Disqus
To type out "hello" you need to either use the horrible hand writing recognition engine (Windows Vista sets the bar pretty freaking high) or type in every single letter on the on screen keyboard.
How do we manage to type on mobile phones? T9
Well this is T9 … on steroids, for touch screen devices: Check out TenGO
I first heard about this application on Eugenia’s blog, she is a former OS News writer (yes I’m a Linux nut, don’t tell anyone) and is known for giving brutally honest reviews. Her rants are epic and if you’ve read my blog long enough you should know how much I use, and love, that style of writing.
I don’t have a WinMO device so I can’t comment on the quality of the application, but trust me when I say if Eugenia is giving it a rave review then they must be doing something very right.
Check out her full review of TenGO here (handful of screenshots)
Some snippets:
The great thing about TenGO is that you can very easily teach it your own words. For example, I found that no… swearing words exist in the dictionary, but adding one was very easy to do… Seriously now, adding words like "AFAIK" or "TTYL", is fast and the application reuses them immediately after "learning" them.
Now, addressing the question that everyone is thinking of: how fast TenGO is?
The answer is simple: VERY. After just half an hour of using it (and having checked out its very nicely crafted tutorial) I was able to type with the stylus close to 55 words per minute and about 45 wpm with my thumb. I believe that with more practice I can be much faster than that, maybe even reach 75 wpm.
What makes TenGO unique is its ability to take a keyboard-less PDA and make it a very fast input machine with just a tiny bit of training on the user’s side. It way, way faster than any T9-based cellphone, and faster than any cellphone with a thumboard (e.g. Treos, Blackberries). And of course, it’s much faster than trying to type with a classic on-screen full keyboard (because you don’t have to be very precise where you have to click).
Having used TenGO for the past week, I still don’t understand two things: why Microsoft or Palm haven’t come up with something like this earlier, or why haven’t they bought Xrgomics yet… These guys are that good!
This application has officially proved handwriting to be useless! It has changed my (mobile) life.
Here I’ll make this easy for you Nokia: This is TenGO’s contact page
About The Author
Stefan Constantinescu
Stefan Constantinescu (@WhatTheBit on Twitter) has loved technology since as far back as he can remember. It started with computers, but in the past few years his passion has turned to mobile devices. As a mobile phone enthusiast who lives and breathes devices that connect to the internet, he knows he is not alone with this radical fascination of all things wireless. He is strongly opinionated and enjoys a good debate so leave comments in his posts and he’ll get back to you! Stefan began blogging as a hobby in the fall of 2006 and joined IntoMobile in the summer of 2007. Later he got a job at Nokia in March 2008, but as of June 2009 he has rejoined the IntoMobile team. He is currently based out of Helsinki, Finland.
