Touchtype has announced that they have constructed and optimized a new version of their Swiftkey keyboard to work on tablets. And we must say, it’s nothing short of functionality and eye candy. The keyboard has a completely redone interface and is configured to work on large tablets using your thumbs. As you can see from the pic above, the keyboard is separated into three sections, letters on the left side, keypad in the middle and letters again on the right side. Hit the break for a video demo of the revamped keyboard in action and to view the press release. 
Press Release:
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA—A new app designed to offer a major productivity boost to typing on tablet
devices, SwiftKey Tablet™, was unveiled Wednesday at Google’s global headquarters in California.
The app, created by developers TouchType, has been designed in partnership with Google and
Motorola to coincide with the launch of the world’s first Android™ Honeycomb tablet, the Motorola
Xoom™. It makes typing on tablet devices easier and faster by offering intelligent next-word
prediction that is personalized to your writing style.
The app, powered by TouchType’s patent-pending Fluency Prediction Engine, employs a holographic
thumb-optimized keyboard skin, designed specifically for Android Honeycomb. This marriage of
elegant design with incredible back-end power gives users a novel, exciting and fast way to type on a
Honeycomb tablet.2
TouchType co-founder and CTO, Dr Ben Medlock, said: “SwiftKey Tablet™ has all the power of our
next generation Fluency™ prediction engine, integrated with a completely redesigned interface,
optimized for Honeycomb.”
“To look at, this is a really exciting product – and once you try it, you’ll be blown away.We’ve worked
closely with Google to make sure SwiftKey Tablet™ utilizes the power and flexibility of the new
Honeycomb OS, and we believe that it really enhances the experience.”
Fluency™
applies patent-pending AI technology to predict around a third of words before a single
character is entered. This is boosted by learning algorithms that observe how you write your email,
blog, Facebook and Twitter updates, and these continually adjust as you type to become more
accurate.
The new Honeycomb app builds on a very successful launch of SwiftKey™, originally designed for
smartphones. SwiftKey™ quickly became the top keyboard on the Android™ Market after launch in
summer 2010, with over 700,000 downloads in its first six months, and a very positive reaction from
both users and the technology press. The app is currently available for a limited sale price of $1.99
on the Android Market.
SwiftKey Tablet™ will be on show at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, February 14-18. For
more information or to arrange a press briefing, please contact press@touchtype-online.com.
—ends—
TouchType’s world exclusive prototype version of SwiftKey Tablet™, optimized for Android™
Honeycomb devices, contains brand new features in the follow areas:
Honeycomb-optimized skins and key layouts
SwiftKey Tablet™ will ship with keyboard layouts specifically designed to enhance the text entry
experience within Honeycomb on a Motorola Xoom™, with a holographic theme, custom skinning
and a 10.1 inch ‘thumb layout’ to make two-handed typing easy.3
Truly personal predictions
The new version of SwiftKey will offer the ability to analyze online profiles – Gmail, Facebook,
Twitter, blog etc. – using advanced cloud-based technology to learn how a user writes, and quickly
tailor the typing experience to make it deeply personal and accurate.
Typing modes to suit you
SwiftKey Tablet will have a new framework that allows users to customize their text entry
experience with “typing styles.” This means users who like to carefully select SwiftKey’s next-word
predictions to minimize character entry will be able to, but those who prefer superfast typing and
like to rely on automatic correction will have this choice.
Multi-lingual prediction and language detection
SwiftKey Tablet™ exploits the Xoom™’s powerful chipset and memory to facilitate predictions in
several different languages at once. The keyboard interprets what you’ve written to automatically
offer predictions in the relevant language without the need for manual language selection. This
offers a truly revolutionary productivity experience for busy, multi-lingual users.
Fluency 2.0 Prediction Engine
A radically redesigned and improved version of SwiftKey’s core Fluency prediction engine is
integrated into our Honeycomb product. This uses a brand new probabilistic modeling technique
that integrates each aspect of the typing inference process (from initial key press to prediction
choice).
The result will be greater robustness, prediction accuracy and writing efficiency, to a degree of
sophistication never before seen on any tablet or mobile device. This demanding probabilistic
computation will be handled effortlessly by devices such as the Motorola Xoom™.
Game-changing spelling and typo correction
Fluency 2.0’s novel probabilistic framework allows for a new breed of multi-lingual spelling and
mistyping correction on Honeycomb tablets. The system will not rely on predefined rules or lists of
common mistakes; rather Fluency uses context-sensitive machine learning to infer likely mistakes
directly from a real-time analysis of user-adapted probability distributions.4
Notes for Editors:
See more about SwiftKey at www.swiftkey.net or TouchType at www.touchtype-online.com
Readers can apply to join SwiftKey’s VIP beta community at http://www.swiftkey.net/vip
An artwork pack with images and brand assets is available at http://www.swiftkey.net/tablet-artwork.zip.
Android is a trademark of Google Inc. Use of this trademark is subject to Google Permissions. Xoom is a
trademark of Motorola Mobility Inc.
General SwiftKey features:
- Unique next-word prediction engine based on word context
- Rapid and comprehensive learning of individual writing style
- Up to 50% greater text entry efficiency than other market solutions
- A third of next words predicted without any character input
- Relevant, personalized predictions
- 14 languages supported, with ability to predict in two languages simultaneously:
English (US), English (UK), Czech, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Polish,
Portuguese (PT), Portuguese (BR), Spanish, Swedish
- Multiple keyboard layouts supported:
QWERTY English, QWERTY International, QWERTY Danish, QWERTY Norwegian, QWERTY Swedish,
AZERTY, QZERTY and QWERTZ
- HD skin with sharp graphics and font on all screen sizes
- Advanced error correction designed for small mobile keyboards
- Inline spelling and grammar correction
- Automatic accent insertion (for non-English character entry)
- Voice dictation support for English, Spanish, French, German and Italian
- Multi-touch support
Quotes about SwiftKey
“SwiftKey is, quite simply, one of the most innovative and useful apps we have ever seen … Genius – there’s no
other word for it.” – Mobile Marketing Magazine
“SwiftKey … not only offers the usual spell-correction and auto-complete of words, it goes so far as to offer the
most likely word you will type next. It’s like a psychic, only for less money.” – MobileCrunch.com5
“The app works by offering to complete words as the user types them … but is also context sensitive, throwing
up three suggested words in a space above the virtual keyboard which the user can then insert into a message
with one tap.” – Richard Wordsworth, T3.com
About TouchType
TouchType was founded in August 2008 by Reynolds and Medlock around the concept that computer science
breakthroughs could improve the experience of typing on a touchscreen phone.
After a September investment round that included funds from Octopus Ventures and the Cambridge Capital
Group, TouchType has received over $1.5 million.
TouchType works alongside leading technology manufacturers, mobile operators and software developers to
bring customers the highest standards in language technology. It offers consumer solutions such as SwiftKey as
well the backend Fluency engine for developer partners
[via touchtype]