CTIA 2011: SwiftKey Tablet Keyboard Gets E-Tech Award [Keyboard Alternative for Android Tablets Splits Keyboard & Predicts Words; Gets Emerging Technology Award at CTIA 2011]

Posted on TFTS by J. Angelo Racoma on Thursday, 24. March 2011 under: PCs, Notebooks, Netbooks & Tablets

CTIA has just announced the Emerging Technology Award winners for this year’s trade show. Among these are the SwiftKey Tablet virtual keyboard for Android devices.

Tablets are considered a productivity tool, given their form factor and portability. Businesses can take advantage of tablets by giving mobile workers better connectivity and portability options. However, typing on an Android tablet can be horrible, especially if you’re forced to place your hands in a difficult position due to the keyboard layout.

TouchWiz’ Swiftkey Tablet Keyboard tries to fix this by splitting the keyboard into half. This way, you can easily type on the tablet even if you’re holding the device with both hands. Just use your thumb. And because SwiftKey uses an intelligent engine for predicting current and next words, typing should be easier.

SwiftKey Tablet is still under alpha, though, and TouchWiz says they will release it on beta once the Fluency 2 prediction engine has been finalized. Free and paid versions for Android smartphones are currently available, and these also feature the Fluency prediction engine (they keyboard is not split, though).