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I’m absolutely head over heels for Swype, it’s the first software keyboard solution that ever made me want to ditch a hardware alternative. Thankfully I was among the lucky 25,000 who got to participate in the Swype beta. Others may have experienced this life-changing keyboard alternative pre-installed on a new handset. The majority of users, however, couldn’t lay a finger on Swype, but that will change tomorrow.
All you need to do is head on over to http://beta.swype.com and you can go ahead and download the software right to your phone. No word on whether it will be in the Market or if this is simply an open beta, but get it while the going is good. You won’t regret it.
[via TechCrunch]
was pretty upset when my beta ended this morning, ended up getting a hacked and skinned version, glad they’re finally going live…I’ll happily pay for it, such a great piece of software.
And it comes stock on this…
http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/15/exclusive-motorola-droid-x-preview/
swype can suck it. shapewriter all the way. and its free!!
hey brad can you send me your hacked copy? [email protected]
Swype all the way. I’m dying without it today.
got it at droid life.
They gave me my invite to join today and installed the official beta and man is it so much nicer than the older hacked beta I was running..Like night and day.
^^ me too took some patience to install but definately was worth it
I actually used both this and ShapeWriter and I strongly prefer ShapeWriter over Swype. Give them both a shot and decide for yourself!
http://www.androidtapp.com/shapewriter-keyboard/
Swype is game changer. I just bought 3g mytouch slide because “I had to have a real keyboard.” However, it came preinstalled with Swype and I’ve only used the slide keyboard a couple of times. I can finally ditch the physical keyboard. Swype is the ONLY and coolest way to type.
I find it odd that a closed beta software is being preinstalled on new phones.
I don’t understand the hype of all the other keyboards. Swype is much slower for me than the stock keyboard.
I just got the invite for the beta today. Installed it tonight. I did like ShapeWriter, but just the shift functionality of Swype has ShapeWriter beat (just try capitalizing something in the middle of a word with ShapeWriter).
lmao here….
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3. Benny wrote on June 15, 2010
swype can suck it. shapewriter all the way. and its free!!
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THEN
hey brad can you send me your hacked copy? [email protected]
heheh, swype is the bees knees.
I used it a couple months back and the biggest issue I had was it wouldn’t look up my contacts as I typed their names. This made emailing and texting people impossible unless I knew their email address or phone number off the top of head. For example, if I wanted to email Jason, and I typed “Ja” I would expect a list of all the possible Ja combos in my contact list to come up but with Swype I didn’t get anything. It was very annoying.
It’s aCtUalLy qUiTe eAsy it’s called a tRaCkbAll and the cAps buTton
I’ve been using ShapeWriter for a while now and love it. It’s not perfect, especially with the auto correction, but it’s much better than not having it. I’ll certainly try Swype once it’s available but not sure I’d pay for it considering ShapeWriter is free.
Btw, you can easily capitalize anywhere in a word using ShapeWriter by placing the cursor in front of the letter you want to capitalize. Not sure how that’s difficult. One thing I hate about ShapeWriter is not knowing if it’s going to erase an entire word with one backspace or letter by letter. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve pounded away on the back arrow to erase a word only to realize 4 words are gone instead.
Their e-mail/login service has been a mess all day long… It won’t take my password and there’s apparently two different ways of resetting it online (by asking for a re-set e-mail or by logging in and then changing it manually), neither has made a difference for me tho, I still can’t get the installer to download their apk. They’ve screwed up the whole process pretty royally, they really need to evaluate the whole thing and just shift the beta to the Market as a $0.25 download or something.
My problem is that I can’t see the letters under my thumb, I also only want to use it in portrain mode, so I have to switch back to theregular keyboard in landscape. Needs a just portrait option.
They emailed me at 1 in the morning and i downloaded it! Finally i have Swype… Ive tried them all and this is the best!!!!!!!
Do you lose the microphone button on the keyboard when you switch to this one?
While you do lose the microphone button on the swype keyboard, it is easy to flip over to the other keyboard if you need it.
Swype website fail.
