yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Android Apps and Games] SirFenwick:
Its a very interesting concept. I'm gonna keep trying if for awhile until I get use to it. It should be a lot faster then a traditional keyboard once you can memorize where the keys are and so forth.
[Android Apps and Games] Davidandroid:
I try it and uninstall after a week, :(
[Android Apps and Games] rdcrds:
yeah all over the net they are trying to pump this thing up bigtime when it is a piece of junk compared to what is out there free even.You say it is only a $ but if you get 20,000 people to fall for this crap and not get a credit back after 24 hours you made some good change.I am just trying to save people the hassle of wasting the $.Never seen so much hype on every android board that the owner of this app has been hyping to no end.

It just is not good.
[Android Apps and Games] zeke1988:
bought it and refund.

i just want to type "what", but i spent 10 mins and still cant "rotated" probably.
[Android Apps and Games] joshnichols189:
Did you even watch the tutorial video..? The letter you want is determined by which direction of the line and how many lines you pass or which part of the "sector" you choose and how many "sectors" that you move through. Try reading and taking some time to learn something before you bash it.

Idiot.
[Android Apps and Games] wvcachi:
Yeah, I'm giving this some time too... appreciate the unconventional idea and very much WANT it to eventually be the sh*t....

8penned in under 52 minutes on my Evo
[Android Apps and Games] furrelkt:
Couldnt get past demo.. ugh

Sent from my EVO telepathically
[Android Apps and Games] Anomaly:
The question for me is whether I can type faster with this than I could with ONE hand one a normal qwerty and whether it would be more comfortable to do so. Definitely going to give it a try when I get a phone.
[Android Apps and Games] polstein:
Do you happen to have any links where they are talking about this keyboard? I made this thread 'cause I couldn't find any. Also - I don't mean a thread of people saying they don't like it, or uninstalled it after 5 seconds of playing. I'm very interested in a thread/forum of people using it regularly to share/learn some tips!

For all of those saying that they installed it & played for less then a day - I agree 100% - there is no possibility of learning this keyboard in anything less then several days of constant playing & practice. For many, a learning curve like this is an auto-uninstall. So I'm saying it again - if you are not willing to put in a solid week of heavy duty training, then this keyboard is not for you.

I'm now into about 3 days & about 4-5 hours of play on the keyboard. I've now gone from 'looks fun, but impractical' to 'this is much better then I would have thought'. I now have all but a couple keys down with little thought, and about 1/2 down with no thought at all.

I am now able to slide out the first 3-4 letters of a word and concentrate on the suggested words without giving the individual letters all my brain-power. This makes a HUGE difference since you can slide out the first couple of letters, see your target word, and just lift up on the center dot (this auto-selected the suggested word).

Ok, enough preaching from me. I'm just getting a little aggravated by people saying it's crap in under a day when this is clearly a keyboard that will take a week to adjust to. Kind of reminds me to the original reaction of the Fitaly keyboard which also had a big learning curve but won speed tests for years & years.

If I had one complaint on the keyboard - I've written to support 3 times via the web page with no response (so I'm going to go look for these threads with the developers on it).

EDIT: On their contact page they say they are getting overloaded with emails. I've already suggested it to them, but if they are reading this thread - they are much better off getting a forum, an official thread here - heck even a Facebook group would be good.

I also did find another thread that mentioned a typing speed test - going to try to download one for real speed testing to see how I improve & to test against other keyboards I use. No luck finding a thread with a developer on it yet.
[Android Apps and Games] :
I actually really like it. It just takes time and practice, as most people don't seem to want to put in.

Yea, I'm must faster on swype NOW, but swype gives me sooooo many wrong words. Literally, I can swype the word I want, have crossed over all the correct letters, but if I start a little to the right and hit another letter before my first meant letter, the whole word goes to hell. That's not what I call "quick" typing. Of course when swype works it's awesome, but it seems to look more at first and last letter more than all letters "swyped" over.

Also, Gestures are amazing! I've waited very long for someone to finally implement this. I can now draw a simple heart to tell my fiancee "I love you, baby." Or a heart with a rounded bottom to tell her "I'm in love with you." How simple is that? Now that's something you can't do with swype or the regular keyboard. I can only imagine the possibilities of gestures.

