Could the iPhone raid one of RIM�s headline BlackBerry 10 features before the Canadian company�s own handsets are even near the shelves? If the iOS developer behind Octopus Keyboard has his way, it will: Mario Hros has been telling iDownloadBlog about the custom iPhone �board he�s been cooking up, borrowing the floating auto-prediction system RIM demonstrated at BlackBerry World and slapping the gesture-based UI onto his own iOS version.
Lest you�ve forgotten, RIM�s on-screen keyboard attempts to deliver some of the company�s legendary text-entry skills by supercharging a soft-keyboard. Rather than queuing up potential words in a line above the keys, they hover around the user�s fingers, accessed with a simple swipe. Less finger movement, RIM claims, means quicker entry.
Octopus Keyboard uses its own completion engine, and can learn new words as the user enters them. It apparently works with any input language with key input, though right now there are still some issues to address in this beta version, such as auto-punctuation and auto-capitalization.
Octopus Keyboard demo:
Still, it�s an impressive realization of RIM�s system on a rival platform in such a small length of time, and Hros expects to have the full release out by May 20. The biggest drawback is availability: since, unlike with Android, iOS won�t allow you to change the default keyboard, users will need to jailbreak their iPhone or iPod touch in order to access Octopus Keyboard from the Cydia unofficial app store and install it.
That's what sucks about being so eager to find out more about what RIM has behind the curtains for us, that the copy cats are watching and listening too.
I think the key here is that the BlackBerry virtual keyboard has more power on the inside. Remember how Vivek said in the keynote that the keyboard learns your hand movements over time and sort-of becomes tailor made for you, like a glove. But ofcourse most of the 'fancy' features that we saw in that keynote will be successfully transferred to most other platforms eventually.
Well, firstly you need to have your iPhone jailbroken...so not that big a deal. RIM's got other cards in its pockets (as Heins says, it needs to keep some secret on BB10...).
Hahah makes me kinda tiresome when i see the guy making words out of the octupus keyboard.
Taking ages to make words yucks. Looks so slow compared to my lightning fast typing on my lovely 9900.
Seriously physical keyboards FTW.
Well by the time bb10 is out I am sure much more will be in other OS's and most likely will work better than what it will on a bb.
I'm sure, the native keyboards on the other platforms have advanced so much since their inceptions they'll obviously continue at their break neck speeds and pass RIM yet again...
How many people will actually jailbreak their iPhone for this
very few and who knows if that keyboard is actually laggy and crappy
compare to the original iPhone keyboard.
This will not hurt RIM
I'm sure, the native keyboards on the other platforms have advanced so much since their inceptions they'll obviously continue at their break neck speeds and pass RIM yet again...
yeah because RIM is just such an expert in full touch screen keyboards...oh wait.... Trust me if apple/ms/google want this they will work it to make it just as smooth if not smoother than what it would run on bb.
what is it they..."mimicry is the sincerest form of flattery "... or something like that. its not even done yet. it has been slated to launch May 20th. it has the same learning feature that the BB10 TS keyboard has, so not cool. sick-em RIM lawer type people
yeah because RIM is just such an expert in full touch screen keyboards...oh wait.... Trust me if apple/ms/google want this they will work it to make it just as smooth if not smoother than what it would run on bb.
I don't think I can trust you. I mean that is asking alot and we barely know you