I’ve got an HTC Incredible and when I tried to download the installer it said that I didn’t have an Android phone and I couldn’t install Swype. Ummm, yes it’s an Android phone! I had to check the box for “Mobile view” in the browser settings to get it to actually download. It’s installed now and I’m happy, but it took a while for the email with the link to download it to show up.
@Shapewriter fans:
I’ve tried Shapewriter on a couple of occasions when I was frustrated with some of the bugs in Swype.
Shapewriter seems to insist drawing very straight lines, which I’m not very good at. As a consequence, I had to go at about half the speed I normally use Swype, and it still misinterpreted a lot of words. Is it just me?
Swype seems to handle curves and loops just fine, so I keep coming back to it, bugs and all.
I love Swype but this download has taken FOREVER. (It kept giving me parsing errors. (BTW, I did try the download with Wifi as well as 3G/E). I uninstalled it previously and went back to ShapeWriter because like many of you, I tired of the on again off again-ness of it all. But ShapeWriter has capitalization issues with me and I cannot be bothered. And yes, it erases an entire word when all you want to erase is a letter (as previously said by someone). Nice app but it needs work.
Now that we have a wider release of the Swype beta, I hope that this will keep us all updated without having to uninstall and all that mayhem. Speaking of which: Did they want personal enough info before they would do the dang install??? – I **love** this app and that is the ONLY reason I put up with this…mayhem LOL… But I will go back to ShapeWriter if the mayhem resumes..Yep, sure will.
I love Swype. But I have a keyboard so its really irrelevant.
My keyboard > Swype anyday. Unless Im too lazy to take it out of portrait mode :D
what the hell is wrong with the swype on the cliq?
Wow… more power to anyone that can actually make this thing function. Totally not my bag, and much slower than the virtual keyboard.
Swype is the best
I got the email but when I click on link, it tells me that I can’t download it because I don’t have an Android phone. I have an HTC EVO. WTF?
I have the N1 with 2.2 and I don’t see much of a difference between Swype and the standard Android keyboard. I think that FroYo improved the feel of the keyboard a little. Don’t see much need for this keyboard. Especially since it’s a 4.7MB file.
I have Swype pre-installed on the Nexus One – so I can do comparisons, and it’s not even close. SlideIT is quicker, cleaner, more accurate, handles other languages – and uses a much smaller memory footprint.
http://www.mobiletextinput.com/Download.php
@James:
you can’t be serious….swype is leaps and bounds ahead of the stock keyboard.
Swype has been a game changer for me. I consider myself tech savvy but I’m not a typist by any means, Swype has enabled me to “type” if you will at a fairly quick rate and really negates my typing deficiencies. I consider it my prime app as it interacts with just about every other program on my Droid and makes the whole experience more efficient but more importantly more enjoyable! I’ve been with Swype from their beginnings and have loved it every inch of the way! If you’re not the most accomplished typist you need to download and try Swype for a week…I’ll bet you’ll find it as in expendable as I do.
Amazing! Just been sat in the bank testing Swype out on google chat… actually COULD hold a fast conversation on my HTC Desire… I would HAPPILY pay a few euros for this app. Really, so far, it’s 10/10
I participated in the Swype beta as well… But I just didn’t like it at the time. But I decided to give it another shot now that it’s making waves again. And I’m glad I did. Definitely faster already on Nexus. Make sure to watch the tutorial though! I think that was my mistake the first time.
FYI, for all those ShapeWriter fans… their app description and website state that it is going off the market on June 20 for an “indefinite period of time”. It then goes on to recommend everyone update to their latest version (3.0.9), which doesn’t expire. Hmmm… wonder if patents are involved?
Nice so far on the G1, but I wish it would work in landscape mode for us bigger fingered folks.
Oh my God, how have I ever managed to live without this fantastic Swype? Okay – that seems exaggerated but it feels absolutely true. I have always been keyboard-challenged and now – I am cooking. Get this now.
I think shaprewriter is going off market because nuance bought them…
FAIL i have a backflip… :( it won’t let me
I’m fine with the physical keyboard on my G1. Nothing’s faster than a physical keyboard. So glad I went to a junior high that made us take a typing class. Public school, even!
I think it is great. Very cool indeed and if I only had the touch screen it would be even better. I am faster with the physical keyboard.