Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Apple Includes Chinese Handwriting Recognition in iPhone 2.0 Beta

L

Ludde

macrumors regular
Apr 24, 2007
119
0
Add Korean and Japanese handwriting to that and I'll be very much getting an...iPod Touch :D
 
archurban

archurban

macrumors 6502a
Aug 4, 2004
918
0
San Francisco, CA
Romanesq said:
Apple can't ignore China and its growing market. Of course Steve wouldn't do so as he was told by Hillary and Bill Clinton to support their biggest cash cow.

How do you say how many Loral missile systems do you need in Chinese? :p
Click to expand...

of course, they can't. china is huge market for apple & other companies as well. in addition, asian population is 50% in the world. so nobody can't ignore.
 
P

panamajack

macrumors member
Aug 14, 2006
74
0
aprilfools said:
I suppose this is a good thing. Not really sure. But than again, I’m the kind of guy that get's hot over the fact that the ATM machines here in the USA provide instructions in spanish and english. I figure if you live in the USA, than you should speak English. No excuses. .
Click to expand...

If you really get hot over bilingual ATM machines then you *probably* should get over your unilingual sense of entitlement. That *doesn't* mean that immigrants to the US shouldn't learn English, but at the same time you shouldn't deter businesses from making a business decision about how they can best serve their customers.

Southern California .... didn't that used to be part of Mexico? :eek: (sorry, couldn't resist).

More languages on the iPhone = a better device, period. No question.

I foresee an overpriced stylus will be marketed in late June for the iPhone/Touch .... as writing complicated characters would be a little messy.
 
P

panamajack

macrumors member
Aug 14, 2006
74
0
arn said:
You mean this keyboard? http://www.slate.com/id/2136757/

I don't know if Apple will introduce English Handwriting Recognition, but I'd still like to see it. I really liked the Newton.

arn
Click to expand...

Arn, that's a Taiwanese keyboard you're showing there through the link, or rather, three different (QWERTY, bopomofo [top right corner], and CangJie [Chinese characters]) keyboards put on the same surface.

All three can be used for Chinese input, and current Chinese input systems for hacked iPhones/Touches already allow for any one to be used.

I suspect most mainland Chinese and non-native Chinese speakers like myself will use the QWERTY for Pinyin input, whereas Taiwanese will continue to use bopomofo. Cangjie is for pros who want to type really fast .. might work really well with super intelligent keyboard software.
 
P

panamajack

macrumors member
Aug 14, 2006
74
0
Brianstorm91 said:
Jobs hates styluses as much as mid-size expandable towers and open source.
Click to expand...

No disagreement here, but he has proved he loves money too !

Complicated characters will be too difficult to draw with all but the most slender of fingers, and are slower. If Apple doesn't market one than expect a 3rd party to deliver an iPhone branded one as soon as the software update is released.
 
C

crooks1782

macrumors newbie
May 5, 2008
4
0
Albuquerque, NM
What Does This Mean For English Speakers?

Hi,
I am going to be moving to Japan in 2 months. Does this firmware include a kanji to English dictionary for translation purposes? If so, I AM BUYING AN iPhone immediately. Can anyone help answer this?
-A
 
jbernie

jbernie

macrumors 6502a
Nov 25, 2005
927
12
Denver, CO
That character looks awfully close to the Red Dragon tiles in Mah Jongg. Not sure if there is anything else close to that character though.

Can anyone confirm this?
 
arn

arn

macrumors god
Staff member
Apr 9, 2001
16,363
5,796
jbernie said:
That character looks awfully close to the Red Dragon tiles in Mah Jongg. Not sure if there is anything else close to that character though.

Can anyone confirm this?
Click to expand...

I've confirmed it with people who have the iPhone beta. it's true.

arn
 
AlphaAnt

AlphaAnt

macrumors regular
Sep 9, 2006
120
5
MD, USA
panamajack said:
Japanese is already officially supported as a keyboard input system. Korean input, being a alphabetic system, would be straightforward.

This is a particular boon for students of Chinese (and Japanese). I think most Chinese language users will still use the keyboard for most input though, assuming they can put some of the intelligent keyboard software into the Chinese version.
Click to expand...

Considering Chinese has more characters than Japanese, I don't think I would be satisfied with romaji/hiragana/katakana input for Japanese knowing that there's character recognition for Chinese. It wouldn't be a dealbreaker, but it would still be nice.
 
