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To: Bill Harmond who wrote (116453)	1/29/2001 11:35:56 PM
From: Victor Lazlo	Respond to of 164684

NEW YORK -- Usability guru Jakob Nielsen writes, "It's a doomed strategy to build mobile Internet devices as mutated telephones." Anybody who's tried to write email on a WAP phone no doubt agrees. You can't fit a full keyboard into a cell phone. Instead we have the tedious "multi-tap" system where you have to press the "4" key three times to get the letter "I." Some phones also have Tegic's T9 (Tegic was bought by America Online) that lets you choose from a few predicted words after you've tapped in a few keys. But it doesn't work on slang, email addresses, or URLs. And, according to Howard Gutowitz, the CEO of startup Eatoni, T9 requires about 60K of memory for the dictionary. His new, competing entry system, LetterWise, takes only 3K, he says, and is quicker and more accurate. He also has an advanced system, WordWise, that allows touch-typing on a 10-key pad. I tried both and came away extremely impressed. The wireless carriers need a good keypad entry system to drive use of data services. Howard is very brave to take on AOL in this market, but his technology is really good. He's raised $5 million so far and is looking for strategic partners. redherring.com