It’s not quite ready for use in routine cases, but according to the Independent, it’s been successful in helping prosecute one chap:

The approach was used in the case against David Hodgson who was convicted in February of murdering his former lover Jenny Nicholl, 19. Ms Nicholl’s family kept receiving messages from her phone after she had disappeared, but police suspected her former boyfriend was sending them, not her.

“A linguistic analysis showed that text messages sent from her phone were unlikely to have been written by her but, rather, were more likely to have been written by Hodgson,” Dr Grant said. Hodgson had a different texting style to Ms Nicholl. For example, he would write “I am” in his messages, while Ms Nicholl would use “im”.

That has to be rather tenuous though, does it not? ‘I am’ vs ‘im’? It’s hardly reliable when you take into consideration T9 or your handset playing up. For instance, sometimes I write my text messages in English. Other times I use txt-spk. Or sometimes a variation of the two.

Be it twitter, reality-show votes, ebay update notifications or simply device activations, SMS has ridden the interesting express more than once. But could we have thought they way the Zambians did?
According to a report, thousand of people in Zambia are mourning the death of their President Levy Mwanawasa, through text messages. A number of SMS (Short Message Service) codes have been set up at radio and television stations in Zambia to facilitate mourning at the larger level.

The SMS service, which began on August 19th, 2008 will continue throughout the 21 days of national mourning. Lumai Mubanga, an IT executive, said:

The SMS facility is available on all mobile phones in Zambia, and 90 percent of the people know how to use it. My own observation is that the SMS facility has been used effectively by many, and this platform has allowed many Zambians, even those with little means, to convey their heartfelt condolences to President Mwanawasa’s family.

Interesting use of technology or simply crazy?