THE Lowly Peon

iPhone Typing 
10 February 2010, 5:27am

I remember when I first got my iPhone, I made it a goal of mine to learn to type efficiently. I started out using my index fingers because I read somewhere that it was a good way to learn how the screen works, etc. After a while, I started using both thumbs (in portrait mode).

I remember too when Apple made all their native apps have a landscape mode, which people were thrilled about because the keyboard was bigger. I've never really understood why people like it more, because the keys are all short (in height) but really far away from each other, and the non-keyboard part of the screen is tiny.

Anyway, I read an article this morning about iTextSpeed, a simple app in the app store that measures your typing speed (it's $.99). You can measure your speed in 30, 60, or 120 second periods.

According to wikipedia, the average computer types at 33 words per minutes (where one "word" is five characters), while the average "professional" typist can go between 50 and 70 wpm.

On my iPhone, I can reach a whopping 64 words per minute. I admit, I am very proud of this number. And now I need to keep practicing so I can go even faster!

(note: according to that article, the average person writes at 22wpm when copying text. so slow!)