Tag Archives: Swiftkey

Microsoft is reportedly buying SwiftKey (update: official)

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Microsoft has made a habit out of acquiring significant mobile app makers, but its next deal may cut particularly close to the bone for smartphone fans. The Financial Times' sources understand that Microsoft is on the cusp of acquiring software keybo...

Stephen Hawking’s New Intel Speech System Gets a Boost from SwiftKey

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Intel Stephen Hawking Speech System SwiftKey

Intel has upgraded the Hawk’s speech system with SwiftKey, so that the Professor can take advantage of the app’s word predictions. In other news, Hawking said that the proliferation of AI could threaten the human race.

The chipmaker has been giving Hawking a voice for two decades now, and decided his voice synthesizing system could use an upgrade. The man who is considered one of the most intelligent scientists of our time will now be able to express himself at a greater pace, thanks to SwiftKey’s word prediction technology.

And this is what Hawking had to say about the new speech system: “Medicine has not been able to cure me, so I rely on technology to help me communicate and live. Intel has been supporting me for almost 20 years, allowing me to do what I love every day. The development of this system has the potential to improve the lives of disabled people around the world and is leading the way in terms of human interaction and the ability to overcome communication boundaries that once stood in the way.” In case it wasn’t clear, Intel will open the standards included in this system to allow other disabled people to benefit from this technology.

Hawking is not willing to change the synthesized voice that known for (and which can even be heard on Pink Floyd’s 1994 song Keep Talking) “That voice was very clear although slightly robotic. It has become my trademark and I wouldn’t change it for a more natural voice with a British accent. I’m told that children who need a computer voice want one like mine.”

Regarding the way AI could alter our future, Hawking is not that optimistic, envisioning something that sounds a bit like the script of Terminator: “The primitive forms of artificial intelligence we already have, have proved very useful. But I think the development of full AI could spell the end of the human race. Once humans develop artificial intelligence it would take off on its own, and re-design itself at an ever increasing rate. Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn’t compete and would be superseded,” pointed out the brilliant scientist.

Not long ago, the physicist said that the Internet has had a negative, as well as a positive impact on humankind: “More must be done by the Internet companies to counter the threat, but the difficulty is to do this without sacrificing freedom and privacy.”

Be social! Follow Walyou on Facebook and Twitter, and read more related stories about the Intel-powered Google Glass, or the Sesame touch-free smartphone that uses head gestures instead.

SwiftKey Cloud exits beta, available as free update in version 4.2

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SwiftKey Cloud exits beta, available as free update in version 42

After nearly a month of beta testing, SwiftKey Cloud is now ready for the masses. Now in final form, the popular Android keyboard can backup and sync customizations across devices, and it can even learn phrases that are trending across the globe. Thanks to one-click authorization, it's now easier for SwiftKey to learn phrases from your Facebook and Gmail accounts, and it can also now tap into Yahoo Mail. You'll also find more responsive Flow predictions in the final version, along with some Emoji fixes. SwiftKey Cloud arrives as part of SwiftKey 4.2, which is available as a free update to current users. The app is also available for a free 30-day trial, but for a limited time, you can also snag the paid version for $2.99 / £1.49, which rings in at half off the regular price. Certainly worth checking out if the stock Android keyboard is no longer cutting it.

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SwiftKey Cloud syncs your keyboard profile, includes trending phrases (video)

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SwiftKey Cloud syncs your keyboard profile, includes trending phrases video

Here's something we've all been wanting for some time. SwiftKey Cloud is launching today with a bunch of new functionality including -- you guessed it -- cloud backup and synchronization across multiple devices. By keeping your keyboard profile and settings online, you no longer have to re-teach Swiftkey your typing habits if you upgrade to a new tablet or lose your phone. Trending phrases is another new feature which analyzes relevant and localized phrases that are trending on social networks and other media and adds them daily to the keyboard's vocabulary. It supports US / UK English and eleven other languages at launch, with more coming in the future. Finally, SwiftKey Cloud makes its easier than before to personalize your keyboard by connecting it with your GMail, Facebook, Twitter and now Yahoo! mail accounts. We've been using the beta for about a day now and everything's working as advertised. Check out the gallery below, then it the break for the promo video and PR.

Gallery: SwiftKey Cloud

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Source: Play Store

Switched On: BlackBerry’s depressing keyboard trends

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Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.

DNP Switched On BlackBerry's depressing keyboard trends

In a March interview, Google chairman Eric Schmidt, whose company's smartphone ambitions led to his vacating a board seat at Apple, claimed that he didn't use either an Android phone or iPhone. Rather, he uses a Blackberry, citing his affinity for its keyboard despite a number of Android models released over the years integrating physical thumb keyboards.

RIM devices had keyboards even before they had email; the feature was part of the BlackBerry's predecessor, the RIM Inter@ctive Pager. Indeed, tactile feedback was so valued by the company that it tried to integrate it into the touchscreen with the BlackBerry Storm. In reviewing that phone for The New York Times, David Pogue noted, "A BlackBerry without a keyboard is like an iPod without a scroll wheel." Imagine such a thing.

