Ben Cook

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Ben Cook (born October 29, 1987) is the current Guinness World Records holder for having sent the world's fastest SMS (text) message.


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[edit] Breaking the Record

Cook originally broke the record of held by James Tressler on November 16, 2004 while on the air at KUTV News studios in Salt Lake City, Utah keying in the required phrase set forth by Guinness: "The razor-toothed piranhas of the genera Serrasalmus and Pygocentrus are the most ferocious freshwater fish in the world. In reality they seldom attack a human." He was able to tap the message in 57.75 seconds. This record was quickly beaten by a woman in Singapore, Kimberly Yeo, and Ben never officially made it into the Guinness Book of World Records.

Nearly two years later, while on a public relations trip for Cricket Communications in the Denver, Colorado area, Cook once again made a qualified attempt to reclaim his title as text messaging king. On July 29, 2006, with the cameras rolling, Cook was able to again set a new world record by typing in the required phrase at a speed of 42.22 seconds. Cook's record was then broken by 16 year old Ang Chuang Yang of Singapore on November 12, 2006 at 41.52 seconds.[1]

On December 19, 2006, Cook regained his title while visiting Portland, Oregon, typing the tongue-twisting phrase in 41.00 seconds.[2] Cook is currently listed as the world record holder in the 2008 Guinness World Records book.

[edit] Events and media coverage

  • November 16, 2004 - Cook was featured on KUTV morning news (Salt Lake City CBS affiliate). His friend Dave Stoddard and he attempted to set a new world record.
  • May 2005 - Cook was invited to be on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno where he competed against HAM radio operators using Morse Code. Cook lost this friendly competition since his message was not sent peer-to-peer like Morse code. While his partner waited for the message to be sent to him from the nearest cell tower, the competition had completed their transmission.
  • October 2006 - Cook was invited to a conference in Orlando, Florida by Nuance Communications to compete against their voice recognition software. Cook outperformed others competing using various forms of text messaging, but was beaten by the new technology.[3]

[edit] Personal life

Cook was born and raised in Orem, Utah where he is an active member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He graduated from Timpanogos High School in Orem in 2006. He was recently called to serve an LDS mission in Tokyo Japan from 2007-2009.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Teen breaks SMS world speed record, The Register, November 13, 2006
  2. ^ Ben Cook Regains World Record for Text Messaging in Portland The Free Library, December 26, 2006
  3. ^ Amazing Race, Nuance Communications, Retrieved on February 25, 2008