tengo posts

Filed under: Features, Macintosh, Windows Mobile, Apple, Mobile Minute

Anything iPhone can do, you can do better - Mobile Minute

by Brad Linder Jul 2nd 2007

Congratulations. You've spent the weekend managing not to buy an iPhone, which is more than we can say for at least two Download Squad writers.

Sure, the new phone is the coolest thing since sliced bread was replaced by low-carb bagels. But aside from an innovative new interface and one of the best web browsers ever to grace a mobile device, does it really do anything new?

Today we'll take a look at some of the features that make the iPhone special -- and show you how your 2 year old Windows Mobile phone or PDA can accomplish most of the same tasks.

Tags: core player, CorePlayer, gsplayer, iphone, mortplayer, opera, opera mini, opera mobile, OperaMini, OperaMobile, re's launcher, Re'sLauncher, tcpmp, tengo, tengo thumb, TengoThumb, unlocker, youtube

Filed under: Utilities, Features, Windows Mobile, Productivity, Mobile Minute

Easy text entry methods for your PDA - Mobile Minute

by Brad Linder May 14th 2007

Text entry on mobile devices has never been what you would call a pleasant experience. These days, many PDA and smartphones often include built in keyboards for typing with your thumbs. But if you're an old fashioned stylus warrior, there are a few ways to improve the hunt and peck experience.

While Microsoft includes an on-screen keyboard and several types of handwriting recognition to choose from, here are a few third party programs that might make typing on your Windows Mobile device faster and easier.

Tengo

Tengo is a pretty nifty application that brings predictive text to Windows Mobile. Technically, it was there all along, with Microsoft integrating a word suggestion feature. But Tengo makes typing with an on-screen keyboard a bit more like typing on a cellphone keypad. And believe it or not, that's a good thing.

TenGo divides presents you with a QWERTY-style keyboard, but the 26 letters of the alphabet are divided up into 6 zones. You don't have to hit a letter precisely, you just have to hit the zone it is in. As you add more letters, TenGo will try to guess the word you're trying to enter. It works surprisingly well.

Tags: blimkeys, fitaly, keystrokece, quikwriting, spb, spb full screen keyboard, SpbFullScreenKeyboard, speedscript, stylus, tengo, tengo free, TengoFree, tex input, TexInput, text entry, TextEntry

Filed under: Windows Mobile, Commercial

Speedier Windows Mobile text entry with SpeedScript

by Brad Linder Feb 11th 2007

When I got my first PDA years ago, I spent a lot of time trying to figure out if I could enter text quicker using the letter recognizer or the on-screen keyboard. Since I often use my PDA to take notes, the answer quickly presented itself: they're both really slow.

SpeedScript is an alternative text entry program based on the concept that when you type a letter, 50% of the time the next character you will need is a vowel or a space. So when you tap a letter, a little blue box opens up, letting you slide the stylus to those characters. If that isn't clear, check out this video.

It looks a bit confusing in high speed, but since there's only a few characters in the blue box, you can memorize their locations pretty quickly. Still, I find that blue box rather distracting. Personally I prefer TenGO for quick stylus-based text input. Of course, the quickest solution is to plug in an external keyboard, but that only works if you have room in your bag for the keyboard, and the time to unfold it and plug it in.

SpeedScript is available for $12.99. A free trial is available, which lets you write up to 7,000 characters. I like this as a method for letting you try the program before you buy it, rather than having the program expire in a few days whether you've used it or not.

Tags: speedscript, tengo, text entry, text input, TextEntry, TextInput

Filed under: Audio, Utilities, Video, Windows Mobile, Productivity, Freeware

5 Windows Mobile freeware programs I'm thankful for

by Brad Linder Nov 21st 2006

I've been using Pocket PCs for about six years. I've owned more PDAs than I can keep count of. And on each one, the first thing I do when I open the box is install a couple of free programs that Microsoft should be including standard (or integrating into the operating system).

1. Pelmar Wisbar Microsoft developers, in their infinite wisdom, have decided that users can't be trusted to close programs when they're short on RAM. So rather than put a close button on Windows Mobile software, Microsft puts an X button that means "minimize." Only when you've got way too many programs open will your device automatically close some. Either that, or you have to click over to settings/system/memory/running programs to close programs individually.

There are a number of third party programs that let you configure the X button to actually close programs. Most also include a handy task switcher for flipping back and forth between running programs. Some, such as Wisbar Advance offer advanced screening to completely change the look and feel of your PDA. I'm partial to the free Pelmar Wisbar v 1.4.2 which has been around for years. It takes up almost no memory and does exactly what I need it to do. It's not compatible with Windows Mobile 5.0 though, so if you're running a newer Windows Mobile device, you might want to check out Magic Button, which performs a similar function.

Tags: coreplayer, mortplayer, tcpm, tengo, total commander, TotalCommander, wisbar

Filed under: Fun, Text, Utilities, Windows Mobile, E-mail, Office, Productivity, Commercial, Freeware

TenGO Challenge

by Jason Clarke Oct 27th 2006

TenGO is an alternative input panel for Pocket PCs and other mobile devices that we've covered previously here at Download Squad. They're worth mentioning again first because they offer a truly useful and faster way to input text than those that ship natively on Pocket PCs, and second because they have set up a new site, called TenGO Challenge.

TenGO Challenge is a new project that the TenGO team is putting together as a response to the amount of feedback they received regarding the "TenGO Girls" - three girls who can input text using a stylus (obviously using TenGO) at rates of 70 to 75 WPM. TenGO has the amazing videos showing the girls doing their thing on their site. Apparently they've had a number of people contact them to complain that either they didn't believe the videos, or they thought they could do better. So TenGO is launching a competition on the TenGO Challenge site.

TenGO is looking to get over 1000 users to submit typing speeds of over 50 WPM within the next 3 months. Give it a shot!

Tags: alternative text input, AlternativeTextInput, TenGO, TenGO Challenge, TengoChallenge, text entry, text input, TextEntry, TextInput

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