Swype enters record books

Posted on 23 Mar 2010 at 16:25

Swype, the gesture-based input method, has earned itself a place in the Guinness Book of Records for enabling the fastest ever text message from a touch-screen device.

The record - which is for sending the phrase "The razor-toothed piranhas of the genera Serrasalmus and Pygocentrus are the most ferocious freshwater fish in the world. In reality they seldom attack a human." in an SMS text message - was broken by Swype's Franklin Page, who used his company's input method on a Samsung Omnia II smartphone to send the phrase in just 35.54 seconds.

The Swype technology is an interesting twist on the idea of on-screen keyboards for touch-screen devices: rather than accepting taps as input, you place your finger on the first letter of the word you're after and then swipe - hence the name - through the other letters. The software then attempts to figure out the word you were attempting to enter.

Like many predictive text input systems, it's not always accurate - but when you're used to the system it can provide a far faster way of entering text than a traditional on-screen keyboard. The company claims that once a user has learned the basics, speeds of up to 40 words per minute are to be expected.

While Samsung's Omnia II comes with Swype as standard, the software is also available as a download for various smartphones - including those based on Google's Android platform.

Author: Gareth Halfacree

Get more reviews, tutorials and in-depth advice, every month with Computer Shopper.
Click here to try 3 issues for £1

< Previous News : Mobile phones Next >

Be the first to comment on this article

You need to Login or Register to comment.