My nephew recently got his own smartphone, an old hand-me-down from my mom. Apparently, numeric keypads don't limit his expressiveness one bit. Here's just a few of the texts he's sent today:

• lola can you tell mang ernie [our driver] to bring my lighsabver
• Momy can you tell when me and tito [term of endearment for uncles] rico can go to seven eleven
• Momy if you are not tired maby we can go to seven eleven
• Hi regina wen are you going to the park [she answered "wed"]
• Yes momy i m finished
• Me and the ulam [viand] is fish and monggo
• Hi dad can you take me 711 i wan more slam cards

For some reason, he always adds two spaces after each word. And yes, he'll be burning through his prepaid credit like a hot knife cuts butter, even if it costs just PHP 1.00 ($0.02!) per SMS over here. And to think mobiles used to be the province of the really rich!