Credit where credit is due, the lack of customisable keyboards was a major gripe of mine when people asked me why I'd never buy an iOS device.
A Swype-like keyboard (I actually use Google Keyboard's Swype mode, even though I own Swype) is a "must have" on my phone and has been for over three and a half years (since Swype beta was available on the original Galaxy Note).
While there are definitely thumb typists who can type quite fast, for me personally Swyping is significantly faster than tapping. I refuse to go back to that, it is bad enough things like passwords require tapping (although thanks to LastPass working with Chrome on Android, that too might be a thing of the past).
Now all we need is Microsoft to get with the program. Windows 8/8.1 still lacks a Swype-like keyboard and third party keyboards don't really exist. Kind of sucks on the Surface (you don't ALWAYS have the keyboard cover on).
Two things have kept me away from iOS: the tiny phone screens and the lack of Swype. I can see myself moving back since I switched to Android from my old 3GS. The Android fragmentation is out of control, the app quality is usually sub-par, and making sure to keep buying a Nexus to avoid OEM crapware gets tiresome.
I also find that bugs that would have gotten Apple mocked in the press and caused a massive outrage are ignored in the Android world. Namely the year or so Google Play Services would randomly lose its mind and drain your battery and the never ending Chrome bug where clicking a link just leads to an immediate page not loading condition (blank page appears and the spinning loading icon stops immediately). Heck, even the new version of Chrome does this. Thankfully not as often.
If either of these happened in the iOS world, there would be a lot of yelling a demands for fixing, as opposed to the current state where serious bugs persist for months at a time.
I'm willing to give Android L a chance before I leave. Hoepfully, we'll be seeing a higher quality of product here.
I am thinking about switching to iPhone 6 after using my Nexus 4 for two years only because of poor battery of Nexus 4.
Unlike some other iOS users' and ex-Android users' claims, I never experienced any significant lags or bugs in the new Android OSes on Nexus 4. I had some issues with WIFI on beta Jelly Bean, but that was a beta release for a reason. The so called scrolling problem on Android never happened to me at all.
I find that gripes people have with Android are the one that's overblown out of proportion. They probably used Android years ago back in 2.X days, and still have a bad taste from it.
Newer Androids are so much better than 2.X days, I would urge iOS users to try them out.
Interestingly Windows Phone 8.1 already has a Swype-like keyboard which works really well. I hope they will include it in Windows 8.1 or maybe Threshold as well.
I am not an apple fan, but this update (based on reading this review) is very impressive. Maybe Apple will win over some Android/Other users without alienating their base. It seems likely.
It's a good development for iOS and WP to have more flexibility without comprising the essence of what they are.
When I got the Lumia 635, I didn't know about the swype-like functionality. I used it from time to time, without thinking, but never noticed it until someone else pointed it out.
It works well, and would be nice on the Windows tablets.
When I had an android device, I thought this feature was over-hyped.
I installed as many keyboards as I found and tried every single one for about a day. I hated all of them. They were all different and some added interesting features, but I found that I could type fastest on my iphone's stock keyboard.
It just worked.
On my android device, I ended up restoring the stock keyboard and never looked back until I sold it and bought another iphone.
This was about 3 years ago, so maybe things changed since then.
My usage case is probably a very edge case, but my biggest complaint with Android 3rd party keyboard ecosystem is how hard and inconsistent is to switch between third party keyboards. I like SwiftKey, but I use about three languages daily and SwiftKey is not good enough for two other languages I use (Japanese, Thai), so I have to use other keyboard.
Switching between multiple keyboards in Android is totally pain. This was over a year ago, but back then I have drag down the notification area, choose Change Keyboard, select keyboard I want to use and go back to typing (maybe optionally switch the layout to the correct one before that) instead of a single button press. Some keyboard do provide a way to switch to other keyboard, but they're mostly non-obvious (e.g. in Google Japanese IME, you have to long press the layout switch [A/あ] button for few seconds, then choose "Change keyboard"). Even though most non-English keyboards also provide English layout, but most of time they're simply half-baked or just downright bad.
I don't know how Apple designed their third party keyboard API, but I truly hope they have some kind of guideline regarding the keyboard switcher, and that third party keyboards in iOS are per-language so all non-English keyboards out there don't ended up implementing a half-baked English keyboard. Either way, I'm really happy to see SwiftKey coming to iOS, even more so when my favorite Japanese IME (ATOK) announced they're going to release a keyboard for iOS.
