Shapewriter updated today

[jsh1120]

The product is free, you don't need customer service. It's nice but not like they owe us anything.

:icon_ banana: Sorry, friend. I think you'll find your attitude (though perfectly rational) is not widely shared among consumers. And for essential applications such as a keyboard input app there is simply no escaping "customer support." Not, that is, if one expects to have customers. The android marketplace is in its infancy. As it matures, things will change or the marketplace will die; at least as a mass consumer market.

 

[Matth3w]

The product is free, you don't need customer service. It's nice but not like they owe us anything.

:icon_ banana: Sorry, friend. I think you'll find your attitude (though perfectly rational) is not widely shared among consumers. And for essential applications such as a keyboard input app there is simply no escaping "customer support." Not, that is, if one expects to have customers. The android marketplace is in its infancy. As it matures, things will change or the marketplace will die; at least as a mass consumer market.

I understand 100%, but what kind of customer support can people really expect from Swype? They aren't even supposed to be using Swype...it's not technically available to the public from Swype. To even argue about their customer support is silly.

 

[iSecks]

This new update is weird. For some reason, it likes to open the ShapeWriter keyboard now when the physical keyboard is open. I'm pretty sure it didn't do that before. I don't like it though, when I'm trying to type with the physical keyboard, the ShapeWriter keyboard takes up the whole screen and wont let me see anything except for the text box I'm in. I think I'm going to have to switch back to Swype until this gets fixed/changed.

 

[nerdbox08]

I agree that the board itself could be smaller. I like most of the new features and I am going to work with this for a few days and see if I can get used to the size difference of the keys compared to Swype.

What exactly does literal mode do?

 

[Sleeve]

shuts off autocap, autospace, etc so you don't need to slap it around when typing something that you want taken "literally"

fwiw, you can actually type on shapewriter like any other keyboard, lifting your finger between letters. Gasp. I've found I tend to do that rather than try to teach it what to do.

I stayed away from these apps because I got the impression from other users that you had to be pretty precise. Nonsense, I can stumble all over the place and still get about an 80% correct guess. I wish I started using a gesture keyboard weeks ago.

 

[nerdbox08]

shuts off autocap, autospace, etc so you don't need to slap it around when typing something that you want taken "literally"

fwiw, you can actually type on shapewriter like any other keyboard, lifting your finger between letters. Gasp. I've found I tend to do that rather than try to teach it what to do.

I stayed away from these apps because I got the impression from other users that you had to be pretty precise. Nonsense, I can stumble all over the place and still get about an 80% correct guess. I wish I started using a gesture keyboard weeks ago.

So when would you use the literal function when we can just type it in anyways? I think that if the problem I'm having.

 

[Sleeve]

different strokes. No pun intended.

I'm willing to hunt and peck the single keys. Others want to gesture but with the auto features off. To me, it's more gestures to turn on lit, type something, and turn off lit than it is to just keyboard the characters one at a time.

 

[Matth3w]

This new update is weird. For some reason, it likes to open the ShapeWriter keyboard now when the physical keyboard is open. I'm pretty sure it didn't do that before. I don't like it though, when I'm trying to type with the physical keyboard, the ShapeWriter keyboard takes up the whole screen and wont let me see anything except for the text box I'm in. I think I'm going to have to switch back to Swype until this gets fixed/changed.

Yep, you're right. I'm having this problem now also. I just came to this thread to say that sad to say it but I'm going to uninstall it. It pisses me off. I only use the software keyboard when replying to a quick text. Any time I want to type something else I use the full hardware keyboard. Now as soon as touch the box it pops up with the Shapewriter keyboard. I rated it down to a 1 and will probably uninstall for the time being now.

 

[iSecks]

This new update is weird. For some reason, it likes to open the ShapeWriter keyboard now when the physical keyboard is open. I'm pretty sure it didn't do that before. I don't like it though, when I'm trying to type with the physical keyboard, the ShapeWriter keyboard takes up the whole screen and wont let me see anything except for the text box I'm in. I think I'm going to have to switch back to Swype until this gets fixed/changed.

