3 Ways the iPad Could Kill Qwerty
Summary
Probably the most successful innovation in touchscreen typing so far, Swype has been in trial products by Nokia and Samsung, and a developer’s kit for Android was released in February. Even if your accuracy is off, the program can make excellent guesses about what you meant to type: This one probably wins out so far because its speed and ease of use have been proven over and over again–and it already has a shot to become truly widespread. So far it’s only an app for Android: The only dilemmas I see so far are the time it takes to go back and correct mistakes, and the visually jarring effect of seeing a keyboard always changing before your eyes. The idea is to create a system similar to that of Romanized Japanese keyboards, which produce characters after you phonetically spell the syllables. Moreover, if you’re literate, spelling out things phonetically introduces another layer of complexity–a new way of thinking that’s one step removed from the letters that form in your head when you’re trying to type.