I stumbled upon KeyTouch while trying to tackle a pair of Ukrainians who wouldn’t stop talking about the LG Shine in their Kraken-howl language. It’s not particularly ground-breaking, but it’s a text entry system that uses the directional keys to pick characters after each keypress. Say, for example, you wanted to type AK 47. You would hit the 2 key and see a little compass with A, B, and C at the cardinal points. You’d hit left for A or just let it show up, no directional presses required. Then you’d hit 5 and press up for K. Finally you’d hold down for and 7. So it’s essentially one less keypress. Add this up over the next fifty years and you’re saving 25% of the time you spend pressing keys! That’s over 4,000 hours — OK, I made that up, but still.

Go visit the site for more examples, but I could see it as a fairly valuable addition to a carrier’s arsenal. It’s not a product, per se, but a service carriers can offer in their UI.

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