Windows Live Messenger arrives for iPhone, Swype to talk with Apple
Microsoft has brought its chat client, Windows Live Messenger, to the iPhone as a free App Store download, while Swype hopes to bring its predictive touchscreen typing technology to the iPhone and iPad.
Windows Live Messenger
Microsoft on Monday released Windows Live Messenger for iPhone, a 7.2MB free download available from the App Store. The software allows users to instant message friends on both Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo Messenger.
Users can also view and comment on friends' photos and status updates from Windows Live, Facebook and MySpace, and see what Messenger friends are sharing on Flickr, YouTube, and a number of other social and photo sharing sites.
Features of the application, according to Microsoft, include:
Chat: Instant Message with Windows Live Messenger and Y! Messenger contacts on the go. You can even receive IM notifications when your app is closed so you never miss a message.
Social: Windows Live Messenger gives users one place to view updates friends are sharing from social networks like Facebook, Flickr, MySpace and more.
Photos: Upload photos right from the iPhone. Create albums, add captions, and let friends and family comment on photos.
Hotmail: Access a hotmail account without leaving the app to read, reply to and compose e-mails. Get e-mail notifications within the application so you know when you have new messages.
Swype hopes to talk with Apple
Swype, a predictive typing technology for touchscreen smartphones, hopes it will be able to offer its technology for Apple's iOS devices, including the iPhone and iPad. Cliff Kushler, who also created the T9 software that became popular in the 1990s for typing on standard cell phones, was profiled this week by The New York Times.
"It does not have a deal with Apple, the king of touch-screen phones, but it is tinkering with software for the iPhone and the iPad and hopes to show it to Apple soon," the report said.
Whether Apple would allow technology such as Swype on the iPhone remains to be seen. Such an addition would need to be added as a part of the iOS mobile operating system, as currently third-party developers are not allowed to change system-wide features such as the touchscreen keyboard.
Swype allows users to glide their finger across a touchscreen keyboard, touching each letter without lifting a finger from the screen. Kushler says it is faster and more precise than the current typing methods, which require uses to touch each individual letter.
Swype demonstrated on a touchscreen handset. Photo credit: The New York Times.
The company boasts that its technology increases the speed of typing on a touchscreen by 20 to 30 percent for even the fastest users. Swype makes money by charging a licensing fee for every device sold.
The software shows a line drawn onscreen by the path a user's finger takes. The predictive software traces a word's "pattern," and calculates what word the user is spelling. Swype is currently used on seven smartphones in the U.S., including the HTC HD2 and Samsung Omnia II. The company plans to have its software available on more than 50 models worldwide by the end of 2010.
Windows Live Messenger
Microsoft on Monday released Windows Live Messenger for iPhone, a 7.2MB free download available from the App Store. The software allows users to instant message friends on both Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo Messenger.
Users can also view and comment on friends' photos and status updates from Windows Live, Facebook and MySpace, and see what Messenger friends are sharing on Flickr, YouTube, and a number of other social and photo sharing sites.
Features of the application, according to Microsoft, include:
Chat: Instant Message with Windows Live Messenger and Y! Messenger contacts on the go. You can even receive IM notifications when your app is closed so you never miss a message.
Social: Windows Live Messenger gives users one place to view updates friends are sharing from social networks like Facebook, Flickr, MySpace and more.
Photos: Upload photos right from the iPhone. Create albums, add captions, and let friends and family comment on photos.
Hotmail: Access a hotmail account without leaving the app to read, reply to and compose e-mails. Get e-mail notifications within the application so you know when you have new messages.
Swype hopes to talk with Apple
Swype, a predictive typing technology for touchscreen smartphones, hopes it will be able to offer its technology for Apple's iOS devices, including the iPhone and iPad. Cliff Kushler, who also created the T9 software that became popular in the 1990s for typing on standard cell phones, was profiled this week by The New York Times.
"It does not have a deal with Apple, the king of touch-screen phones, but it is tinkering with software for the iPhone and the iPad and hopes to show it to Apple soon," the report said.
Whether Apple would allow technology such as Swype on the iPhone remains to be seen. Such an addition would need to be added as a part of the iOS mobile operating system, as currently third-party developers are not allowed to change system-wide features such as the touchscreen keyboard.
Swype allows users to glide their finger across a touchscreen keyboard, touching each letter without lifting a finger from the screen. Kushler says it is faster and more precise than the current typing methods, which require uses to touch each individual letter.
Swype demonstrated on a touchscreen handset. Photo credit: The New York Times.
