TechCrunch
Apple Swipe Keyboard Patent Shows Cupertino Knows Typing On iOS Is “Tedious”
Apple’s iPhone needs a much smarter keyboard. I’ve said it before, but here’s evidence Cupertino itself realises that hen-pecking individual letters is a “tedious task”. Apple’s US patent 8,542,206 (spotted by AppleInsider) describes an alternative text input method for iOS that incorporates a series of swipe gestures to make touchscreen typing less of a chore.
Or in patent-speak:
Interspersing the tedious task of typing using the small keys with swipes that do not require a specific point of origin can give users a nice break from the sensorimotor and cognitive load of targeting very tiny keys.
The patent’s inventors are listed as Wayne Carl Westerman, Henri Lamiraux and Matthew Evan Dreisbach. According to LinkedIn, all three still work at Apple: Westerman is a MultiTouch Architect at Apple; Lamiraux is Engineering Vice President iOS Apps & Frameworks at Apple; and Dreisbach is listed as a lead software engineer in the iOS Test Automation division.
Interestingly, although it’s just been published online the patent was filed way back in June 2007, the year the original iPhone debuted, which suggests that even though Apple has been looking at ways to evolve the traditional keyboard input method for the touchscreen, it’s either rejected these alternatives, or continues to attempt to perfect them — perhaps also wanting to make sure its users are ready to rethink how they type.
Over the last six+ years, however, the rival Android ecosystem has allowed a plethora of alternative keyboards to sprout forth — including Swype, which replaces taps entirely with swipes to form words (it was preloaded on some 100 million Android devices last year). Since Swype, and its big rival SwiftKey, made it big, a raft of other keyboards startups have also pushed into the space — offering a smorgasbord of radical alternatives to traditional typing, including invisible keyboards, space-saver keyboards, eyes-free keyboards and (most recently) a tablet-keyboard with floating keys.
Even foot-dragging mobile maker BlackBerry, which took far too long to wean itself off physical QWERTYs, incorporated some gestures into its BB10 touchscreen keyboard at the start of this year — supporting flicks to select suggested words on its all-touch devices (not that BB10 has been able to revive BlackBerry’s fortunes).
All of which makes Apple the undeniable keyboard conservative in the touchscreen typing pool. iOS’s immoveable, tap-thirsty keys remain the single most annoying thing about the OS in my view. Cupertino also does not allow third party keyboards to be installed — retaining control over that portion of its OS, even though that means its users get left behind all the flick-tastic keyboard innovation (the best you can do on iOS is use an alternative keyboard within an individual app).
Despite its ongoing appreciation of traditional, tap-based typing, the Apple patent — which is titled ‘Swipe gestures for touch screen keyboards’ — indicates that Cupertino has at least considered ways to evolve its keyboard software to make typing on iOS a less old-fashioned experience.
The patent’s main focus is on describing a hybrid method of text input which replaces a limited sub-sect of typing functions (such as inserting spaces or punctuation) with swipe gestures:
For example, leftward, rightward, upward, and downward swipes can be assigned to inserting a space, backspacing, shifting (as for typing capital letters), and inserting a carriage return and/or new line.
Adding a few gestures to the iOS keyboard may speed up typing slightly but the speed gains would likely be offset by the requirements to educate the user about the new gesture-based shortcuts, and perhaps also provide on-screen signposts to keep things flowing. Which may well explain why Apple hasn’t incorporated gestures into its keyboard software, a full six years after the patent was filed.
The patent document notes that the swipe gestures it details are intended to be performed “across a plurality of keys on the virtual keyboard while the virtual keyboard is displayed” — and could be supplemented by “feedback” to indicate to the user the function has been successfully performed.
The patent also suggests users could customise swipe gestures to create their own shortcuts, and describes how “multi-fingered swipe gestures” could be used to “invoke additional functionality” — such as word deletion, inserting elements like punctuation and spaces, or calling up additional keyboards (such as numbers, or special symbols).
Although much of the patent focuses on a set of apparently supplementary swipe gestures — which could presumably augment traditional tap-based typing — the document also details a touch image processing system that could use “finger path tracking” to input individual letters by translating the finger’s path into a series of individual keyboard taps. This method sounds very much like the current Swype/SwiftKey Flow text input systems.
