that is already available for the iphone 4 as a bluetooth case .. tbh if iphone is like that i might give it a go

That is something that cannot be used on regular basis. Specially when we use smartphones for quickly noting down something, I use my N900 as a complete replacement of Pen and Paper

Because while swype may be of similar spead to graphity, and while people using graffiti might be able to achieve similar text entry speeds to people using qwop/8pen, calling the swirly input methods like 8pen/qwop "gestures" is defining gesture so broadly, that you might as well define the very act of typing as a gesture.

The only difference in typing and the swirl input method is that in typing your gestures are across the keyboard and then down, while in 'swirling' you make more cycling curved paths, without having to press.

Now, I'm not saying someone who spends their entire life typing on keyboards will reach the same swirling speeds on the swirl input methods immediately, if ever. Just like some people can't master the T9 approach to get the same typing rate out of it (with good auto correct of course since that's really an integral part of the full T9 method, in my eyes).

I'm also not saying that you can't have graffiti. When I last looked it up it was pretty nice how they reduced the letters to pretty simple glyphs. The great thing about touchscreen input methods is that any good platform would let you have expandable and virtually unlimited options as to what form of input you type.

But I am saying that the swirl input method is just as effective at its full potential as the typing 'input method' (and probably has a similar learning curve - think back to when you learned to type on a computer. How long did it take you to go from poking one key at a time to a proper form of touch typing or almost touch typing? Weeks, months, depending on how much need to practice you had? Does that mean typing sucks? Now get a device with 8pen installed and try that input method as your only form of text input anywhere for a few weeks. You will get good. Now imagine you grow up with that as a standard input method, and then decades later someone invents this "typing" **** with a "keyboard" - with the keys all scattered about on separate buttons and with no noticeable rhyme or reason for the keys being in the arrangement that they are (think about how you first felt when you looked at a computer keyboard, if you still remember? I don't remember the exact moment but I know it made no sense to me) - now imagine that your first exposure to the "qwerty" keyboard is when you're an adult with years of experience using a different text input approach. You'd think the damn thing sucked too.

Just wait, our generations (except for the rare wierd people like me) will see every input method like the swirly approach as sucking or inferior. But give it another generation of teenagers or two, and something like it - maybe not exactly swirly, but something that can fulfill the requirement of text entry on a touch-detecting surface without looking - will become a norm. But I wouldn't worry about it - I suspect that by the time that happens the mobile industry will offer a far more flexible device solution, like modern PCs. I'd like to believe that customizable tablet/phone hardware for average consumers lies in the next few decades.

The only things that will ever replace a physical keyboard are speech-to-text or some kind of thoughtwave transferrence (but that may be ten years away). Untill then, people who need to get thoughts typed need a real keyboard. People who simply want to consume information don't.