Yep, you're right. I'm having this problem now also. I just came to this thread to say that sad to say it but I'm going to uninstall it. It pisses me off. I only use the software keyboard when replying to a quick text. Any time I want to type something else I use the full hardware keyboard. Now as soon as touch the box it pops up with the Shapewriter keyboard. I rated it down to a 1 and will probably uninstall for the time being now.

I'm going to leave it installed, just disabled. That way when they update I'll get a notification and I'll be able to test it right away.

 

[Matth3w]

Better idea right there, actually. That's what I'll do as well.

 

[jsh1120]

This new update is weird. For some reason, it likes to open the ShapeWriter keyboard now when the physical keyboard is open. I'm pretty sure it didn't do that before. I don't like it though, when I'm trying to type with the physical keyboard, the ShapeWriter keyboard takes up the whole screen and wont let me see anything except for the text box I'm in. I think I'm going to have to switch back to Swype until this gets fixed/changed.

Yep, you're right. I'm having this problem now also. I just came to this thread to say that sad to say it but I'm going to uninstall it. It pisses me off. I only use the software keyboard when replying to a quick text. Any time I want to type something else I use the full hardware keyboard. Now as soon as touch the box it pops up with the Shapewriter keyboard. I rated it down to a 1 and will probably uninstall for the time being now.

I'm going to leave it installed, just disabled. That way when they update I'll get a notification and I'll be able to test it right away.

No such problem here. I just installed the Shapewriter yesterday. I also have Swype enabled. When I open the physical keyboard, none of the virtual keyboards appear. Perhaps an uninstall/reinstall would solve your problem.

P.S. Just found what I think is the problem. If I first select "compose" for an email with the phone in landscape orientation, the Shapewriter keyboard appears. If I then open the physical keyboard, I must hit the "back arrow" to eliminate it. If I open the phone before selecting "compose," however, the shapewriter does not appear. This is different behavior than Swype's where opening the physical keyboard makes the virtual keyboard disappear without hitting the back key.

 

[Matth3w]

That's the way SW USED to be. It doesn't do that anymore and that sucks. And it goes away if you hit the back key but if you touch the text box again it reappears.

 

[sh0ebox]

I'm trying to give shapewriter an honest try as I've been using it as my default keyboard since the last update, but there are some pretty big things that I've found slow me down so far:

- The keys are much narrower than on most keyboards (so much space between each key) and it seems to be much less lenient than Swype.

- Is there an easy way to use commas, apostrophes, and question marks? I feel like I have to long-press everything if I want to use it.

- I can't add my username (which is also part of my email address and my username on many other forums) to the dictionary because of the presence of the number zero. I tried literal mode and it still wouldn't let me.

 

[jsh1120]

That's the way SW USED to be. It doesn't do that anymore and that sucks. And it goes away if you hit the back key but if you touch the text box again it reappears.

I see what you mean. The trick, apparently, is to (a) use the back key once the text field is selected and (b) begin typing with the physical keyboard at that point.

Not optimal by any means. Swype has a much more intuitive behavior.

 

[LrdElderon]

I'm trying to give shapewriter an honest try as I've been using it as my default keyboard since the last update, but there are some pretty big things that I've found slow me down so far:

- The keys are much narrower than on most keyboards (so much space between each key) and it seems to be much less lenient than Swype.

- Is there an easy way to use commas, apostrophes, and question marks? I feel like I have to long-press everything if I want to use it.

- I can't add my username (which is also part of my email address and my username on many other forums) to the dictionary because of the presence of the number zero. I tried literal mode and it still wouldn't let me.

What issue could you possibley have? I mean I see the issue of long pressing for punctuation, maybe there's an easier way. Your name though, you do realize there is a 0 on long press p as well as a number keypad in the lower right side.......

And all the people with issues, why not email them or give real feed back other than posting1 star or merely uninstalling. They prob would work to fix based on user feed back.

As for the comment on farms and not selling to end consumers? Well that sort of distribution requires a massive delivery infrastructure to ship out to consumers in time before stuff goes bad.. such is not the case with swype or frankly any software now a days that type of distribution model is not needed and the Google market functions just fine. They are trying to get more money by forcing themselves onto phones instead of giving us a choice if we want it.

Hopefully they always keep a standard virtual keyboard like they do now.