Why won't autocorrect work? Galaxy SIII

Question

Last night my Galaxy SIII updated automatically (I'm not sure what the update was, but everything looks very different). I was just getting used to typing on the Galaxy, but since the update, autocorrect/completion doesn't work at all. It still suggests words, but it no longer automatically fills in words/corrects misspelled words. For instance, if I type the letters "i" and "m", it no longer corrects the word to "I'm." It just keeps "im." The same goes for other misspellings. If I typed the name "Kieth" it would leave it as is (incorrect), whereas before the update it would have corrected it to "Keith." I have tried just about every setting under Language and Input and the Samsung Keyboard, and none of them fix this problem. Is there anything I can do to revert it back to the way it used to be?

Answer 1

That is how PR people avoid saying the truth. "strategically updated" means that Apple sued Samsung (http://bgr.com/2012/02/10/apple-sues-samsung-over-autocorrect-patent/) in their ever ongoing patent war; that news article is pretty skimpy on details.
The patent that is relevant to this topic is http://www.google.com/patents/US8074172 The important portion of the patent abstract is "replacing the current character string in the first area with the suggested replacement if the user activates a delimiter key on the keyboard". The "first area" is what you typed in wrong, and the suggested replacement. If you continue to read the patent is basically describes how auto-correct functions on nearly every smartphone.
3rd party apps (like swiftkey) would likely be forced to make similar updates if Apple decided to sue them.
This is the huge problem with software patents in the US - they help big companies such as Apple. Little companies can't even begin to defend their patents against the Apple legal team. Even worse - the consumer is the one who suffers. Samsung users have Apple to thank for this "update".
This is why the general community needs to patronize companies / technologies that favor openness. The ability for you to control YOUR property - patents go blindly in the face of this. Moreover software patent reform is desperately needed in the US. It is one thing when a pharmaceutical company spends a billion dollars developing a new drug and needs to make money off of it for years to receive money to continue development of new drugs. The case is completely different in the software arena - the space bar auto correct is not novel and probably was done many years before Apple wrote the patent. But they have so much money to spend on lawyers and the USPTO is overworked that these patents are granted and then the courts are bound to enforce them.