SMS Keyboards

First Fastap Phone Unveiled - Mar 22 2004

It was announced at the CTIA Wireless 2004 conference, that Digit Wireless, consumer electronics giant LG Electronics and Canadian wireless carrier TELUS Mobility have signed an agreement to produce the world's first Fastap-enabled mobile phone, reports InfoSync World.

"Digit Wireless's Fastap keypad allows mobile phone users to quickly and intuitively type text messages and other data using letter, number and punctuation keys arranged neatly around the standard keypad on a mobile phone".

But here is another reason why the launch of this phone is such a good thing.

Digit Wireless has been endorsed publicly by the UK Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID), for it's fastap keyboard, as it's universal design greatly facilitates the entering of data.

Because Fastap keypads have a one-to-one correspondence of each key, they are far easier to use by people who are blind. Because Fastap keypads are faster and have fewer errors they provide significant benefit to people who are deaf and speech-impaired".

EZiTap: Dual Language Text Entry - Feb 13 2004

A new texting solution from multilingual Zi Corporation enables users to compose texts in multiple languages simultaneously, according to InfoSyncWorld.

"Zi, whose technology lies at the heart of more than 70 million mobile phones around the world, will be unveiling the world's first dual language text entry capability and other predictive text breakthroughs at this month's 3GSM World Congress. It will also have on hand the first eZiTap-enabled physical handsets for demonstration, a new text input system from Zi".

Dual Language allows the user to compose a message in a combination of two languages using simultaneous text entry and prediction.

Motorola's iTAP 6.0 Predicts Entire Sentences - Dec 17 2003

Motorola's proprietary text input system has reached version 6.0, capable of not only predicting words but whole sentences, reports InfoSync World.

"Just like the well-known T9 text input system, the iTAP system requires only one key touch to select a letter, and also proposes the next word you intend to add to your message or note. By using past text input and the context of where this text was entered, however, the iTAP system now also suggests entire sentences."