Forbes: The Key(board) to Google-Apple Competition
Here’s a tech battlefield you weren’t expecting: The keyboard. It has an angle that won’t surprise you at all — Apple stands alone – and one that will – there may be a whole new kind of security coming, based on the way you type.
With an explosion of small portable computers like smartphones and tablets, entering text is a pain. Device makers try to speed things up by anticipating what we are trying to write and offering solutions, often with vexing or comical results (obscene examples abound at Damn You, Autocorrect). People do it on their own with shortcuts like “imho” or “lol.”
One of the most intriguing alternatives is Swiftkey an intelligent text prediction product from a small British company called Touchtype.
Swiftkey starts with a keyboard, but puts word choices above it. I may be up to six words, but people seem to like three. You select one of those instead of typing anything, or type if none of the words offered works. Like Google’s autocomplete or Apple’s autocorrect, there is software trying to guess what you want to say, so you don’t have to type it out. The big difference is that Swiftkey first spends time trying to understand you.
“We’re trying to guess with accuracy what the person wants to say next,” says Ben Medlock, Touchtype founder and CTO. “What you just said can yield 65% accuracy of guessing what you’ll say next. Then you have to develop a background model of your language, and mix in your personal style.” If it knows how you talked, it’s more likely to guess what you’ll say...
See:
• Forbes: The Key(board) to Google-Apple Competition
• SwiftKey $4 ($2, on sale until 1/31/11). Join the Beta test program.
Here’s a tech battlefield you weren’t expecting: The keyboard. It has an angle that won’t surprise you at all — Apple stands alone – and one that will – there may be a whole new kind of security coming, based on the way you type.
With an explosion of small portable computers like smartphones and tablets, entering text is a pain. Device makers try to speed things up by anticipating what we are trying to write and offering solutions, often with vexing or comical results (obscene examples abound at Damn You, Autocorrect). People do it on their own with shortcuts like “imho” or “lol.”
One of the most intriguing alternatives is Swiftkey an intelligent text prediction product from a small British company called Touchtype.
Swiftkey starts with a keyboard, but puts word choices above it. I may be up to six words, but people seem to like three. You select one of those instead of typing anything, or type if none of the words offered works. Like Google’s autocomplete or Apple’s autocorrect, there is software trying to guess what you want to say, so you don’t have to type it out. The big difference is that Swiftkey first spends time trying to understand you.
“We’re trying to guess with accuracy what the person wants to say next,” says Ben Medlock, Touchtype founder and CTO. “What you just said can yield 65% accuracy of guessing what you’ll say next. Then you have to develop a background model of your language, and mix in your personal style.” If it knows how you talked, it’s more likely to guess what you’ll say...
See:
• Forbes: The Key(board) to Google-Apple Competition
• SwiftKey $4 ($2, on sale until 1/31/11). Join the Beta test program.
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