6 ms·

This looks way too hard to get used to initially. The best thing about Swype (which is truly remarkable) is that you already know how to get to all of the lette

This looks way too hard to get used to initially. The best thing about Swype (which is truly remarkable) is that you already know how to get to all of the letters. You dont have to relearn anything. You're able to rapidly type things out of the box, with relatively low error rates for a mobile keypad, without even thinking about it.

Supermighty 16y ago
Texting on a number pad looked too hard to get used to initially, but now they hold competitions for speed on them. I don't see this overtaking the entire industry, but it will at least make us think and try new things to come up with something better than a basic on screen keyboard.
- mattmaroon 16y ago
  Texting on a number pad never looked hard to get used to, it just looked slow (and still is). They wouldn't hold speed competitions for it if it was fast.
  - sjs 16y ago
    Like they don't hold races for fast cars? T9 drastically improves typing speed on numpads. I could definitely type faster on my old Nokia 6310 than I can on my iPhone. I've only had my iPhone for a year but you think that'd be long enough to learn how to type on it.
    - Supermighty 16y ago
      I've always loved the Blackberry's keyboard. I'm taking a hard look at the Droid Pro, a touchscreen and keyboard. It's almost like my dream phone.
    - onewland 16y ago
      Do you "trust" your iPhone to auto-correct? One thing I've found helps a lot is to just allow yourself to finish a word with a mistake in it and hit space, assuming the auto-correct will get it right. It feels backwards at first, but I think "scrolling" or "backspacing" through text requires a lot more of your attention/a context switch than just correcting at the end of a word.
      - Archaeum 16y ago
        I guess that does seem a backwards to me, probably because I don't type all that much on my iPod touch. My inclination has been to wish there was an option for the autocorrection to be a little less auto, offering a suggestion but assuming I meant what I typed and requiring me to explicitly accept the correction. If I did more text entry on the device, though, I could see myself coming around on the matter.
      - jamesbressi 16y ago
        I don't trust iPhone or iPad auto-correct... Do you know how many times either device made me sound foolish by sending "What the duck?" or "This is ducking ridiculous!" :)
      - sjs 16y ago
        When I try to type quickly not even the iPhone knows what the hell I meant to write. :) And that doesn't help for words it doesn't know. Turning auto-correct off might actually be a good idea for me. I'll have to try it and see if I like it any better.
    - LiveTheDream 16y ago
      T9 was incredible; it's one of my favorite pieces of technology. That said, I had a Palm Treo for a long time and that is my all-time favorite typing experience on a mobile device. The slightly rounded keys allowed great accuracy and tactile feedback (both for the "click" and for sensing where the correct keys were without looking). I have now had an iPhone since the first generation and I still suck at typing on one (on the 3GS now). Auto-correct seems to hurt me more than help even after earnest efforts to trust it and stop hitting backspace.
      - artsrc 16y ago
        For the worst thing about T9 is the time to switch between it and the other entry mode for unknown words. Also you can't do T9 without looking at what's selected.
- nimms 16y ago
  people got used to texting on a number pad because there weren't any real alternatives. the problem 8ten is facing that there are a number of alternatives that require smaller mental leaps to use effectively. people will probably try 8ten for a few messages, find it frustrating and then switch back to whatever they were using before.
zacharycohn 16y ago
I worry that this will be the biggest obstacle for 8pen to overcome. I'm planning on trying it out, for sure. I think the learning curve will be steep, but if you can delay gratification it'll be a pretty nifty tool.
- Supermighty 16y ago
  They need to include a game like tutorial. Where you get emotional rewards for speed and accuracy.
  - vpdn 16y ago
    I agree that a tutorial would be useful, and that's exactly the problem. From trial and error, people build up gazillion mental models of how certain things work. When I show you a bottle of red wine, you most likely know by glancing at it, how the bottle can be opened. That is because you've built up a mental model of bottle mechanics as well as different type of bottle caps and can map them to the new problem space (new unseen bottle). When inventing something new, especially something as basic and "known" as an input method, you can greatly ease adoption by relying on existing mental models of things people already know, then map your new interface to that. Swype would probably work reasonably well without displaying the underlying keyboard, but I assume they do so to guide the mapping process. Recently acquired BlindType does the same. I remember that they even state somewhere on their website, that the typing works without displaying a keyboard at all. Unfortunately the site is down after the google acquisition, but this youtube video illustrates the "typing without keyboard": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6eKm1gUnTE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6eKm1gUnTE (skip forward to 1:02)
alaithea 16y ago
Swype is extremely resource-intensive-- too much for older phones (such as my MyTouch 3G). If 8pen is less of a hog, and it seems like it probably would be, since it doesn't have to guess at what you wanted to type, it will be a great addition to the alternative input landscape.
- leif 16y ago
  My eris works great with its default settings...until I run a music player while trying to type. It would be great if they could dynamically scale the accuracy or something to keep response time up.
- mattmaroon 16y ago
  I have heard this before. I've only used it on my Epic 4g, and it's speedy there.
barmstrong 16y ago
Anybody know how to get Swype on Android? It looks like there beta is closed and it's not in the Android App store.
- pinchyfingers 16y ago
  You had to sign up back in the Spring, or get a new phone that comes with it.
- LordLandon 16y ago
  There are also a bunch of swype apk's floating around that you can just install. Check the xda forums for your phone model, there's bound to be people who found one that works for it
- spacemanaki 16y ago
  What is frustrating about this is that I would gladly pay $10-$20 for Swype on my phone, and I have never bought another app. They must be making a lot from preloads, or the preload agreements stipulate that they cannot sell the app through other channels, because everyone I know with an Android phone would do the same. Seems like a lot of lost opportunity.
jberryman 16y ago
Swype looks great too: http://swypeinc.com/tips-tricks.html http://swypeinc.com/tips-tricks.html As someone who hasn't used either method, I disagree that this 8pen system looks hard to use: -stick your finger in the middle dot -move it into the quadrant where you see the letter you want to type -move your finger toward the letter you want to type and keep circling until the letter is bold. - back to center I hate stumbling over autocorrection and text prediction features (which I assume swipe relies on), so would definitely choose 8pen if I had to make a choice based on the demos I've just watched.
- mattmaroon 16y ago
  The reason Swype is so easy is that you don't really have to look to see where the letters are, it's QWERTY, you already know. You can type blind on it after a tiny amount of use once your brain has mapped out the keyboard size. I imagine you'd be able to use 8pen without looking too, maybe even better after a long while, it would just take you a lot longer to get there.
meelash 16y ago
Compare relatively low error rates to zero error rate. And no matter how good you get, no one (very few people?) can use Swype accurately without looking. And intuitively speaking, it seems to me that if they've truly got some science behind the placement of the letters, it could be very, very easy for motor memory to catch on to this.

