I first heard about Swype a year ago when they debuted at the TechCrunch 50, and since then I’ve been eagerly awaiting to see the tech in action. Created by the inventor of the T9 predictive text found in cellphones, the technology was developed because he felt we needed a new text input technique for large touch screens. The software involves swiping your finger along a virtual keyboard, instead of pressing individual buttons like we’re used to today.
The original videos demoing Swype looked good, but now we can see it in action running on a Windows Mobile-based Samsung Omnia II versus the iPhone keyboard. As you’ll see, it allows for much faster text input:
The technology will be seen on Android in 2010, but I wouldn’t hold your breath about getting it on the iPhone in any legitimate way. This is more of a keyboard tweak, something which we normally see in the jailbreaking community.
[Source: TechCrunch]
November 24th, 2009 at 3:45 am
This is the same technology used by ShapeWriter, an iPhone app which I’ve had for the iPhone for just about forever. I agree, it’s an excellent approach. It would be great if all iPhone apps could use this approach.
November 24th, 2009 at 3:54 am
Thanks for the suggestion KB! I’ve seen ShapeWriter before, but it’s a shame it only offers the swiping capability within their app. It’d be nice if we had the flexibility to upgrade our iPhone keyboard entirely, but I suppose that’s what jailbreaking is for.