AI Type offers another option in free word prediction.

It seems like 2010 is making itself out to be the year of free word prediction software. First Google Labs comes out with Scribe; then Ontario educators and students learn that WordQ will be licensed by the province by the last day of the year; now we have the innovative new AI Type. Whereas Google Labs Scribe is an online tool, AI Type is a free download that uses a cloud-based prediction engine, so it works only if you have an Internet connection.

this is me typing using AI Type  software . it's really pretty good, especially when you consider that it's free. Since the prediction engine is cloud-based,  Like Google Labs' Scribe, it can predict current pop-culture phrases; for example, start a  sentence with Lady and it predicts Gaga, or type in Justin, and it predicts Timberlake and Beiber. (Just note that it doesn`t capitalize proper nouns or the start of sentences automatically; you need to hold down the shift key to while selecting the word to have it capitalized.

 I don't like the way it doesn't fix the spacing on the terminal punctuation. however i do like the way you only have to type in some of the consonants in a word; this will help not only dyslexic users, but also people who may have difficulty with typing because of a physical disability.  Being able to set the amount of time and/or the number of characters before the prediction list appears is a nice bit of customization that most people who type fairly well will appreciate . There are other nifty settings, such as being able to automatically disable the program for certain applications. The prediction box and the program in general also look really slick, better than anything else I've seen in word prediction software.

 On the other hand , the coloured bolding of  the letters you type can easily lead to miscues , especially since it has no built-in text-to-speech. Correcting is also a little awkward if you try to backspace on an incorrect prediction choice; the better way is to use the left arrow key to undo the previous selection, then type and/or select again. Takes a little getting used to, but if you end up using it a lot, it will become second-nature fairly quickly. 


Overall, I wouldn't recommend this for people with serious dyslexia; WordQ and Co:Writer are going to be much better in those cases. However, if you need just a bit of help with spelling or typing, this is probably all you'll need.