[Review] Shape Writing Pad

[Mindfield]

App Name: Shape Writing Pad
Developer: ShapeWriter Inc.
iTunes Category: Productivity
Price: Free

Come over to the iPhone from the Palm did you? Or maybe you were a Windows Mobile user who preferred the character/word recognition tool over the virtual keyboard, yeah? Miss that good ol’ Graffiti handwriting system, do you? Keep missing it, because this isn’t what I expected. ShapeWriter is essentially an alternative to the built-in notepad app that looks remarkably like it, but without the smooth scrolling or rubberbanding, and with a special keyboard that works in kind of the opposite way to the built-in Apple one. Whereas the latter will let you slide your fingers along the keyboard until you get the key you want, and only then register a keypress when you lift your finger, Shape Writing Pad deliberately registers the keys you drag your fingers to, supposedly as a means to speed typing by allowing you to just “draw” your words.

It works like this: Let’s say you wanted to write “sausage.” You simply mash on “s”, then drag your way through a, u, s, a, g, and land on e. A blue line will follow your path like some crazed stalker, and when you lift your finger — and assuming it understood your intent — your word will appear.

Or at least a word that resembles something entirely unlike the word you were aiming at. Fortunately a list of suggested words appears in a panel just above the keyboard which you can pick your word from.

Capitals work a bit funny; after you spell your word, the CASE key will cycle the entire word through all lower-case, first letter up, or all upper-case.

It comes with an alternate keyboard called Atomik, accessible through the MENU key, which is a completely different and rather strange layout that I can only assume was designed to piss John Dvorak off. Or maybe one is more proficient with it when stoned. I don't know.

You handle double letters by simply ignoring them and picking them out later from the list of suggestions. It is also capable of learning new words, and if you’re one o’ them erudite wordsmiths you’ll probably be doing a lot of training — assuming you find this app to your liking.

Overall Shape Writing Pad is an interesting concept, and with practise it might even be better than the virtual keyboard. I’m just not particularly inclined to prove that out. It's certainly different, I just don't know that it's particularly effective.

Rating: 3/5

[therobinsonator]

hmmmmmmmmm weird app

[RubyJewelStone]

I like the concept. I wish there was a way to make that keyboard work on the whole iPot. It actually works, and it seems easier on the hands than trying to poke at the small keys and hope for the best.

[Totally 1337]

hm.......oooook.......

EDIT: i tried it. its pretty sick!!

[Tatsu]

Cool I'm gonna try this out!

[kurtisboyd]

Lol, this looks pretty fun

[dualcorex]

faster to type. but a cool concept. someone should make it so you just scribble a letter and it recognizes it for u

[Appstore 2.0]

I love the way the keyboard looks in this app.

[ricardofelix95]

Cool app, my mom uses this for notes

[JonSingh12]

I SAY this is amazing so far better than the crappy notes app included with 2.0. I wrote up an eassy on this app last night and it was soo easy to type up, quick quick quick i was shocked. Worked great and i emailed the essay to a friend to proof read this morning. Great app and it's FREE =|