If you haven’t taken the time to play with Swype (the trace-to-type mobile keyboard alternative), you’re missing out — and I’m not just saying that because it launched at one of our conferences. As evidenced by the fact that it’s now built right into a ton of Android handsets, it’s pretty damn good.
This morning, it’s getting even better. Swype has just launched a new Beta with two fancy new tricks: Dragon-based voice dictation, and an improved ability to analyze the words you’ve already typed to better determine what you’re trying to type next. → Read More
Textaholics, this one’s for you.
Swype — the Android-flavored keyboard that lets you type (or swype, rather) faster than you ever thought possible — has a present for you this holiday season. With Siri on the iPhone 4S, voice control apps are sprouting up faster than you can ask Siri about the meaning of life. Voice is where we’re headed and there’s nothing anyone can do to stop it, so if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em right?
That said, Swype is launching a new beta with Nuance’s Dragon dictation built right in. → Read More
Swype has been blowing minds since it first launched at TechCrunch 50 back in September of 2008. For those unfamiliar, Swype is the maker of an awesome app that allows users of touchscreen mobile devices to type messages with one swipe of the finger or stylus motion across the screen keyboard. The alternative (and patented) input method has proven to be super speedy, allowing data entry at over 40 words per minute, and has swept across Android devices.
Today, thanks to the reporting of one Michael Arrington via Uncrunched, we’ve learned that Swype has been acquired by Nuance (the makers of voice recognition technology) for over $100 million. → Read More
It’s hard to believe that it’s been nearly three years since Swype first made a splash at TechCrunch 50, and since then it’s quickly popped up on handset after handset. Easily one of the most popular alternative input methods out there, Swype has announced today a special agreement for users of the Sprint Nexus S 4G: you bring the hardware, they’ll bring the latest version of Swype.
While the concept behind the keyboard remains the same, the new update packs some few nifty new tricks. The biggest by far is the keyboard’s newly added support for gestures: basic moves like Cut (Swype key -> X), Copy (Swype key -> C) and Select All (Swype key -> A) are all here, but the new Swype integrates with certain apps with aplomb. → Read More
We told you this was coming: Swype has just made it possible for any Android handset owner to download their innovative touch-screen enabled text-input application straight from the website. Which means a whole lot of people can henceforth start challenging that Guinness World Record for speedy textin’ using Swype.
Up until today, Swype came pre-installed on only a fraction of available Android phones (including the all new Motorola Droid X) due to its licensing business model, although the company did open up to 25,000 eager beta testers a couple of months ago – most of whom seem to have completely fallen in love with it.
Well, anyone can download it now, but only for a limited time (a couple of days) and with a somewhat limited feature set. Important: it won’t work if you have a phone that came pre-installed with Swype and support will be via Swype’s forums only. → Read More
I just heard from Swype, the creators of an amazing touchscreen mobile application that allows text entry way faster than via normal virtual keyboards. They’ll be making the Android version of their application available to anyone who wants it tomorrow.
Don’t believe the hype? Check out this article about a Swype user blowing out the Guinness World Record for texting speed. Or just watch some of the videos below, including a never before released interview I recently did with Swype CEO Mike McSherry.
Until now you’ve had to buy a device that had Swype pre-installed to use it (there are six devices now, lots more coming soon and 50 by end of year). Or one of the lucky 25,000 people who grabbed a timed beta of the Android app late last year. But tomorrow you’ll be able to visit the Swype website and download the Android application directly. → Read More
Something that I loved about TechCrunch Disrupt last week is that the top two startups that launched in the competition weren’t from the U.S. – winner Soluto is based in Israel, and runner up UJAM is a German startup. In our previous events we had lots of non-U.S. startups, too, but the winners have always been U.S. based teams. So to have startups from Israel and Germany win was a real treat for me personally.
The judges selected Soluto, which is software to make your computer run better, as the clear winner. The company has a proven team, lots of funding and has been working on the product for two years, they say. We take audience voting into account as well, and we will also put in our vote. But at the end of the tallying there just wasn’t much of a discussion. You can never tell how a startup will do until it actually launches (see, for example, Cuil, which had massive funding and a killer team but flopped on launch), but everything we saw suggests that Soluto is likely to go on to do amazing things. And they have a terrific business model. They deserved to win the Disrupt Cup. → Read More
I’ve been pretty pumped about Swype’s ultra-speedy alternative typing solution for touchscreen devices ever since it first debuted at TechCrunch50 2008. My excitement only grew when it finally made its way to a handset, the Omnia II, just last month – but as I’m not the biggest fan of the OS that powers that device, my thumbs were left twiddling until an Android port was released.
