Microth, Inc. has released a new version 1.2 of Claviature for Pocket PC. More then 80 national layouts are supported now.

The main new feature of version 1.2 is the support of Ergonomic Layouts for English, Spanish, German, French and Italian languages. The Claviature Ergonomic Layouts provide a key arrangement optimized for on-screen keyboards and pen input in different languages. They are computer designed to minimize input time using Fitt's law describing efficiency of keyboard depending on letter pair frequencies in different languages and distances between them. The company used advanced mathematical methods were used to calculate optimal keyboard layouts.

For example, in the English Ergonomic Layout practically all letters are placed at just 6 buttons, frequent digraphs like th, re, er, nd, ng, es and 2-letters word like he, in, an, of, or are placed at adjacent positions at the Claviature. Moreover, letters of three most frequent 3-letter words the, and, for are also located together. Claviature provides simple input of spaces by horizontal left strokes at any position - this also increases entry speed. The developers estimate that English Claviature Ergonomic layout is about 50% faster then QWERTY layout for both US and UK English.

To celebrate this release, Microth is running a contest for the longest connected word users can enter using Claviature Ergonomic Layouts. All sequential letters should be in ajacent positions at layouts. Users can send words to contest@microth.com. Winners in each language will get a free registration of Claviature.