Review: EZiTap FEP
Score:
82%
Version Reviewed: 2.03
Buy Link | Download / Information Link
Not everyone can get to grips with the CIC Jot handwriting recognition on UIQ devices, and while the ‘alternative' of the hunt and peck keyboard is a good second choice, it’s not perfect. Zi Corp have done something about it though, with their EZiTap product. Put simply, it adds a ‘predictive’ option to the virtual keyboard.
When you start typing letters (for example if you type T-H-E) you’ll have a list a words that start with those letters (so in our example you might see 'There, Their and Theory'). The more letters you type, the more your options are narrowed down. If you see the word you want, you can tap it, and EZiTap will complete the word for you, add a space, and let you move on to the next word, saving you a good number of taps. And if your spelling is a bit ropey, then that’s going to be helped in some part as well.
Using EZiTap does take a few minutes to understand the principle. Using any virtual keyboard means you’re already looking at the screen, and tucking the word suggestions between the keyboard and the preview box means that your eyes are naturally passing over that area. Probably one of the strengths of EZiTap is that if you don’t want to use the auto-completion facility, then you don’t have to. But if you do use it, it’s there waiting for you, and it works just as you expect it to.
Even UIQ veterans will get a bit of a surprise when you install the application, because it’s nowhere to be seen in the system screen. That’s because it has actually added itself into the Control panel. By going into the 'Text Input' choice, you can change from the built-in Virtual Keyboard to the EZiTap keyboard with one tap. Although this is part of the UIQ design (to have different FEP’s [Front End Processors] able to be installed) I still get a kick when software like this just works.
EZiTap has two more menu options (accessible from the keyboard directly) that are worthy of a mention, those of Keyboard and Dictionary. Recognising the international success of Symbian, Zi Corp have made sure that different styles of keyboard can be presented to the end user. And the user can select the dictionaries powering the auto-complete functions. You can actually highlight two to use, so if you write in English and Finnish a lot, then these two can be selected.
Currently there as support for English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Swedish, Finnish and Norwegian dictionaries. And if the words you commonly use aren’t in these dictionaries, you can add your own custom words for EZiTap to learn.
Yet again, this is a feature that (in my opinion) should be part of the built in application suite. Yes it’s possible to live without it, but Zi Corp have written a piece of code that once installed, you’ll never want to take off your UIQ phone. 14 day trial? More like 'the first hit is free'. Definitely a recommended award from All About Symbian.
Links of Interest
Flash Demo http://www.zicorp.com/eproducts/ezitapfepdemo.htm
Online manual http://www.zicorp.com/eproducts/User%20Manual%20for%20eZiTap%20FEP.htm
Reviewed by Ewan Spence at