SEARCH GOES MENTAL

T9Nav software eases digging through your mobile phone

Mobile search made easy. The T9Nav system seems to be making a tall claim at the cost of sounding absurd: who needs mobile search?

But in a world where almost everything is making its way into your precious and oh-so-important handheld communication device, your mobile phone in other words, maybe its worth a try. And the T9Nav system delivers.

Described as 8216;the Next Evolutionary Step in mobile usability8217; by its creators, Nuance Communications Inc, the T9Nav mobile discovery solution provides a faster way to access all features, applications and content on mobile devices in just a few key presses.

Touted as an 8216;ideal search and discovery solution for mobile communications8217;, T9Nav is a simple and powerful mobile discovery software that significantly improves mobile telephony experience by allowing users to bypass button-driven menu systems, which often requires complex combinations of keys. T9Nav offers a fast, direct and repeatable way to access features and content on the phone. It also intelligently adapts to user behaviour over time, reordering and predicting frequently searched terms.

The system makes it easier to control mobile devices and access and discover even the most advanced mobile applications and content regardless of technical know-how, environment or capabilities.

Well, mobile phones are getting more complex and data storage capabilities are increasing8212;gone are the days when a simple contacts address book, calendar, alarm and a few games would do. Now there8217;s music, websites, links, downloaded content, applications that measure your heartbeat and those that give you the exact exchange rate between the dollar and the euro, photographs, videos, games, Wi-Fi, GPRS, Bluetooth, Infra-Red, 3G and, of course, the whole MS Office experience: pdf reader, MS Word and MS Excel.

And this almost ceaseless increase in mobile phone features requires a robust retrieval system to access and manage content.

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Users can get confused by complex menu navigation and at times cannot easily find and identify specific device features and mobile content.

The good news is that the T9Nav system complements a device8217;s existing look and feel, and does not change how the user interface or menu areas on the phone look or perform. The system works alongside these elements, by placing all menu areas just a couple of clicks away from the idle screen. For example, typing 8220;c-o8221; 8212; i.e. the 2 and 6 keys 8212; can take the user from the home screen of the phone directly to 8220;co8221;ntacts, settings, media files like a song by Coldplay, bookmarks, applications, calendar appointments for the 26th, keywords for internet browsing, all contacts with 8220;c-o8221; in their names and 8220;2-68221; in their numbers, or any other content, contacts or device feature beginning with these letters.

The software is available for download on the site t9nav.com. After clicking 8220;download8221;, the website automatically launches a Nokia installer window for Symbian S60 Third Edition handsets. Mind you the download is a free beta trial of T9Nav expires on July 31, 2008. The company says this is version is not a final release, neither are the quality and features complete yet.

Here8217;s the bad bit: users of handsets other than Nokia8217;s can8217;t download the T9Nav system.