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Pedro Matias Sets New Texting Record At Mobile World Cup

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the text-invalid-if-bff-appears-anywhere-in-it dept.

Pedro Matias showed off his mad txtin sklz at this year's Mobile World Cup and managed to set a new record for "fastest, most accurate" texts as determined by the event's corporate owners. "history was made when Portugal's Pedro Matias set the new World's Record for texting by typing a 264-character text in just 1 minute 59 seconds (besting the previous record by 23 seconds). Of course, each Mobile World Cup must have its share of controversy -- in this case, Engadget Mobile's very own Chris Ziegler led a silent protest during the awards ceremony. The group was reportedly upset over the use of QWERTY phones (the LG enV3 in this case) to break the record."

12 of 70 comments (clear)

  1. Who is the bigger loser? by qoncept · · Score: 4, Funny

    The guy that can type that text that fast, or the guy that feels the need to protest qwerty keyboards?

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    Whale
    1. Re:Who is the bigger loser? by JoshuaZ · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Right, and that's being said by the guy who has a link to Droidipedia in his sig...

      Seriously, this is an impressive accomplishment. Many impressive accomplishments are about essentially arbitrary things. It isn't substantially different than who can run the fastest mile, or get the most home-runs, or even be the first person to prove some theorem. Difficult accomplishments are impressive and interesting precisely because of the difficulty. Which ones we value and which ones are described as the sort of thing done by a "loser" are essentially arbitrary standards constructed by society.

  2. Times change and we... by Volante3192 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ... go into them kicking and screaming.

    Tron was denied a chance at the Best Effects oscar because AMPAS thought computers equated to cheating.

    Now find a movie that gets that award that *doesn't* use CGI.

    New tech makes old achievements irrelivant. Get used to it.

  3. Unfortunately, his record fell 38 minutes later... by Em+Emalb · · Score: 2, Funny

    His record sadly fell 38 minutes later when 13 year old Samantha Johnson entered the competition.

    "Yeah, I was nervous entering the "Open" division, but my 10 year old brother competed in it last year and won, so I had confidence. The thing I'm the most proud of is winning the 12-14 age group, as everyone knows that's the toughest division to win." Before departing, Ms Johnson added "Old folks fail, amirite?"

    Back to you, Jeff.

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    Sent from your iPad.
  4. Doesn't seem that impressive by dave562 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    264 characters in two minutes? That's individual characters... 264 individual characters? 264 key presses in 2 minutes? That's about two key presses a second. Big deal?

  5. Re:not that fast by TheReverandND · · Score: 5, Insightful

    And with a QWERTY phone they only beat the record by 23 seconds? Thats like giving a race horse crystal meth and having him win by a nose.

  6. Re:not that fast by Monkeedude1212 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I think I could beat it on T9!

    Qwerty doesn't actually make texting faster, just easier for new people to pick up on.

    Ask anyone who switched from using T9 to a Qwerty smartphone, how much their texting has changed.

    I used to be able to text while I drove (I know, terrible) because I didn't have to look at the screen to text a message, and it only needed one hand.

    Now a fully Qwerty keyboard requires 2 hands to even use properly, and is difficult to tell which key you are on unless you look at it.

  7. Morse code is faster by Maximum+Prophet · · Score: 2, Informative

    That's only 22 5 character words (plus 1 character spaces). the Extra class amateur ham license requires 25 wpm, and some military Morse operators could do 60 wpm.

    My dad knew an operator that could buffer an entire line of text in his head before he started typing on a manual typewriter.

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    All ideas^H^H^H^H^Hprocesses in this post are Patent Pending. (as well as the process of patenting all postings)
    1. Re:Morse code is faster by batquux · · Score: 3, Interesting

      There is no longer a morse code requirement for any class of ham radio license.

      Still, folks who can do in the 30 wpm range are still more common than you might think.

  8. Silent protest by Hatta · · Score: 5, Funny

    Engadget Mobile's very own Chris Ziegler led a silent protest during the awards ceremony

    So what then, did he vibrate?

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  9. Re:Who cares? by sznupi · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Yeah, but the Morse guy is using one button. That means he's cheating!

    Apple might have been on to something after all...

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    One that hath name thou can not otter
  10. What am I missing. by starbugs · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Is it? I can type significantly faster than 250 characters in a minute or two.

    I don't get it. 264 characters? 1.59 seconds?
    Could the article be wrong, meaning words instead of characters?

    I just typed 298 characters in 2 minutes, 3 seconds (not counting time pressing the start-stop button on my watch).
    (3 wrong characters, 1 wrong space)
    Here's the text. (some of it I couldn't remember, so I made parts of it up, please don't laugh)

    THEORIZING THAT ONE COULD TIMETRAVEL WITHIN HIS OWN LIFETIME DOCTOR SAM BECKET STEPPED INTO THE TIME TRAVEL THINGIE AND VANISHED, HE AWOKE TO FIND HIMSELF TRAPPED IN THE PAST, FACING MIRROR IMAGES THAT WERE NOT HIS OWN, AN D TRYING HIS BEST TO DO GOOD THINGS THAT IN THE BEND LEAD TO HIS DEMISE AND.

    So I copied the message from my Nokia Communicator onto a card, then onto my netbook, then I posted it here.

    Almost 300 characters in just over 2 minutes.
    And I rarely text. So there are lots of people who would beat me.

    So what am I missing here?