Earlier this morning, I got my hands-on a pre-release copy of just that: Swype for Android. So how is it? In a word: Great. If you want more than that, you’ll have to dive behind the jump for a hands-on impressions and video. → Read More
A year ago, Swype launched a new way to type on a touchscreen phone at TechCrunch50. Swype was created by the inventor of the T9 predictive typing system used on most phones today because he felt that new text input methods for small touchscreens are sorely needed. Today, the startup announced the first phone to use the technology will be the Samsung Omnia II on Verizon.
As you can see in the video above, which shows a side-by-side comparison of typing on the Omnia II versus on an iPhone, the way you type with Swype is you literally swipe your finger from one letter to the next as fast as you can. In the video, the Swypist beats the iPhone typist hands down, so to speak. → Read More
A little over a year ago, Swype announced at TechCrunch50 2008 that they were going to “change how the world inputs text on screens”. By allowing the user to type words by tracing a path between its letters rather than tapping them out one-by-one, Swype claims to speed up typing on a mobile handset while doing away with accuracy annoyances. Swype is the brainchild of Randy Marsden, developer of the Windows Mobile onscreen keyboard, and Cliff Kushler, co-inventor of the T9 input method. Early next month, Swype will make the jump from the demo stage to a real world product as it debuts on the Verizon Samsung Omnia II. → Read More
Google has posted some more information about how search has been integrated into the first Android-powered phone, the T-Mobile G1, which goes on sale October 22.
Not surprisingly, search functionality pervades Android with an array of ways to query (just start typing, tap one of UI’s many search buttons, or press the G1′s dedicated search key). Dropdown suggestions are readily available as well, helping you identify common web search queries or reuse the ones you’ve run recently.
Most importantly, Google is providing an API that developers can use to “implement basic searchability – with recent query suggestions – in their apps”. The hope appears to be that developers make keyword search an integral part of their user experiences, thereby reinforcing the notion in consumers’ minds that search is king on the web – mobile or otherwise.
But is keyword search really the best paradigm for mobile devices? Typing on such a small object is a tricky and error-prone chore, regardless of whether you have a real physical keyboard or a plastic touch screen. Browsing and flicking around – two behaviors popularized by the iPhone – require less effort and ensure more precision. Unfortunately, they are very primitive behaviors that don’t afford much data to the device. → Read More
Three jam-packed days, and 52 startup demos later, we finally have a winner for this year’s TechCrunch50. Every day, the presentations just seemed to get stronger and stronger. There were so many strong contenders this year that we are awarding five jury selection prizes, in addition to the top prize. But there must be a winner, and that winner is…Yammer.
Yammer is Twitter with a business model. Created by an existing company, Geni, to scratch its own itch, Yammer takes the familiar Twitter messaging system and applies it to internal corporate communications. There is such a huge demand for this type of service that 10,000 people and 2,000 organizations signed up for the service the first day it launched on Monday. Anyone with a corporate email can sign up and follow other people in their company. But if a company ants to claim its users, and gain administrative control over them, they will have to pay. It’s a brilliant business model. → Read More
Swype is an amazing gesture-based data entry system that truly blew our collective minds at TC, CG, and MC. To type, you simply connect letters together using a stylus or finger and predictive text to pick letters and words out of seemingly unintelligible squiggles. → Read More
Swype is an amazing gesture-based data entry system that truly blew our collective minds at TC, CG, and MC. To type, you simply connect letters together using a stylus or finger and predictive text to pick letters and words out of seemingly unintelligible squiggles. → Read More
Swype is an amazing gesture-based data entry system that truly blew our collective minds at TC, CG, and MC. To type, you simply connect letters together using a stylus or finger and predictive text to pick letters and words out of seemingly unintelligible squiggles.
Above is a video of two of the judges trying out the technology for the first time. (VC Josh Kopelman, who tries it first in the video, doesn’t grok it quite as quickly as Twitter founder Evan Wiliams). → Read More