M

MacFly123

macrumors 68020
Dec 25, 2006
2,340
0
Sounds great. I am so excited for what I believe is going to be a LOT of new features and apps in 2.0.

Can anyone that has the beta though tell me how big the OS is now compared to the latest version of 1.0??? I'm wondering how huge it is getting with all this new stuff coming. Come on 32GB iPhone :D
 
W

wildcardd

macrumors 6502a
Mar 26, 2007
526
0
Denver, CO
I foresee an overpriced stylus will be marketed in late June for the iPhone/Touch .... as writing complicated characters would be a little messy.
Click to expand...

I can see it now..."Apple's New Human Finger Stylus" Made with 80% post consumer finger.
 
gkarris

gkarris

macrumors G3
Dec 31, 2004
8,301
1,061
"No escape from Reality...”
Apple needs to do this for all those unlocked iPhones in China. :D

Now, all they need to do it for is most other alphabets and you have the latest Newton.

Would be ready for the revived Newton or "iPad". :eek:

(a small tablet, twice the screen size of the iPhone, 3G/EDGE chip and SIM card slot, runs all iPhone/Touch software plus can develop for that also.)
 
tokevino

tokevino

macrumors member
Jan 13, 2005
66
0
jbernie said:
That character looks awfully close to the Red Dragon tiles in Mah Jongg. Not sure if there is anything else close to that character though.

Can anyone confirm this?
Click to expand...

So "Red Dragon" is how it's called in English when playing Mah Jongg?

The character “中” means "middle", "center".
 
F

FunkyELF

macrumors newbie
Jun 19, 2007
29
0
stop the clones?

Is this Apple's attempt to stop those chinese rip-offs? To make the real thing more attractive to the same country that is copying it?
 
P

panamajack

macrumors member
Aug 14, 2006
74
0
AlphaAnt said:
Considering Chinese has more characters than Japanese, I don't think I would be satisfied with romaji/hiragana/katakana input for Japanese knowing that there's character recognition for Chinese. It wouldn't be a dealbreaker, but it would still be nice.
Click to expand...

My point was that you can already input kanji using the Japanese keyboard. Regardless, I think you're right -- if they were going to all the trouble of making a HWR for ~13,000 Chinese hanzi, they'll certainly make it work for Japanese as well.
 
T

thibaulthalpern

macrumors regular
May 2, 2008
241
2
East Coast, USA
weili said:
For most younger Chinese, it's probably easier to input with a keyboard via Pinyin (Romanization). In fact, I can type Chinese with Pinyin just as fast, if not faster, than I can with English. This is more of a feeling I have as it'd be almost impossible to truly compare as Chinese and English are very different languages.
Click to expand...

Umm...pinyin input method is only primarily used by those who were educated in the PRC. For those of us who are in Taiwan or HK or overseas, we often use other input methods such as canjie and wubi. Pinyin is also a pronunciation method that follows Mandarin, which is not the local language for HK and many other overseas Chinese community. Let's just be clear on that ;-)
 
jbernie

jbernie

macrumors 6502a
Nov 25, 2005
927
12
Denver, CO
tokevino said:
So "Red Dragon" is how it's called in English when playing Mah Jongg?

The character “中” means "middle", "center".
Click to expand...

Well you have three dragons,
white = a blank tile.
red = the sympbol shown here painted red
green = green shrubbery (it isnt one that i know of) :)

As you can have all sorts of local rules... in the 25 or so years (I am 33) I have played I have only ever known them that way. My dad has played since he was a young boy (late 40s) and only known it that way. And yes, he played with his parents and relatives so more then likely we can go back another 10 years or more. My dads set is probably from the 1920s, I was able to get a set recently with almost identical tiles.

So it could just be the generic english terms to make the game easier as a whole bunch of English speakers mispronouncing Chinese words doesn't make things move along much better.
 
Brianstorm91

Brianstorm91

macrumors 65816
Sep 30, 2007
1,365
0
Cambridge, UK
bobbleheadbob said:
Which literally translates as "Middle Kingdom".

This is WAY cool. I like it. :) Now I just need to learn more than two characters of Chinese! ;)
Click to expand...

Don't ask how, or why, but through this year's maths lessons I've learned how to write "Ninja" and "Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles" in Chinese from the resident Chinaman.
:D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom