Oh, the war of words between iPhone and Android fans. How it has preoccupied us this year. I won’t take sides now. I own both. (Don’t judge.) But I will say this: if you’re an Android user, you might want to go now and join Swype’s beta. And prepare to have something amazing in your arsenal when you boast about the superiority of the Android phone.
Swype is an alternative text input method designed to make “typing” on the Android a lot easier. Rather than pressing on the touchscreen, you slide your finger over the keyboard to spell out words. You needn’t do this with a great deal of precision, as the predictive design determines what word you’re trying to write. Swype uses other gestures to add capitalization and punctuation – and arguably this part is far harder to master than the speed-swyping.
Swype has been in a closed beta for the past few months, but it announced today that it is opening its beta for a limited time, and new users can register and download the app. Current beta testers might also want to check on the changes that come with this release.
There are several other companies that are working to re-imagine the mobile keyboard, including Siine and 8pen . And Google itself bought touch-typing startup Blindtype back in October.
