Apple Adds Chinese Handwriting for Multi-Touch Capable Macs in New Snow Leopard

[snberk103]

Ya this sounds great.

Now seriously WHAT IS THE DEAL with Apple not being able to fix the no Safari 4 beta bug in 10.5.7??? 😕 You're honestly telling me that they can't even get their own software to install after months of coding??? There has to be something we don't know or that I am missing here. Any insight anyone?

I have no inside info - just relating what I've read in other threads.

10.5.7 is a beta, and Safari 4 is a beta. The whole point of betas is to test for and then fix bugs. If you find a bug with a beta running on a beta, you can't easily determine which software had the bug, and therefore can't fix it - which is the whole point of betas in the first place.

So, until either 10.5.7 or Safari 4 is finalized, the version check is kept in place. Once one or the other is finalized, then the version check is removed.

Presumably Apple is installing Safari 4 on 10.5.7 in-house, or in a closed beta program, to check for problems before releasing.

 

[AtlasBoy]

Here are a few possible guesses:

1.
Apple is working on a Safari with a process per tab. This should make for a more robust and faster browsing experience. The multi processing improvements in SL ought to really help here.

2.
Apple might have a version of Safari that leverages OPenCL in new ways. One possibility is that the new HTML 5 tags for movies and media get directly accelerated on the GPU. Of course Quicktime is being extensively overhauled so the excelleration could come via that facility. Either way better playback of video should be the result.

3.
Maybe Apple has some more Java Script improvements that they have decided to make SL only.

4.
Apple could always just be lazy and doesn't want to upgrade the installer for this round of betas. I discount this idea a lot though as it is traditional for them to hold back features until much closer to release date.

These are guesses obviously and I'm likely missing something but I maintain there is something up. Maybe it is some sort of integration with that Chinese hand writing recognition software. ( didn't want to pull the thread off course ).

Dave

Something is up because my friend that told me about the version check is a close friend, and when I asked him why they did this he totally changed the subject and made it clear he could not talk about it. Makes me think it's something revolutionary.

 

[niuniu]

I'm just being told now (Chinese gf and friends here) that it's very impressive but it's unlikely that many Chinese would use it as it takes too long to write Chinese characters and the current pinyin system is very fast..

Time will tell though, I remember having a Sony Clie that used shorthand strokes to represent letters - that was pretty fast when you practised it. Maybe they;ll do the same for the Chinese characters..

 

[iMacmatician]

Windows 7 is getting (multi?) touch capability, there's no reasons why Snow Leopard will lag behind!!

Early Snow Leopard rumors said multi-touch was for trackpads, not displays. I wonder if that's changed now, or if the handwriting is just for the trackpad.

 

[mobilehaathi]

But when will Sanskrit and Ancient Aramaic handwriting recognition be available? That's what we really want! 😛

I know you're joking and all, but देवनागरी (Sanskrit script) is used today to write several languages. Off the top of my head िहंदी (Hindi), मराठी (Marathi), and नेपाली (Nepali). Not to mention people still read and write Sanskrit today.

 

[alembic]

I've seen Japanese keyboards that have various pen strokes on the keys that they combine to get a character. Also, they can type Japanese using an English keyboard by approximating the sound.

Stroke-based input methods are faster and require far less computing resources (basically only lookup tables and pointers). There's no ambiguity that plagues handwriting recognition systems. They also reinforce correct stroke order and the learning of radicals (components parts of characters). On some input methods, popular radicals are also given their own keys; complex glyphs can then be displayed with two or three additional key strokes. The character for my first name has 17 strokes 穣. I can usually bring it up in 5 total with a stroke-based system.

 

[ispyaspy]

這是真正地好我現在寄发消息到爸爸

 

[PDE]

What strikes me as very impressie with the iphone Chinese input method is that you can actually write in cursive and it will recognise a lot of characters. In other words, you can simplify greatly (within the standards of course) and it will still recognise the character. Amazing to me. It may still not be as fast as pinyin input, but if you're a good writer it could be very fast. And it's fun too!

 

[praetorian909]

Wow, this is great news. Now I can finally get my parents to switch over. They need the ability to write in Chinese sometimes, and handwriting is the easiest way.

Now, is there any way they would also make an iPhone app to have my iPhone as the multi-touch tablet? That would seal the deal...

 

[RMo]

I'm just being told now (Chinese gf and friends here) that it's very impressive but it's unlikely that many Chinese would use it as it takes too long to write Chinese characters and the current pinyin system is very fast...

This is quite true. When typing in Chinese, I prefer Pinyin, but handwriting recognition is nice (on my iPod touch) when I forget the pronunciation of a character or if I'm trying to look a character I don't know up in a dictionary (it's easier than nagivating to the radical's entry and looking around). Also, at least on the iPod, it recognizes "cursive," so it's not quite as painstaking as regular writing (hao3, 好, for example, can be written with only two "strokes" as opposed to six).

So while Pinyin (or Wubi if I ever get better at it!) will still probably be my preferred method if input, character recognition might be nice sometimes as well.