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Samsung Galaxy S 4 drafts in Swiftkey to power its keyboard

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Samsung's Galaxy S 4 taps into Swiftkey knowhow for its builtin keyboard

We'd heard rumors that Swiftkey might have assisted Blackberry on its well-received (and often prescient) BB10 keyboard, but the app maker has now confirmed that its software is behind the Galaxy S 4's native keyboard. It's the first time that the company's publicly admitted to powering a handset manufacturer's keys and will sidestep the need for S 4 users to download its standalone app. Though, there's still plenty of reasons to download the app from Google play if you dig the customization options and themes of the original. Swiftkey's CTO Ben Medlock said that the keyboard is "at the heart of [Samsung's] flagship smartphone" and is hopefully just the first of many Android devices arriving with the company's voodoo already built in. We've added Ben's full statement after the break.

Update: The company reached out to us to clarify that while its prediction engine is at the heart of Samsung's keyboard it is not Swiftkey in the purest sense. The natural comparison it reached for? Android and TouchWiz.

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SwiftKey 4 launches with Flow, personal style detection (hands-on)

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SwiftKey 4 launches with Flow, personalized recommendations handson

SwiftKey has been promising its own answer to Swype ever since it launched the SwiftKey Flow beta late last year, and the company's retort is at last finished. The newly available SwiftKey 4 -- Flow is just a component here -- brings Android writers the promised gesture-based typing along with Flow Through Space, which lets users glide to the spacebar to keep typing rather than pause after every word. The upgrade also expands contextual word prediction to 60 languages, offers simpler corrections and watches for personal typing habits to adjust accordingly -- it should learn whether you're a hunt-and-peck newcomer or a seasoned pro blazing along with both thumbs. The update is free for existing users in both phone- and tablet-sized forms, and it's temporarily priced at $2 (normally $4) to lure in anyone who isn't happy with their existing input methods.

We gave the final version a spin on a Galaxy Nexus, and much of what we saw in the SwiftKey Flow beta holds true with SwiftKey 4. Anyone comfy with a gesture-based keyboard will be happy with the speed and accuracy here, especially when they don't have to lift their finger between words. However, the previous quirks remain as well: Flow Through Space tends to melt down after a few words, so you'll want to stop after "the quick brown fox" before you finish with "jumps over the lazy dog." The style recognition is harder to gauge when this author is an an experienced user who's only had a short while to teach the app any tricks, but the simplified corrections are handy for quickly polishing up a sentence. While we don't feel that SwiftKey is orchestrating a revolution with version 4, it doesn't have to -- the appeal here is not having to give up SwiftKey's generally well-regarded feel to get a feature previously reserved for competitors. It remains our go-to keyboard for those times we don't like what Google or phone designers have to offer.



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SwiftKey 4 Best-Selling Android App Revolutionized with Innovative 'SwiftKey Flow' Gesture Typing

SAN FRANCISCO -- February 20, 2013 - SwiftKey 4 launches today on Google Play with smarter features that make typing on a touchscreen faster, easier and more accurate. Available now at the promo price of $1.99 and as a free upgrade for existing users, the new release features a unique take on gesture typing called SwiftKey Flow.

SwiftKey Flow combines the mind-reading capabilities of SwiftKey's personalized autocorrect engine with the speed of gliding your fingers across the screen. This revolutionary approach to continuous input begins predicting words from the moment a user touches the screen and goes on to predict their next word when they let go. A unique feature called 'Flow Through Space' also makes gesture typing more powerful than ever before by allowing users to enter entire phrases simply by gliding to the space bar between words.

SwiftKey 4 adds to everything that has made the app a bestseller since first launching in 2010. Users can still tap to type, the app constantly learns a user's style to ease the frustration of entering long words and users can further personalize predictions by granting access to their Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, SMS or blog posts.

"Everyone's had embarrassing autocorrect moments," said Ben Medlock, SwiftKey co-founder and CTO. "That's why we built SwiftKey to understand the context of words, not just their spelling. It works from the word go to adjust to you - from the phrases you write to how you touch the screen. It means you don't have to worry about typing, it does all the hard work for you."

The new features in SwiftKey 4 include:

* SwiftKey Flow - blending SwiftKey's mind-reading next-word prediction and autocorrect with the speed of gesture typing
* Flow Through Space - lets users write entire sentences in one motion without ever having to lift their finger to add a space
* Support for contextual prediction across 60 languages - with new support for Albanian, Bosnian, Javanese, Sundanese, Thai and Vietnamese, all with dynamic auto-correction and next word prediction
* Easier corrections - tap on a word and SwiftKey 4 will move the cursor to the end of the word and offer two alternatives
* Personalized typing style - whether you write inaccurately with two thumbs or more carefully using a single finger, SwiftKey 4 now automatically adapts to how users type to provide more insightful corrections and prediction

Beta versions of the app have been tested by more than 200,000 SwiftKey fans over the last 11 weeks, with more than 2.4 billion characters flowed. A No.1 best-selling app on Google Play in 38 countries, SwiftKey is available in 60 languages and counting. For more information about SwiftKey, visit www.swiftkey.net.

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Source: SwiftKey