The company boasts that its technology increases the speed of typing on a touchscreen by 20 to 30 percent for even the fastest users. Swype makes money by charging a licensing fee for every device sold.
The software shows a line drawn onscreen by the path a user's finger takes. The predictive software traces a word's "pattern," and calculates what word the user is spelling. Swype is currently used on seven smartphones in the U.S., including the HTC HD2 and Samsung Omnia II. The company plans to have its software available on more than 50 models worldwide by the end of 2010.
Comments
I doubt they would pay royalties. They would just buy the company or pay an undisclosed sum..
The company would have a choice. Take the XX million. Or we scrap it..
This will never be on iPhone. Forget it!
i'd LOVE to have swype on my iPhone. Please get on this Apple
An app that does the same thing _is_ available for the iPhone and iPod touch: ShapeWriter. Pretty cool, too!
... Swype allows users to glide their finger across a touchscreen keyboard, touching each letter without lifting a finger from the screen. Kushler says it is faster and more precise than the current typing methods, which require uses to touch each individual letter. ...
I smell hype, it can't really be both faster and more precise can it? In fact it appears to be less precise by definition. It's the fact that it allows you to be less precise that engenders the extra speed.
... The company boasts that its technology increases the speed of typing on a touchscreen by 20 to 30 percent for even the fastest users. ...
I just flat out don't believe this claim.
I've seen this thing in action and it does look impressive, but it's really only for folks that have trouble with the regular keyboard. I type very, very fast on the iPhone keyboard. Almost as fast as regular typing. I just don't believe that having this swipy thing up would make it 30% faster. That's a ridiculous claim IMO.
I've seen people use these a lot and they can make a slow typer into a fast(er) swiper but no one is going to be writing any novels this way that's for sure.
Swype does seam like an interesting approach.
I doubt they would pay royalties. They would just buy the company or pay an undisclosed sum..
The company would have a choice. Take the XX million. Or we scrap it..
That is what I was thinking. They need to do a discounted flat rate for Apple to help promote their product through the device maker with the most mindshare, revenue and profit across the PMP, tablet and smartphone markets if they want to ensure their success.
Of course, if Swype (whose name I hate because it's so close to Skype even though otherwise it would be great) is confident their product doesn't need Apple to thrive and Apple and others won't figure out a way to create an altenative that bypasses their patents then go for it.
PS: Perhaps a little bit of a Monday morning conspiracy thoery here, but one reason to demo a technology to potential competition with deep pocketa is to have a legal avenue if they do decide to copy your product.
That said, what they want?integration with Apple devices in exchange for a royalty?will not happen. If Apple likes the idea enough they'll either buy them or create their own interpretation independently (or maybe offer a lump-sum payment for their full rights to use and adjust as they see fit). Also, it is less accessible to the layman, so that alone would confine it to a preference, thus, in all likelihood, killing the concept on the iPhone.
While I like the new Windows Live Messenger -- it's the first client I've used that doesn't sign me out of my desktop Messenger -- it doesn't support fast app switching on iOS 4.0 and it takes like 15 seconds to relaunch each time. Come on, Microsoft!
I was just checking that... its only about 5 seconds for me, but all the same, they should have at least made sure that part was in. Would have made early adopters more likely to keep it. If this doesn't get updated before things like IM+, then it won't do too well I think...
(maybe not anymore?)
Swype allows users to glide their finger across a touchscreen keyboard, touching each letter without lifting a finger from the screen. Kushler says it is faster and more precise than the current typing methods, which require uses to touch each individual letter.
Doesn't that replace an existing core technology of iOS? Why would Apple allow something like that?
Apples typing method constitutes the finest UX in the business. Why would they allow their iDevices' typing to get screwed up by some third party? If Apple is consistent, they will reject this app.
I wonder how swype deals with double letters, like "ee" and "tt". Those situations are handled extremely fast with conventional typing.
I wonder how swype deals with double letters, like "ee" and "tt". Those situations are handled extremely fast with conventional typing.
Interesting point, but off gentoo of my head I can't of any scenario that would be difficult to understand. If it can figure out the word from a line pattern then I think it can figure out words with multiple letters, too.
My biggest concern is with the vast array of small words that can be compiled in multiple ways. For long words I can easily see how Swype can be effective. For example, does "swyping" A-S-D result in Add, Ass, Ads. I'm sure their are much better examples but that was the first I saw.
Apple won't bite on Swype. When a company is publicly talking about talking with Apple, it is clear to conclude that Apple is not receptive of their product or ideas.
This will never be on iPhone. Forget it!
That's a bullshit statement.