Jesus Christ, the screen on the Galaxy Nexus is gorgeous. I keep thinking each of my screens is good enough--what the fuck do I need from a portable device anyway? My Touch is gorgeous, watching video on my Tab is a delight.

But the intensity and richness on this thing is insane. Flipping through my Flickr account was a new experience.

Huh. I mean, it's a *phone*, so it's overkill. But it's also really really gorgeous, and in my pocket.

ICS is interesting so far. When Google did the restore from my previous phones, it restored more than I was expecting. In fact, it's apps that are deliberately in the cloud that are harder to restore--I had no idea the backup was that thorough. Although I really wish I'd backed up my Keyring app to their cloud. I think I'm going to just scan off those screens into my new one. The old phone is sufficiently broken that I can't log in and back up after the fact.

One of the things it restored was my Launcher Pro app from before. I decided to give that a roll, to see if it still had anything to offer over the ICS launcher, and nope. I wish I could make my icons smaller on ICS, and the folders where the symbol is a combo of the icons inside is distracting, but so far that's about it. And maybe I can work out how to tweak those.

It's smooth, almost slippery pretty.

Oh, wait--the missing/moving menu button. I'm not entirely down with that. Also, there's no official Swype install. It took me almost twenty minutes to find the hacked version! Freakout! And I still can't find the way to retract the keyboard any other way than changing orientation. That is actually annoying, but I assume it's a knowledge issue.

ita !, I really like the SlideIT keyboard. I've replaced the stock HTC Sense Swype-like keyboard with it. The only thing that bugs is I can't double-tap the space bar for a period, but it's more accurate than stock (again, may just be for me.) I get language and dictionary support for predictive text for all three languages I usually text/write in.

I can't wait until my Amaze gets ICS. I'm still trying to decide if I should root my phone though....

I have SlideIT installed, but I have no problems with Swype, so I haven't explored it. I almost started, when I couldn't find Swype in the normal options, and the beta failed to run on my phone, but the enterprising hacking community saved my tuchis.

What do you prefer about it to Swype? Swype is currently my favourite keyboard ever (the default keyboard--no, I just don't get it. My accuracy is for shit on that thing). I also have Swiftkey X installed, but I've never used that either. Both were on sale for ten cents, so I decided to stock up.

Well, as long as I can download UK English for it. I just realised that might be a problem with a hacked version. The queued for download doesn't look like anything is happening.

Come on, Swype! ICS has been out for a while!

I decided not to look too hard into rooting the phone, because I don't foresee any need to install a custom ROM soon, and the backup services Google is providing by default are pretty thorough. So I don't mind exploring that after my warranty has expired.

I "bought" SlideIT when it was free but never used it. I'm okay with Swype, but not great. I still am glad to have the Droid3 with the physical keyboard. Although I want ICS, c'mon!

I've never used Swype. I'd have to find a hacked version, and I've just never bothered. HTC's version is not bad, and it was fine until I tried SlideIT. For me it's all about the feel. The swiping motion is easier than with the HTC Touch keyboard. Predictive text is better too. And it has UK English.

I bought Swiftkey X as well. Don't like it at all. It's not intuitive to me like the others are. Glad I only paid 10 cents.

I decided to bite the bullet and go ahead and get a phone with no keyboard. My old one is pretty damned broken, and I can't wait until the Droid 4 comes out. Without Skype, it's pretty unwieldy. With Swype, I don't mind sending short emails from the phone when the computer and tablet are sitting right there.

I haven't seen any phones other than the Droid 4 that looked to combine ICS and a physical keyboard, and the Droid 4 proper news just came out a couple weeks ago. I may be done with those forever.

WEIRD.

I still hate typing on the Touch, though. That's just an unfun experience for all concerned.

Hmmph. Doesn't look like the UK English is downloading. I might just barrel ahead and add my spellings to the user dictionary, though. I'm a hard sell.

I decided to bite the bullet and go ahead and get a phone with no keyboard.

This is the only reason why I even contemplated sticking with BlackBerry. I hated virtual keyboard, and resisted the lure of the iPhone for just that reason. Now I have an iPhone for work, and while it's not bad, it's not perfect either. If I'm tapping out words, give me a physical keyboard.

Swiping/sliding on a virtual keyboard is much better, and something I can live with. I'm not as fast as I was with actual keys, but I'm faster than I though I'd be. I'll take that.

eta: sorry, internet connectivity blip.

Anyway, the SO didn't end up loving his Droid 3, but I'm pretty happy with mine, especially now with all the customization I can do with Tasker. Because of the tactile keyboard, I can do a pretty large percentage of my work (and play, obvs) on it.

I never call and *talk* to anyone on it, of course, but it is a completely indispensable object. Ooh, and I finally got GalaxyZoo back up and running on it, so I can do idle time identifying.

Is there a swype type dealie for the iPhone? The ones I found have gotten terrible reviews.

I would like to get Swype on my Kindle Fire, but I haven't seen it listed.

The Fire is, I must say, not a good option for anyone used to customizing their own machines: you don't get direct file directory access, and a lot of apps available aren't designed to work on the Fire specifically (so they don't work, or not very well).

For instance, I have a great, and simple, clock alarm app on my phone, but I can't find a similar one for the Fire through the Amazon shop. The ones I have found don't ring, or don't allow me to set an alarm just on weekdays, and so forth. Annoying.