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Swype Beta For Android Is Open, Temporarily
FyreWyr writes "In 2008 we discussed Swype, which allows a mobile (phone, e.g.) user to draw a path over a virtual keyboard to enter words, rather than requiring precise tapping to accomplish the input. Using this software, a Swype intern (Franklin Page) beat the Guinness record by about 6 WPM for the Guinness-standard phrase: The razor-toothed piranhas of the genera Serrasalmus and Pygocentrus are the most ferocious freshwater fish in the world. In reality they seldom attack a human. (Unfortunately the video at that link is marked private.) TechCrunch reports that Swype is presently in open beta, and will be available for 'a couple of days,' supporting English, Spanish, and Italian entry. Finally, while the deadline has apparently passed, I was able to retrieve the Android beta for testing a few minutes ago. I'm posting it here for the benefit of Android-enabled Slashdot readers."
First post!
(Unfortunately the video at that link is marked private.)
If no one can see it, it didn't happen, although I smell bear shit...
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
It's pre installed on the Samsung Galaxy S, you just have to click and hold on a text input field to get the menu up that lets you enable it.
My girlfriend and I recently got new phones, and I wanted to go Android but got an HTC HD2 (running Windows Mobile) with the intention of returning it within the 14 days allowed, because the phone I wanted was coming out a week later...
Anyways, long story short, I stuck with the HD2 in very large part because I was so enamored with Swype, and was distraught that Swype wasn't available for Android.
It's not perfect, of course, but I enjoy it. In particular, it can be a bit fiddly with smaller words (e.g. me, of, to), but once you get a rhythm going it is, dare I say it, actually fun. It's like every text message is a little game.
It's also very intuitive and you pick it up very quickly. If you've got an Android, definitely give this a look.
The people who have been using Swype probably knew about this days ago. I certainly did.
Also, if I want to convey
The razor-toothed piranhas of the genera Serrasalmus and Pygocentrus are the most ferocious freshwater fish in the world. In reality they seldom attack a human.
to someone using my phone, I can like totally call them, and it only takes about 6 seconds to say, while I'm guessing "kthxby" doesn't gain a lot of speed from being "swyped".
Meanwhile, a pox on Yet Another Stupid Internet Word like "swype".
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
I think the whole Guinness World Record thing is a bit skewed... The phrase is extremely well made for Swype. I know this wasn't intentional, but Swype excels at typing out extremely long and complicated words—the exact bane of most text inputs, and the reason that they are included in a world record phrase. Where Swype has trouble, however, is short words that are easily misinterpreted.
Maybe all the android owners are watching Nascar right now. I just came out of Infinion raceway and I didn't see many iPhones but a lot of people had Droids
PS. Typed on my eris with swype
For the moment, I am extremely impressed with Shapewriter. And for a few days more, you can get that for free with no expiration and it is not a beta. So I don't see a need for Swype right now:
http://www.androidcentral.com/shapewriter-being-pulled-market-get-it-while-you-still-can
A "sweeping" mobile input method always reminds me of Dasher. I guess one reason why it doesn't get all the attention is that it must be tuned to a particular corpus of text, so it's not immediately usable like something qwerty-based.
http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/dasher/
Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
They definitely are still letting people download it - I just installed it on my HTC Magic. It works quite well, shocking so actually. In vertical one-handed typing, I'm already much faster and more accurate than I ever was with the regular keyboard. However, the swype idea doesn't make much sense for horizontal typing - there's no real way to use both hands so what's the point? I would prefer to be able to stick with the traditional keyboard for horizontal typing. That said, I'm going to stick with it for a few days and see how it goes under real-world circumstances.
:: crickets ::
Either there aren't too many 'Swypers' reading /. today or they're all having trouble 'swyping' on their non-phone keyboards. Either way this wins this week's "Sleepy Sunday Afternoon Story Award".
Um...It's Father's Day in the USA? :)
It beats the living snot out of the standard soft keyboard, and may be faster than the slider keyboard on my Moto Droid, except that I can use *two* thumbs on the slider.
I haven't yet gotten used to the right actions to say, "no, it's not one of those eight words" without having to reswype the whole word -- annoying on lengthy words. It's accuracy is pretty darn good anyway, even if I swerve because I'm going the wrong way toward a letter, it often gets the right word.
Only app I haven't gotten it to work on is Twisty, an interactive fiction interpreter -- it would be a big help there.
Design for Use, not Construction!
Presumably this is going to phone home and report usage stats from my usual mix of sexting and work emails? Android has already warned me of this on installation. I'll give it a go, but not for anything I wouldn't want made public.
I really prefer flick input, to be honest - 9-key layout, and a small "drag" in different directions determine which character to enter. You got big, easy to hit keys, and you're not dependent on the predictive input to get words right. I started using it for Japanese, but it's so convenient I now use it for English as well. Now, if I could add the Swedish characters to the Xperia Japanese/English flick keyboard I would never have to switch input method again.
Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
I don't think it's possible to communicate how slowly this runs on the (original) MyTouch3G. At least in my experience, it took 5-10 seconds for it to recognize that I had even started a word - when it finally did, it took another 5 seconds to trace it out. Something is obviously wrong here, there can't be any way it's supposed to be this slow. As I'm not that enthralled with the idea, I don't have the inclination to figure it out, so whatever. Honestly, I've had problems with apps (and the OS in general) being non-responsive in the past, but this is a whole new level.