From the patent:
Keyboard tap recognizer 904 can serve to translate taps on the virtual keyboard surface in to key tap events 906. These key tap events are submitted to keyboard input manager 907. Keyboard input manager 907 interprets key tap events 906 and generates text events 908 that are sent to the applications, e.g., the entry of letters into text fields as described above. Keyboard input manager 907 also generates feedback popup graphics 909, e.g., the top hats showing which letter has been tapped that were described above.
Again, it’s unclear why Apple hasn’t implemented a path tracking system on iOS to allow for Swype-style text input, despite showing such early interest in what has since gone on to become a very popular text-input method on the Android platform (and elsewhere).
However, the existence of the patent itself — while interesting — is not in itself evidence that Cupertino was or is serious about making such radical changes to typing on iOS. Apple frequently files patents — the vast majority of which don’t end up going anywhere, let alone making it into a shipping product. Patents can be filed defensively, or just to cover off exploratory ideas. Patent filings are therefore at best just a guide to the areas that a company thinks interesting/have potential at a given moment in time (in this case, that moment was six years ago…).
And, at the end of the day, while a minority of word-loving people (like me) do find iOS’s keyboard irritatingly slow, it’s worth remembering that the company just sold nine million of its newest iOS products over their launch weekend. So, arguably, the ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ rule applies — especially as typing is such an integral function to overall device experience/performance.
Security Concerns Abound Over Unofficial Android iMessage App That Uses Chinese Servers To Process Data
An unauthorised app that lets Android users chat on Apple’s closed iMessage network is causing a big stir. It’s had viral downloads in the tens of thousands amid claims that it could be spreading malware; but the Chinese developer who developed the app tells us everything is cool.
[TechCrunch has opted not to include a link to the app page because of the security concerns]
It’s the latest security scare for Google’s popular mobile operating system, whose Play store in 2012 accounted for 79% of all smartphone malware – meanwhile Apple’s highly protected iOS App Store consisted of just .7% malicious apps.
While the controversial Android-based iMessage app has successfully bridged the messaging gap between the two disparate ecosystems, developer Jay Freeman discovered the app achieved this in a relatively insecure manner: by processing data on a remote third-party server in China. The techniques used to send the messages between the two disconnected platforms mean that Apple can’t simply block the app based on its IP address.
“Clearly, this is suboptimal from a security perspective,” Freeman wrote on his Google+ page.
According to the app’s Google Play page, it was released earlier this month by Daniel Zweigart and has been downloaded over 10,000 times and features 132 one-star reviews — almost double the amount of five-star reviews.
TechCrunch contacted the developer Huluwa via an email address listed on the website, and received a response from a Chinese developer, Zengyi, who explained that Zweigart is a friend who lent him his Google Play account.
Zengyi said the app was not malware and he plans to release a new version that will process data on the phone, adding the app required strong permissions, such as the ability to install components in the background, “to ensure a message that can be received at any time.”
“It is all free, not contains any malware or ads,” Zengyi wrote in an emailed response. “Because some information is difficulty dispose in android, so we need a server, now, I find a way, I think it will help me not use server.”
During an iMessage chat (when he used his Android device) Zengyi said he plans to make the source code publicly available on GitHub.
Freeman said the developer’s responses on the Google Play page have raised more questions than answers.
“The developer is even responding to reviews about login issues asking only for user’s Apple IDs, which makes it sound like even the authentication must be under his direct control (where it can be logged and debugged given only the username),” Freeman wrote.
A lengthy discussion on Hacker News flags several security issues about how the app works, and generally warns users against entering their Apple user ID on the app.
EBay Debuts Its Answer To Amazon Lockers: Click & Collect At Retail Stores, While eBay Now Goes Abroad
E-commerce giant eBay today made its latest moves to blur the lines between online and offline commerce, and it’s chosen the UK to do it: it launched a new “Click & Collect” service, where shoppers can buy goods from eBay online and then select a physical retail location where they can be delivered. On top of this, eBay said it will be bringing its same-day delivery option, eBay Now, to the UK, its first push outside of the U.S. for the service.
“I’m pleased to share that our eBay Now service is coming to Europe, starting with London next year,” eBay president Devin Wenig announced in a presentation in London today.
EBay has been working on Click & Connect for about a year already, and the UK is the first, but not only, market where eBay plans to take the service. Wenig told me the UK was selected for the debut because early trials showed UK shoppers to be the most receptive, with 40% opting for in-store pickups when they were offered, compared to just 7-8% of U.S. consumers.
