurate, but are probably useful for things like controlling the environment (lights on and off) etc. It wouldn't be difficult to interface them with some basic home automation hardware.

I would think that finding a mix off input devices would be ideal in terms of preventing fatigue.

Once a bit of time has passed, you might consider spending some time looking through the faculty pages at your local University's CS Department. Get in contact with them. There is a lot of work (and funds) going on into HCI right now. This seems like the type of project that would get a lot of support from graduate students and faculty.

Please come back to us with a follow-up post. Don't forget to include a fundraising link for equipment costs. I would certainly contribute.

Swype is a popular third-party keyboard for Android phones (and also available for Windows phones and other platforms).

I know it's popular to bash Microsoft and their products, but Swype is not available for Windows Phone. Windows Phone 8.1 adds a "Word Flow Keyboard", but it is developed by Microsoft as part of their OS. Third party developers cannot create keyboards for Windows Phone.

But you don't have to take my word for it. Currently Windows Phone does not support Swype.

i had to look up Swype,
i really can see no benefit to me logging all my keystrokes, tie them to my phones ESN as a GUID along with my hardware list and then give (lol it gets better) full network access to a US companies "cloud" for "statistics" or the random NSL/Keystone Cops Warrant.
Sad that even a fucking virtual keyboard company cant resist the parasitic bandwagon of track/trace/trap/SPOF your users, just cant just sell a solution and fuck off, gotta have a store, and a "Cloud".

if your keyboard code has a network stack something is already wrong.
I'll stick for now with typing slowly on a non-mitm stock keyboard thanks.

http://forum.swype.com/showthr...
http://www.swype.com/footer/pr...

i had to look up Swype,
i really can see no benefit to me logging all my keystrokes, tie them to my phones ESN as a GUID along with my hardware list and then give (lol it gets better) full network access to a US companies "cloud" for "statistics" or the random NSL/Keystone Cops Warrant.
Sad that even a fucking virtual keyboard company cant resist the parasitic bandwagon of track/trace/trap/SPOF your users, just cant just sell a solution and fuck off, gotta have a store, and a "Cloud".

if your keyboard code has a network stack something is already wrong.
I'll stick for now with typing slowly on a non-mitm stock keyboard thanks.

http://forum.swype.com/showthr...
http://www.swype.com/footer/pr...

I'm hooked on Swype myself, but if you're looking for alternate layouts try the Hacker's Keyboard. You can switch between a whole list of layouts (mostly for different languages) but QWERTY and DVORAK are among the options. It's great for working a CLI too, since most Android keyboards don't have easily accessible escape, tab, ctrl keys.

This "dextr" thing looks horrible. We have a vertical-layout "abcdefg" keyboard on a couple of labelmakers here that looks just like this app, & I want to throw the damn things across the room each time I have to use one (so much so that we replaced them with qwerty units, not that I actually smashed one to get that to happen or anything...).

It takes me twice as long to bang out a label on one. If the letters were all in a line then it would be easy to find the one you're looking for, as humans are accustomed to alphabetical order. But this is a grid of letters that happens to start with A & end with Z that is not indexed with anything people are familiar with, and it has more than three rows so it's even harder to find the letter you're looking for than on a qwerty, even for someone unfamiliar with qwerty. Hell, I bet I could create a message by selecting individual letters with the iPod's "album" scroll wheel interface faster than with this damn thing.

Intelligent virtual keyboard solutions like Swype are the answer to the occasionally-needed keyboard on a touchscreen device. This is certainly not.

Swype

From this page: "Currently Windows Phone does not support Swype. Currently iOS does not support Swype." And from this page it appears that Android users have to return to swype.com every few months.

Sony has a phone with a slide out gamepad.

What manufacturer other than Sony makes something similar? If not, what developer not owned by Sony will limit its market to only Xperia Play owners?

There is also one company (Tactus) that produced a touchscreen that is able to change its surface in order to produce buttons.

Vapor until it becomes a standard feature on several manufacturers' devices.

Swype

From this page: "Currently Windows Phone does not support Swype. Currently iOS does not support Swype." And from this page it appears that Android users have to return to swype.com every few months.

Sony has a phone with a slide out gamepad.

