World Mobile News

Last week we ran a poll asking you to choose your favourite input method on a mobile phone. The choices were:  Number keypadQwerty keyboardTouchscreenVoice commands Over the years many of us will have used most of these at one stage or another. Even now, your phone probably has the capability to use a couple of them.  For example, the Nokia Asha 300, Asha 202 and Asha 203 all have a number keypad and a touchscreen. Likewise, the Lumia smartphones are primarily touchscreen devices but you can also use voice commands on them.  But we wanted to see your favourite way of typing, using and interacting with your phone. We can now reveal the results:  That’s a fairly convincing win for the Qwerty keyboard, getting nearly half of your votes. I must say that I am a little surprised the touchscreen did not do a little better. After all, it has become the dominant form across smartphones and, increasingly, the aspirational and budget-conscious feature phones as well. Perhaps, it is a reflection ...

We’ve come a long way since our early descendants scribbled some crude animal drawings on their cave walls over 30,000 years ago. What would these inhabitants of the Stone Age have made of a quill, or a ballpoint pen? A typewriter, surely, would have frazzled their primitive minds. However, for many of us, the pen and pencil have become anachronistic tools as well. I can’t remember the last time I needed a pencil, and the pen has become an implement of last resort.  Most often, of course, I am typing on my computer and increasingly my smartphone. Even for jotting down reminders and shopping lists, I use a simple Notes app. It is more convenient than pen and paper and I know I won’t lose it. Even as the mobile phone becomes the dominant device for how we capture, store and pass on information, another battle is raging about the way we are doing it. So, it’s time declare your loyalties in the war of the input methods. Number keypads What does the following sequence of digits mean to y...