If there's anything worse than listening to the person sitting next to you on the bus shrieking down a mobile, it has to be listening to the beep-beep, pause, beep-beep-beep of someone tapping away on their hand set. Five beeps, by the way, is what it takes to write a simple "Hi" - by hitting the button 4 five times.

However, text-time can be nearly halved, allegedly, with T9 Text Input. T9, like everything to do with mobiles, is an abbreviation - in this case for text on 9 keys. It replaces the traditional "multi-tap" method with a single keystroke per letter (and without a massive keyboard). The T9 software translates key press sequences into words. For example, to enter the word "wow" you would press three keys, 6-9-6, once each. T9 Text input knows that the most commonly used word with that numeric sequence is "wow".

Although it displays the intended word 95 per cent of the time, it can come up with ironic alternatives. Try to text "kiss" and you'll get "lips" - the most frequently used word with that particular key sequence. In this instance, you just press the NEXT key (typically the "0" key) to change it to the next frequently-used word. Still haven't grasped how to use T9? If you can't be bothered digging out your mobile manual (T9 is available on many), learn how on http://www.t9.com/