I've noticed only a few problems. Next to being god awfully slow, sometimes I start out wrong way and it messes the whole word up because auto-complete. Also, auto-complete is OFF. *Edit* You can actually go backwards from where you started, back into the circle, and start over. Problem solved. Next to that, the only problem is with my gestures. As I've said, a simple heart outputs "I love you, baby." Well, so does a simple "n" gesture. This makes me think... What if I created a gesture in the shape of a "n" and it was supposed to say.... "Lets go the store." Would it be a 50/50 chance of "I love you, baby." or "Lets go to the store."? What about my simple heart? Would it have the same reaction? Other than that, this honestly seems like once mastered it will be way faster and easier because I can already do a few words without looking and hit them dead on 100% of the time. It's not that I just know words, either, I'm aware of the letters. Once I learn all, I'll never have to look to type again AND I won't look like a complete moron when I text someone. Let's face it, no matter how big your screen is, full mobile keyboards are impossible to -never- mistype on. This one actually provides that potential.

Another edit: It seems like gestures can actually handle themselves depending on where you start them. I start my regular, simple heart at the bottom, go up, hump twice, and come back. I start my rounded-bottom heart creating a "u" shape going right to left then continue going up on the left side and humping twice to create a heart. After multiple tests, both seem pretty accurate as long as I do them like that. If I start my simple heart with the humps first, though, it generally thinks I'm creating my rounded heart.
[Android Apps and Games] PollPixx:
Still learning...its not easy

Sent from my X10i
[Android Apps and Games] Quilombo:
Well, people are entitled to their opinion and you cannot confront someone because they dont have a favorable opinion of a product. People simply give up on a product if they find it's not worth their time and effort and there are readily available and free alternatives. This one is NOT free. This is a novel concept and truly, it should've been made free to give users a willingness to want to try it. Then, you also have to keep in mind there is a limited time for people to get their refund if they dont like/want the app. Lastly, you failed to realized in the fast moving world of IT/gadgets etc ... people simply don't have the inclination or desire to invest 3-5 days to learn something new and very unconventional. Remember, after you using your cell phone you still need to get back to the real world and that of physical keyboards.

Oh, there are no also no real world demo of people using this product and what it's benefits are. The demo on the page is nothing made me why would I want that? Just my humble thoughts.
[Android Apps and Games] dkelle4:
I tried it (and ended up returning it) because it was incredibly hard to write whole words because my thumb blocked half the letters, there by needing me to lift my thumb. But if you lift your finger, the word ends. I can see it being quick if someone completely memorizes it, but I just didn't have the patience (or time, being only 24 hrs.)
[Android Apps and Games] :
You're right, it isn't free and that's a miserable downfall. You're also right that most alternatives right now ARE easier to use. I DID realize the fast world of gadgets. I'm sorry, but its not like we are never going to type again tomorrow. You will always have to do some sort of physical motion, next to tts, to input text. So how fast the "gadget world" moves fast has nothing to do with learning it.

When you school in something, you dedicate -years- into learning it. I think 3 - 5 days to type faster than I EVER have before will eventually pay off. Of course, if there's an extremely important text that needs to be sent, I'll switch back and send it with swype. If not, I'll try to learn.

Also, of course you have to go back to physical keyboards. Just because I learn to use this one doesn't mean I'll never be able to use a physical keyboard again. I, in no way, see how learning to use this will affect your use of a physical keyboard. A good example, swype. I always use swype on my phone, but I don't come home and slide my fingers across my computer keyboard.

To all their own. I'm just saying 10 minutes of using something then throwing it to the side and calling it "junk" is kinda pointless. That's like moving from windows to linux, using linux for 10 minutes, then calling it junk because it's a different way of doing things. Give it a try. Actually be able to USE it correctly before calling it junk.

I want you to know, though, as someone before me said, "I just didn't have the patience (or time, being only 24 hrs.)" I completely understand not being able to use it. Them not giving a trail is plain stupid. I agree not everyone will like it, but it certainly takes more than 10 minutes, or 24 hours for that matter, to learn to use it effectively.

