Review: SketchBook, FlexT9 input applications

SketchBook Mobile isn’t free, but for serious doodlers, it’ll be well worth the $2. This sketchbook application gives you a range of tools to choose from and has fairly intuitive controls that let you adjust the opacity and thickness of your lines.

The app also supports layers for more complicated drawings.

This is definitely a sketching app — it doesn’t, for example, respond to the pressure of your finger — but while the app won’t make you an artist, it’s a great tool for letting off some creative steam. There’s also a free version of the application, but the paid version adds in the all-important feature of letting you save your work in a gallery. $1.99 for Apple and Android mobile devices.

FlexT9

Typing on mobile devices, whether tablets or smartphones, can be a huge pain in the neck. FlexT9 Input is a handy app that gives you a few more options for writing emails, texts and documents on the go.

FlexT9 Input is a four-in-one keyboard, giving users the option to type as usual, dictate text, trace over the keyboard to choose letters or convert short examples of their handwriting to text.

The dictation software is based on Dragon Naturally Speaking, and although it isn’t perfect, it comes fairly close.

Plus, it’s easy to edit when the app can’t quite make out what you’re saying. Adding this to your Android devices will make you a more versatile, and possibly quicker, mobile typist. $4.99, for Android.