T9 Trace ships as QuickType on Samsung's Wave II
So Samsung's Bada 1.2-based Wave II is now shipping in a variety of European and Asian markets, and it turns out that so phone's so-called "QuickType" input method is actually T9 Trace, Nuance's Swype competitor that was announced earlier this year. Just like Swype, T9 Trace works by letting the user glide a finger around the virtual keyboard to identify what letters they're trying to type -- and if it works as well as Swype does, it's a surprisingly natural, accurate, and fast way to enter text. Samsung, of course, has been one of Swype's longest-running partners, notably having its Omnia II featured in a Verizon commercial where the Guinness record for fastest text is broken -- so it'll be interesting to see whether Sammy keeps a healthy mix of T9 Trace and Swype in its products, or if Nuance has locked up a more lucrative deal. At any rate, follow the break for the full press release.
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Nuance T9 Trace Now Shipping on Samsung Wave II
Nuance's Continuous Touch Input Lets Users Glide Their Finger from One Letter to the Next for Faster, Easier Messaging
BURLINGTON, Mass.--Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: NUAN) today announced that its T9 Trace continuous touch input is now shipping on the Samsung Wave II, Samsung's latest device running on its bada 1.2 smartphone platform featuring a 3.7 inch touchscreen display. Announced earlier this year, Nuance T9 Trace continuous touch input lets users simply glide their finger from one letter to another on their touchscreen QWERTY or touchscreen 12-key keypads for faster and easier messaging.
"Continuous touch is incredibly hot right now, and we're thrilled that the innovative Samsung Wave II will be among the first devices in the world to ship T9 Trace"
Branded as QuickType for Samsung, Nuance T9 Trace enables users to input text faster, easier and more naturally than typing on a virtual keypad. T9 Trace is fully integrated with Nuance XT9 predictive text, providing a compelling messaging experience as words and phrases appear while consumers trace. And because T9 Trace takes advantage of XT9's word prediction and error correction capabilities, users get superior word-completion accuracy, and have the ability to seamlessly switch back and forth between typing and tracing at any time – providing even more control and ease of use.
"Continuous touch is incredibly hot right now, and we're thrilled that the innovative Samsung Wave II will be among the first devices in the world to ship T9 Trace," said Michael Thompson, senior vice president and general manager, Nuance Mobile. "Consumers love the ease with which they can just slide their finger across the keypad to send messages and emails, or input text in the Web browser, social media applications and more. And since T9 Trace is fully integrated with XT9, words and phrases appear faster than ever before – allowing consumers to say more and do more."
Nuance T9 Trace is directly compatible with XT9 to deliver handset manufacturer partners like Samsung significant and unique efficiencies in device integration times, memory consumption, and global language support. And because T9 Trace is platform agnostic, it can be integrated on any platform –including Samsung's bada. Additionally, T9 Trace is fully compatible with the entire T9 portfolio, including Nuance T9 Write handwriting technology, giving partners the ability to integrate one robust yet simple predictive input technology suite on their entire device line up faster and easier. The Nuance T9 portfolio supports more than 80 languages worldwide, allowing handset manufactures to ship amazing multimodal input experiences in both established and emerging markets.
Availability
The Samsung Wave II featuring QuickType powered by Nuance T9 Trace will be available November 2010 in Europe and Asian markets.
Nuance's entire mobile portfolio of voice and predictive touch technology is changing the way consumers interact with their mobile phones to send text messages and email, place calls, and access the mobile Web for information, directions, music and more. Nuance's mobile solutions ship on more than four billion handsets – a result of its extensive relationships with every major mobile OEM and carriers around the world. For more information about Nuance T9 Trace, please visit www.nuance.com/t9trace.
