Oct 15 2007
Predictive text: I finally get it!
This had baffled me for ages -- probably because I have never bothered to read how it actually works, nor bothered to ask anyone to show me. I don't send all that many texts so it was never a big issue.
However in a weak moment of true confessions, I mentioned to George after our tech segment on the Right Hook on Newstalk last week that I'd never figured out predictive text and he was delighted to find something vaguely technical he understood that I did not. He explained in three sentences and I have been predictively texting (or something like that) ever since. You guys are right -- I should have figured this out ages ago! Doh!
3 responses so far
One tip: It is really worth sitting down for 30 miuntes some day and program in all the unusual words (i.e. names, places and companies) that you use but aren’t in the phone by default. It makes things so much easier in the long run.
I hate T9 systems when they operate as the default on phones. They make it difficult to type in textspk.
Some others found your confessional moment a little humourous:
http://damienmulley.jaiku.com/presence/15815485
That’s cool; the whole point of the ‘confession’ was meant to make others laugh at me, if not with me, or I wouldn’t have made a public post on the subject — so obviously it got the expected result, LOL. I also cannot for the life of me manage to create an Excel spreadsheet either, so if anyone wants to come over and explain that to me they are welcome! (somehow I don’t think that will be George’s forte).
More seriously, I just will not bother to use a feature on a commonplace piece of technology that isn’t intuitive and doesn’t make sense without having to read a manual. I know an awful lot of hardcore tech folks that, like me, have never managed predictive texting in its more complicated version and quite a few confessed this privately to me after reading this original post — heh! Who’d a thunk. I hope others in the same boat might take hope that if even *I* can finally learn how it works, they should too!