> Seriously, how the hell would anyone discover this feature on his own?

That's exactly how I expected it to work. Only goes to show I've been working in close mental proximity to the people who made this feature for a long time. Sometimes even physical proximity.

Answering the rhetorical question...

I discovered it when I got momentarily distracted by something while entering text.

On Android letters with alternate versions have ellipsis on the image of the character which pops up when you sweep over it.

Totally counter-intuitive to me, as many other aspects of the iPhone interface: perhaps this is why I never send text messages from an iPhone, and why I keep making calls when I just want to see the details of a contact.

The iPhone was just made for somebody younger than me I guess.