With the popularity of touchscreens growing its becoming necessary for new ways to enter text other than the usual hardware keyboards. There are many different/similar ideas out there and one is Swype, its been adopted by a few manufacturers and comes preloaded on their Android devices. Above is a quick video of Swype on our Optus MyTab (ZTE V9). I installed the beta (usable test software) version from the Swype Beta website and so far it’s been faultless. I’ve also installed it on my HTC Desire to replace the previous beta version and have one bug (sometimes loses Swype, blue border), only have to turn it off an on again to activate it.
So the basic concept is you start on the first letter an without lifting draw a line across the letters in the word, once you lift it enters the word (see video) or gives you a choice box to select the correct word if the dictionary is not sure. Now this is really quick method once you’ve used it for a few days and I guess could really be quicker then my touch typing on a normal keyboard. On resistive screens it may be a pain because of the need to have constant ‘pressure’ on the screen to complete a word. I tested it on a LG Optimus (resistive 3inch screen) and hated it, there was a problem that I sometimes had a gap in the middle of a word and hence it seen it as two different words. Our MyTab had no such dramas with its responsive 7inch resistive screen. On standard ‘Capacitive screens’ (screen types), like my Desire it is fantastic because you can just glide your finger over the letters with no drag effect.
To trial it on your Android device, see if its available on beta on the Swype website, then register for the download.
Ron B. 
