Filed under: Text, Windows Mobile, Commercial
TenGO Alternative Input panel for Pocket PCs
[Update: Our commenters are the best! In the comments below, Tory mentions that TenGO offers a free version, which is essentially the 1.0 version of their software. While I can attest that there is enough improvement in 2.0 to justify the purchase, 1.0 is a darn good product as well, and if you can get it for free now, I'd definitely recommend doing so! Thanks Tory!]I use a Pocket PC very regularly, and the one thing that I've always had trouble with is fast text entry. The built-in text entry tools are okay, but have subtle flaws that made my experience with them very sub-par. For example the transcription engine, while quite good at writing recognition considering the constraints of the platform (nobody's expecting Tablet PC quality handwriting recognition) is very hampered by the small size of the screen - particularly with somebody with handwriting like mine. Letter recognition, which is popular amongst ex-Palm users, sort of leaves me cold, and the soft keyboard is simply that - a keyboard, with no added functionality to make it easier to use on a small screen.
TenGO is a soft keyboard add-in for Pocket PCs (and other platforms) that adds some logic to the keyboard that makes it astoundingly easier to use. Anyone that has used the T9 text input method on mobile phones will grok what TenGO is doing very quickly.
Basically, TenGO divides the traditional keyboard up into 6 zones. To type a letter in a zone, you simply have to tap anywhere within that zone. As you type words, TenGO does comparisons with it's dictionary to figure out the most likely word you are typing. What this does is to allow you to type most words with a very minimal movement of the stylus since everything can be done in a small sweet-spot in the middle of the keyboard, increasing typing speeds dramatically. Since you're not having to learn some funky new keyboard design, it's very intuitive and easy to pick up.
Lastly, I was reminded to post about TenGO when I recently had to reload my Pocket PC's software, and had yet another superb support experience with them. I needed assistance with registering my copy due to an obscure problem, and they have helped me out tremendously every time I've contacted them, even when it was just a stupid user error (me being the stupid user, of course).
If you need a better method for inputting text on your Pocket PC or Palm device, go check out TenGO. It's the best one I've been able to find so far.
Lastly, I was reminded to post about TenGO when I recently had to reload my Pocket PC's software, and had yet another superb support experience with them. I needed assistance with registering my copy due to an obscure problem, and they have helped me out tremendously every time I've contacted them, even when it was just a stupid user error (me being the stupid user, of course).
If you need a better method for inputting text on your Pocket PC or Palm device, go check out TenGO. It's the best one I've been able to find so far.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Hashim said 1:42PM on 7-08-2006
good stuff. I need to go get buy that for my pocket pc
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Tory said 3:37PM on 7-08-2006
Or get it free at http://free.tengo.net
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James Cinet said 5:59PM on 7-08-2006
This is quite interesting, especially regarding the numerous failures on voice recognition for mobile devices!
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Tim said 10:48PM on 7-08-2006
You might also look at MessagEase from Exideas (exideas.com). It puts a strange keyboard on the screen of your Palm (in my case) which is designed to (and does) make entry quick, including caps and all punctuation.
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hydrashok said 11:58PM on 7-08-2006
I've been using tengo for about 4 months. It's really good. Tengo also has a 'mini' version built in, so once you get used to the basic input method, you can use the mini keyboard which is about just 2/3 the size of the regular keyboard. Tengo does not work properly with Opera for WM 2003 SE though. Pity. It's still worth buying.
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