I am definitely a self professed SPB Software fanboy, I love their software, and I make no bones about it. That fact though, doesn’t make me biased, if they serve up a lemon, I’m gonna purse my lips and say yuck!

Now I’ve still got SPB Full Screen Keyboard loaded on my device, and it was the earliest attempt at a finger friendly keyboard for WinMo.

The keyboard is one of the most important aspects of human interfacing with a mobile device.  The award-winning SPB Full Screen Keyboard was first released back in 2002, and is one of Spb’s flagship products with more than a six-year-long history of success.  This finger-friendly on-screen keyboard came out way before the iPhone notion of usability, but still accumulated tens of thousands of loyal customers from all over the world.

OK the need for a finger friendly SIP has considerably reduced, iPhone has it, but most people are opting for devices with hardware keyboards, but for those of us who can’t afford to update this is looking like very good news. Hit the link below to see why I think so!

This New/Updated SIP from SPB is definitely an iPhone imitator, there’s no doubt about that, still that’s a good thing, beautiful in its simplicity.

There are three keyboard layouts, the half screen [above], full screen and standard, which you wont necessarily find unless you read the documentation that comes with the keyboard. Changing between the three layouts is simple, using the keyboard key to the left of the space bar. A single tap will take you from the half screen keyboard to the full screen keyboard and like wise to toggle back. The full screen keyboard automatically rotates into landscape mode.

The changes to the  full screen keyboard, are pretty dramatic when compared to the older version, less cluttered and simplified. This is a lot more like a useable thumb keyboard now. Then there’s what is being called the standard screen.

The standard keyboard can only be accessed from the half screen keyboard, by tapping and holding the keyboard key to the left of the keyboard, for about three seconds. I think it should be available from the full screen keyboard as well, to enable reviewing your documents with more ease. Obviously typing in a small text entry window you could miss typo’s, so to toggle between that and a smaller keyboard with a document view would be good.

A really nice touch that I came across is what happens when you hit the control key, all of your main keyboard shortcuts appear in the bottom line of the keyboard.

Another nice feature, and one that I’ve come to expect from a good SIP, because it shows attention to detail and focus, is that the standard and half screen keyboards resize from portrait to landscape mode and occupy the same percentage of the screen.

Another thing I really liked, was that the config options were kept to a minimum, seriously a SIP is a SIP, a program for data input right across all of the app’s on your device, an add on to improve on the native SIP, and better facilitate the use of all of the other software you install on your device, being as unobtrusive as possible. What does that mean, a small footprint,  and as little mucking around as possible.

One thing I’d note here though is the “enable gestures” option, what gestures? There’s no help file included, so make sure you explore the documentation about the SIP to find out all of the details that aren’t obvious.

So What Do I Really Think?

I’ve tried a lot of keyboard applications, and have to say that I haven’t found a real alternative, that is finger friendly, or even compares to the iPhone SIP for windows mobile, and am very skeptical when that functionality is claimed in a windows mobile app. Until Now. This is the closest thing to the iPhone keyboard that I have tried, it is responsive, accurate, and well works as it says it will work. This is the first time I’ve used a finger friendly keyboard on the Axim that really delivers what it promises.

I said at the start of this review, that this is an iPhone imitator, well I got that wrong, it is an emulator, this SIP functions as well as the iPhone’s keyboard, seriously, I don’t say that lightly. If you are looking for a nice surprise, try this out, I’m not kidding, I think you’ll be surprised and appreciative.

You can view the press release for SPB Keyboard 4 Here

or Go to the product page at SPB’s site Here

There’s also a video tour available

SPB Keyboard 4 is available for US $14.95.

Related posts:

1. SPB Keyboard Update 4.1.1 released
2. Review: SunnySoft Interwrite keyboard preview.
3. Review: SPB Full Screen Keyboard — The Search for the Perfect Input Method.
4. Review: Resco Keyboard 5.0
5. Review: Spb Wallet 2.0