Slashdot Mirror

The main problem with mobile devices is getting a portable, convenient input method. The current system is unintuitive, involving up to five keypresses for a single letter. This is a suggestion that we change that.

"Does your cell phone have some kind of magic keyboard that attaches to it?"

Predective text input: T9. Most modern phone seem to have it.

Brett

Secondly they used TAP method which is outdated and inefficient. Predictive text input is much faster.

Predictive text input is also patented until 2015, so it's not a fair comparison with Morse code.

I find T9 predictive input input a real help, much quicker than even the folks that use "u", "m8" and other abbreviations.

Still annoys me when people (really had to concentrate and not type "ppl" then) try to use SMS to see if I want to go for a beer tho... I always end up calling 'em, it's far cheaper and quicker. Texts seem so impersonal sometimes too...

I find T9 predictive input input a real help, much quicker than even the folks that use "u", "m8" and other abbreviations.

Still annoys me when people (really had to concentrate and not type "ppl" then) try to use SMS to see if I want to go for a beer tho... I always end up calling 'em, it's far cheaper and quicker. Texts seem so impersonal sometimes too...

It seems to be the same concept as t9.

I don't really use WAP all that much since I usually have a WiFi-enabled PDA with me and a networked computer within 100 yards (and that's the outside figure). But it's a pretty useful service when you're on the road and don't have luxury of IEEE 802.11 coverage.

Google's interface works really well on cell phones. They even have a system called "Google Numbers" (IIRC) which is basically a T9 type of system (you don't hit the #2 key twice to get a "b" character -- you just input numbers and let Google figure out what you mean). The interface is pretty slick and it works well even on a small, low-resolution cell phone screen.

The problem is, most other websites just don't. I realize there's really not a whole lot Google can do about it though. That's why these days, I usually don't even bother using WAP for anything except checking sports scores and headlines. It's just easier to use my cell phone and PDA (the only thing I use Bluetooth for these days -- and it rocks).

I used to think SMSing was slow, unless u typ n txtspk. But then I found how to use the T9 (predictive) text system on my phone. I now SMS more than I phone.

T9 is a very clever system, It lets me send properly written messages, fast.. at just over one key press per character. It is also so damn clever that my inner geek gets a workout too :-)

t-9 already does that (on european nokias, sonys, etc) -doesn't it on US phones?

it suggests words on input, you can add custom words to it, switch languages, etc

it has removed - save from l33t-journalist-style-cliche the sort of 'u r g8' langauge from SMSs - as it's harder to type the abbreviation than it is to type the real word.

naaaah, get a clue.

the T9 dictionary is available on 180 different cell phones for 40 different languages and one of them is japanese...

standard feature.

next, please! ;)

naaaah, get a clue.

the T9 dictionary is available on 180 different cell phones for 40 different languages and one of them is japanese...

standard feature.

next, please! ;)

naaaah, get a clue.

the T9 dictionary is available on 180 different cell phones for 40 different languages and one of them is japanese...

standard feature.

next, please! ;)

naaaah, get a clue.

the T9 dictionary is available on 180 different cell phones for 40 different languages and one of them is japanese...

standard feature.

next, please! ;)

I disagree. The system you are talking about is called T9 Text Input. I find that it usually gets the word right. I think this system would work better if it was adaptable, learning which words are most common for ME on MY phone. I wonder if the T9 dictionary of word frequencies is publicly available..

Use predictive text, you troglodyte. [--> Sure, it's not perfect, but It'll Do, most of the time.

Ericsson released the Chatboard for their mobile phones if you prefer a QUERTY Keyboard.

All mobile phones I bought the last 3 years came with T9 Text Input. Don't know about phones in the USA, but here in Europe, most people I know use this system on their phones. They come with a built in dictionary, so you only have to press one button per character and it knows, which word you want to type. If there are several possibilities, you can choose the right one. It's much faster than the "normal" way to type text messages and you can even add new (swear)words to the dictionary ;)

-------- Create your your personal color combination and see if people like it or not: colorcell.org

It seems to me that, given you already know the song titles in your collection, then using a system like T9 text entry would work great. (T9)

You'd spell out the name on a telephone-like keypad, with ABC on 2, DEF on 3, etc, and figure out what possible song title that's in your library is the match. For example, to spell out "Madonna", type in "6236662"--one digit per letter. In the rare case of two names matching one particular sequence, press the "0" key to scroll through them.

There is no need for people to speak all l33t0 in todays world.

Once upon a time when we use to connect to the interweb via smoke signals and a damn big fire, and a time where mobile phones didnt have predictive text et al. there was use for non-captitalisation and shorthand words.

