Here are nice high resolution videos of the Aigo and the Lenovo MIDs. After a while there is not much to see due to the software still being in early stages of development. Even so, the Lenovo looks the more polished of the two.

http://softwareblogs.intel.com/2008/...ernet-devices/

I could never understand the form factor of the Lenovo, why position an array of mobile phone style input keys on a relatively large panel on the right hand side? I now see why, Lenovo will use T9 text input technology.

I was unaware of this technology until recently when a friend showed it to me on his phone – my own mobile is too old to accommodate it so I have no direct experience. It looks very interesting and you can see a demonstration of it in action
http://www.t9.com/

It seems that we need to find a better way of inputting text on a handheld. Simply mimicking a full size layout on a MID, either by software on the screen or by a physical slide out keyboard may not necessarily be the best approach.

So suddenly the Lenovo becomes very interesting indeed and I look forward to hands-on reviews of this radical approach to text input which was, after all, conceived to meet the need for fast accurate input on small devices.

Handhelds aside, the fact that we still cling to archaic and deliberately inefficient QWERTY keyboards after all this time is a bit of a nonsense.

I don't think T9 has a place on such big device which will have a keyboard or at least a fullscreen one. Its an old technology and better suited for the phone keypads. If it was so good, why all the new phones are striving ot have some kind of a fully functional keyboard? And you're screwed without a dictionary for your language.

I didn't know that T9 was old technology. As i said, I was only introduced to it a couple of weeks ago.

Nonetheless it is a bold decision on Lenovo's part and they wouldn't stake their MID device on a technology that is as useless as you say so they must have confidence in its merits. Time will tell.

Or are we really doomed to QWERTY forever?

Sniff, sniff, I'm really upset now

Yes... Bwahahahahh! [evil laughter in case noone notices]

QWERTY is a matter of choice. You can change your hildon keyboard to dvorak for instance.

Simply enough the T9 input method will never be as good as a full keyboard (qwerty or otherwise). If you use the keyboards on the NIT's you notice they come up with word suggestions in the same way as T9 and provide better flexibility as you don't have issues like bus and cup using the same starting key.

I have been using T9 for about 6 years and its adequate on a mobile phone for sending texts once you have built up your dictionary sufficiently. For full text entry and changing spelling on words and entering websites and notes and all the things I use my n810 for T9 would be useless.

I hope so. One of the reasons I went with the n810 was the built in QUERTY keyboard

Interesting.

Presumably it will be possible to switch off T9 in order to edit text, fill in forms, etc. and use the multi-character physical keys with the ‘3 key presses for c and 4 to bring up 2’ frenetic action that we love so much on our mobiles. I am mesmerised by the speed blur at which kids on the buses thumb txt their friends.

I expect Lenovo will also provide a software on-screen keyboard (selectable QWERTY or Dvorak even).

So what will it be, the best of all worlds or a mashup that annoys everyone.

Just to clarify, my problem with QWERTY is that it dates back to around the mid 1800’s and the efficiency of the layout is disputed, to say the least. I have taught myself to touch type and 30 years on still can’t consciously remember where many of the keys are, the layout for me is that counterintuitive. However if I switch off my brain and just go with the trained responses I generally get it right.

The optimist in me keeps thinking that there must be a better way of inputting text into my computer, that is all I am looking for. To date there have been many attempts, including FrogPad, Chording Keyboard, but none have caught on.

This is why the Lenovo layout caught my attention.

Every so called MID uses Hildon interface with Hildon keyboard, so yes, presumably