Supermighty 16y ago

Texting on a number pad looked too hard to get used to initially, but now they hold competitions for speed on them. I don't see this overtaking the entire industry, but it will at least make us think and try new things to come up with something better than a basic on screen keyboard.

mattmaroon 16y ago
Texting on a number pad never looked hard to get used to, it just looked slow (and still is). They wouldn't hold speed competitions for it if it was fast.
- sjs 16y ago
  Like they don't hold races for fast cars? T9 drastically improves typing speed on numpads. I could definitely type faster on my old Nokia 6310 than I can on my iPhone. I've only had my iPhone for a year but you think that'd be long enough to learn how to type on it.
  - Supermighty 16y ago
    I've always loved the Blackberry's keyboard. I'm taking a hard look at the Droid Pro, a touchscreen and keyboard. It's almost like my dream phone.
  - onewland 16y ago
    Do you "trust" your iPhone to auto-correct? One thing I've found helps a lot is to just allow yourself to finish a word with a mistake in it and hit space, assuming the auto-correct will get it right. It feels backwards at first, but I think "scrolling" or "backspacing" through text requires a lot more of your attention/a context switch than just correcting at the end of a word.
    - Archaeum 16y ago
      I guess that does seem a backwards to me, probably because I don't type all that much on my iPod touch. My inclination has been to wish there was an option for the autocorrection to be a little less auto, offering a suggestion but assuming I meant what I typed and requiring me to explicitly accept the correction. If I did more text entry on the device, though, I could see myself coming around on the matter.
    - jamesbressi 16y ago
      I don't trust iPhone or iPad auto-correct... Do you know how many times either device made me sound foolish by sending "What the duck?" or "This is ducking ridiculous!" :)
    - sjs 16y ago
      When I try to type quickly not even the iPhone knows what the hell I meant to write. :) And that doesn't help for words it doesn't know. Turning auto-correct off might actually be a good idea for me. I'll have to try it and see if I like it any better.
  - LiveTheDream 16y ago
    T9 was incredible; it's one of my favorite pieces of technology. That said, I had a Palm Treo for a long time and that is my all-time favorite typing experience on a mobile device. The slightly rounded keys allowed great accuracy and tactile feedback (both for the "click" and for sensing where the correct keys were without looking). I have now had an iPhone since the first generation and I still suck at typing on one (on the 3GS now). Auto-correct seems to hurt me more than help even after earnest efforts to trust it and stop hitting backspace.
    - artsrc 16y ago
      For the worst thing about T9 is the time to switch between it and the other entry mode for unknown words. Also you can't do T9 without looking at what's selected.
nimms 16y ago
people got used to texting on a number pad because there weren't any real alternatives. the problem 8ten is facing that there are a number of alternatives that require smaller mental leaps to use effectively. people will probably try 8ten for a few messages, find it frustrating and then switch back to whatever they were using before.

