It should not really surprise me, but apparently there is a Guinness world record for speed-texting. It just got pwned at the LG Mobile World Cup in New York. This is according to Recombu.com and CNet Asia. Says CNet:
It’s one thing to type really fast on your cell phone, but beating the world’s best texters is a different ball game altogether. That’s exactly what Christina Sales Ancines, 20, and Jennifer Sales Ancines, 15, have done at the second annual LG Mobile Worldcup where the Panama duo beat 30 other contestants from around the world to walk away with US$100,000 and ultimate street cred.
Korea was placed second and Brazil third in the finals which were held at Gotham Hall in New York City January 26. Contestants had to punch in phrases that appeared on nearby LG plasma displays without making any mistakes or using abbreviations on the Chocolate BL20 and Town GT350 handsets.
At the competition, Cheong Kit Au from Australia also broke the Guinness World Record by typing out a 264-character text in 1 minute 17 seconds on a QWERTY device–a whopping 43 seconds faster than previous record holder Pedro Matias.
[Link.]
To clarify: the sisters from Panama won the competition, but did not pwn the Guinness record, which is administered by Guinness, not LG. The money was LG’s. But even the Guinness record may be in dispute. Switched.com rightly points out the dicey nature of the claim:
Cheong Kit Au, from Australia, mashed out a 264-character text in one minute and 17 seconds, crushing the previous record by 43 seconds. Then again, Melissa Thompson supposedly broke the record in August by Swyping out a 160-character message in just over 25 seconds. If you were to double that measure, you get 320 characters in well under a minute, significantly faster than Au’s typing.
[Link.]
Of course…Melissa’s record was set on a Samsung. It all seems like a corporate scandal in the making. Possibly even a corporate war, with Blackwater-style mercenaries in body armor facing off in the Thunderdome, texting each other furiously: boom! lol! : -) — bang! rofl ;-D — pow! lmfao!!!
But that’s not the only earth-shattering Guinness World Record news this week. Important records have also been decided.
Because in case you were wondering, the record for Pakistani schoolgirls in a Smart Car is 19. Actually, that’s the record for schoolgirls in a Smart Car overall, nationality notwithstanding. It used to be 18, and the schoolgirls used to be Australian. Now it’s 19, and they’re Pakistani. The Karachi team just dusted that record, according to All Pakistan News, which informs me:
Team captain Aymen Yousuf said she and her team members are extremely glad on thier success, adding she will try breaking some more records as well.
[Link.]
But what can possibly top the feat of cramming 19 Pakistani schoolgirls into a Smart Car?
I’ve got some bad news for you, Aymen. The rest of life will be downhill from here. Sorry.