14 DAY TRIAL // Swype, the popular input method for touchscreen-enabled phones, has recently been updated. An email sent to all registered beta testers from the developer confirms that the Android version has received several enhancements and bug fixes.
Swype is a software keyboard that enables rapid text entry on portable devices. It allows users to enter words by sliding the finger on the keyboard from letter to letter. The technology predicts the words one is trying to type, enabling data entry rates of over 50 words per minute.
[admark=1]The new version adds better context sensitivity for the "magic button" used for go/search/enter/smiley functions. Also added is the automatic insertion of the apostrophe for contractions such as "don't" and "can't." The application now recognizes the text fields more accurately in order to prevent the display and addition of passwords to its user dictionary. The suppression of the automated spacing when entering web and email addresses has also been improved.
Enhancements to the built-in dictionary include the addition of several common words that were previously left out. The new release also brings localization updates, Italian being now among the supported languages.
As with all beta applications, this new update addresses a number of bugs. The licensing issues which were causing users to receive the "Limited Functionality" and "Incorrect ID" errors have been fixed. Two word-prediction related bugs were also resolved, one which made Swype crash when manually typing some words, and another one which was causing words to be erroneously overwritten when adding new entries to the user dictionary. Besides these, many minor bugs have also been fixed.
If you want to test Swype on your Android phone, head over to the developer's website and register for a beta tester account. The beta registration is currently closed, but there is an option to get notified when it re-opens.