iPhone auto-correct puts Euro tongues out of joint

A Swiss web design company, Fruahjahr, has launched a petition to disable auto-correction on the iPhone. To many non-English users this is an even bigger nuisance than bad 3G reception or poor battery life.

It is almost impossible to write an email or an SMS message on the iPhone in a language other than English - the phone 'corrects' your words into English as you type. Truncated words are also problematic.

"At the time it is really not Apple-like," the petition site says. "Please let your developers make a simple switch button to turn autocorrection off (they probably will do that in 20 seconds, right?)."

So far thousands have responded. "Stop cowwecting mie!!", laments one user. "Eliminate l’autocorrezzioneeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee," another. "Do we really have to wait until the iPhone 4G?"

Apparently, the option to enable or disable auto-correction is already there, but hidden. Some hacks have appeared to make the option visible.

Signatures will be accepted until September 30 and then sent to Apple. ®