ZetaType Version 0.5.5 - Symbol mode, smileys and quick shift come to town

With this release we have started increasing the breadth of the symbols that can be generated with ZetaType.

Up until now there have been two shift modes.  Capitals and Numbers (which had a few symbols).  But this was obviously not enough.  We have now added a 3rd shift mode - Symbol mode.  This can be reached by long pressing on the 3rd yellow key.  It has some much requested symbols (such as '#', '=' and '£') and it also has a few special characters.  For example it has arrow keys that allow someone to navigate around the page.  It also has a few smileys and a new "Zetakey".  This currently does not do anything but will do in future ;-)

There is likely to be a slight change of locations of some of the symbols in Number and Shift mode in upcoming releases but we wanted to get this out so that you could start getting the benefit sooner rather than later.

One other feature is a way of very quickly shifting the keyboard on the compact keyboard.  In our tests it works very well - we hardly ever use the long press now - but are keeping it in to cater to different preferences.  To use the new quick shift simply slide up from the relevant key out of the keyboard and then back down in to it again.

All these details are also in the Information App that comes with the keyboard.

Hope you like the changes we have put in place.  We definitely think it is an improvement.  Please give us your feedback.  All feedback both good and bad is gratefully received.

ZetaType Version 0.5.0 - bringing you Droid support and a lot more...

Another day, another ZetaType release.

The big feature of this release is support for multiple screen sizes including Droid.  This required a significant rewrite of the UI code and we hope that users new and old have a bug free experience!!!  If this is not the case please let us know by sending an email or commenting on our blog (http://blog.zetatype.com/) or google group (http://groups.google.com/group/zetatype)

We also took the opportunity while modifying the UI to make some minor functionality enhancements.  Most of you won't notice them but one example is that now the gaps between the main three buttons are not active.  This will hopefully increase typing accuracy.

Other changes include:
- the addition of a convenience button on the Info page to take you directly to the relevant settings screen so that you can enable Zeta with one click.
- Configurable vibration mode
- Ability to turn off full screen mode in landscape.  As Zetatype is so slim you may find that you can work in landscape without full screen mode enabled (the default).  We have turned off full screen mode by default but if you don't like it you can turn it on again by just adjusting the ZetaType settings (see the Info App for details)
- Numerous super subtle logical and intermittent bugs

What are we working on next?

Well the next big project is to add Text prediction.  This is something we put off for a number of weeks while working on some basic core development.  We are now focussing on this fully again.  However, we do not want to launch this until we have made significant progress (and it can be turned on and off easily!).  In the meantime, we will likely release some smaller (but important) features and bug fixes.

Features that are likely to be released next are a new set of symbols by pressing the third key (it may have slightly different behaviour from the first two) and long press for space and delete but this is not 100% confirmed.  As always the exact order is dictated by feedback from our users.

TIP - If you visit http://blog.zetatype.com you will see a Application Status bar on the right hand side.  This will summarize current functionality and what is currently being worked on.

ZetaType Version 0.4.1 out - Manual included

Version 0.4.1 of ZetaType is now out.

This has a number of bugs fixed (too boring to list).  But the most interesting feature is a setup and usage guide for ZetaType.

This is a very simple addition but this is in response to the extremely high level of feedback from users who were having trouble installing ZetaType.

The problem users were having was due to the complex approach needed to set up a keyboard on Android.  There are a number of poorly documented and non-intuitive actions that a user must go through after installing a keyboard  (or to use its technical name an "Input Method Engine") before it can be used.  These steps are there for reasons of safety and security but they are complex nonetheless.

Over 50% of people who downloaded Zeta had trouble working out what to do.  So this guide will help explain in detail the steps needed to install ZetaType.  The guide also gives users brief instructions on how to use ZetaType.  We hope this is going to help new users  gett up to speed quickly with Zeta.

Other then this we have made some of the structural changes needed to support larger screen sizes (for example on the Verizon Motorola Droid).  We are not yet ready to announce support for Droid but we are working to get this to you soon.

Over 1000 downloads of ZetaType in first two weeks on the Android Market!

So ZetaType has been on the Android Market for a couple of weeks now.  It has in that time been downloaded over 1000 times.  This is great news.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all who have tried out Zeta.  We are developing this keyboard because we have a strong desire to try and improve the experience people have of typing on a touchscreen mobile phone.  This is not a simple task; there are many technical, psychological and anthropological challenges; but it wouldn't be worth tackling otherwise.

ZetaType is still very early in its development and we still have a long list of features we wish to add to improve it but this is an encouraging start.

