AutoCorrect

They are odd ducks at Apple. They proclaim revolutions, yet they are curiously controlling.

They want to be cool, yet they are curiously ubiquitous.

At times, one just wishes the company could be a little more consistent and a little more, well, liberal.

It is well known that the majority of humanity uses curse words. Not necessarily in public, but I suspect even nuns and bishops sometimes offer a little f-ing and blinding.

Yet every time I try to text a curse word on my iPhone 4, teacher interjects to tell me it is verboten.

I understand that curse words … Read more

SwiftKey 3 Beta, the newest version of the incredibly popular Android replacement keyboard, is now available to SwiftKey's VIP Community members. And from what I've seen so far, it is something for the public to be excited about.

If you're not familiar with SwiftKey, it is a Google Play Editors' Choice app, and it won the coveted Most Innovative App award at this year's Global Mobile Awards in Barcelona, Spain. What sets it apart from other replacement keyboards is its ability to understand not just patterns in your typing, but also how words work together. This … Read more

The thing about auto-correct is that it happens so quickly. Indeed, one sometimes wonders if it's a neat little ruse to get you to send another text correcting the automatic error.

Yet one student at Lanier Technical College might be staring at his or her cell phone a little more closely in future. You see, this student texted: "Gunna be at West Hall this afternoon."

Auto-correct mused a microsecond at this word "gunna" and changed it to "gunman." Before anyone knew it, authorities soon believed that the students could be gonnas.

The way the Gainesville Times portrays it, … Read more

Opera Mini 6.5 brings this version of the alternative browser to iOS devices (version 6.5 has been available for Android for three weeks at the time of this review). We have had a chance to put the slimmed-down browser through its paces and it offers several features we think users will like. With the right tweaks, it may even become the favorite over Apple's Safari--if people are willing to give it a try.

The clean, elegant interface hides multiple useful features, with only five buttons to choose from, along with the address bar and search box. The … Read more

The iPad is becoming an office worker's best friend. In terms of work time saved, your iPad will likely pay for itself in a matter of months if not weeks. But like any computer, you can't realize the iPad's full potential without tweaking the machine's default settings to suit your style.

Here are five ways to squeeze a little more productivity out of your iPad.

Lock the screen orientation. The iPad was made for sharing. Handing off a laptop is clumsy, but passing someone your iPad is as natural as shaking hands. The only problem is … Read more

Wish you could harness the power of a smartphone's auto-correction technique in Gmail on the Web? Now you can. ezAutoCorrect for Gmail is a new Chrome extension that will correct some of your most common spelling errors. While the dictionary is relatively limited for now, it will fix some of your most frequest mistakes. The correction process requires no input from you--meaning no more right-click dictionary madness for your typos any longer!

Open Chrome and head to ezAutoCorrect for GMail in the Chrome Web Store. Now click on Add to Chrome, and wait for the extension to install … Read more

One of the first things I did when I got my iPad 2 was turn off the spelling auto-correction feature. It only took a few close calls for me to realize that it didn't always have my best interests at heart.

It only takes one visit to the site Damn You Auto Correct to see the depths to which the feature can sink. One poor soul tried to type "bed spread," but it came out as "bed sores." Another's "woo-hoo" became the much less exciting "wool noodle." Somewhere in Cupertino, Calif., Steve Jobs is laughing.

The new 99-cent AutoCorrector app for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad is designed to renew your faith in auto-correction. It lets you add custom words and names to your iPhone's vocabulary or install a list of SMS shorthand words. There are a couple of swear words that AutoCorrector can't disable the auto-correct for, but otherwise it's highly effective.

I gave AutoCorrector a quick test drive. I started with one of my biggest auto-correct headaches by adding my last name to the list. Now my iPad no longer tries to change "Kooser" to "looser." I feel better already.

We have plenty of unusual town names around where I live in New Mexico. I just taught my iPad not to change "Tijeras" to "Tigers" or "To'Hajiilee" to "Toga oiler."

AutoCorrector won't absolve you of all auto-correct snafus, but it can reduce the chances for embarrassing typos. You will still have to be on your toes when messaging your friends about the stork clouds on the horizon, but at least "John Stamos" won't have to come across as "John Stamps."… Read more

Those who created predictive text software for cell phones might never have predicted this.

According to the UK's Bolton News, 33-year-old Neil Brook sent a text to Josef Witkowski, a friend he'd known for about six months.

Brook testified in court that his text to Witkowski included the word "mutter." Unfortunately, his cell phone's predictive software apparently decided he meant "nutter."

Reports don't reveal what particular brand of cell phone enjoyed this software. It is also unclear whether Brook wanted to call Witkowski "a mutter," which, in some contexts, can … Read more

Back in May 2008, I described a macro that made it easy to copy custom AutoCorrect entries from a version of Microsoft Word on one PC to a Word installation on another machine. Unfortunately, the macro, written by Microsoft MVP Dave Rado, is no longer available.

I take no pleasure in criticizing Microsoft's inability to meet the needs of its customers, but some of us have been using Word for close to 20 years. Shouldn't we be able to transfer our handcrafted AutoCorrect entries and other customizations between PCs without having to drag system files between folders that … Read more