Imagine yourself sending an SMS message to a friend in France, and you want to impress him/her by sending the message in French. That would be easy if you know the language very well. But what if you don't?
Tegic Communications, the one responsible for the T9 predictive text input software, has come up with a solution that makes texting between two languages a whole lot easier.
Tegic Communications recently launched the latest version of the T9 text input software - T9 ver. 7.2.
"As more and more Filipinos adopt the mobile lifestyle, we're pleased to have this opportunity to make our text entry solutions available in such an important market place," said Ray Tsuchiyama, Tegic COmmunications' Senior Vice President for Emerging Markets. "by launching T9 7.2 software in the Philippines, we're setting a new standard for text input convenience and ease-of-use by helping mobile users to communicate more quickly, regardless of which language they use.
T9 7.2, which will be applied to selected mobile phones in the country early next year, promises multi-language support - allowing users to easily switch back and forth between languages when typing.
Tsuchiyama adds that the T9 7.2 is already available in 49 different languages, including Tagalog. "Filipinos are prolific texters, quite possibly sending more SMS messages per person than users anywhere else," he added.
Since Taglish is frequently used by Filipinos, the T9 7.2, when enabled, will understand whether you are using an English or a Tagalog word. So, as you type the phrase "Kamusta? How's your trip?", T9 software automatically know that the user is switching from Tagalog to English and instantly predicts the most probable words.
Since 2003, Tegic Communications had a desktop version of the T9 TRAINer game available at their site (www.tegic.com and www.T9.com) for consumers to try out. OEMs and operators can now post a new Java-enabled T9 TRAINer game fpr mobile devices to their website for user to download. The game teaches the user to learn how to use T9 software thru a fun, interactive game.
The T9 7.2 will be distributed to mobile phone manufactures and mobile carriers Smart, Globe, and Sun Cellular as an added feature.
Yes, Filipinos text a lot. Filipinos text in Taglish, and we can't take that away. However, I would like to present T9 version 7.2 in the future as an option that people can use to send SMS in little more formal way. A way which contains correct spelling of Tagalog and English which can be used to your boss, to your mothers, or while doing business," said Tsuchiyama. (Carlo S. Suerte Felipe)
