While TouchPal isn’t identical to the iPhone’s keyboard, it’s definitely more than reminiscent of Apple’s interface design. TouchPal’s QWERTY keyboard offers two characters (and punctuation marks) on each key, rather than the single character on the iPhone. This allows for easier typing with large fingers, or even with your thumbs. Simply click on a key, slide to the left, right or down to select the character, or let auto-completion finish words for you with a single click of the key.

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

By incorporating a intelligent word-prediction system, the software claims typing speeds up to 300-characters per minute, and it really looks possible judging from the video clip above. I really dig the “associated word” capability which lets you quickly chose variants on a particular word stem.

The software works on all touchscreen Windows Mobile devices (version 5 or 6), and supports both VGA and QVGA screen resolutions. And there’s no reason not to try it out. TouchPal’s maker, CooTek is offering a free download of the software through December 8, 2007. After that time, TouchPal will retail for $19.98.

[MobilityToday via IntoMobile]

whoneedsaniphone.com has just released the Alpha version of their software for touchscreen Windows Mobile 5 and 6 devices that provides a very iPhone-esque user experience. For starters, there’s an application launcher that’s very similar in spirit to the iPhone’s main menu.

Granted, it’s not an exact copy, with different (more Microsoft-y) icons, but the general button layout is extremely close. There’s also some widget applications in the works, with the first one being a weather application that’s very similar in design to the one on Apple’s device too.

Even the device unlock screen steals a page out of the iPhone’s book.

While a simple facade can’t solve all of the shortcomings of Windows Mobile’s underpinnings, it does look like a welcome upgrade to the stale old interface that PocketPC users have had to put up with for several years now.

If you want to participate in the testing and download the application, you’ll need to register over on the whooneedsaniphone user forums.

[via IntoMobile]

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He’s even went so far as to recreate the finger-scrolling capability for music playlists that Steve Jobs showed off when the iPhone was announced. It’s certainly NOT an iPhone, and has many of the quirks of the clunky PocketPC environment, but it’s still fun to see how far a dedicated fan is willing to go. For some reason, I’m thinking Apple’s legal deparment won’t be too happy about it though.

[via QJ.NET]

The Windows Mobile 5.0-based device is designed for both productivity applications and media playback, and its hardware looks like it’s up to the task. With the EM ONE’s staggering 800×480 resolution, you’ll be able to browse the web without squinting this time. Just as importantly, you’ll be able to surf quickly, with both Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) and 3.6MBps HSDPA connectivity built in. The device is jam packed with goodies such as nVidia GoForce 500 graphics, a 520MHz PXA270 CPU, a 1.3 megapixel camera and Bluetooth.

The EM ONE will launch at the end of March in Japan for