Also, dkelle4, you can increase the circle size which should allow more viewing room. You're using an EVO, I'm using a MT3G. Believe me, I understand where you're coming from. :P
[Android Apps and Games] -Happy Feet-:
I write with this Keyboard it is not for everyone, you must spend some time to learn write. But i like that

send from my Alex-v ROM loaded HTC Desire
[Android Apps and Games] polstein:
I've only got a few gestures so far, but was thinking that people using this keyboard (however small a # we may be at the moment) can make a good list of ideas for gestures that won't conflict with each other.

BTW - finally got a reply from 8pen & got a few emails going back & forth. Just sent in a list of suggestions I have.

In my sample gestures, I did a ^ shape and the same thing upside-down. I noticed that going from right to left made a difference then going left to right.

I also noticed that doing say a straight line from left to right near the top was the same thing as a straight line near the bottom (so you can draw your gesture anywhere in the layout).

I'd like to be able to do other things with gestures, like a line from right to left could delete an entire word, or launch an app, or do copy/paste or something.
[Android Apps and Games] Quilombo:
But again although you brought some interesting points, you missed the big one. People only have a limited amount of time to get a refund. Now, lets put this way.

When you're in school learning something, you put the time, effort in it because of it's potential reward. Trust me, not many of us would bother with writing 20 pages assignments at 3AM if we were guaranteed to win the lotto tomorrow.

My opinion is people call it "junk" simply out of frustration. Something that did not work for them. I sure that would not keep anyone who wants to buy + try from doing so.

Here's a good example I think: Just imagined if a car manufacturer came out and tell us its so much better to have the automatic gear shifter by your left foot. Tap once for P, twice for R etc ... It's just a matter of getting used to it. Then you'll see that it feels natural and in the long run, it's infinitely better than the one by your right hand. However, to get that new gear shifter, you have to pay a premium of $1000.00 over the price of the standard auto. Also, they have one week to decide if they wish to keep it or return it for their $1000.00 refund.

Now tell me, how many of those foot pedal gear shifters do you think they would have to refund?
[Android Apps and Games] polstein:
Good point on the return time, this is one where a 14-30 day demo is needed. Their current model discourages purchases that stay purchased because people will not master this in the return window.

On the flip side, this isn't $1000 - it's $1.56 (American), 1 (euro?). And it easily uninstalls so you're not locked into it forever. Maybe it's because I was used to $10-$30 Microsoft apps, but I wonder how some people afford their cell bills when $1.56 is too much to spend.

My other point would be - it doesn't take $1.56 & a download to see that this is a keyboard that will look & feel like crap with 10 minutes use. If you buy/download it, do so knowing that you need to put in 3-days to 2 weeks to get proficient with it.

What I'd really like is some people telling/showing how they are doing after 2+ weeks with 8pen, and what speed they are hitting. I'm playing with a couple speed android programs. Sadly, one doesn't seem to give typing speeds, and the other doesn't play nice with keyboards that don't do letter-by-letter (like swype).

I asked them to put together a youtube video with their fastest 8pen typist going at it so we can see what we could potentially be doing. If their best guy can't hit a speed that comes close to Swiftkey/Swipe, then people that are primarily interested in speed are already done (but leaves the market open for ease of use, less mistakes, more fun to use...etc). I think most people care about speed & accuracy over all though.

Oh - and on the speed test - I want to see a part that uses auto-complete and part that does not. With auto-complete (so that you only enter 2-4 letters) I think you can hit speeds that would match anything. In Swype, no matter how long the word you have to Swype it all. Now in SlideIt, (for example), when you hit a big word you can single type the letters instead of sliding to hit an auto-complete.

Currently (according to about 2 tests each) I can type on a basic keyboard about twice as fast as I can on 8pen. If people are interested, I can keep doing tests to see how much faster I get, and at what point (if any) I can actually hit speeds faster then a regular keyboard. Oh, and at some point find a web page or something so I can also test with Swype & Swiftkey and others.
[Android Apps and Games] wvcachi:
After practicing for a couple days, my typing with this is still slow as ass. I really wanted to love it--and I'm sure it'll work great for some of you-- but it's back to swype for me.

