SwipeType brings jailbreak tweak-like functionality to the App Store

SwipeType is a new note-taking application that offers up a slew of keyboard shortcuts that enable you to transcribe quicker. Functions like cut, copy, and paste, are all just a swipe away.

If this sounds familiar, that’s because it is — it’s extremely similar to the jailbreak tweak KBShortcuts. Except, unlike KBShortcuts, SwipeType is actually an app in the App Store…

This is both a good thing and a bad thing. Good, because you don’t have to be jailbroken to access these features. And bad, because where KBShortcuts works system-wide, SwipeType is just a self-contained application. Apple doesn’t allow third-party developers to do things system-wide.

In any event, SwipeType actually has a clever way of working around this hurdle. After giving it permission, the app can take the text from the notepad and send it to Twitter, Facebook, Pastie, or Google with a single tap. So essentially, you don’t have to leave the app to post to any of these services.

Now for the keyboard shortcuts. The list isn’t nearly as long as the one in KBShortcuts — I only counted about 15. But most of the important ones are present, and just like KB, they all involve swiping up from the the space bar. For instance, swiping from the space bar up to the ‘A’ key selects all text in the notepad, and swiping over to the ‘Z’ undoes your previous action, and so on.

So what do I think of SwipeType? Well, it could stand a bit of a UI upgrade, and I don’t like that it doesn’t work in landscape mode. But other than that it works great. If you spent enough time learning the shortcuts, you could type up documents and social network updates at breakneck speeds.

If you want to try it out for yourself, you can download SwipeType from the App Store for $0.99, but you may not have to. The developer, Akhil Tolani, has been kind enough to give us 10 promo codes to giveaway to our awesome readers. And all you have to do is to be the first to grab it here:

Please only grab a promo code if you think you’re going to actually use this app. These promo codes are valid in the US only (complain to Apple if you have a problem about that).