News: Swype 3.0 released with Honeycomb support and resizable keyboard

It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of Swype. Despite it’s permanent beta status for Android phones that do not have Swype preinstalled, it is by far the best onscreen keyboard that I’ve tried. Swype is the reason I almost never miss physical keyboard.

The secret to Swype’s success is that it is a word based text entry. In a single motion you draw a path over the letters of the word and swype figures out which word you meant. As a result, Swype is very forgiving of inaccuracies: you don’t need to hit each letter precisely - getting near the letters of the word is usually good enough.

Once I started playing with Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 (thank you Google I/O 2011), my first reaction was: “Where is Swype”? Swype 2.x did not support Honeycomb and typing using stock keyboard on a 10″ device turned out to be much more exhausting then typing on regular Android phone with Swype. Well, Swype 3.0 has just been announced and it adds support for Honeycomb devices (Android 3.0 and 3.1). Here’s the list of new features:

  • Swype v3 introduces two major new features: Tap Correction and Horizontal Word Choice List
  • Our Tap Correction engine utilizes many of the concepts that make swyping so accurate. Seamlessly go from typing to swyping and back without missing a beat!
  • The Horizontal Word Choice List replaces our popup word choice window, giving users an experience more in-line with evolving Android standards. It also makes dictionary control and word selection faster and easier.
  • Swype v3 is available for devices with HVGA, WVGA, FWVGA, QVGA, WQVGA, WSVGA, qHD screen sizes
  • Introducing a special Honeycomb-only WXGA version for Android tablets, with features like “moveable keyboard” that you won’t find anywhere else!

When I thought about using Swype on a tablet, one thing was very clear: there’s no need to utilize the full width of the 10″ tablet  in either landscape or portrait mode for the onscreen keyboard. And I’m very glad to report that Swype got it right and 3.0 supports 2 modes: full-size and condensed:

Swype 3.0 in full size mode in landscape orientation (Honeycomb) Swype 3.0 in condensed mode in landscape orientation (Honeycomb) Swype 3.0 in condensed mode in portrait orientation (Honeycomb)

Swype supports 11 languages: Chinese, Dutch, English UK, English US, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. Get it at beta.swype.com.

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