While I was eating dinner, I was scrolling through Google Play Newsstand, as I usually do, and saw the article. I was slightly dumbfounded, as I was always wanting a Japanese IME from Google, but when I initially looked for it (this was back in the days of Froyo/Gingerbread), there wasn't such a thing. I just skimmed through the article and then went to the Google Play Store to look for it.
I downloaded it, set it up, then went to poke around with it a bit in a text editor; it's different than I'm used to, but I like it better than Multiling O Keyboard. While Multiling O may be smaller than Google's IME, the way Google's IME works a bit more intuitively - showing you on a popup where your finger is. More specifically, the popup changes to the character you slide to, which reduces a bit of input errors (e.g. hitting the key next to the one you wanted and "flicking" a different character), and as far as I know, Multiling O does not have this. Also, you're also not "penalised" if you slide back to the centre of the key, which is good for those new or unfamiliar with the "flick" entry method; with Multiling O, it will continually input the characters that you slide over, so it requires the user to be more careful with input.
Themed Multiling O Keyboard, Google's Japanese IME (Blue/Dark-gray theme), Google's Japanese IME popup (Material Design [Dark] theme).
While it's nice that Multiling O is very customisable with it's aesthetics, it's a bit lacking with how it works - not to mention the word selection is very weird to operate, and I've mistakenly selected something I didn't want to while I was trying to browse through the options.
Another annoying thing about Multiling O that I didn't like is that changing back to the English keyboard, I had to hold the space key (which has 日本語 on it), slide to the "Keyboards" button, then select the keyboard I wanted; since Google's Japanese IME is made by Google (duh.), it follows the normal schema of holding the space key then selecting the desired keyboard.
The other annoying thing is that the keyboards are plugins to Multiling O, so after installing the base application, you have to download the keyboards you want (and I think it forces you to install the English keyboard [possibly the language you've set your Android menus to]). Luckily, the plugins aren't large at all, but it's still a bit annoying have to sift through the list on the Play Store to find the ones you want.
Multiling O is okay, but its reign in my life is over.
A bit of my history with Multiling O Keyboard:
When I was using the Google Nexus 1 as my phone, I was looking for a Japanese IME, since Google didn't have their own. I first found Kaede IME (I don't remember the exact name), and it was okay, but really large (the Nexus 1 doesn't have a lot of space, and "move to SD" wasn't an option yet) - I think it was also a bit laggy. Eventually I found Multiling Keyboard (not the "O"), and liked it better since it wasn't as laggy or as large.
Eventually I got my Google Galaxy Nexus, and stayed with Multiling Keyboard for a Japanese IME, until about the middle of last year when I ended up without my Galaxy Nexus for a time, and I had to use my Nexus 1 until I finally received the Galaxy Nexus back.
Since I had stripped my N1 of a lot of the applications that I use, I had to reinstall a few things, and while searching for the Multiling Keyboard, I found Multiling O Keyboard, which is smaller, and more customizable. It didn't hurt to try, so I went with it, eventually installing it on my Galaxy Nexus when I received it back and awkwardly transferring over the theme I made.
The "flick" entry method was new to me, and I actually took a sort of a liking to it, even though my ability to read Hiragana is relatively slow - it's definitely nicer than trying to press tiny alphabetical keys when in portrait mode.
Afterthoughts/More Ranting:
So far, it seems like when I have something to talk about "with" an article, it turns out to include a rant of some sort... I was hoping to make this post short, as a sort of a break from migrating posts from version 1, but that didn't happen. (LOL)
On the migration, it's running relatively smoothly, though earlier, I found that I used to lazily add content to posts by commenting on the post, so I had to go back through all that I've migrated to see if there was any comments that I missed - I only had a few posts luckily, but had one with about 6 comments.
I started with the "Miscellany", "Computer Projects", and "Computer Builds" tabs before tackling the "Linux" tab because I knew the "Linux" tab would have the most content - along with the most chaos of edits (and comments). With the "Linux" tab, I've been working from the oldest post to the newest, and I'm at the third page (in normal viewing order); my plan is to finish the third page so that I'll only have two pages left.
I better stop ranting so that I can get the last few posts on that page migrated.
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