More details of features can be found at http://blog.zetatype.com.

Thanks again!

Zeta Type version 0.3.0 is out.

A new release of Zeta Type is out.

The most obvious new feature is a much requested "compact" mode.  This does away with the space and delete buttons and operates exactly like the Flash demonstration on the zetatype.com site.  Long press the left button for shift and long press the middle button for num/symbol mode).  Double long press for shift lock of num lock respectively.  This version takes up even less screen real estate.  However, it is possible to switch modes by going in to the settings screen on your phone.

We have also added tactile feedback.  Depending if you slide horizontally or not you get a slightly different vibration response.  We would appreciate your feedback on this.

Another change is a slightly redesigned landscape mode.  We have added a space and delete button to the left and the right as there were comments that long slides for space and delete were difficult in landscape mode.  Let us know what you think.

N.B.  We are working on a Droid compatible version!

-O

Installation and Usage of ZetaTYPE on Android

N.B:  The setup and usage sections of these instructions have now been superseded by the Instructions in the ZetaType Information App that comes with the ZetaType keyboard.  Please refer to this for up to date setup and usage instructions.

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Installation:
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To use a new keyboard of any type on Android please do the following.

1. Go to the Android market and download your keyboard.  For ZetaTYPE search for "zeta" and select and install ZetaTYPE from the results.  Please be sure to read any instructions.

2. Once installed you need to enable the keyboard.
  - From the home screen press the Menu button.
  - Now select Settings.
  - On Android 1.6 or 1.5 select "Locale & text".  On Android 2.0 select "Language and Keyboard".  (Software keyboards are not available on versions of Android before 1.5)
  - Scroll down and locate "ZetaType" from the list of available keyboards.  Select it for usage.
  - Optionally there is a Zetatype settings dropdown which you can use to turn on and off certain features (for example, Error Correction).
  - Return to the home screen.

3. Now you need to switch to the ZetaTYPE keyboard.
  - To do this go in to any application that requires text input.
  - Select a text input box.
  - Long press in the text input box and a menu of options will appear.  One of these options should be "Input Method".
  - Select "Input Method".  A list of the available and enabled input methods will appear.
  - Select "ZetaType".

And that should be it!  You can repeat the steps above at any time to switch to another input method or keyboard.

Usage:
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Zeta is constantly being tuned in it usage but currently Zeta works as follows.

The generate a character you need to do the following
- On one of the 3 main (blue, red and yellow) keys you need to either tap to generate the character in the centre or slide diagonally, left, right, up or down towards the the relevant character on the key.  From a computer you can watch a Flash demonstration of this at http://www.zetatype.com/demo.html.
- To make a space or delete you can make a long slide across all 3 keys from left to right or right to left respectively.
- Also you can tap the convenience keys at the bottom of the keyboard to generate a space of delete.
- To access the Number/Symbol or Capitalised keyboard views you need to slide up from the bottom of the screen from the delete (for Capitals) and from the space (for Numbers / Symbols).  A double slide up will lock the keyboard view.  One more slide up will reset it to the default lowercase keyboard view.

What is new in ZetaTYPE Beta?

So ZetaTYPE is now live on the Android Market.

For those of you who have been involved with the alpha it may not look very different.  This is because most of what has changed is either under the hood or was experimental and has been removed for the production version.

We spent a huge amount of effort on testing and removing bugs.  We rewrote the code several times over and documented it extensively.  This has been time intensive but we believe that it will stand us in good stead when we need to make changes in future as well as being more reliable for you to use.

We added a major feature. We call is Error Correction.  The way this works is that Zeta constantly monitors your typing or sliding errors and if you have enabled Error Correction (in the settings menu for the keyboard) it will try to "learn" your habitual mistakes and compensate for them.  This all happens transparently in the background but should hopefully lead to lower error rates.

What is dissappointing are features that did not make it.  We have create a sophisticated analytics systems that allows us to get detailed information on usage of the keyboard.  At the 11th hour we removed it due to privacy and performance concerns.  This greatly simplified the code, made it execute much much faster and means that no special permissions are required.

Similarly we included and removed a sophisticated next word prediction system.  We still have high hopes for a system like this but we need to put much more effort in to testing it before we consider putting it in to production.  At the moment it is again too slow for our requirements and we have to think long and hard about what  a text prediction system would do to the dynamics of usage.

Please give us your feedback by joining our google group at http://groups.google.com/group/zetatype

We are looking forward to hearing from and learning from you :-)