“This is part of the bigger picture. This is the march around the world to bring offline and online together, and offer our consumers choice,” Wenig told me in an interview. “I wouldn’t be surprised if Click & Collect became a global option, along with eBay Now becoming a pretty global option. We are shrinking the gap…I definitely think we can export this to other places.”
Click & Collect it will operate on two levels: for large retailers who have physical stores and also sell on eBay, they can now give users the option to pick up goods in those stores instead of having them delivered. For smaller eBay merchants, eBay has struck a deal with the Argos chain of stores for home goods for users to get their ordered goods delivered there.
The Argos deal will cover, at first, 150 UK stores and some 50 eBay merchants, Wenig said. The idea is that this will give consumers who do not want to buy certain items with delayed delivery more convenience in getting those goods more instantly, coupling that with the physical retail shopping they’re going to do anyway.
Meanwhile, it makes sense for eBay to expand eBay Now to international markets, which make up some 64% of the company’s total revenues in its marketplace division. (For context, Marketplaces accounted for $2 billion of eBay’s $3.9 billion in revenue last quarter.)
Up to today, eBay Now has been growing only in the U.S., first opening for business in San Francisco in August 2012. It now works in a few other cities, including Chicago, Dallas, and the wider New York and Bay Area regions. And eBay has also expanded eBay Now from a mobile-only product to one that also can be used on the desktop.
While eBay Now is a competitor against the likes of Amazon Prime and (to a lesser extent) Google Shopping Express, Click & Collect is more akin (but not the same as) the delivery locker services that these rivals have rolled out. Amazon Locker is live in the UK, while Google has yet to extend its BufferBox-fuelled service outside of the U.S. and Canada. Another UK competitor that works across more than just those walled gardens is My ByBox.
A new way to shop, and a new chapter for fulfilment, too
Wenig says that between eBay Now and Click & Collect, it may not be moving into locker services any time soon. “Lockers is not something right now that we’re exploring, but we’re following where our customers will take us. Think of Click & Collect as lockers with a sales associate attached to it. I’m not sure if [also offering lockers] is a choice that they need.”
While different locker services give consumer the convenience of being able to get deliveries of online goods to secure locations without having to be around to sign for them, Click & Collect is attempting to do something more: it’s trying to get those consumers specifically into retail locations, where they may potentially do more shopping.
“This new way to shop — with different online merchants and collection at convenient locations — could create immense opportunities for sellers,” said Wenig today.
With Click & Collect, pick-up is one aspect of the service; the other is that merchants are also working with Argos (and maybe others in the future) for the actual fulfilment of those orders. That is to say, if you buy a blender from an eBay merchant that is offering Click & Connect through Argos, that merchant sources the blender from Argos stock.
“Argos will have a separate part of their warehouse for merchants who sell on eBay,” Wenig told me. “They will have just-in-time inventory to meet orders.” He explained that since Argos already has a courier network, this will also help move items between different retail locations. This will mean that “high velocity” items (his term) will be available quickly for those buying online, “within an hour or something like that.” Less popular items may take longer to fulfil. It sounds like stock info for now may be real-time, too.
The move is an interesting one both for eBay and for the physical stores with which it will partner.
For eBay, it brings the company closer to where most people are still spending the vast majority of their money. For example, stats out from the U.S. Census Bureau in August note that in Q2 of this year $64.8 billion was spent in e-commerce. But total retail sales were $1,126.2 billion. In other words, only 5.75% of retail sales in the U.S., one of the bigger e-commerce markets, are online.
But for brick-and-mortar retailers, the longer-term writing is on the wall. Online continues to grow faster than offline (5% versus 1%, says the USCB), and at a time when many physical retailers are seeing stagnant growth or even declines in sales, it’s important for brick-and-mortar companies to continue embracing avenues like the Internet to connect with users. You could argue that is was also part of the logic behind why another UK retailer, Tesco, yesterday announced its first tablet product, Hudl.
This is, by far, not eBay’s first move to connect better with the high street. PayPal’s here mobile payment solution puts eBay right at the point of sale for transactions with smaller merchants. And eBay has also created a touchscreen store window for Kate Spade Saturday to browse items, and check-in and QR Code services to quickly check for and buy items online.
Update: I’ve interviewed Wenig and have updated this story with his comments.
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