8penned in under 52 minutes on my Evo
[Android Apps and Games] rdcrds:
Sorry my friend who is good at this stuff tried it for 4 days now and many hours and got the hang of it and swype and smart keyboard are still faster so whats the point? it sucks
[Android Apps and Games] appelflap:
Have you tried MessagEase also? You should definitely try that one. It has been released for Android (market) a few week ago. Used this method on WinMo and even on a TabletPC. Fun to learn and very easy to use with one hand.

www.messagease.com for more info.
[Android Apps and Games] MercuryTangent:
I've been using this since release and i love it. The learning curve is steep, but the design is solid. Im finding that once i have a word memorized the motions become very smooth. I enjoy it and look forward to seeing how fast i can become.

Sent from my King-Crowned, Virus Infected Evo using the XDA app.
[Android Apps and Games] nantax:
It seems hard specially if you don't know where the letters are initially. But I have attached an image of my idea on how to overcome it. Two panes, one for input and one for preview. And user configurable so it wont matter if your a right or left handed.
[Android Apps and Games] polstein:
Quick note - Facebook group launched @ http://www.facebook.com/pages/8pen/127641717294483.

I'd say for the people planning on using it - take the discussions there.

I will keep checking this thread for any help I can give others.
[Android Apps and Games] :
Thanks. Finally someone else contributing. :P On topic, I'm always interested in new keyboards. First I ever had was better keyboard which isn't much different, but when swype came out all I could think of is what's next? People come up with some interesting ideas. That's for sure.
[Android Apps and Games] Pegart:
That's genius. It would definitely help with the learning curve. The biggest minus is lifting the finger if you don't know where the letters are. And it would be great if the "trace" line would be drawing on the other pane.
[Android Apps and Games] polstein:
This is a very good idea since so little space is needed to actually use the keyboard. If it's too hard to do, how about a floating mini picture with the layout that you can move around the screen while you use the keyboard?
[Android Apps and Games] rasebo:
Things are preety quiet around there. Only 5 'likes' so far.

I agree. This is a great ideea.
[Android Apps and Games] polstein:
Yup, I'm hoping for a core of people that like the product - I doubt that the keyboard is ever going to hit Swype like levels of use, but I still believe the keyboard is a lot better then most people think.

A 14 day trial is turning from a want to a must to encourage people to give it a real test.

For me, a more dedicated not-switching-back-even-for-quick-important-messages - it's still taking a good week to get acceptable speeds.

Today, for the first time, I was able to type a lot without thinking about where each letter was and as expected my productivity went waaay up. Sadly, I noticed myself doing it & threw myself off.

But for the time when I was happily sliding out 3-4 letters & auto-completing words, 8pen felt very.. natural.
[Android Apps and Games] rmikulus:
Its going to take time to learn and get quick at it. Purchased it, enjoy it, but only using it casually until speed and accuracy pick up

Remember when you learned to type on a standard kb?
[Android Apps and Games] shadowgolf:
Can anyone tell me how to get predictive to work? I have Show Suggestions and Auto-complete on, but when I type all I see are the letters I'm typing, no suggested words.
[Android Apps and Games] danamoult:
The nerd/geek inside me is giggling as I download this. This will definitely be fun to learn.

Probably won't use this while typing long essays/documents on my phone just yet though. :P
[Android Apps and Games] polstein:
What kind of phone are you using? I'm on a HD2 running a port of Android off my storage card. When I use my main setup based off an EVO kernal, I get the auto-complete. But, when I use another port based off a Desire, I'm not getting the auto-complete.

I thought it might have had something to do with the multi-boot thingy I'm doing, but perhaps it's a bigger issue.
[Android Apps and Games] shadowgolf:
My phone is a Desire. Must be an incompatibility with that then, shame, I was getting to grips with 8pen but much prefer auto-complete. Thanks for your reply.
[Android Apps and Games] polstein:
Will pass that on, thanks. Might help figuring it out.
[Android Apps and Games] atkailash:
Takes some getting used to but it's unique. I can't get autocomplete to work or pressure shift. Definitely slower than swype but I stick with it for its novelty.
[Android Apps and Games] danamoult:
I've tried it out for a day and think I've learned the basic usage of it pretty quickly. It's extremely fun and useful for blindtyping, but unfortunately will never beat a standard keyboard in terms of speed.

