SlideIt: Bizarre new text entry method for Windows Mobile

Text entry on mobile devices has always been a bit of a conundrum. Hardware keyboards take up an awful lot of space on cellphones and PDAs, and they're kind of hard to use unless you've spent some time working out your thumbs. On-screen keyboards usually require a stylus or incredibly small fingers, and require you to poke out the letters one at a time.

While there are a few applications that do a pretty good job of speeding up text entry using predictive text and innovative keyboard layouts, there are plenty of other applications that seem like a good idea until you try them and realize that they really don't save you much time. We're not quite ready to throw SlideIt into either camp. But we're not entirely convinced that you save a ton of time by dragging your stylus across the screen instead of picking it up to move it a fraction of an inch.

The concept is pretty simple. SlideIT presents you with a small on-screen keyboard, and you can make words by dragging the stylus from one letter to the next without picking it up. Theoretically you'll be able to remember the shapes of words you write frequently, allowing you to draw them faster. For characters that aren't included on the keyboard, you can use the Graffiti box next to the keyboard. And for long words, SlideIt offers predictive text suggestions.

There's a free demo available for Windows Mobile 2003 and newer devices. A full license will cost you $40.

[via MobilitySite]

Tags: commercial, mobileminute, SlideIt, text-entry, text-input