Last week one of Europe’s oldest cultural festivals was held in Bala, North Wales. The National Eisteddfod of Wales is an event that happens every year in Wales but it doesn’t stay in one location. Last year the Eisteddfod was in Cardiff and next year it will be in Ebbw Vale.

At this year’s event there was an announcement from the Welsh Language Board that Samsung have teamed up with Orange to provide the first mobile phone in the Welsh language. The interface and the T9 dictionary on the Samsung S5600 will both be in Welsh. This is a major step forward for the Welsh language and it shows that large companies think that the language is worth investing in.

The Welsh Samsung S5600 will be available from September onwards on the Orange network, with plans to introduce it on to other networks if the mobile turns out to be a success. According to a representative from Orange, they hope to show the other mobile phone manufacturers that there’s a need for mobile to have the Welsh language option built in to them.

Hopefully, this will be the start of something that keeps on getting better and better. I for one am glad of the development as sometimes, when writing texts in welsh, I have to delete things because the English language dictionary has seen fit to auto correct my Welsh.