Android Keyboards: Swype vs Access

VS

So a while back I picked up the Audiobook: "The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time" and yesterday while listening he discussed his Palm Psion and it got me thinking about my original handheld. I picked up my first Palm OS device when I was finishing undergrad. It was a Handspring Deluxe. Which reminded me of the availability of Access's Graffit for Android app, which I really liked on the G1 since the default keyboard was never that great. But the G2 came with Swype.

So I tried Swype when it first arrive as public beta, but it never really worked well on the G1. Graffiti was great since I already new it, but was never perfect...thank goodness, the G1 has probably the best physical keyboard available.

So Graffiti is fun to use, but really only if you already know it, but when I first learned it, I used a stylus. Unfortunately it is not as quick and accurate when using your finger. Plus its been a while since I've used it...I use to be able to scribble out notes in meetings almost as fast as I could write on paper, but without the stylus...not so great.

Enter Swype. Swype looks like any other virtual keyboard and at the basic viewpoint, it works just like one. You can type letter by letter like any other virtual keyboard. But the fun part is... when you swype your finger from one letter to another letter without lifting your finger...you get full words. Takes a little more practice but you quickly get the hang of it and you don't need to learn any special scribbles.

Bottom line is that I prefer a physical keyboard, but...Swype definitely makes the virtual keyboard useful.