I started using a Palm Pilot in 1997 and was very fast at text entry using the Graffiti handwriting recognition system. Many of us spent years perfecting our Graffiti skills and now ACCESS Co. LTD is bringing it back to life for the Google Android platform. Graffiti for Android (make sure to search for this term in the Market) is now available for free in the Android Market and brings back all those great memories and a capable handwriting and text entry system. If you were a pro at Graffiti back in the day it should almost be like riding a bike where you never forget and can pick up right where you left off.
After installing Graffiti for Android you will need to go into your text settings and choose it as the keyboard entry method and then in a text entry field tap and hold to select the input method. You will then see the Graffiti area at the bottom pop-up and will be able to enjoy entering letters, numbers, and other characters easily by sliding your finger on the touch screen. With the much better capacitive displays of today, I am finding my Graffiti input to be quite fast and am enjoying this flashback to the past. I love that I can use multiple input methods on Android and even though Swype has been my new favorite it is fun to go back to using Graffiti too if I want.
Matthew Miller started using a Pilot 1000 in 1997 and has been writing news, reviews, and opinion pieces ever since.
Disclosure
Matthew Miller
Matthew is a professional naval architect by day and a mobile gadget freak at all other times. He purchases his own devices and then sells them on eBay or Craigslist to buy more. Many other devices are sent for review on a 30-day loaner basis and then returned to the carrier or manufacturer. If any are provided as “long term loaner units” this will be clearly disclosed in his reviews.
Biography
Matthew Miller
Matthew Miller started using a mobile devices in 1997 and has been writing news, reviews, and opinion pieces ever since. He is a co-host with GigaOM's Kevin Tofel on the MobileTechRoundup podcast and an author of three Wiley Companion series books. Matthew started using mobile devices with a US Robotics Pilot 1000 and has owned over 125 different devices running Palm, Linux, Symbian, Newton, BlackBerry, iOS, Android, webOS, Windows Mobile, and Windows Phone operating systems. His current collection includes an HTC Radar 4G, Dell Venue Pro, Apple iPad 2, HTC Flyer, Samsung Galaxy Nexus, Nokia N9, Apple iPhone 4S, MacBook Pro, and many more, along with tons of accessories and classic devices like the Apple Newton MessagePad 2100 and Sony CLIE UX50. Matthew can be found on various discussion forums under the user name of "palmsolo".
