In my search for accuracy and speed, Swiftkey X for Android is a standout in the keyboard apps category. As many Android power-users and intermediate users well know, the default keyboard is substantial for everyday and light use, but really is clunky, slow, and inaccurate. Swiftkey X for Android offers users predictive text, gestures, and customization of look and feel. There are some other nifty tools included in Swiftkey’s app package, my favorite being their statistics engine. If you haven’t checked out their free trial version, and are looking for a great application for zipping off texts and updates, then what are you waiting for?!

Swiftkey X Interface

I recently transitioned from a phone with a physical keyboard, to, what I call, my “Big Boy” smart phone (namely, the HTC Droid Incredible 2 on the Verizon network). When I initially made the switch, I was so inaccurate on the strictly touch-only layout; there had to be another way. I first tried the Swype keyboard for a few months and liked it at first; the concept was something so innovative and intuitive out of the gate, but lacked the accuracy and speed I so desired. Bottom line: I was sending messages at full throttle, but I was still getting a lot of typos when zipping off texts or updating my Facebook status.

Enter the Swiftkey X Keyboard for Android. I picked it up from their promo sale for $0.99, but since then the price has increased to just under $3; Still a tiny cost for something you will eventually end up using multiple times per day. In my opinion, the Swiftkey X keyboard boasts one of the best “learning” keyboards in the Android Market. I find myself saving more and more keystrokes the more I use it. If you elect to do so, you can point the application to learn from existing posts on your Facebook and Twitter pages, as well as your GMail and SMS messages.

The most impressive (and scary) thing about Swiftkey X is that I have been able to write entire sentences without typing a single letter or digit. The fact that the keyboard application has access to my Twitter and Facebook can scare some, but isn’t your Facebook and Twitter public domain anyways? I am fine with this, but some might be weary; just don’t enable the feature that accesses your accounts, it’s as simple as that. All records will be contained locally on your phone.

I highly recommend Swiftkey X for Android as your default keyboard app!

More screenshots of the Swiftkey X Keyboard for Android:

A member from Phase T poses before the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France

I have been meaning to watch Planet B-Boy for a while now and finally have! A good documentary following the best b-boy crews in the world leading up to the Battle of the Year competition. There was a lot of hype leading up to the release of this film, and I remember watching amazing footage of breakers dancing in their own respective countries with very dynamic backdrops. The actual film cut many of these dances short (the reason I watched this movie was to see the amazing cinematography, and to be quite honest, I feel shorted). Many three to four minute routines that I saw leading up to the release were reduced to a meager 30 seconds. One dance that instantly springs to my mind is at the South and North Korean border, where two soldiers from the South battle two soldiers from the North. This whole dance was approximately six minutes long in the trailers; the Planet B-Boy documentary showed maybe 30 seconds of this.

First four reviewed here: http://dtacconelli.com/blog/?p=777

The Candidates:

Trillian — I used Trillian long before the days of Pidgin and Gaim for uses with AIM, ICQ and IRC — although the IRC client was lacking in those days. This have definitely changed since then! Upon, first impressions, I noticed the exact same default sound suite and it gave me a sense of nostalgia in a client I once loved. Trillian has added support for major players in the IM/web 2.0 messenger realm by instituting Facebook chat, MySpace IM, and Twitter updates. Trillian has also added notifiers that display in any corner of your screen when someone updates Twitter or Facebook or when you receive new e-mails.  The interface is easily and conveniently customizable through the view menu and in the preferences. There are custom themes and skins users can download (and always have been able to in the older versions, too), which is an added perk. Overall, this is a very stellar example of a multi-platform IM client, but it is just simply not for me. I left it for particular reasons years ago, and am going to have to leave it yet again. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but it is just not the client for me.

Miranda IM — *WARNING* NOT for the technologically impaired. Miranda IM is for the bare-bones enthusiasts out there, and the learning curve is steeper than any ordinary multi-platform client. At first, I thought Miranda IM was the client for me: it’s simple, non-flashy, and a no B.S. instant messaging client that is stripped down to the bare essentials. Much time was spent figuring out what plugins were needed for certain things, things were complex — but I was in control, and I determined exactly what I wanted in my program. All was good, until when today I opened up Miranda to find Facebook chat in a non-operational mode, I decided it wasn’t worth it. I didn’t want to spend the time digging through forum posts and plugin pages — I just wanted the damn thing to work. The only problem with third party plugins are program update conflicts (program updates sometimes require plugin updates as well). So, I decided to let Miranda IM go. If you are into customizing your IM program from the inside out, then this is the program for you. I just grew tired of constantly fixing and tweaking Miranda IM  – I just wanted it to work with minimal effort.

My Picks:

Digsby and Pidgin are my favorites out of all the clients reviewed. They both work how I expect a multi-platform instant messenger to work — and with minimal effort. Digsby has a slight edge over Pidgin because I can update my Facebook and Twitter statuses directly from the program. I can also chat on Facebook natively (it comes installed) in Digsby, where in Pidgin I had to download a plugin to get this working properly. Also, these two are my favorites because the default interface is simple, clean, and intuitive to use (plus I think they have the best logos out of all the other clients — although they could both have hideous logos and still be my favorite clients).

