...and I may open a whole new thread for this if it's okay with the mods, here, because it's a fairly troubling thing, and so needs a wider audience than this old thread.
FlexT9 is dead. So even if a person paid for it (which we all did), we're screwed. The FlexT9 web page in the Google Play Store still exists; and by it existing, people who've paid for it can get it again if they ever have to reinstall everything on their phone... so, in that sense, we're not quite as screwed as maybe it might seem. However, it's no longer findable via search in the Google Play Store (or in Google, even using the "site:" operator to limit the search to the Google Play Store).
FlexT9's page on the Nuance Mobility site still exists, but it's also both hard to find, and its links to download and whatnot are all dead. There's no mention on it, at this writing, that FlexT9 is dead.
If you go to the Nuance support message form, though, the instant you select "FlexT9" as the product about which you're writing, a pop-up happens in which you're told that FlexT9 is dead, and that there will be no more updates or support for it. Then the message goes on to tell you that FlexT9's successor is the new SWYPE app, which, while still in BETA, is free.
My concerns about all that are summarized nicely in the review of FlexT9 that I just posted on
its web page in the Google Play Store, to wit:
Posted by Gregg L. DesElms - August 1, 2012 - Version 2.0.2.0
WARNING! FlexT9 discontinued! Replaced by SWYPE!
I give it five stars because FlexT9 really is the hands-down best Android keyboard app out there. But Nuance (its developer) has discontinued it; and the replacement is the new SWYPE keyboard, which Nuance now owns (it bought the SWYPE company in October 2011). When they were separate companies, lots of people said, in forums and whatnot, to get FlexT9 instead of SWYPE, and they were right because FlexT9 was better. As long as the new SWYPE incorporates everything that was in FlexT9 (and I think it does), then that's fine. Here's the problem, though: For the moment (as of this writing on 31 July 2012) while the new SWYPE is still in BETA, it's free. And so if the new SWYPE is actually a better-than-FlexT9 upgrade, then, fine... free is good. However, why would Nuance purchase SWYPE only to give it away? SWYPE will, no doubt, when it's out of BETA, eventually be paid/commercial, just like FlexT9 was. And that, too, is fine, except that if FlexT9 is discontinued with no further support, then shouldn't paying FlexT9 users get a free upgrade to the new SWYPE? I only purchased FlexT9 six months ago! Need I pay, again, for SWYPE when it's finally out of BETA? Is that really fair? Really?
I think a complaining email campaign to Nuance may be in order. Before we do that, though, lets wait until I hear back from Nuance support pursuant to the support ticket that I just opened wherein I made all of these points... and better, trust me, than they're made here.
Hopefully Nuance will tell me not to worry; that paying FlexT9 customer will get a free (or at least severely-discounted) permanent license for the new Nuance-made SWYPE app; and that those who want to just stick with FlexT9 will always have its page on the Google Play Store where we can download it again if we ever need to reinstall everything on our phones. If Nuance writes back with that kind of information, then I guess maybe it's not such a screwing, after all. Still, though... it just doesn't seem right... especially for those who've not even owned FlexT9 for a year yet!
The only other concern is whether or not I'm actually correct that the new SWYPE app contains everything that the FlexT9 app contained. It certainly appears so; but I wonder if it's really a combination of the best of FlexT9 and the best of SWYPE, or if it's really just an enhanced and repackaged FlexT9 which only
calls itself SWYPE (which Nuance gets to do since it bought SWYPE). The SWYPE name is far more well-known, so it's possible that all that's really going on, here, is that FlexT9 (with some enhancements) is now being called SWYPE (even though there's not really much old SWYPE code in it), and so all we old FlexT9 users will still be happy with it.
[sigh] Let's hope that that's it, eh?
Thoughts, anyone? Or does anyone know anything more?
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