One of the challenges I’ve noticed on my Google Nexus One is the software keyboard. Obviously, I can use it since the device is my primary phone, but it’s not quite as good as the iPhone implementation. My speed is diminished just a tad and I occasionally revert to using voice-to-text for short bursts of input. That’s why I’m very interested in Swype — a new method for using that old QWERTY keyboard. Today, the company announced a product partnership with T-Mobile and the first fruit of that relationship is Swype on the myTouch 3G as of today. Swype isn’t just for Android (s goog) handsets though — when the HD2 arrives for the T-Mobile network, it too will offer Swype as a companion to the native Windows Mobile (s msft) software keyboard.
The video demo shows how quickly you can enter text, but like any other input method, there’s going to be an adjustment period. Luckily, there’s no new keyboard layout or any other barrier to adoption — you simply trace your words out, letter by letter, without lifting your finger. These days, I use two hands for data entry on handset keyboards, so Swype could free up a hand. While I haven’t tried the product yet, I’ve mimicked the method on my Nexus One and I think I can swipe text using just my thumb. I’ve got a request in for a beta review code, so if and when I get my hands on the software, I’ll try it for a few days and report back in.
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