Melissa Thompson - World's fastest message texter set Guiness World Record 2010

A British woman, Melissa Thompson, said she was feeling ''GR8'' after she smashed the world record for tapping out the fastest ever text message.

The 27 year-old, from Salford, Greater Manchester, smashed the previous record for a wordy phrase by almost 10 seconds.

                     World's fastest texter Melissa Thompson photo

She 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 super-fast 25.94 seconds.

The official Guinness World Record is currently held by American Franklin Page, 24, who wrote the same passage in 35.54 seconds in March this year.

The record, which remains subject to Guinness approval, was smashed by Ms Thompson using the Galaxy S's ''SWYPE'' key pad, which enables users to input text without their fingertip leaving the screen.

Ms Thompson, who works for an insurance company, was shopping with her boyfriend, Chris Davies, 23, when they visited a Samsung roadshow and she was invited to have a go at breaking the record.

''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.

''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.''

Ms Thompson used a Samsung's new Galaxy S smartphone when she shaved the 9.6 seconds off Mr Page's record, also achieved on a Samsung device.

The company said it allows people to send text messages at speeds that were never before possible.

The record will now be assessed by the Guiness Book of World Records.

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World's Fastest text message on a touch-screen mobile phone set Guinness World Record

It was humbling to be in the presence of greatness.

But there I was Friday, sitting across a conference-room table from Franklin Page, the world's fastest text messager.

Two months ago Page, 23, was just another intern stocking the soda fridge and helping manage user forums at Swype, a Seattle startup developing phone text-input technology.

Then Samsung discovered Page's gift, flew him to New York and made him a star.

Starting Monday, Page is featured in a national ad campaign showing his skills on a Samsung Omnia II, a handset using Swype's text-entry system.

The ad was filmed earlier this month in New York, where Page set the Guinness World Record for the fastest text message on a touch-screen mobile phone.

It took Page 35.54 seconds to type the 160-character phrase Guinness uses for text-messaging records:

"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."

Page, of course, credits Swype's technology for the win, saying it enabled him to beat the previous record of 40.91 seconds.

"I don't want to be too humble about it, I'm certainly proud, but the idea is, it doesn't take a lot to get to this speed," he said.

Guinness' annual book of records goes to press in a few months, and Page is wondering if he'll make it in.

"We'll see if my record holds out until then," he said. "This commercial's going to air, and there are going to be 12-year-old kids beating me. There are going to be 80-year-old women beating me. I think part of the fun for Samsung is, they're posing it as a challenge."


Swype's system speeds text input because users lift their fingers less. It claims users can enter text at more than 40 words a minute.

On phones with the software installed, users can glide their fingers from letter to letter, instead of tapping the screen, and software figures out which word is being entered by analyzing the pattern drawn by the finger. Words are compared with those in a built-in dictionary, which automatically corrects most spelling errors and suggests changes if big errors are detected.



Swype co-founder Cliff Kushler coinvented the T9 text-input software that's been installed on more than 4 billion phones, and co-founder Randy Marsden's on-screen keyboard software shipped with more than 500 million copies of Microsoft Windows.

The 25-person company, with offices in Fremont, unveiled the system in 2008, and Samsung began using it on Omnia II late last year. It's also on T-Mobile's myTouch 3G and Motorola's Cliq XT.

Page's glory began two months ago when Samsung e-mailed to suggest the record attempt, a publicity stunt it has used in the past. Swype asked Page and intern Trey Keel to try the phrase, and Page beat the previous record on his third attempt.

Page has texted since getting his first cellphone in ninth grade. He stays limber by sending 1,000 or so messages a month. But the fleet fingers may have come from playing guitar for years. After high school on Mercer Island, he went to University of Southern California to study classical guitar and ended up graduating in December with a degree in creative writing.

 


Source: seattletimes

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