TouchPal

TouchPal is an alternative software input method for mobile devices, designed and developed by CooTek. It is a software application running on Windows Mobile devices. It places a virtual keyboard on the touch screen of the handhelds, with which you can enter text by tapping on the screen. It is an alternative text input method to the traditional physical keyboards.

Technology

TouchPal default keyboard layout is designed based on the T+ technology, a patent pending technology owned by CooTek. It combines two letters and one symbol on each key, whose layout looks like a "T". The overall layout of all the letters follows a common computer keyboard layout, for example the QWERTY layout. This makes each button big enough for thumb tapping, while keeps the general computer keyboard layout.

Tapping on the keys directly to input predictively. Sliding on a key in four directions like a "+" to input precisely. Below is a summary of the basic usage. 1. Tap directly to input predictively. 2. Slide to the left/right to precisely input the letter on the left/right. 3. Slide down to input a symbol on the bottom. 4. Slide up to input uppercase letters. 5. Slide up then down to input the numbers on the top.

History

TouchPal v1 was released in October 2007. It only has the T+ layout virtual keyboard. The keyboard is one-layer design. There are not additional function keys such as Shift or Ctrl because the functions achieved by them were built-in and can be easily implemented directly by finger tapping or sliding. It has many useful features such as self-defined "My Sentences" and "My Commands", drag & drop buttons, comprehensive content editing functions. It only supports English input.

TouchPal v2 came out in late December 2007. Besides what v1 has, its virtual keyboard is resizable by finger sliding. It also includes customizable emoticons and a few other features. It supports several European languages input such as English, German, French, Italian, Spainish, and Dutch.

TouchPal v3 English version was released in April 2008, together with several European input languages. TouchPal v3 Chinese input version came out one month later. Compared with the previous two versions, TouchPal v3 has a lot of new features. It supports three layouts on one virtual keyboard: T+ layout, full QWERTY layout, and 9-key PhonePad layout. Users can switch keyboard layouts by finger sweeping. There is cool animation effect when turning the pages or switching the layouts. TouchPal v3 significantly improved the predictive algorithm by incorporating its patent pending context-based word prediction and mistyping auto-correction algorithm. TouchPal v3 has much better extensibility than the previous two versions. With its SDK, users can self develop the supported input languages, the skins, and can change the keyboard layout. It also provides changeable keypress sound.

References

1. Nate Adcock, "TouchPal: One of the Best Soft Keyboards", [http://www.pocketpcmag.com/cms/current-issue/ Smartphone and Pocket PC Magazine, June/July 2008 issue] 2. Nate Adcock, " [http://www.pocketpcmag.com/cms/index.php?q=blogs/30/touchpal_a_very_well_done_soft_keyboard TouchPal-A Well-Done Soft Keyboard Alternative!] ", Smartphone and Pocket PC Magazine, February 10, 2008 3. Dieter Bohn, " [http://www.wmexperts.com/articles/software/great_new_soft_keyboard.html Great New Soft Keyboard] ", WMExperts.com, October 4, 2007 4. Sean Cooper, " [http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/10/12/cooteks-touchpal-brings-iphone-like-touchpad-to-windows-mobile/ CooTek's TouchPal brings iPhone-like touchpad to Windows Mobile] ", Engadget Mobile, October 12, 2007

External links

1. [http://www.cootek.com CooTek] website