Die-hard HTC fans and casual Windows Mobile users alike will be glad to hear that HTC’s QWERTY-keyboard toting cousin to the slick HTC Touch Diamond, the HTC Touch Pro (Raphael) is now available in the UK. Online retailer Devicewire is selling the slightly-thicker but oh-so-practical HTC Touch Pro for £514.99 to UK residents that are [...]

With the iPhone's on-screen keyboard providing more than enough speed and convenience for everyday text input, why would anyone want to bring handwriting recognition to the iPhone? Actually, HWPen was developed by Hanwang.com.cn in an effort to make Chinese text entry a bit easier (what with all those thousands of characters in the Chinese language). [...]

Dual-sliders are great and all, but the price we pay for the convenience of having both a numeric keypad and QWERTY keyboard is usually a considerable amount of bulk. Even HTC is guilty of adding a bit of heft in the name of convenience. But, that could all change if our favorite Taiwanese WinMo manufacturer [...]

The title says it all. In response to all those people that complained about the iPhone's on-screen virtual keyboard lacking any tactile feedback, Malcolm Hall and Eve Hoggan from the University of Glasgow have come up with a haptic-feedback solution for the iPhone. It's strictly a prototype and is more a proof of concept than [...]

The thing about the iPhone’s virtual keyboard is that it takes a bit of getting used to. The only way to really get comfortable and effective at typing on the on-screen keyboard is practice. Like they say, “Practice makes perfect.” Actually, we’d have to amend that idiom to reflect that “Perfect practice makes perfect.” After all, if you just keep practicing the wrong things, you’ll just keep making the same mistakes. Enter TypingWeb.com ’s iPhone typing tutor. The web-based typing tutor gives aspiring iPhone typers a training regimen to help train those fumbling fingers type quickly and accurately without the aid of hard-keys. Point your iPhone to TypingWeb .com and sign up for an account. It’s fast, it’s easy, and you’ll be a better iPhone-typer with just a few practice sessions. We’re already pretty fast on the iPhone’s keyboard - to toot our own horn - but there’s bound to be a lot of you out there that could use a bit of practice on the soft-keyboard. [Via: TUAW ] ---Related Articles at IntoMobile:iPhone typing testFast typing on an iPhone is easy?Users find typing on the iPhone slow?Prevalent Phraze-It - Effortless On-Screen Typing For Pocket PC'sApple iPhone intelligent virtual keyboard is a breeze!

Free unlimited calling plans are MetroPCS’s forte, but they just don’t have any youth-oriented messaging phones. As such, MetroPCS has announced that they are picking up the horizontally-sliding Samsung R410 to boost their wireless stable. What’s with the horizontal slider, you ask? Why, it reveals a full QWERTY keyboard for the text-messaging set. Unfortunately, when $35 unlimited calling plans are involved, you’ll have to sacrifice a couple power-features. The MetroPCS Samsung R410 trades a multi-megapixel camera and EVDO data connection for a lowly VGA shooter and 1xRTT data speeds. On the up-side, there’s a bit of stereo Bluetooth goodness to keep you in Bluetooth-headphone-bliss as you lament the absence of a decent data connection. But hey, if unlimited wireless calling on a text-messaging ace like the Samsung R410 is everything you’ve been wishing for, then head on over to MetroPCS and grab your own Samsung R410 for somewhere between $150 and $200. Oh, and unlimited AIM chats, text messages, and internet access will bump up your unlimited calling plan to $50 a month. Actually, for the price and the intended demographic, we’re liking the Samsung R410 more and more. [Via: Electronista ] ---Related Articles at IntoMobile:MetroPCS goes live in Los Angeles, CA.FCC: Huawei M318 headed to MetrPCSMetroPCS puts in buy-offer to acquire Leap Wireless for $5.12 billionMetroPCS: Leap Wireless keeps rejecting us, we're going to stop hitting on themFCC outs ZTE C88 mid-level phone for MetroPCS

Here’s an interesting tidbit from the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). We stumbled across this patent application, from none other than Nokia, that outlines a method to incorporate a “turn and slide” display that tilts upward to reveal a full QWERTY keyboard. Now, there have been numerous sliding-screen designs in an effort to combine the full-face screen (touchscreen in some cases) with a full, comfortably-sized QWERTY keyboard - there’s the inimitable Sidekick flip-display (Motorola Sidekick Slide excepted), the HTC Kaiser ’s ( AT&T Tilt ) slide-up and tilting display, and the laterally opening design on the Nokia E90 and HTC Omni . With all that competition, you would think Nokia would want to design a unique way to combine the full-face display with a QWERTY keyboard - and you’d be right. The USPTO patent application reveals Nokia’s intention to use a rotating “knob” on one end of the device that, when rotated, will slide the display to the side and tilt it upward for convenient viewing - unveiling a full QWERTY keyboard underneath. Interestingly, Nokia’s design sketches seem to hint at a full-touchscreen setup - indicated by the lack of buttons on the front-face of the device. Could this be destined to be part of Nokia’s S60 Touch lineup? A touch-based S60 device with a sliding and tilting display and a full QWERTY keyboard? Be still our beating hearts. We’re not sure if this patent application will actually materialize in the real-world, but we sure hope it will. Maybe Nokia will see fit to include some Haptikos haptic feedback as well? Fingers crossed. [Via: Unwired View ] ---Related Articles at IntoMobile:First Chinese-Keyboard Touchscreen SmartphoneApple sued for patent infringement - SP Technologies claims patent over iPhone's virtual keyboardRumor: Sprint to get new QWERTY slider from LG?PDA / Cell Phone Combo Patent Application - Cell Phone Tucked Inside PDAAnother Chinese phone with QWERTY keyboard; Runs Windows Mobile 5!

Talk about talking smack.  Mike Lazaridis, CEO of RIM (Research In Motion), makers of the addictive CrackBerry handsets, is being quoted as saying that the iPhone is no threat to the BlackBerry lineup. He suggested that people “try typing a web key on a touchscreen on an Apple iPhone, that’s a real challenge. You cannot see what you type” - directly taking a stab at the iPhone’s lack of a hard-keyboard. “The Apple iPhone has severe limitations when it comes to effortless typing. Of course you have more screen space, with more artistic interactions, but that’s not enough. We’ve seen this before when Palm tried virtual keyboards. When they launched the Treo they licensed our keyboard,” Lazaridis said. RIM’s co-CEO Jim Balsillie also mentioned that the Microsoft Windows Mobile platform poses no real threat to the BlackBerry lineup. He was quoted as saying that, “Windows Mobile isn’t that big a competitor…They are a modest force to RIM. Microsoft should be working at services, not at distributed PCs, which is what Windows Mobile actually still is.” Sounds to us like RIM is shaking in their boots and playing tough. We have a feeling that their boardroom convo’s are skewed towards topics about what to do about the looming threat of Apple’s UI-appeal and Microsoft’s new Microsoft System Center Mobile Device Manager 2008 - which takes aim at RIM’s BES server technology. RIM is something of a one-trick pony with their push-email and corporate syncing prowess, and with Microsoft breathing down their necks, they’ve got to be just a little worried. So, how do you show investors that you’re company is still in a strong, leveraged position? Lie and front like you’re good to go. Good luck with that strategy, RIM. [Via: Tech.co.uk ] ---Related Articles at IntoMobile:Microsoft eyeing RIM for acquisition?Another RIM BlackBerry outage?Apple may be licensing Microsoft Exchange Active Sync for Direct Push email on iPhone!AppleBerry coming soon!?RIM doubles profits, revenues