Here are my candidates:

Pidgin – Formerly known as “Gaim,” I have been using this client for about 3-4 years now. It leaves a very small resource footprint and is simply what I need: a client that just instant messages, nothing else. That’s the problem I currently have with Pidgin that I didn’t have a few years ago before the explosion of Facebook and Twitter — I cannot tweet or update my Facebook status from the program. I also cannot view social media site updates. For a while I used Seesmic Desktop and Tweetdeck for that, but that is a completely different article, so I won’t digress into that. Another problem I have with Pidgin is that it natively includes MySpaceIM on it’s list of supported platforms, but does not utilize Facebook chat. I understand that there is a third-party plugin for Facebook chat, and it works great, but is limited to chat, and only chat.

Digsby — Currently in its 78th build, Digsby takes Pidgin a step further: a multi-platform instant messaging client that offers popular social media update functionality. It also boasts an e-mail notifier — telling you when you have new messages. The most powerful feature that differentiates Digsby from other clients is its ability to notify the user of Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter updates. Users can also create status updates for these social media platforms — something that other clients are not able to do. One problem I have with Digsby is the inability to have new incoming instant messages minimized to my system tray. I use Windows 7, so I don’t know if this is an issue with XP or Vista, but when I am playing a computer game that requires the whole screen, I get minimized when someone first messages me. This gets annoying when in the heat of battle because the results are usually fatal (in-game). Other than this issue (that will most likely be fixed soon), Digsby is a very solid, very reliable multi-platform chat client and social media updating service.

Yoono — My initial impression with Yoono was: CONFUSION. It is not apparent where or how to send an instant message. Also, Yoono comes with a built in browser. I consider this as bloatware, and I don’t think any instant messenger should include a browser — I already have 3 different web browsers on my computer, I don’t need another one; I want to chat/update my Facebook status. One good thing I liked about Yoono that other clients do not do is the way it organized my contact lists. It has separate tabs, placing each platform in its own tab. Much easier than wading through a long list of clutter of multiple chat platform contacts. Alas, this feature wasn’t enough to warrant me keeping the program. Another positive feature of Yoono is its ability to create Twitter and Facebook updates. I believe Yoono is a relatively new program, since its still in beta and I don’t know much about it — there has yet to be a brave soul to create a Wikipedia page for it. I will definitely check back on it in the future, the program has serious potential.

VoxOx – Another relatively new contender in the multi-platform chat arena, VoxOx runs the gauntlet of instant messaging and social media platforms, but also integrates cell phone updates and SMS services. This is a useful feature, but I was reluctant to give out my cell number to a new service such as theirs. If you don’t put in your number the program will constantly bug you to activate through your service provider — and like I said above, I want my chat program to CHAT, I don’t need it to text me on my cell (although that is a really cool feature for those that want to use it). My main gripe with VoxOx is the program was highly unstable — it crashed a number of times while I was setting up my networks and contact lists. Once setup, I wasn’t able to message anyone, the window never opened. I restarted the application and it worked! I like the way the tabbed chatting works and the interface’s layout is nice and appealing to the eyes. I, however, was unhappy with the stability of the young program in Windows 7. I will definitely be coming back to check out future releases of VoxOx.

Purebuds by Amazing Tech Products

THE GOOD

• Sleak looking, ear-gonomic design.
• Much more comfortable than iPod headphones.
• 3 different earbuds for different listening styles [full-range, surround sound, and bass boost].
• Crisp, clear sound. Noise canceling effect very good for in-ear headphones.
• Cleans out your ear for you if you haven’t already done so.
• Reverse sound technology [meaning the speaker is pointed away from your ear, then the sound is redirected back into your ear by the nipple] makes it sound like the music is playing INSIDE your head.
• Default [full-range] buds look like nipples.

THE BAD

• Nipples get dirty easily. Difficult to clean.
• Bass boost and surround sound buds look like deformed nipples.
• Difficult to change nipples. Simple to remove, but difficult to put on.
• Ear wax gets inside the rubber nipples and must be cleaned.
• The Purebuds website will deafen you if you’re wearing them when you visit.
• Surround sound nipples are not impressive.

OVERALL

• Sound quality and comfort are both good. For 50 bucks it’s good that they give you three listening options, but realitically changing the earbuds for different songs in your playlist is unrealistic. Most important to me is that these are the 1st in-ear headphones that have fit my ear without continually falling out or hurting my ear.

They came in a plain envelope with a receipt, nice and simple. Upon inspecting the product I noticed that the feet were most likely die cut from a larger piece of smooth plastic (on his site “J Cole” says that the feet are not Teflon, but are as smooth as Teflon), creating feathering and non-smooth edges — different from the mouse feet that came with my G5, which featured a domed-shape with rounded edges. I shrugged it off and thought to myself, “Maybe they are meant to be this way. This product is going to rock!” So, following the directions, I peeled off my old feet, removed the old, gunky adhesive leftovers and stuck on the SlickSurf feet. The feet are about 1 or 2 mm smaller than the original feet and don’t completely fill in the alloted mouse feet space. To my dismay, I tried my mouse: did. not. like. It now made a scratching noise on my CLOTH mouse pad and the feathery corners of the feet snagged with every movement. I tried cutting the edges but with no success. I ended up putting my old feet back on over the SlickSurf feet. Even though the originals were somewhat mangled and ruined, they still glide better than these SlickSurf ones.

I would not suggest purchasing SlickSurf mouse feet replacements if you use a cloth mouse pad.

I read reviews that these feet are “as smooth as ice” on hard surface/plastic mouse pads and were good on cloth pads. Unfortunate for me, I got a defunct product or “J Cole” himself lurks forums and posts great reviews himself.