Trump's tweets: Android for nasty, iPhone for nice?
Technically Incorrect: An analysis of Donald Trump's Twitter feed shows aggressive, insulting tweets come from his Android phone. The more pleasant ones come from his iPhone. Why might that be?
Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives.
This is more of an Android expression.
I have, over the last months, gained a certain impression of Donald Trump.
He seems to be a man who has a toothy, charming side and a slightly more boisterous, blowhardy, thin-skinned and insulting side.
Naturally, I've gleaned this picture mostly from his Twitter feed. Where else should one go to get a sophisticated image of someone?
In recent times, I've noted that there seem to be these two Trumps. One is determined to call Elizabeth Warren "Pocahontas" and Hillary Clinton "Crooked Hillary."
The other says "thank you" a lot and even refers to the Democratic candidate by her real name.
I was a touch perplexed, until I was enlightened by stellar visual effects artist Todd Vaziri.
He helpfully performed an analysis of Trump's tweets and discerned that the more haughty, critical ones come from an Android device, while the nice ones come from an iPhone.
A for Android and aggression?
You, because you are partial to one brand or the other, might have already reached acerbic conclusions about this.
Vaziri, on Twitter, clarified his analysis: "FWIW, I'm not making a value judgment [iPhone vs. Android]. I'm pointing out how easy it is to decode the true author of his tweets)."
In essence, there's a suspicion that the Android tweets are written by Trump himself. The iPhone tweets might be penned by his campaign staff, desperate to create a sense of fairness and balance.
The Trump campaign didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
However, the more I trawled his Twitter account (TweetDeck allows you to see from which device each tweet was sent), the more it became clear that Vaziri might be right.
I present several screenshots here that show a completely different tone and even syntax between the Android tweets and the iPhone.
Some will be elevated by the notion that Trump might only tweet from an Android device.
After all, he once called for a ban on all Apple products, after Cupertino refused to hack a phone issued to one of the San Bernardino terrorists.
Still, it's generous of him to perhaps allow campaign staff to use Apple devices. It could be, of course, that he still wants Apple to do well as he is himself an Apple shareholder.
As the frenzied weeks unfold, though, will we discern more of the alleged schism in the Trump camp?
Watch out for Trump iPhone tweets to become ever more prissy and Trump Android tweets to become even more hissy and pissy.
The iPhone is the nice phone?
Android here.
So polite. So iPhone.