Now we have keyboards where it is no more efficient to type "you" than "u". We also have predictive text on mobiles, where it is just as fast to type out stuff properly. Most of my text messages are still within the 160-character boundary even if I type them out old stylee.

We also have the development of voice recognition, and if this starts converting "you" to "u" automagically, I am going to go clinically insane.

Damnit people, it bugs me when I have to decode this ugly pap, but I digress...

...and I think it's quite promising, altough at the moment I still achieve higher speeds using T9 predictive text-input (on my GSM mobile phone). Whith some improvements I really see a future for it. Certainly the eye-tracking method is intresting, eg. for paralised people (instead of a stick on a helmet to press keyboard buttons).

I always thought it'd be nice to have two physical devices, possibly connected to the same service and same rate plan. I'd love to just use my cellphone for talking on, and using something with a regular QWERTY keyboard for typing (like Motorola's Vbox).

I'd really like to get a Vbox to do messaging with, but I wouldn't want to use it for a phone. I have a phone (V60), but it's awkward to do messaging with (even with T9). Of course if I did get both, I'd have to pay for both! No thanks!

Geeks who are still using so-called "multi-tap" input should be ashamed of themselves. Dictionary based methods, T9 (from Tegic/AOL), and iTap (Motorola's equivalent) have been standard on phones for a couple of years now, even if they do have their short-comings.

If you're not into the legacy layout* you could go with MessagEase or this new thing, but the smart money is on a company called Eatoni, since they have two products (LetterWise and WordWise) which they back up with a big stack of research. There's also Zi Corp. who make eZiText and eZiTap for SMS input.

If you're interested in the HCI aspect of all this you could do worse than looking at the work of I Scott Mackenzie, Poika Isokoski or Mark Dunlop.

* 1-800-GOFEDEX anyone? Probably explains why Europe is ahead of the US in this field. That and our ridiculous txt addctn...

T9 text input (now owned by AOL) allows you to easily type messages in you phone. It only takes as many key presses as the word is long in most cases, so no more 3 presses per letter. They have a very informative demo on the site showing how it works. basically it guesses which of the three letters you want, based on what you have entered so far, and the best choice changes as you type more letters. If the word you want is the one it guesses, you just cycle to the next word that matches the key combo you entered.

It's not only in Nokia phones, most of the major european mobile phone players (those being: Sony/Ericsson, Nokia, Siemens and Alcatel) have this function. It's called T9, it's (like I said) available in a LOT of phones and it's pretty much a standard right now. Avalible in a couple dozen languages - including my native polish.

I absolutely detest it, and it is switched off on my phone. On the other hand, my friend's wife uses it and he claims she's a speed demon when it comes to SMSes...

It's not only in Nokia phones, most of the major european mobile phone players (those being: Sony/Ericsson, Nokia, Siemens and Alcatel) have this function. It's called T9, it's (like I said) available in a LOT of phones and it's pretty much a standard right now. Avalible in a couple dozen languages - including my native polish.

I absolutely detest it, and it is switched off on my phone. On the other hand, my friend's wife uses it and he claims she's a speed demon when it comes to SMSes...

Most modern phones feature T9 input technology, allowing you to type MUCH faster than in the old days. It compares what you write with a built-in dictionary in real time and guesses the right word as you type (and about nine times out of ten, it immediately works -- otherwise you can select from other matching words). Go to the site and try it out, they have a live demo.

1. Not everybody sends mail in English. The multi-tap input method works noticably better for Japanese than it does for English, which is why I tend to send e-mail in Japanese when using my phone. The pager input method is even better yet, though it has a larger learning curve.

2. There are input methods other than multi-tap that get you much closer to one keystroke per letter for western language input. In Europe already many phones use T9 text input, and there are others as well.

cjs

Especially with T9...

That's T9 from Tegic. I've got it on my cell phone, and it's useful (even though it guesses "lands" instead of "james").

It's what I use on my Nokia 6210 and it's great, user dictionary entries and multiple languages mean even my French is spelt correctly ;o)

I agree that the proposition is completely backwards: we should be replacing phone numbers with urls, and not the ohter way around...

how about
"phone://voice.company.com/department/person.tel "

ok. har har.

Apparently they were thinking about portable phones and w@p services. Their point was that it is easier to tap numbers on a phone than words. which is true. but i think phones will evolve a bit in the next few microseconds to make such an idea unnecessary.

IMHO, if you have screen realestate big enough to comfortably browse for information, there is a way to fit some kind of intelligent input system that would make it easy to type, at least an URL.

T9 software is already pretty neat, and things will get better.

if you are interested in typing efficiently in small spaces:

T9

FITALY

BAT

FAQ

so, i don't think alternative URL systems are necessary. rethinking cellphone input is, however.

adrien cater
boring.ch