I shall keep an eye on updates though.
[Android Apps and Games] polstein:
Something interesting I found out:

I was doing some speed tests on Extreme Typist. Keep in mind you can't use auto-complete for 8pen in this test (and the test does throw in several long words that you would normally 'type' in 4 or so letters).

For comparison, I was trying Touch Input, Android Keyboard, and Ultra Keyboard (swype/sliding works normally for the speed test).

My testing with TI, AK were around 15 wpm (much lower then I would have thought, but before 8pen I was mostly a Swype/SlideIT guy - ie, I don't thumb type a lot).

Testing with Ultra on Full Keyboard I got around 17 wpm.

Testing with 8pen, less then 1 week of use - appx. 9.5 wpm.

So, currently I'm running around 50% faster with stock keyboards.

The big discovery I made - I almost never have to backspace or delete a word or letter in 8pen. On a stock keyboard, I was losing time because I constantly mis-typed words & had to go back. On Ultra, it guessed the wrong word and I had to go back and correct.

I will try to find a web page test where I can use auto-completes and re-do this test & include Swiftkey in there as well.

Anyone doing some testing?

BTW - remember that this keyboard isn't designed for max speed, but for ease of use, no errors, and fun! Gotta go re-ask for a trial. Would love to see more people using this keyboard.
[Android Apps and Games] danamoult:
I did a quick test using SwiftKey and got a 22 wpm score. However do remember that this program disables the autocomplete/predictive text from SwiftKey and thus the score is a lot lower than you would get with SwiftKey's full functionality. I myself had to backspace several times during this particular test.

Might give 8pen a go on this program after this but there is almost no way it can beat SwiftKey or something similar in everyday use, especially if you only take quickness into consideration.
[Android Apps and Games] polstein:
I tried to find a web page that would allow a fair test - and failed miserably :( I'd like to see what I get using auto-complete.

A program called TypingDroid does a series of short sentences where auto-complete works, but gives results in strokes/min (it gives both an Average and a Max/minute). My average is just under 60 strokes/minute, meaning I'm averaging 1 letter a second... I think. Dunno how/if it takes auto-completed words into account (ignores them or counts them as 'strokes').

But I guess I can use it to see a speed improvement.

OK - just did a Swiftkey speed test. Not the most fair comparison, because the same sentence can come up & Swiftkey will let you get away with word-auto-auto-auto-auto to hammer it out fast. On the flip side, some of the words used are not ones I would otherwise ever type.

Speed results for Swiftkey - Max: 182 (stroke/minute) on the back of autocompleted sentences (so I guess it counts as letters typed).

Average Speed: 76.7 strokes/minute. As increase of about 17 strokes per minute.

(Keep in mind I don't use Swiftkey that often either, so I was making some mistakes there as well).

Give TypingDroid a shot - it's free & tell me what you get :)

EDIT - Tried Swype: 165 max, 102 stroke/min. But had to re-start the test 3 times. I kept getting the 'Hidden word' which stopped the test. Also wanted to launch my phone several times cause it didn't find a word & I had to delete is & manually type it.
[Android Apps and Games] rdcrds:
OMG i have never seen a piece of crap hyped so much on so many sites just to make a $ but i guess when you get 20,000 idiots to spend that $ then it is not that bad.

Check the net easy to find free.
[Android Apps and Games] polstein:
No one is making you read nor reply here. If you don't like it - don't use it. Go play with your warez elsewhere, xda-developers heavily frowns upon it considering the large amount of developers (hence the name) on here.
[Android Apps and Games] danamoult:
I just got 289 max and 178 average using Typingdroid. Yeah I don't think 8pen will keep up. :P
[Android Apps and Games] polstein:
You got that with 8pen?? OK - you make the video!

What were you using before & how do you score with that one?