What manufacturer other than Sony makes something similar? If not, what developer not owned by Sony will limit its market to only Xperia Play owners?

There is also one company (Tactus) that produced a touchscreen that is able to change its surface in order to produce buttons.

Vapor until it becomes a standard feature on several manufacturers' devices.

"You haven't used a recent version of Swype or other similar keyboard apps, maybe you tried an early beta."

Correct - however, the concept had big problems back then, and it still has big problems now.. However, if you have a link to a (working) APK, I'd be happy to try it again.

"Swype automatically adds words to the dictionary, you only have to tap non dictionary words the first time. It remembers words you enter. Including acronyms."

That's just it - a user dictionary exists, and in order to input new words, I need to switch from swyping to tapping. So every time you swype out a word that turns out to not be in the dictionary, you need to take an additional 5 seconds to tap it out manually...

"Where exactly do you look while you are typing on a laptop? At the ceiling?"

Most definitely not at the keyboard. And I wasn't referring to laptops - I was referring to phones with physical QWERTY keyboards, their main benefit being that you can type while walking without constantly running into things because you need to constantly stare at the screen.

"How exactly do you position your cursor without using a finger? some kind of telepathic method only found in phones with physical keyboards?"

Never heard of a D-Pad? Nearly all Android QWERTY phones have some kind of a D-Pad or a set of cursor keys... the touchscreen phones - not so much.

"Swype has an excellent view for editing with cursor keys etc."

So every time I need to go back a few letters for a correction/change/insertion, I need to switch to the "cursor view", move the cursor, switch back to the regular view an THEN type? Ball-hair removal with an electric drill sounds more pleasant...

"Use Swype, either the latest beta or even better on a phone that comes with it preinstalled (all samsung phones for example) with an open mind if oyu actually want to make a fair comment instead of posting lies like "enter a new word into the dictionary every time I use it"."

That sentence came out wrong - obviously I don't mean that you need to enter the word manually every time you use it... just once. What I meant is that you need to do it for every new word...

"Switching languages on the fly is also very easy on Swype: http://beta.swype.com/#implang [swype.com]"

So the same as, well, every other halfway modern soft keyboard, huh? Language switch button, gesture, sliding across the space bar... it's all been done, and it all still requires you to switch languages manually depending on who you're talking to. If you use a lot of IM and talk to people who each speak different languages, it'll piss you off pretty quickly...

That said, I'd gladly try Swype again to see if it's improved enough to be useful, as I currently don't have a phone with a physical keyboard (which was, to reiterate, pretty much the biggest mistake I've ever made, tech-wise)... if only I didn't have to jump through hoops to do so.

As for Samsung devices... I'm not really that into featherweight plastic, oversaturated colors and fuzzy text. Here's to a 720p IPS display with the smallest possible diagonal and a slide-out keyboard!

You haven't used a recent version of Swype or other similar keyboard apps, maybe you tried an early beta.

Swype automatically adds words to the dictionary, you only have to tap non dictionary words the first time. It remembers words you enter. Including acronyms.

Where exactly do you look while you are typing on a laptop? At the ceiling?

How exactly do you position your cursor without using a finger? some kind of telepathic method only found in phones with physical keyboards?

Swype has an excellent view for editing with cursor keys etc.

Use Swype, either the latest beta or even better on a phone that comes with it preinstalled (all samsung phones for example) with an open mind if oyu actually want to make a fair comment instead of posting lies like "enter a new word into the dictionary every time I use it".

Switching languages on the fly is also very easy on Swype: http://beta.swype.com/#implang

Sorry, I didn't do my homework. I thought Siri was something new developed only for the iPhone 4S. I've got Vlingo on my Android phone but I'm not using it. I prefer not speak aloud in public what I can swype on the keyboard. Furthermore the core of Vlingo runs on their servers and I won't give them my toughs. (mmm, either /. or my browser signed me out and it's too much pain logging in an being redirected to the home page. I'll post as AC)

This does not work on my Nexus One (android), but I'm not sure about the other platforms.

Another alternative, which is probably faster than any of the tested keyboards is swype, where you just draw a line which represents the word. There is a public beta at http://beta.swype.com/ (Android only)