Pocket View

Having the computing power of a Pocket PC or Smartphone in your pocket is truly awesome. However, a fundamental limitation is input: the challenge of writing e-mails, entering contacts, and creating Pocket Office documents. Solutions for this fundamental small-computer problem include voice input, handwriting recognition, and external keyboards. In addition, some of the most innovative solutions are in the area of "soft keyboards." All solutions to the input problem have their strengths and limitations, which mean that you have to choose based on your preferences and needs.

Phraze-It: Accurate, one finger input solution

It takes about one minute to learn how to use Phraze-It (http://www.prevalentdevices.com). The vowels on the bottom row serve a double purpose. To enter a vowel, simply tap on the appropriate key twice. To display a series of consonants in the top row, tap the associated vowel once.

In the previous screen, I pressed "i" and the consonants between "i" and "o" are displayed in the second row for me to press.

For example, to enter the word "test" I type "oteeosot". (Actually, I can configure Phraze-It to save several key strokes, so the vowel "e" is tapped only once with slight delay and "s" and t" can be entered right after one another: "oteost".)

Here are some of things I liked about Phraze-It.

• It's easy to learn and come up to speed.
• The large keys make it easy to type directly on the screen using your fingers. You don't have to use the stylus.
• Typing with one finger is easy, which can be very useful when you're holding the Pocket PC.
• Bigger keys mean fewer mistakes.
• It offers you the choice of 8 keyboard layouts, which include portrait and landscape modes. One of the landscape keyboards has especially large keys for greater accuracy.
• The program supports 7 languages.
• It doesn't seem to consume a lot of system resources. Windows Mobile makes soft keyboards and Today screen plug-ins fight for limited system resources. Soft keyboards with dictionaries, such as TenGO, tend to take up a lot of resources.
• It includes a fun word puzzle related to the input method.