I just downloaded and installed it, had never heard of it. I had been using better keyboard recently, which is in fact a better keyboard, but Swype blows it away. I'm pretty thankful I found this.
I hate grammar Nazi's.
Haha, I like how you explained DYOR so we didn't have to google it.
I hate grammar Nazi's.
Swype's marketing plan is to *only* distribute Swype via phone manufacturers, *not* through channels like Android's Market. Reasons given included being a small company, limited ability to provide end-user support, yada yada yada. This is despite scores of users who willingly want to fling money their way, regardless of support options (or lack thereof). I know when my Swype beta expired, I was heartbroken. You just can't go back to tapping after Swyping. I tried SlideIT and Shapewriter. I really disliked SlideIT, and while Shapewriter was tolerable, it was still no Swype. I admit I may be biased having used Swype first. I was elated to see the day after my beta expired, that they opened up the official program to anyone who wanted to sign up. Perhaps the Swype folks are having at least a small change of heart regarding their marketing stratgey.
Quite a feat, considering it's Monday morning.
You see those of us who aren't iTards have known about swipe for quite some time as well as knowing about the swype beta. As seems to happen so often on Slashdot, this is not news.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
At first I thought it said "Skype" and thought "Really? Great. Who cares?"
Well, Skype can be worth having on your mobile if your overseas or long-distance calls are expensive and your data traffic limits aren't too restrictive. I would probably use it a lot if it weren't for the fact that I spend too much time using older networks that don't have the bandwidth to make it work.
I've used both, and prefer ShapeWriter
I'm sorry, I shouldn't be on this thread, for some reason I thought Swype == VoIP + BitTorrent.
I don't believe in time. It's a grand conspiracy designed to sell watches.
...specifically because I hate word prediction/correction and always turn it off.
And holy shit! This is awesome!
I've been using Swype for the past couple days and it works pretty well. I turned off the 'vibrate on keypress" and using sounds which get annoying. Its pretty accurate and nice being able to use with one hand. I also recommend not using the "suggesting words" option, I kind of liked the spell check with every word for the Android keyboard but the suggestion box for Swype gets in the way of the screen AND its annoying when typing in numbers.
Since it hasn't been mentioned, I think it's worth highlighting the fact that ShapeWriter is currently free and available on the android market, with features similar to those of Swype. As far as I'm concerned, it has really changed the way I use my android phone's keyboard (HTC Desire).
Yes, I'm new to Swype (installed it on friday), but I got the impression from the Android forum where I read about this that Swype had been in beta on Android for a while, all that happened over the weekend was that the initial beta trial period ended so they opened the beta up again (so people who already had it could renew and people who didn't could get in on the action).
You're paying too much attention to the phone aspect. Not only is this application not just for phones (it might actually make tablets useful for writing up information on the move, for instance), it's great on the phone for email, making lists, taking down notes, etc. If you think this is unnecessary, you've probably not spent much time trying to enter text on small, touchscreen devices. Even on the "text" front, there are many instances where it might be preferable to send a text message than to make a call (if I'm in a meeting or don't want to disrupt the office, or I know the other person is similarly in a meeting, or I have too little signal to call, or I have a non-urgent piece of information to convey but don't want to risk waiting and forgetting, etc), and in those instance anything which simplifies the process is welcome. It also makes typing while travelling much easier - still no comparison to a physical key set under such circumstances, but the fact that it does an excellent job of interpreting your intentions even when the path described is only in the general vicinity of your actual letters, means you can still type accurately and at speed while in a moving car - something I found totally impossible with the default keyboard (the only way I could manage it was to brace my hand against the side of the screen to try and compensate for the movements of both, then very carefully hover into position over the key before a quick dab press - painful doesn't begin to sum it up).
Additionally, even on the "kthxby" issue, Swype does a reasonable job of recognising a lot of slang and anything like this that's not recognised initially can be added to the database (you just type it out using the same Swype interface but using it as a normal touchscreen keyboard - actually this is where the product's even more innovative because you keep the original functionality and Swype builds upon this), after which you get the same increased speed benefits. Purely anecdotal, but I did a test with "kthxby", it took around 2-2.5 seconds to type, but around a second to swype (and I'm still learning how it works) - that's not negligible over the course of an email!
Is this something that could be useful in place of a hardware keyboard? There are IR projected devices, or some other invention perhaps, I dunno, where a touch input (Star Trek!!!) can be used in place of a key pressing physical device. Or are we not judging like for like? Is there software for use with normal keyboard that predicts what you type allowing you to use tab-completion or something?
What would the input method be for a normal desktop? If it's touchscreen it sounds incredibly uncomfortable leaning forwards to "type", specially while operating the mouse with the other hand, especially since people tend to use their favoured hand for the mouse (so you'd be using your left hand to learn forward and type via the screen if you were right-handed, not nice). If you were going to hobble yourself that way, you may as well use the mouse as the Swype input, at least you could lean back and do that and it wouldn't require a fancy touchscreen interface, but really why do that when a traditional keyboard is so much faster and simpler?
No, where this would be more useful is tablets - being able to type up notes at a reasonable speed (bypassing flaky handwriting recognition or the need to type up your notes later) would make tablets a lot more usable than they are right now. Being able to type things up while on the train would make them a much more viable alternative to laptops/netbooks for some people (less space, you don't even need a knee to rest on, but still fairly accurate in a moving environment). Would also be useful for typing on any device with a "pointer" interface, such as the Wii.