Predictive Text Input

You are stuck in the most mind-numbingly boring meeting in corporate history. To make matters far worse, a slimy, middle-manager from sales is making eyes across the big table at the secret object of your affections. How can you beat the creep to the girl? You will send an SMS text message to her mobile, making fun of your rival and asking her to dinner.

You start poking at the keys. . . but for each letter, you must press a number key several times - "s" (for swine) takes four pushes of the number 7 key, "l" (for lust), requires three jabs at the 5 key. Now the meeting is breaking up. Your message is nowhere near finished. He is moving in on her, wearing that ridiculous simpering grin on his. . . aaaarrrggh!

She is gone, buddy - you were too late! If only you had bought a mobile phone with "predictive text input", like the new Nokia 3210. You just have to press each key once; a dictionary on the phone's microchip calculates from the context what word you want, and changes the letters retrospectively. If it could be two different words, the phone gives you a choice.

The phone also lets you send 30 ready-made images as a text messages. For the very slow-to-move, one of them is a heart with wings.

The Nokia 3210, around £50 (€63.50) is available at The Telephone Centre, Dawson Street, Dublin, and other mobile phone outlets.