Teenagers, delightful though they are, are not the most communicative of creatures. Or maybe, they are, they just speak a different language.
In an interview with CNET, Stephen Saiz, manager of consumer insight and strategy of the Walt Disney Internet Group’s North American mobile division (which is a bit of a mouthful) explained that Disney’s research has discovered that when a teenager receives a call from their parents, they tend to let it roll over onto voicemail and then reply via text.
Apparently this is because teens are not so big on ‘direct communication’ which would go some way towards explaining the ferocious texting and instant messaging habit the ‘yoof’ of today has.
Saiz went on to explain how this is encouraging the wider adoption of mobile phones and services like texting and instant messaging among parents keen to keep tabs on their flock.
We reported on another study just the other day which suggested that American adults are not so keen on texting. Does the mobile industry really move that fast?
Think you’re a whizz when it comes to high-speed SMS? Really? How fast could you type this message - ‘Does everybody here know the alphabet? Let’s text. Here it goes … AbcDeFghiJKlmNoPQrStuvWXy & Z! Now I know my A-B-C’s, next time won’t you text with me?’
If you could do that in under a minute with no mistakes, you’re going to kick yourself. That’s what a chap called Nathan Schwartz just did to win LG’s National Texting Championship in the US, walking away with $50,000 for his trouble. He did it with LG’s enV handset apparently.
Hang on, that opens out to reveal a full QWERTY keyboard! If people are allowed to claim superfast texting times using keyboards, I don’t know what the world is coming to. Still, congratulations to Nathan. Someone should launch an iPhone version of the above competition, except allowing 58 mistakes or so to take into account the on-screen keyboard…
A revision of sex crime laws in Scotland could mean stiff penalties for scottish texters who send unwanted sexual content via SMS or email.
In the recently published Sexual Offences Bill, sending sexual language or imagery in a text or email could carry a sentence of up to 10 years if the court finds that the content was designed to give the sender sexual gratification or todistress or humiliate the recipient.
The bill also bans the sending of images of people (or ‘imaginary people’ - e.g. CGI or cartoons) engaging in sexual activity, if the intent is to offend or humiliate.
Speaking to The Scotsman, The Scottish Law Commission’s Colin Tyre said that the new legislation addressed “a growing problem.”
If you were to witness a crime, but didn’t want to ‘get involved’, a new SMS service could make it easy for you to help the police without revealing your identity.
Already in use by Canadian CrimesStoppers, TipSoft SMS allows users to send information to an central number that strips it of identifying data and forwards it to law enforcement.
The anonymity is two way, so if the police want to ask for further details they can ony do so by using the service in reverse.
Unlike so-called ‘Zero Knowledge’ authentication systems, presumably there is some record connecting your phone number to a particular tip so that the reverse contact can take place. Even if the facilitating company promises to keep this information secure, it may be possible that a court order could force it to be revealed.
TipSoft SMS is to be rolled out in the USA later this year and may reach the UK soon after.
One of the more hotly-anticipated features in the forthcoming Windows Mobile 6.1 is Threaded SMS. This groups your sent and received SMS messages together so you can see the ‘conversations’ that have taken place. It’s a simple idea, but as anyone who has used a threaded email client (or Google Mail) will tell you, a very useful one.
If you can’t wait until 6.1 arrives, Threaded SMS can be yours now if you splash out $14.95 on SMS-Chat from Vito Technology.
A Windows Mobile 5 & 6 and Pocket PC app, SMS-Chat features the aforementioned message threading plus multiple SMS sending, quick contacts search and one-finger touch scrolling (on compatible handsets, obviously).
It’s not quite as useful as Gmail, mainly due to the limitations of SMS - the lack of subject line makes it difficult to delineate between different conversations with the same person, but it is a definite improvement on basic SMS and should make multiple mobile chats a little easier to follow.
And now time for a heartwarming story about a texting seal (yes seriously). An orphan newborn seal named Victoria was recently rescued from rough seas near the island of Tinos.
After a short stay with Society for the Study and Protection of the Mediterranean Seal (Mom) the little mite will be returning to the big drink on Saturday equipped with a souvenir from her human rescuers, a mobile phone.
As you might expect, it isn’t a Nokia N95 what with sea based mammals having little cause to watch YouTube videos and all. The device will merely be a transmitter that sends regular texts to Victoria’s rescuers, letting them know where she is and how deep she has been diving.
According to one MOm staff member, text tech is considered to be more reliable than satellite monitoring. The Mediterranean Sea must have great reception.
(Via textually)
Has anyone seen Martin Scorsese’s The Departed? If not, do it soon because it’s a great film but where are we going with this? Well, in one scene Matt Damon’s character Colin Sullivan, a hot shot detective and inside man for the Irish mafia, has to text his mob boss to warn him while in a room full of fellow cops. He does this by texting blindly with the phone in his pocket, a feat that when we saw it, even though it was achieved through the magic of cinema, impressed us no end.
So imagine how impressed we are with 17 year old Kiwi, Elliot Nichols’ latest feat - breaking the world record for texting while blind folded. After a couple of failed attempts Elliot managed a 160 character message in 45 seconds, a whole 38 seconds quicker than the previous record which was held by an Italian.
Looks like he was using a pretty dated handset too, imagine how fast he’d be with an iPhone! Actually, maybe not.
(Via SMS Text News)
The iPhone’s revolutionary multi-point touchscreen interface although known to be a little fiddly at times, should still be better than a miniscule QWERTY pad alternative, right?
Wrong; according to a new study by User Centric, texts sent with iPhones are more likely to include mistakes than those sent with a more traditional QWERTY keypad. The study revealed that while iPhone texters were just as nimble fingered as QWERTY users, they made more mistakes while typing their message and left more mistakes in when they sent them.
Although fairly damning, the study points out that a significant portion of the iPhone users were not aware of features such as the magnifying glass correction option which makes reviewing what you have written much easier. Or maybe the iPhone just attracts poor spellers *joke*.
(Via textually)
