Swype - text input from the T9 people
 

http://gizmodo.com/5047798/blindingl...-creator-of-t9

Also known as ShapeWriter, it looks brilliant to me.

Has anyone tried it?

Re: Swype - text input from the T9 people
 

That looks like really nice input method!

Re: Swype - text input from the T9 people
 

A little too much magic. I would like to see some non-trained users take a shot at it.

Re: Swype - text input from the T9 people
 

Fixing spelling too... that will become very popular. I could imagine people wanting such a thing just for their computer keyboards. He said he did 55 wpm which is faster than many can type.

Really neat concept.

Re: Swype - text input from the T9 people
 

I don't believe that typing with a stylus can be almost as fast as typing with ten fingers.

Re: Swype - text input from the T9 people
 

you are right: 40 vs 60 per minute
but this method is for on-the-go; while ten-finger-typing is for sitting.

Re: Swype - text input from the T9 people
 

Swype seems too cool for believeing. But if its really workaable as the demo showed, then it will (or should) spread to many mobile devices. The Nokia N800 sometime ?

Re: Swype - text input from the T9 people
 

it is obviously good for typing words. there should be a words database to support it. i do not think it is good for typing random thing like HGIKDHSJKIHU. it will try to look in the database to match that, and give something un-wanted.

Re: Swype - text input from the T9 people
 

In addition to that, any technical use of the keyboard, such as typing bash commands. I can only imagine what it would try to substitute for "ps -ax |grep foo"

could be fun to play with, for about a minute.:rolleyes:

Re: Swype - text input from the T9 people
 

I bet you could use it to just type text like with the current on-screen keyboard.

Re: Swype - text input from the T9 people
 

A free old version of shapewriter called SHARK has been around for some years and was a big hit according to the Tablet PC sites.

When I finally got a Tablet PC, IBM got rid of it and went commercial. Will release one day, been waiting for ages and getting seriously frustrated.

Swype looks based on the same principles. Though not offering the option of alternate slide optimised keyboard layouts for fear of scaring people away/increased learning curve.

I've played with stuff like it in a demo version for winmob (SlideIT) and a free but pause/change direction per letter version (Inscribe from Ilium) on the tablet and I have to say, I think this is the way ahead.

I felt it was good enough that I'd even want it on my N810 when I just wanted to leave the keyboard shut and use it lazyly.

In fact, it would not surprise me if it was quicker than the N810 keyboard (loose screen space of course).

Also, for any complex stuff, you just taap it in instead and it does exactly what you type instead of trying to reinterpret it.

Would not use it in place of a keyboard for writing code, but it would be possible at a slower pace.

If you want to read more, just search for something like "tabletpc shark input" or just "shapewriter".

Zuber