SwiftKey Note app brings predictive typing to iOS as an Evernote client

For those who have been working with Android-powered devices, SwiftKey, predictive-software keyboard, is a well-known add-on app. While traditionally Googles Android platform has allowed app developers to create their own keyboards, its rival, Apple has refrained from allowing such a practice on iOS. Now, SwiftKey has launched a free for download note-taking app for iPhones, iPads and iPod Touch devices running iOS 6 and above, called SwiftKey Note.

Built in collaboration with Evernote, the new app is called SwiftKey Note, and is, which is already on the Apple iTunes store. The app combines predictive text typing with note-taking. As before, it offers next word predictions based on the manner in which the user uses individual words, however as this is an iOS app, this is learned via notes sampled from the users Evernote account - as you take more notes, the more accurate the text prediction should become.

SwiftKey Note offers support in up to three languages at one time, and users can also create Evernote notebooks and tags using it. Easy to access quick formatting options are also available. Formatting is not currently supported on iOS6.

SwiftKey Note is not an app that will replace Evernote, but rather acts like a third-party client for the note-taking service, with a unique input interface. There are drawbacks though. The ability to insert photos, audio recordings and other media, like in the actual Evernote app, is missing, so is the ability to view Evernote content that has not been tagged by SwiftKey. This makes the app a very barebones one.

The Flow feature, the glide-and-tap-typing method which is used by almost half of the users of SwiftKey keyboard on the Android platform, is not available for the iOS app. SwiftKeys chief marketing officer, Joe Braidwood said, "We want to stay pretty consistent with the experience of iOS." He also added that they are collecting information about whether or not users want the Flow feature on the SwiftKey Note. Braidwood has said that the app has been designed around Evernotes API to create notes but not replace it.

Incidentally, the Evernote has also updated its iOS app, detailing a new iOS 7 style interface and a customisable home screen. It also includes new colour themes, sections, Sync status, better business card scanning and more

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PlayStation 4 adds Twitch as livestreaming partner

 

I share, you share, we all share video game video -- or, at least, thats the promise of the rapidly encroaching next generation of consoles. With Twitch now officially joiningSonys PS4 as an additional livestreaming partner, gamers will have one more option (the other being Ustream) to broadcast gameplay when they press that Share button. The announcement, made at this years Gamescom in Cologne, Germany, positions Twitch advantageously on both Sony and Microsofts warring black boxes as an inbuilt app, although the similarities may end there. 

As Matthew DiPietro, Twitchs VP of Marketing, explained to us, "The product itself and the feature set that will actually be available on both of the consoles is still a little bit up in the air because theyre actively being produced right now... but the key sort of feature set is clear." So crucial elements like video broadcast and viewing, picture-in-picture and audio capture -- all basic functions currently enjoyed by the services 600,000-strong user base -- will be de facto at launch.

 
But does that mean Day One or when the app launches? "Most likely for PS4 thats Day One and were working on that for Xbox One," DiPietro said, so theres no guarantee. But he was able to elaborate a little more on how search will work when the service goes live, adding that "[Discovery] will be a very similar experience to the Twitch website and Twitch mobile applications. 

You can browse by game, by channel [and] were exploring ways to explore by genre." Youd think, then, that the ability to filter video via your friends list would also make the cut, but that sorting features not something users can expect initially. Rather, its something DiPietro said could come at a later date.

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More Nexus 5 rumors circulate as document from FCC leaks out

It all started with that picture taken at the time that the Kit Kat Android statue was unveiled at the Googleplex. The picture, frozen for all time, shows a mystery man snapping a picture using the camera on an unknown smartphone that was sporting the new NEXUS style logo on the back. Right away, the buzz started getting loud that the phone in the picture was the Google Nexus 5.

And when the FCC received a visit from the LG D820, the buzz got even louder. Equipped with a 4.96 inch screen, the phone had connectivity for AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile. Kit Kat was believed to be under the hood. But a new theory seemed to debunk this. A database leaked by evleaks showed a CDMA LG G2 with the model number of LG D821. Since the database mentioned the D821 and not the D820, the thought was that the latter was another CDMA LG G2 variant based on the similarity of the model numbers.

But on Thursday morning, FCC documentation for the LG D821 revealed it to be a GSM version of the LG G2 with LTE support for Band 5.And more importantly, the dimensions turned out to be real close to the LG G2 but not close at all to the LG D820. And that means that the LG D820 is NOT an LG G2 and very well could be the Google Nexus 5. Sweet dreams for Android fans.(PhoneArena)

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BlackBerrys ripe for the picking as Apple falls far from the tree

Week in Tech And next-gen transport gets Hyperlooped

  

If we had to sum up this week in sounds, wed choose two. One would be a sad clown playing an out of tune piano being thrown down a stairwell, and the other would be a high-pitched whooshing sound.
The sad clown noise comes from Blackberry, the once-proud smartphone giant thats just put itself up for sale.
The official phrase is that a special committee will "explore strategic alternatives to enhance value and increase scale", but realistically Blackberry is standing on the high street offering three pairs of socks for a pound.
How did it come to this? Gareth Beavis knows: "If you dont move with the times, youll be overtaken and consumed by technological vultures feasting on the juciest bits of your once-cutting-edge carcass." We know, we know, thats pretty dark. You should have seen the stories he wrote in primary school.
Its easy to blame the iPhone for Blackberrys demise, but the problems go back further: the 2002 Quark combined calling and email, and while it was "the future" it was "also the companys downfall".
"The mantra if it aint broke, dont fix it must have been emblazoned on the walls," says Beavis: RIM (as it was then known) "eschewed 3G, took ages to add cameras or Wi-Fi to its devices and even managed to mess up the touchscreen when it finally tried to rival the iPhone with the Blackberry Storm."
Blackberry is a company packed with talent, but all too often its timing sucks.

Going steady or falling apart?

Its not that Apple is in trouble, its that the world is impatient

Guess who else is supposedly in trouble? Thats right: Apple, because nothing says "disaster" like being the most valuable technology company in the world. But there is trouble in paradise.
The board is getting jittery and Oracle CEO Larry Ellison reckons history will repeat - "we saw Apple with Steve Jobs, we saw Apple without Steve Jobs," he says. But billionaire investor Carl Icahn says Apple is "extremely undervalued."
Who to believe? Kate Solomon agrees that "Jobs is a tough act to follow," but Tim Cook should ignore calls to do something fast. "No," Solomon counsels. "Do something great." Its not that Apple is in trouble, its that the world is impatient.
"Like you, I want magic," Solomon says. "At any tech launch, Im hoping for something that will cause my eyes to widen and an involuntary "Oh wow!" to slip out. I want it to do something useful, I want it to work perfectly, I want it to look gorgeous and I want it to be awesome. And hey, thats going to take a bit of time."
Something else thats taken a bit of time is Windows 8.1, but its nearly done now and youll be able to get it in October. The cunningly named Windows 8.1 will hit Windows Update in October, and Microsoft hopes itll boost interest in Windows 8 systems.
We hope so too: Windows 8 hasnt been the stimulus the PC industry hoped for, and news stories about Windows RT increasingly sound like broadcasts from the deck of the Titanic.

Down the tubes

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