The best of the biggest

It’s hard to remember that the original iPhone, with its 3.5-inch screen, was the largest display in the game when it debuted in 2007. No wonder the idea of typing on a screen was a hard sell back in the day. Nowadays, however, it’s rare to find a new smartphone with a screen size below 4.7 inches. In addition to the iPhone 6 Plus, with its 5.5-inch display, there are a number of large phones available for Android, all of which support the great Adaptxt typing experience. Yahoo! Tech rounds up some of the best big phones on the block.

 

 

Photo by David Paul Morris/Getty Images

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Who needs a PC?

At The Register, Dave Cartright tries to run his business from his smartphone and reports having pretty good success. “It turned out not to be as difficult as I imagined,” he writes. His tips include taking advantage of Wi-Fi calling software, using the cloud, and making sure to pick the right phone (in general, bigger is better). However, he also focuses quite a bit on productivity apps such as Microsoft Office and tasks such as invoicing. He admits, “I wouldn’t have wanted to type 2,000 words” on the Lumia he was using, but perhaps might have had an easier time using a keyboard with the full power of Adaptxt.

Adaptxt is available for iOS and Android:

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Adaptxt glides onto the thinnest iPad ever

The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus were the first new products from Apple to support Adaptxt, and they’re now joined by iPad Air 2 and iPad mini, which the company announced recently. The iPad Air 2 is Apple’s fastest and thinnest iPad ever. In fact, you can stack two of them and it will still be thinner than the original iPad, but it can be used to manipulate 4K videos.

Apple is also including a new kind of SIM that can choose from among multiple carriers such as AT&T, EE, Sprint and T-Mobile on the fly, making it easier for you to write that critical email wherever you are. And using a software keyboard like Adaptxt helps keep tablet computing lightweight because you don’t have to drag around a separate Bluetooth keyboard or keyboard case.

The iPad mini 3 has fewer changes from its predecessor, but remains a great tablet. Both will join several powerful new tablets on the Android side, such as the Lenovo Yoga Tablet 2 and Google Nexus 9, that run the Adaptxt keyboard.

 

 

Adaptxt is available for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch:

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Text as a launcher

Through much of the 1970s and 1980s, people got things done on computers by entering text commands. That changed with the Macintosh and Microsoft Windows, which largely replaced text commands with their own interfaces (although both operating systems still support a command line). But with the release of a new tablet from Nokia came with a surprise, a launcher called Z Launcher that lets one open apps by drawing the first letter of their name on the screen. It’s not exactly as flexible as having the power of a full keyboard like Adaptxt at your fingertips, but goes to show how text still resonates with people as an efficient means of getting things done.

Image source: Wired.com

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Autocorrect this

Adaptxt is designed to allow you to effortlessly enter text in a constrained space. Of course, one of the shifts from physical keyboards to screen typing is in tactile feedback. There are companies doing some intriguing work in that area. But one project that takes tactile feedback very seriously is this punching bag “keyboard” that promises to give you a “QWERkout.”

This keyboard may give new meaning to the phrase “key punch,” but it’s missing a lot of our users’ favorite features such as text prediction, gliding and word prediction. It doesn’t seem like a very convenient option for text entry outside of a gym. However, when it comes to burning calories, it’s a knockout.

 

Try it free on your iOS device:

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The best in Belgium

ZDNet Belgium has selected Adaptxt as one of the best software keyboards for iOS 8. Author Noemie Six notes that the right keyboard can save time and autocorrect blunders. The article also notes that keyboards such as Adaptxt can help those moving over from Android to iOS (and vice versa, of course).

The article points out several Adaptxt benefits, including support for more than 90 languages, as well as tapping and swiping, gesture shortcuts, and visible switching between upper and lowercase letters. It also notes that Adaptxt doesn’t support cloud syncing, but that’s one way that the keyboard helps to protect privacy.

Adaptxt is available for free in the App Store:
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Adaptxt becomes a favorite on this correspondent’s list

TV Grapevine’s Sammi Turano lists Adaptxt as one of her favorite things!

The Adaptxt Keyboard for iOS 8 will give mobile device users an unrivaled typing experience across all devices – now including Apple products. Users will be able to create gesture text shortcuts to enable quick entry of lengthy text by gliding over a single letter…

Read the full post on TVGrapevine.com

You can download Adaptxt for free:
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Let it go

Adaptxt is designed to make the most of the text entry experience when your fingers touch the screen. But there’s one time when your fingers certainly shouldn’t be touching the screen and that’s when you’re driving. Now, two pre-launch companies are taking diverse approaches to helping people avoiding texting while driving.

SafeDrive is a Romanian startup that taps into the gamification movement, awarding users points for safe driving. The app will detect when a user is on the road, and whether or not they interact with the phone or send a text. Friends can compete to see who is the safest driver (at least when it comes to avoiding texting), and the points they accumulate can be used to win prizes from sponsors. Soon to launch on the App Store, the SafeDrive app will likely be free.

DRIVE by RISE Devices is a small device with a curved top that is meant to be mounted near the steering wheel. The driver can activate a companion app for tasks such as reading text messages with a simple hand movement; the app will work only if your hands are on the wheel. The project has raised about a fourth of its Kickstarter goal with about two weeks left.

Touch screens form the foundation of how modern smartphones work. They’re intuitive and engaging when we’re waiting in line, but problematic when driving. The two initiatives represent contrasting approaches to keeping us safe on the road, with the latter offering the promise of being able to keep in touch while doing so.

 

 

Image source: SafeDrive.

 

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Predicting success with predictive keyboards

Lifehacker, a site devoted to personal productivity, has published a guide that explains how predictive keyboards work. For example, Adaptxt offers an expanded set of predicted words to maximize its success of picking the right word. The article outlines a host of tips that generically address how to improve the accuracy of the predictions they make (or, really, just how to enter text more effectively.

The list includes a number of tips that should work well with Adaptxt. These include adding and editing words to the dictionary (Adaptxt will automatically add words to the dictionary that you use frequently) and using text expansion shortcuts. However, it doesn’t mention all of the things Adaptxt can do to improve a typing experience, such as gliding, and adjusting suggestions based on the formality of the conversation context.

The article also discusses the reason that some keyboards require “full access” in iOS and encourages users to check their keyboard’s privacy policy:

[S]ome predictive keyboards request full access, and others shy away from it. Other iOS 8 keyboards may opt to push full updates more frequently, or insist you sign up for Internet-connected services to enable prediction at all. Either way, the whole issue is an important reminder to check the privacy policy, permissions, and data security and retention policies of any predictive, internet-connected service before you use it. Go into it with both eyes open, and only connect services you feel comfortable allowing access to.

Adaptxt does require full access, but does not store users’ data in the cloud; we’re proud of its privacy policy, which we consider one of the most protective of users.

 

 

Try it free:

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Image source: techpulseweekly.com

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Adaptxt will keep helping you Excel (and Word and PowerPoint)

The release of iOS 8 enabled Adaptxt to work with some of the most popular applications in the world, including Office for iPad. In a recent blog post, the Office for Mac team talks about the release of a new version of Outlook for Mac as an example of the accelerated app delivery that it plans to keep delivering via its subscription offering Office365. (iOS apps are free to download but don’t include any editing abilities without a subscription.) Part of that subscription offering includes regular updates for iPhone, iPad and Android (still in development) — all of which can take advantage of different software keyboards. So, users who want to use Office on the most popular mobile platforms will have access to the great features of the Adaptxt keyboard.

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