03
Dec
2012-12-03_14h24_21

Here's A Sneak Peek At SwiftKey's New 'Flow Through Space' Feature - Soon You'll Never Lift Your Finger Again

Posted by in Applications, News

I'm going to do my best to make it through this article without making a Portal 2 reference, but this new SwiftKey feature is not making it easy on me. After recently announcing Flow, the Swype-like gesture input method, someone inside SwiftKey HQ thought to themselves "Well, you know, this is great and all, but man, what's with all this raising-my-finger nonsense? So inefficient!" So now the company is demoing Flow Through Space. It's nearly identical to the familiar method, only it predicts your entire sentence without the need to start fresh with each word.

Of course, it would be silly to criticize the utility of shaving a few milliseconds off of text input on a phone or tablet.

28
Jun
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SwiftKey 3 Is Now The Top Paid App In The Play Store, Company Is Unfazed By Google's Fancy New Keyboard

Posted by in Applications, News

Swiftkey 3 recently arrived on the Play Store, and not too long afterwards, the company has posted a statement on its blog letting us know that the app is currently the best-selling paid app on the Play Store. Not too bad, SwiftKey! Of course, the biggest challenge is ahead, as Google announced yesterday that, from Jelly Bean onwards, the default Android keyboard will attempt to predict your next word. Which smacks just a little of SwiftKey's pitch.

The company says it's not worried about it in the least:

It’s also good news for us. Google’s commitment supports the vision we had two years ago when we launched the world’s first keyboard that learns from you to predict your next word.

21
Jun
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TouchType Launches SwiftKey 3 Update (On Sale For $1.99), Introduces SwiftKey Healthcare Tailored For Medical Professionals

Posted by in Applications, News, Tablets

TouchType Ltd., the creators of what is arguably the best predictive keyboard available for Android, have just announced SwiftKey 3, along with a separate solution made specifically for medical professionals – SwiftKey Healthcare.

SwiftKey 3, which has – as of tonight – finally come out of beta, is on sale in celebration of its launch, available from the Play Store for just $1.99 today. SwiftKey Healthcare, for those wondering, is a new keyboard, pre-loaded with tons of medical terminology and tools to enhance medical note taking in the healthcare industry. We'll take a quick look at both of the keyboards below.

03
Nov
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Swype BETA Gets Its First OTA Update, Bringing Context Prediction And Japanese Language Support

Posted by in Applications, News

Back in October, Swype announced that with Swype BETA 3.26, the popular keyboard solution would have automatic update capabilities, replacing the tired routine of uninstalling Swype and using the proprietary installer with a significantly easier OTA process, which keeps all your settings intact.

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In the keyboard's first OTA, which began rolling out today, Swype brings a context-based prediction engine, which learns from text you've already entered to better predict what you want (or meant) to say, while continually learning from your typing. For now, the prediction engine is only available in a few languages, but other languages are coming soon. Here's why Swype had to say about the new prediction engine:

This version of Swype contains a new component that we call the Context Prediction Engine (or "CPE" for short).

26
Oct
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[Updated x2] Security Advisory: A.I.Type Keyboard Sends All Your Keystrokes To Their Servers In Plain-Text - Sometimes You Can't Trust The Cloud

Posted by in Applications, News
Last Updated: November 8th, 2011

One of the features that really differentiates Android from other mobile operating systems is the ability to install a custom keyboard that works for you. I constantly keep jumping between a variety of keyboards as new updates come out (right now I've settled on SwiftKey due to its unparalleled prediction technology), but when some of our readers pointed out A.I.type Keyboard's "psychic" word completion, I had to check it out.

However, what I found in A.I. Keyboard's Market description prevented me from even installing it - all smart predictions happen in the cloud, which means everything you type (or almost everything) gets sent over the data connection to their servers.

10
Mar
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Latest SwiftKey Keyboard Beta Hits VIP Members, Offers Much Improved Prediction And Finally Adds Option For Arrow Keys

Posted by in Applications, News

Even though SwiftKey has always been my favorite keyboard in theory, I've never been able to truly make the move from the HTC keyboard on my EVO to it for one reason - it didn't have arrow keys exposed on the main screen. Prediction was also about the same - sometimes worse, sometimes better, so I stuck with the HTC stock offering, giving SwiftKey's new versions a try here and there.

Everything changed with the new beta that was just sent to VIP members (if you are one of them, you can grab the download link from here). Not only is the new prediction engine much better than before, but there is finally a checkbox in the options for arrow keys that users without trackballs need so badly.

10
Feb
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INQ Cloud Touch Will Ship With A Keyboard Based On SwiftKey's Predictive Fluency Technology

Posted by in Applications, Cloud Touch, INQ, News

Yesterday, we saw INQ's Cloud Touch Android handset with deep Facebook integration revealed in all its socially introjected glory in an exclusive TechCrunch demo. Coming to Europe in May of this year and possibly to the U.S. after, the Cloud Touch will be taking aim at text-crazy teenagers and insomniac Facebook users who spend the better halves of their days prowling the depths of the largest social network in the world.

Erick Schonfeld, the reporter who conducted the interview, touched on the music app (which was replaced by Spotify), Facebook, more Facebook, and some more Facebook, but failed to mention the story behind the keyboard in this upcoming social hub of a phone.

19
Jan
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Updated: SwiftKey Releases New Beta With Skins, New Prediction Engine, Bug Fixes, And Other Improvements [Hands-On]

Posted by in Applications, News

After weeks of frantic coding, SwiftKey, my favorite smart aftermarket Android keyboard, just released a private beta to all registered VIP forum members. While the beta itself (v1.98.1.172) is private and we can't provide you with a download link, what we can do is list all of the improvements and tease you with some screenshots.

Update: While we can't promise anything, our friendly contact at SwiftKey who I just spoke to indicated that technically if you did apply for the VIP program (i.e. their forum membership) right now, there is a chance you could get approved. Just remember who hooked you up when your fingers are in heaven.

16
Dec
Android-growth-vs-iPhone

Chitika Says Android Won't Pass iPhone's US Market Share Until February Of 2012... We Disagree

Posted by in Android OS, News, Off-Topic

Our pal Dan Ruby over at Chitika just shot us a note to let us know that he's run the numbers and come up with a prediction for when Android will take over the #1 position in market share in the US, based on ad impressions on Chitika's network. The result: February 16, 2012... at 12:23 PM EST.

He's put a fair amount of time into crunching these numbers - last we'd talked to him (two weeks ago), he was already working on it. With that in mind, it's hard to argue that he's wrong - and it's even harder to argue without running my own numbers or putting in my own research.