Inventor of T9 texting creates new way to type on a phone

[Lunican]

Phone Software Takes the Taps Out of Typing



SEATTLE â€" Back in the 1990s, typing out “hello” on most cellphones required an exhausting 13 taps on the number keys, like so: 44-33-555-555-666.

That was before the inventor Cliff Kushler, based here in Seattle, and a partner created software called T9, which could bring that number down to three by guessing the word being typed.

Now there is a new challenge to typing on phones. More phones are using virtual keyboards on a touch screen, replacing physical buttons. But pecking out a message on a small piece of glass is not so easy, and typos are common.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/21/technology/21swype.html?hp

http://www.youtube.com/v/SJ-RAefCG_c&hl=en_US&fs=1&

http://swypeinc.com/tips-tricks.html

[Jason]

He is every little girl's icon.

"Thank you sooooo much mister Kushler for inventing texting!  Now I can gossip endlessly and run up Daddy's phone bill to the point of suicide! YAYYYY!!!"

[KenFSU]

I tried the beta. It's fast, but it also makes enough errors where I feel like I'm not really saving any time using it.

[Lunican]

I save lots of time by not texting.

[David]

A lot of people who are anti texting just don't have a text-friendly cell phone it seems.  I was one of those "kids" that started texting when it first became regularly available (ten years ago) and yeah, it did suck on those older phones but i adapted to t-9 quickly, although it seems it  (t9) never really caught on.

For me, making phone calls and dealing with antiquated voicemail systems is the biggest waste of time.  Texting takes away the need to play phone tag when the conversation isn't too complex, but for the more in depth conversations, texting will never replace an old fashion phone call.

[Bostech]