The above YouTube video shows someone typing quite fast on the iPhone. He or she writes:
“People who can’t type fast on this phone are retarded.”
Leander Kahney is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac.
Leander is a longtime technology reporter and the author of six acclaimed books about Apple, including two New York Times bestsellers: Jony Ive: The Genius Behind Apple’s Greatest Products and Inside Steve’s Brain, a biography of Steve Jobs.
He’s also written a top-selling biography of Apple CEO Tim Cook and authored Cult of Mac and Cult of iPod, which both won prestigious design awards. Most recently, he was co-author of Cult of Mac, 2nd Edition.
Leander has been reporting about Apple and technology for nearly 30 years.
Before founding Cult of Mac as an independent publication, Leander was news editor at Wired.com, where he was responsible for the day-to-day running of the Wired.com website. He headed up a team of six section editors, a dozen reporters and a large pool of freelancers. Together the team produced a daily digest of stories about the impact of science and technology, and won several awards, including several Webby Awards, 2X Knight-Batten Awards for Innovation in Journalism and the 2010 MIN (Magazine Industry Newsletter) award for best blog, among others.
Before being promoted to news editor, Leander was Wired.com’s senior reporter, primarily covering Apple. During that time, Leander published a ton of scoops, including the first in-depth report about the development of the iPod. Leander attended almost every keynote speech and special product launch presented by Steve Jobs, including the historic launches of the iPhone and iPad. He also reported from almost every Macworld Expo in the late ’90s and early ‘2000s, including, sadly, the last shows in Boston, San Francisco and Tokyo. His reporting for Wired.com formed the basis of the first Cult of Mac book, and subsequently this website.
Before joining Wired, Leander was a senior reporter at the legendary MacWeek, the storied and long-running weekly that documented Apple and its community in the 1980s and ’90s.
Leander has written for Wired magazine (including the Issue 16.04 cover story about Steve Jobs’ leadership at Apple, entitled Evil/Genius), Scientific American, The Guardian, The Observer, The San Francisco Chronicle and many other publications.
Leander is an expert on:
Apple and Apple history
Steve Jobs, Jony Ive, Tim Cook and Apple leadership
Apple community
iPhone and iOS
iPad and iPadOS
Mac and macOS
Apple Watch and watchOS
Apple TV and tvOS
AirPods
Leander has a postgrad diploma in artificial intelligence from the University of Aberdeen, and a BSc (Hons) in experimental psychology from the University of Sussex.
He has a diploma in journalism from the UK’s National Council for the Training of Journalists.
Leander lives in San Francisco, California, and is married with four children. He’s an avid biker and has ridden in many long-distance bike events, including California’s legendary Death Ride.
You can find out more about Leander on LinkedIn and Facebook. You can follow him on X at @lkahney or Instagram.
20 responses to “Fast iPhone Typing”
This is likely off topic, but why do people who are retarded always take the hit? Even in the Cult of Mac!
Some people who type QUICKLY on this phone have bad grammar.
and some people who comment on grammar skills also have poor grammar. ;)
No Leander,
The user in the video (and possibly yourself for publishing it in your blog) are more likely the ones with the mental deficiency. Not only has this cretin they forked over hundreds of dollars (and promised to fork over many more) for a phone and a contract they he or she most likely didn’t need, he or she also made the basic error of assuming a link between dexterity and intelligence. Any cretin would realise that someone like Stephen Hawking would not be able to type on the lame inaccessible iPhone keyboard, let alone any of the many people Apple have excluded by creating a touch sensitive device requiring a high level of dexterity and the use of complex gestures.
Simon,
Let me translate the Youtube poster’s comment for you:“People who can’t type fast on this phone are retarded.â€ÂÂ= “It’s easy to learn to type quickly on this phone.â€ÂÂ
You need to take a chill pill and not be so literal.
Joseph,
My partner has Cerebral Palsy. She also has 2 university degrees and a fulfilling career. There is no way she could learn to type fast on “this phone” or any device with a small keyboard not usable with a pen or stylus. She doesn’t have that degree of control over her fingers.
She’s no ‘retard’ though!
“Retarded” is an archaic expression for someone with a significant intellectual impairment. Its use in describing someone who, through no fault of their own, can’t operate a touch screen device is offensive to my partner and many others with physical impairments.
That’s the point I’m trying to make.
If you couldn’t deduce this from my Stephen Hawking reference, perhaps you might have been describable as ‘retarded’ in a less enlightened bygone age…
Is that a joke? It just seems so………… scripted.
I’ve got to agree with Simon on this one. It is clear enough that the author meant to express how easy it was to type on the iPhone. However, “retarded” as a term, is not only inappropriate, but passé. I mean, “like it is like totally like an 80’s expression, like whatever.” It is a term that needs to be expunged from the English language just like Paris Hilton needs to be expunged from North American media.
Simon,
It’s a good thing you don’t have an iPhone. Realize is spelled with a “z” and I’m pretty sure the iPhone wouldn’t have it any other way.
And before you tell me that you are from Britain and realize is spelled with an “s” and colour with a “u,” do me a favor and blow it out your arse.
Professor
Professor
One can only hope that you are not what your name implies – a “professor” (although you might one of those vain Americans who ‘buy’ their degrees). I’m the person to whom Simon was referring and find it quite intriguing that Apple [E]nthusiasts are so pretentious and up-tight [tight-arsed] about ‘their’ brand; ‘their’ [dysfunctional] operating system/s; ‘their’ products.
I tried to use the useless apple the other day… With the accessibilities options on and open-sourced office, Simon’s prize possession (Apple “believers” god of plastic and data chips) crashed like a bridge of straw trying to convey a high-powered sports car.
Don’t bother replying…I’m have more interesting things to do.