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Typing SMS text messages on a mobile phone is a skill that takes both time and patience to acquire - so much so that most people don't bother. The word 'hello' takes 13 keystrokes, the only vowel that takes one keypress is 'A', and 'S', the second most used letter in the English language, takes four presses. What's needed is a quick way to type messages on a phone.
This is so obvious, it's surprising nobody has produced a device like the Ericsson Chatboard before: a small 10cm x 5cm keyboard that plugs onto the bottom of most Ericsson phones. It maps onto the phone's keyboard matrix so when you press the Z key it flashes a W, X and Y onto the screen before the Z appears. This makes numbers - that come after letters - very slow and you either turn the keyboard beeps off or annoy everyone around you.
But where the Chatboard really scores is in the services Ericsson has provided, built around the www.chatb.com website. When you get a Chatboard and register at the site you are given a personal area. This works with an SMS-to-email gateway so that you can send emails by typing SMS text messages.
You can even add attachments to the emails by uploading them to your area on the website, then pressing the attachment button while typing an SMS. You give a reference for the file on the site and the person who receives the email gets the attachment. Replies to the email are read from the site.
The Chatboard makes a mobile phone a more powerful tool, but what is really impressive is the price. At £20, it's an amazing bargain.
Contact Ericsson 0990 238238
System requirements Any Ericsson phones newer than the 768, including the 768e, SH888, S868, A1018, T10 and T18, but not the T28.
See also:
All Mobile Phones
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