Greg Kumparak over at MobileCrunch has put together a quick video showing Swype in action on the HTC Eris. Swype, for those unfamiliar, lets you spell out words you want to type by using one simple fluid movement – swiping from letter to letter. When you’re done with a word, let up and move to the next one.
In the accompanying article he has nothing but good things to say, including but not limited to:
- After just a few minutes of get accustomed to Swype, I’m already typing a bit faster than I am on the standard Android keyboard. With a bit of practice, I could probably double my speed.
- I’m surprised how sloppy I can be with my tracing before Swype starts tripping up. Once you start blasting away at it, it’s almost magical.
- Works in both portrait and landscape mode
- Adding words is simple: You just type them manually, letter by letter. I taught it every curse word I know in a minute or two.
- Switching back and forth between Swype and the standard keyboard is a matter of holding your thumb on any text input box, hitting “Select Input Method”, and picking whichever keyboard you prefer.
Personally I’m pretty excited to try this and have wanted to for a bit now. I do a fair amount of texting amongst other keyboard heavy tasks so anything to speed things along is welcome in my book.
…and by the looks of it – they’re in for the long haul:
“Seattle, WA – Swype, an innovative text input technology, today announced that it has secured $5.6 million in Series B financing led by Nokia Growth Partners, Samsung Ventures, and returning investor Benaroya Capital. The infusion will be used to further fuel Swype’s partnerships integrating Swype technology into more mobile handsets and ultimately expand to other touch and remote screen devices.”
…read full press release.
[ MobileCrunch | Swype Inc. | Gizmodo’s head-to-head ]