zacharycohn 16y ago

I worry that this will be the biggest obstacle for 8pen to overcome. I'm planning on trying it out, for sure. I think the learning curve will be steep, but if you can delay gratification it'll be a pretty nifty tool.

Supermighty 16y ago
They need to include a game like tutorial. Where you get emotional rewards for speed and accuracy.
- vpdn 16y ago
  I agree that a tutorial would be useful, and that's exactly the problem. From trial and error, people build up gazillion mental models of how certain things work. When I show you a bottle of red wine, you most likely know by glancing at it, how the bottle can be opened. That is because you've built up a mental model of bottle mechanics as well as different type of bottle caps and can map them to the new problem space (new unseen bottle). When inventing something new, especially something as basic and "known" as an input method, you can greatly ease adoption by relying on existing mental models of things people already know, then map your new interface to that. Swype would probably work reasonably well without displaying the underlying keyboard, but I assume they do so to guide the mapping process. Recently acquired BlindType does the same. I remember that they even state somewhere on their website, that the typing works without displaying a keyboard at all. Unfortunately the site is down after the google acquisition, but this youtube video illustrates the "typing without keyboard": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6eKm1gUnTE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6eKm1gUnTE (skip forward to 1:02)

alaithea 16y ago

Swype is extremely resource-intensive-- too much for older phones (such as my MyTouch 3G). If 8pen is less of a hog, and it seems like it probably would be, since it doesn't have to guess at what you wanted to type, it will be a great addition to the alternative input landscape.

leif 16y ago
My eris works great with its default settings...until I run a music player while trying to type. It would be great if they could dynamically scale the accuracy or something to keep response time up.
mattmaroon 16y ago
I have heard this before. I've only used it on my Epic 4g, and it's speedy there.

barmstrong 16y ago

Anybody know how to get Swype on Android? It looks like there beta is closed and it's not in the Android App store.

pinchyfingers 16y ago
You had to sign up back in the Spring, or get a new phone that comes with it.
LordLandon 16y ago
There are also a bunch of swype apk's floating around that you can just install. Check the xda forums for your phone model, there's bound to be people who found one that works for it
spacemanaki 16y ago
What is frustrating about this is that I would gladly pay $10-$20 for Swype on my phone, and I have never bought another app. They must be making a lot from preloads, or the preload agreements stipulate that they cannot sell the app through other channels, because everyone I know with an Android phone would do the same. Seems like a lot of lost opportunity.

jberryman 16y ago

Swype looks great too: http://swypeinc.com/tips-tricks.html http://swypeinc.com/tips-tricks.html As someone who hasn't used either method, I disagree that this 8pen system looks hard to use: -stick your finger in the middle dot -move it into the quadrant where you see the letter you want to type -move your finger toward the letter you want to type and keep circling until the letter is bold. - back to center I hate stumbling over autocorrection and text prediction features (which I assume swipe relies on), so would definitely choose 8pen if I had to make a choice based on the demos I've just watched.

mattmaroon 16y ago
The reason Swype is so easy is that you don't really have to look to see where the letters are, it's QWERTY, you already know. You can type blind on it after a tiny amount of use once your brain has mapped out the keyboard size. I imagine you'd be able to use 8pen without looking too, maybe even better after a long while, it would just take you a lot longer to get there.

meelash 16y ago

Compare relatively low error rates to zero error rate. And no matter how good you get, no one (very few people?) can use Swype accurately without looking. And intuitively speaking, it seems to me that if they've truly got some science behind the placement of the letters, it could be very, very easy for motor memory to catch on to this.