Android Keyboards

[Thursday Next]

Actually the health site seems to be quite the technical fuck up from what I'm reading in tech circles. So not just a simple DDOS scenerio. Of ciurse that has little to do wuth the bill and largely sn issue of govt IT contracts going to the lowest bidder.

 

How's that stylus working out for you?

[deanb]

I was using SwitKey on a bus at that point. Which doesn't live up to all the hype, but for some reason I can't quite remember I'm not using Hackers Keyboard as I had most of the year.

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

I was using SwitKey on a bus at that point. Which doesn't live up to all the hype, but for some reason I can't quite remember I'm not using Hackers Keyboard as I had most of the year.

 

If it's not changing "sn" to "an" you're using it wrong.

[deanb]

Not swiftly enough? On a bus? At all?

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

Not swiftly enough? On a bus? At all?

 

I just never have any spelling errors. Instead of the space bar just press on the predictions instead. Way more accurate and takes the same amount of time. Your other option is to make the space bar insert predictions but I find that will make you less accurate when it inserts an incorrect prediction.

[deanb]

One of the major flaws of SwiftKey however is there's only 3 predictions at a time, and they only work properly should you have a 5 letter word or longer. Anything below and it tends to not have much to go on. Hence my preference of Hacker's Keyboard and it's "as many as will fit at once" predictions. I might pop back to HK and see what it was that changed in my use of it to stop me using it after so long. I only have SwiftKey cos it was 10p.

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

SwiftKey does get intelligent over time so it will start to do well with those shorter predictions. Hacker's keyboards prediction (and most other keyboards) is quite awful in comparison.

[deanb]

How long is this "over time"?

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

IDK. A few days? It saves your info to the cloud now so I don't really notice that it needs to catch back up. It also helps if you let it read through your texts, emails, FB, etc.

[deanb]

And how long for that to take effect? Also keep in mind it duplicates the effect over time because then it starts reading it's own predictions since you're then using the app.

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

I don't know what sort of number you want. It depends entirely on how much you use it. Do you want an estimate based on number of keystrokes?

[deanb]

You're not reading any of the links are you? I've had the keyboard for over two years. It's got access to my social accounts and SMS and even blog too. Yes it has some adaptation, but it stills absolutely cocks up when it comes to anything 3 letters and below.

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

Have you used the keyboard for 2 years though? It makes no sense for any other keyboard to be better at predictions given how weak everyone else's prediction engine is. Google's keyboard probably comes closest.

[Mister Jack]

So I got a question for the android users here.  If I want to use two different inputs, say a touch screen keyboard for typing and a game controller for a specific game or app, is there a way to set those apps to recognize the controller as the primary input while leaving the touchscreen as the primary input for everything else?  Or do I have to change the entire tablet's primary input every time I want to use a controller?  If I do, is there a faster way to do it than by going to my tablet's settings menu every time I need to switch it?

[TheFlyingGerbil]

I've not tried swiftkey, but I'm really liking Google's  swipey version of their own keyboard. It is much more accurate than their standard keyboard which I really struggle with and a lot quicker to boot. And to be honest I'm typing this on my laptop and kind of resisting the urge to swipe my fingers over the keyboard.

 

BUT I've seen Minuum and it looks intriguing. It's a thin strip at the bottom of your screen  with all three standard qwerty rows overlayed on the same line so you can see more of what's going on behind it. Sometimes you only get a couple of centimetres of the page you actually want to see so this really appeals to me. Has anyone had a go of it? 

[deanb]

I've not had a go with it it, though I imagine that it might work quite well with my phone being so big. At the moment just on Swiftkey. Doing me well enough.

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

 

 

 

I've not tried swiftkey, but I'm really liking Google's  swipey version of their own keyboard. It is much more accurate than their standard keyboard which I really struggle with and a lot quicker to boot. And to be honest I'm typing this on my laptop and kind of resisting the urge to swipe my fingers over the keyboard.

 

BUT I've seen Minuum and it looks intriguing. It's a thin strip at the bottom of your screen  with all three standard qwerty rows overlayed on the same line so you can see more of what's going on behind it. Sometimes you only get a couple of centimetres of the page you actually want to see so this really appeals to me. Has anyone had a go of it? 

 

Minuum, like many other keyboards, is nice for typing out sentences that are already in the dictionary and become a massive hassle when entering in new words, entering in URLs, using numbers, and typing passwords. And the way you adjust some of the settings makes no sense as it seems to maintain way too much padding so your adjustments feel like they do less than they actually should compared to when you adjust settings on a keyboard like Kii. No matter how I adjust the setting I can't get the fucking space bar where I want it to be in relation to the letters. It requires too much thumb movement instead of being right below the letters.

 

A solid attempt at something different but ultimately I just don't like it as much as SwiftKey or Google Keyboard.