A big question that we wanted to know about BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 was if it would support third party virtual keyboards.
While if you will be able to install third party keyboards like Swype, Thumb Keyboard, SlideIT Keyboard, etc. remains to be seen, it looks like the default virtual keyboard in 2.0 is none other than SwiftKey, my favorite Android virtual keyboard which I use on both my Droid Bionic and Motorola Xoom.
We haven’t seen any official acknowledgement from RIM or SwiftKey that the technology behind the virtual keyboard in BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.0 and probably Blackberry 10 is, indeed, from SwiftKey, but, it is pretty obvious that it is based on the predictive text which tries to figure out what word your are going to type next, a feature made famous by Swift Key.
Phil Nickinson, Editor in Chief of Android Central, while in a video conference with CrackBerry Kevin, realized that the PlayBook was using SwiftKey after asking Kevin to type in “Ben” seeing that “Medlock” was the first word suggested… It just so happens that Ben Medlock is the CTO of SwiftKey…
I am guessing that this is more than just a coincidence…
[Via CrackBerry]
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