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Fleksy for Android beta hands-on (video)
You may be familiar with Syntellia's Fleksy -- its predictive touch typing solution has already been available to iOS users since last July. But as we recently learned at CES, the company's gearing up to offer Android and Spanish-language versions. It's not something you'll necessarily see in the Google Play store, however, as we were told the company intends to license the platform out to various Android OEMs. We pressed CEO Kostas Eleftheriou for more details on possible partnerships, but he remained tight-lipped, only assuring us that talks were in progress. So, how does it work? For starters, the Android version offers two keyboard options -- a simple QWERTY-only and one with a space bar -- that can be toggled on or off with a two finger swipe down. Text corrections are also controlled via gesture control, with your seemingly garbled input transformed into the closest possible word match via a right swipe. Users can even browse through a list of suggestions by highlighting text and then swiping up or down. Admittedly, word prediction seemed to fare better for the company's (well-trained) reps than it did for us, but we'll chalk that up to a learning curve. Punctuation is handled by swiping twice to the right and the symbol menu can even be accessed by a swipe up from the right edge of the full keyboard. Since its announcement this week, Fleksy for Android's managed to notch around 5,000 beta testers and Kostas expects that number to continue growing. If you're interested in taking the mobile keyboard alternative for a test drive, we'd recommend you head to the company's site now to sign-up. Otherwise, content yourself with our gallery below and a brief video demo after the break.
BlindType acquired by Google, Android typists grin uncontrollably
The note's short and sweet, but it confirms that Google's buying spree is still on -- BlindType was just acquired by the Big G. If you'll recall, we were wowed back in July by the software's ability to predict words regardless of how text was inputted, and it seems as if a few bigwigs within Google were as well. It's unclear what Google's Android team plans to do with its newfound IP, but you shouldn't have to strain your imagination too hard to hazard a guess. As for the BlindType team? They're "excited to join Google, and look forward to the great opportunities for mobile innovation that lie ahead." Likewise, folks... likewise. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
BlindType vows to autocorrect all wrongs with your iPhone or Android virtual keyboard (video)
Remember that episode of The Simpsons where Homer gets too fat to be able to dial a number? Well, he wouldn't have had that problem had BlindType been around. This soft keyboard is described by its makers as being extremely resilient to inaccurate input and looking at the demo video after the break, you kinda have to agree -- it seems to have a pretty kickass predictive algorithm. Aside from that, the keyboard also dynamically adjusts to wherever and however you choose to type, meaning its size and orientation track along to your input, which goes some way to justifying the somewhat odd name (it's meant for blind operation, not blind people). Text can be inserted without the keyboard even being on screen, while spaces are added by swiping to the right. BlindType should be coming to Android and iOS devices some time in the near future. [Thanks, Fadl] Update: We asked BlindType's makers whether implementing their software will require replacing Apple's default button slate and they've confirmed that it would. They're making and submitting it for iOS use, nonetheless, "to put pressure on Apple to finally allow this kind of thing."
