Windows Mobile Louisville

Spb Software House has made some updates to Spb Keyboard:

• Portrait skin in full screen mode

• Own dictionary based word suggestion in the half screen mode (only full screen before)

• Bug fixes in language layouts based on user reports

• Use of the native dictionary to improve suggestion

• Performance fix in full screen mode for HTC devices

• Backspace button performs “undo autocorrection” after autocorrection occured in half-screen (standard) mode

• Fix for cases when the fullscreen mode is bounded to the long-press of hardware buttons

• Small fixes in Symbol layout

• Other minor bug fixes

Get your updated version here.

Today, Spb Software released Spb Keyboard 4.0.  This has been a long-awaited update to their Full Screen Keyboard which was released several years ago.  It works great with a stylus, but is optimized for typing with your fingers.

Committed to usability and clarity in device navigation, Spb conducted research and gathered feedback from customers, identifying a demand for more flexible mobile text input methods. The new version of Spb’s keyboard now offers three modes of on-screen text input, and has received a new name to portray the change — Spb Keyboard 4.0. The new keyboard benefits from an Spb Mobile Shell-like skin engine, and is optimized for working with both stylus and fingers. Among other things, the new Spb Keyboard offers dozens of languages with the default skin, is more compact in memory consumption, supports smart gestures and ’sliding pop-ups’, which help to make sure the right key is tapped.

What’s New in Spb Keyboard 4.0?

• Three modes of text input:
  Full-Screen, Half-Screen, and Standard modes are optimized for fingers, fingers or stylus, and just the stylus, respectively.
• New finger-friendly interface and skin engine
  The Spb Mobile Shell-like interface is skinnable and will automatically adapt to the current device theme.
• Built-in support of 35 languages:
  Just the default skin supports 35 languages (including Chinese, Japanese, and Korean), plus many more possible keyboard layouts.
• Sliding Pop-ups:
  The key pop-ups help to make sure the desired character is tapped, to dramatically decrease the number of misprints.
• Smart Gestures:
  Gestures are available for ALL CAPS, Enter, Spacebar, and Backspace commands.
• Better Auto-complete:
  In full-screen mode, the auto-complete offers a total of 3 word choices from the built-in and user’s dictionaries.
• Wise Memory Consumption:
  For what it does, Spb Keyboard 4.0 consumes less memory and is more compact that earlier versions.

Pricing and Availability
Spb Keyboard is compatible with Windows Mobile Pocket PC 2003, Windows Mobile Professional 5.0 and higher; all Windows Mobile screen resolutions are supported. A free, 15-day trial can be downloaded, or Spb Keyboard 4.0 may be purchased for $14.95, or upgraded from 3.х Spb Keyboard versions for just $4.95. 

Teksoft has released version 2.0 of FingerTouch - FingerTouch Pro.

Features:

• 5 layouts:
  • classic keyboard
  • smart keyboard (predictable)
  • phone keyboard (phone-like)
  • calculator/numeric keyboard
  • the successful big keyboard (predictable)
• Fast text input with patented technologies:
  • Embedded fT9 Technology, this is the Teksoft-Patented, T9-like technology included in Fingertouch Professional
  • Embedded UltraKeyboard Technology, for assigning various actions to text commands (triggers)
• Configurable layout, including keyboard Skin, text font, size and color
• Drag and drop on keyboard for changing the keyboard size, or for customizing the position of the keys
• Magnifier that can help you better see the keys you are pressing
• Configurable fT9 parameters, for easy use including finger easy interface
• Gestures for Backspace, Space, Enter or Upper-case letters
• Ultrakeyboard advanced configuration panel for defining your custom action and triggers.

You can watch several videos showing FingerTouch Pro in action, as each of its features is well documented for easy use.

There is a 16 day trial version available.  Try it or buy it here.

It wasnt’ that long ago (only back in December) when I reviewed the first version of VITO ZoomBoard, but VITO Technologies has been busy tweaking and adding some features to Version 2:

• Two new zoom modes (full zoom, lens zoom and float zoom)  
• SmartZoom option (zoom the pressed letters either immediately or with a delay)
• Gestures support 
• Landscape mode has become more user-friendly

I really enjoy using the original version, so I’m excited to check out the new features!  Sounds like some excellent improvements.