 

[str1f3]

A simple layer of mono-chrome display (ie E-ink) for the trackpad would suffice. It's light and thin. With enough sensitivity it could be used as a signature input too. There's no need to incorporate a full colour LCD into the trackpad, how often do you look down there anyway? Black and white won't grab attention from the main display either.

I disagree. I could not see  using a b&w trackpad display on a mac. I could see them more using an OLED display over that. The whole point of using any display e-ink or otherwise would be that you're looking at it when you're writing. Maybe if they introduced color e-ink. Since the price of regular e-ink is so high I doubt even that is a possibility.

 

[naman34]

I'm hoping that they do the same for Hindi.

high hopes man.... hindi support? forget it.. even though i really want it to happen, i doubt it will. how many indians buy macs neway?

 

[BTW]

Very nice. I don't write Chinese but my wife does so this will be greatly appreciated.

Snow Leopard gets more interesting every day. Can't wait to hear what the major features are of Snow Leopard come WWDC. 😀

 

[wizard]

We can only hope!

Something is up because my friend that told me about the version check is a close friend, and when I asked him why they did this he totally changed the subject and made it clear he could not talk about it. Makes me think it's something revolutionary.

Well it looks like Apples secrecy training is very effective.

I'm not convinced it will be revolutionary but rather evolutionary. I say that because other browsers are already adopting some nifty improvements. If it is revolutionary I have no idea what the development might be.

Just as well really as I've really cut back on my net usage. That and Firefox can be compelling at times.


Dave

 

[Hugh]

This is for 10.6, not 10.5.7.

I think we should make the 10.6 and the 10.5.7 into different threads. This can get very confusing what topic is being talked about.

Hugh

 

[solipsism]

Can't wait for the day they replace the trackpad with a screen.

This seems like such an obvious evolution of the trackpad to me. It's gotten bigger, can sense many complex points in motion, the button has been integrated so it's as high as possible, and it's now glass on top like the iPhone. Making this input device and output device seems obvious to me.

There are some Dashboard widgets and apps that would be so much easier to use in a multitouch environment than with a mouse pointer and keyboard. The calculator is one that readily comes to mind. I break out my iPhone's calc before using my Mac's calc. I'll even use Google search to do my calculations if they aren't too complex to write.

It wouldn't be ideal for most apps but many of my Menu Bar apps would be more handy sitting on my trackpad since i don't need to look at them often, especially when using the full screen.

 

[dapunster]

A chinese writing solution for Mac that works right now

Looks like there is demand for Chinese writing on Mac. There is a iPhone/iTouch application called 'Finger' by Headnix. It lets you use iPhone/iTouch as writing tablet. It works with all the languages that are supported by your iPhone/iTouch. I have it and it works great. They recently upgrade to support Windows as well. You all can give it a try.

 

[salvatorereda]

Apple store down Sunday morning

1am Sunday morning apple store says "we will be back soon"
Is there something new?

 

[bmacir]

Or to complement it? There was a thread around MWSF 2008 about it - can't find the link but if you search multitouch for threads around June 2008 it should be there
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/485248/ amongst others
https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=6130979
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/438408/

Thanks a lot! There are so many possibilities, I am very curious to see which solution apple will implement. 🙂

 

[celtikmind]

It is possible that they are instead waiting the final version of iTunes 8.2 and Safari 4 to include it in the 10.5.7 to make it easy for everybody. Yes they could just release it all separately instead. The point is, Apple is waiting for something else first.

Then they'll include TextEdit 117.6 or <insert fav app here> so we'll have to wait a liiiittle longer until they decide to also include QuickTime X and ta da... They'll have us buying Snow Leopard instead! That's the secret to why 10.5.7 never gets released, isn't it?

The computer waiting game - the only game where you'll never have to worry about re-playability! 😛

And what happens if, for some reason you have to reinstall safari or itunes. Do the whole system have to get "jump-shocked" again?

Chinese input tech sounds nice though I won't be using it.

 

[moniker]

I, for one, would like English handwriting recognition.

 

[michael.lauden]

I, for one, would like English handwriting recognition.

most people can type faster than they can write. especially in a small area like the track pad - even on the Unibodies

 

[MikeTheC]

我非常满意地获悉 Apple's 努力使自己的技术普及。不难作出 Microsoft's 产品看起来像垃圾，它们。

 

[Breckenridge]

And why not have english hand writing support as a standard. I find it strange that apple has the technology to do so, nevertheless, they choose to keep their computers one step behind PCs

 

[praetorian909]

Looks like there is demand for Chinese writing on Mac. There is a iPhone/iTouch application called 'Finger' by Headnix.

Hey neat, thanks for posting. I didn't know this app existed. That's exactly what I was looking for to be in Snow Leopard.

Here some more info:
http://thisfinger.com/

I'm not sure how apple will do it with the multitouch trackpad--won't that possibly be confusing to switch between mouse and handwriting? I think it'd be better to be separate like on an iPhone/iPod touch. Or also maybe on the rumored new tablet?