The Nokia N9 had a fantastic way of switching keyboards. In keeping with the "Swipe UI" theme you would just swipe the keyboard horizontally and it would roll over to the next one. Brilliant, elegant, buttonless, consistent.
Apple's keyboard API requires that you implement a button for switching to the 'next' keyboard, in the same way that existing iOS keyboards have the button for switching.
you can switch keyboard layouts like that (i.e. swiftkey english to swiftkey japanese), but he wanted to (my example) change from aosp keyboard for japanese to swiftkey for english. This is often also possible, but the way differs for keyboards.
i believe aosp keyboard put a button left to space which you can long-press in order to get the switch keyboard popup.
but his biggest gripe was probably the settings which default for some keyboards after changing the standard...
I don't know about SwiftKey, but the Google English, French and Japanese keyboards all bring up the input method dialog when you long-press space. So these three at least are consistent.
I'm a little surprised that Apple included custom keyboards. They've always been an "our way or the highway" company, and custom keyboards seem like a very geek-specific feature, even if they are better to type on. Not that I'm complaining! I can finally build a couple of new apps that I wasn't able to before. :)
Apple has had a very long history of absorbing user hacks/extensions into its OS. Pre OSX there were lots if extensions that were bought out or blatantly ripped off that made it into the core of the OS. I'm a bit surprised it's taken them so long on this. I'm a bit surprised that some of the features of XtraFinder haven't been absorbed. Auto adjusting finder column widths are a huge pluses for me
See also: the Quicksilver/Launchbar/Alfred ideas that are being folded into Spotlight in Yosemite.
The big surprise is not that iOS8 is getting Swype, but that they are opening the APIs up for arbitrary third-party keyboards (albeit heavily curated, I'm sure).
They've always been an "our way or the highway" company
Under Tim Cook I'm not sure that maxim will apply to design any more, it certainly didn't apply to software/hardware in the 90's pre-jobs. Perhaps Cook will still apply it to services like apple pay where it helps them lock in profits and customers, just like most other corporations.
I don't think Apple objects to geeky features in general--OS X ships with a pretty robust CLI and it doesn't get much geekier than that.
I think they just want to first make sure that the default user interface is totally solid and easy to use, and that the geeky stuff will not harm that. That way geeks can opt into power user stuff, but regular users don't even have to know it's there.
iOS has seen a steady progression of power-user functionality: SDK, cut/copy/paste, app switching, detailed notifications settings, cloud storage and syncing, etc. But if you go back to the original iPhone UI, the basics will still work that way in iOS 8.
Seems like every time someone compliments the OS X Terminal, someone else pipes up with a list of commands and utilities it's missing or several versions back on, compared to a Linux distro.
Homebrew has pretty much solved that problem for me, and iTerm 2 is pretty spiffy.
I'm not super hardcore about shells or whatever though so I probably don't get exposed to many of those issues.
I do get the feeling that Apple is trying to take the approach of the Ubuntu LTS series and be fairly conservative on what they're including in the OS.
It might be geek specific for us/European customers, but my impression in China and japan is that most people use 3rd keyboards. In china all my Mac friends even used 3rd party keys on OSX!
The lack of a Swype-style keyboard was for me the most difficult part of the transition from Android to iOS. After a few weeks I became comfortable with the iOS keyboard, but never really fluent.
I've found that as Apple gradually made the keyboard smarter and more predictive my ability to thumb type has gotten worse. I've noticed myself hitting letters perfectly and Apple 'thinks' I meant the letter next to it instead. I've been using their iOS 8 keyboard for a while and honestly it's not great. It still has the above issues and the prediction row is n't very predictive. I'm looking forward to switching to Swype as I love it when I play with my Android device.
I've had exactly the same thoughts. Swype is a godsend for me and generally just works. It knows how I type, and gives excellent suggestions so a significant percentage of the time I tap a suggested word rather than have to swype it out.
A Swype-like keyboard (I actually use Google Keyboard's Swype mode, even though I own Swype) is a "must have" on my phone and has been for over three and a half years (since Swype beta was available on the original Galaxy Note).
While there are definitely thumb typists who can type quite fast, for me personally Swyping is significantly faster than tapping. I refuse to go back to that, it is bad enough things like passwords require tapping (although thanks to LastPass working with Chrome on Android, that too might be a thing of the past).
Now all we need is Microsoft to get with the program. Windows 8/8.1 still lacks a Swype-like keyboard and third party keyboards don't really exist. Kind of sucks on the Surface (you don't ALWAYS have the keyboard cover on).