A light-fingered lady from Manchester has broken the world record for the world's fastest text message, typing using the touschreen text system Swype on a Samsung Galaxy S.
Melissa Thompson wrote, "The razor-toothed piranhas of the genera Serrasalmus and Pygocentrus are the most ferocious freshwater fish in the world. In reality they seldom attack a human," in a spectacular 25.94 seconds.
This absolutely smashed the official Guinness World Record held by Swype intern Franklin Page, though we should stress she hasn't yet received official confirmation from the august institute.
Thompson was shopping with her boyfriend, and came across a Samsung roadshow where she was invited to try and break the record, according to the Press Association.
"I used to send a lot of text messages -- 40 or 50 a day to Chris alone -- so we both knew I could type fast," she said to PA in a curiously pre-prepared sounding statement.
"But since we moved in together and I started my job I haven't been texting as much and, you could say, my fingers were out of shape. It's a real shock to find out that I'm the fastest texter in the world. But using Swype helped. Everyone should give it a go and see how easy it is."
Swype was invented by the creator of T9 predictive messaging, Cliff Kushler, as a way to type faster and more accurately on touchscreen keyboards. It allows you to run your finger over the letters in one continuous motion, instead of pressing the letters individually.
Thompson's 'record' is music to Swype's ears of course, but we're sure many CNET UK readers have it enabled on their phones and do it better. We've already taken a spin on it using the Samsung Galaxy S and Motorola Quench, and were very happy with its speed and accuracy.
It's not available as an official Android app yet though, or for the iPad or iPhone, though Swype is reportedly hard at work on a wider release right now.
Do you have a Swype phone? Do you fancy having a Guinness World Record? Have a bash at the record-setting text and let us know how you get on.
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Anonymous 23 August, 2010 23:32
One of the first apps I got for my iPhone 3G a couple of years ago was Shapewriter which has this type of text input. I use it all the time for notes, texts and emails, but having to copy and paste the text for messages and emails is a bit of a pain as of course it doesn't replace the Apple keypad (a tick in the "open" column for Android I guess).
I'm sure I remember reading something at the time about it being based on an IBM technology.
weetanhops 24 August, 2010 17:02
I had four different keyboards installed on my Hero the other day, including Swype, and I keep going back to the standard one. It might just be because I'm so used to the Hero's keyboard now, or the fact that the smaller screen makes Swype less usable, but it never picks up the correct word and its selection popup doesn't look good at all.
von dutch 12 June, 2011 08:21
after weeks of endlessly searching on android market i finally found out how to install it on my orange san francisco!