Wednesday 24 September 2008

24. New Google phones - Android


Yesterday the new Android powered phone were unveiled, to a fairly small fanfare. The problem is that they are competing again other touch screen phones, such as the i-Phone and various HTC phones to name a few. So all that is left is the fact that it has free operating system. It may drive down the price, but will it help the dyslexic individual?

The answer is probably not, but we shall see. By having an open sources platform it may allow quicker development of tools, and therefore wider use among the techies. However, the fact that the development is lead by Google means that it should at least integrate with Google Docs and make online management of documents easier. This means you wont have to worry about leaving documents at home. It also means that people can share more easily.

As to the touchscreen, people are divided on its usefulness. If the individual is also dyspraxic, then maybe they will have problems, but maybe less than on, say, a blackberry keyboard. Interestingly there are other interesting developments that may have an impact, such as Swype, which allows you to type using an onscreen keyboard, where you do not have to lift your finger off the keypad.

Swype
BBC Google report

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