Thanks! I'll have to try that.

Unfortunately you cannot. The app got cancelled years ago, but since I have a paid for version I can apparently keep getting it from the app store even though it's long gone.

I just sort of ran into the setting, and was floored at how well it guessed which word I was forming (it doesn't guess until you lift your finger); far better than auto-complete.

Swiping is excellent in general.

I got into it about 12 or 13 years ago: I got a Samsung smartphone that had Swype preloaded as part of the package, at the point when it was a very unusual feature. When I upgraded I bought it because I liked it (none of the free ones existed).

It's just a shame that it was completely pushed out by the free ones which aren't as good. And no on else seems to realise that if swiping is accurate enough for words then it's also accurate enough for other useful things too.

Oh well!

Oh right I haven't used that one.

Here's what I love about Swype:

QWERTY Keyboard with small symbols next to each letter. Swipe from key to the "symbol" button to insert a symbol. This is great for punctuation.

Swiping from the swype button to c, v, or x does copy, paste, cut.

Swiping up high after a letter capitalises that letter.

When you type in an unrecognized word, you have the option to add it to the dictionary (it's not automatic), and likewise you can remove ones you don't want.

Overall it's really smooth.

That's simply not true. The official position of the Taiwanese government is that it is the government of all of China, including the entire mainland.

They both claim each other in official documents. In practice, there is literally nothing in the posture of Taiwan in which they would even vaguely attempt it, unlike the other way around.

Within Taiwan, there is a political movement to reunify with the mainland, merging the two governments under the PRC system.

In any country of a nontrivial size there will be a political movement for almost anything. In practice about 7% of people want unification. So sure it's a "political movement" but not a very popular one. Oddly enough people living in democracies don't often want to voluntarily be ruled by a repressive, genocidal dictator.

No one has difficulty reading, they are engaging in an activity known as "taking the piss" where in this case they are intentionally taking a minor misreading in order to poke fun.

We all know he's bugging up the future product, while overselling the current one. The posters here are mocking him for that.

Another thing is quietly using AI: Swipe-to-Type.

I have the paid for Swype app still, from well over a decade ago and long discontinued. It's not really a heavy user of AI. On the other hand, it's a shame as it was discontinued ages ago and bugs/Android differences are eroding it's usefulness.

gboard has finally caught up with the basic swiping matching words, but is still a poor shadow of the OG app.

I do wish they'd just outright steal the UI from swype.

The M1-M4 chips are cool. But they aren't revolutionary like the iPod or the SmartPhone.

The iPod? No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame.

16:9 sucks[...etc...]

Sure, I guess, except sometime around about 14 years ago I forgot to care anymore.

16:9 sucks for music page

Wait what?

If it's aggressively columnar, I have two columns, otherwise, you know the stave can take up the whole width. I mean, I generally use my 16:9 ancient laptop for music related activities.

16:9 sucks for photo edit,

Gives room at the side for all the tools...

anyway I got used to it. I can hold a torch for only so many old nerd flamewars, and monitor aspect ratio ain't one.

generally the constitution applies to anyone (or entity) in the country, not just citizens

If the US government can detain people without trial and torture them (gitmo), then clearly that doesn't hold. Though this may be the case that people get far fewer protections than companies.

Anyhooo there seems to be the modern meme that literally anything is speech so the first amendment makes it more or less impossible to pass any laws on anything. Hyperbole... but only a bit.

It's a decline in literacy

No it ain't.

Hebrew is written with only one sign for all vowels

They have vowels, they just don't like using them. Txtspk FTW

Did the author just dead#ss forget about camera phones for 5 years prior?

Apple invented apps, mobile internet, touch screens, phones, sex and music.

I pay for grammar and spell-checking and use ChatGPT to remix my essays for eloquence.

Well, you use ChatGPT, at any rate. I doubt it does a good job with eloquence. Every output I've seen from it is this same kind of bland sunny positive mush, which loses my interest really fast.

The SLR and now mirrorless were never in the running in the first place. People didn't replace those cameras with cellphones. People replaced cheap and midrange point and shoot cameras.

Big cameras were never going to be anything other than a pro and niche consumer item because, and I say this as someone who has one, they are a bulky pain in the arse to carry round.

Also SACD was only useful for people who wanted surround sound which isn't even available for most recordings. And few people ever had the kit. For the kit most people have ever owned, good compressed music is perceptually lossless.

With regards to alcohol, I wouldnâ(TM)t say weâ(TM)re doing or have done âoeabsolutely nothingâ.

Sorry you misunderstand, I meant more for the others. The limitations on corporations buying the government are edging more in the nothing direction, resulting in big pharma and the attendant problems.

Unlike voting, the US actually wised up by raising the minimum drinking age from 18 to 21

Is that wise? I'm not going to defend the drinking culture in the UK, but despite drinking somewhat more per capita, the rate of alcoholism is lower. Read into that what you will.

The drinking age here is... well it depends. Over 18 you can do what you like. Under 18 it depends on who's buying, what they're buying, where and why.

People also donâ(TM)t want to admit that a spike in drunk driving issues is likely directly linked to millions of humans enduring a global pandemic shoved into their homes, behind masks and questionable vaccines.

Questionable vaccines, lol that's such bullshit.

If you are unfortunate enough to get stuck in, and survive the inevitable bug rearing it's head that causes a massive pile up on I-95,

The reason we all know of what you speak is because that happens perfectly well without the aid of software. The sensible question IMO is not whether it will cease with software but whether it will happen less or more.

Given the average quality of human drivers, I think reaching a point where self driving cars are a net win is within reach (unlike AGI or any of the myriad of bullshit things in the AI field). Don't forget that while a self driving car will have sub human intelligence, it will have super human senses.

Now don't get me wrong, we are a long, long way from an AI beating a well trained, well rested, not distracted driver, driving in familiar conditions. So you know about 0.1% of drivers...

Sometimes AI will do stuff like slam into the back of a white lorry because it looked like road. On the other hand you won't get sideswiped into a bridge by a moron AI reading facebook on its phone while driving a truck. You'll hear about all the deaths caused by AI as OMG AI, but never by all those that would have been prevented (all the ones involving stupidity, distraction, tiredness an drunkenness) will never be reported as OMG HUMANS!

So... I would say most AI is bullshit, but I'm moderately optimistic on self driving cars.