Got a tip for us? Share it...
• • RSS

Apple Includes Chinese Handwriting Recognition in iPhone 2.0 Beta

Monday May 5, 2008 10:07 am PDT by Arnold Kim
Apple has quietly included handwriting recognition for Chinese (Traditional and Simplified) into the latest iPhone Firmware 2.0 beta. When you select Chinese input, you are given the option to use handwriting recognition allowing you to draw characters on the screen with your finger. As you write the character, four possibilities appear on the right side of the screen.

Wretch.cc (Chinese) details many screenshots of the new feature, and MacRumors has been able to independently verify that this does exist in the latest iPhone firmware beta available to registered iPhone developers. There is no support for English at this time.



Apple was one of the pioneers in handwriting recognition technology with their Newton Personal Digital Assistant. While the original Newton contained a 3rd party handwriting engine that generated some early bad press, Apple later deployed their own much improved handwriting technology known as "Rosetta". Rosetta technology later found its way into Mac OS X under the name "Inkwell".

Apple recently started hiring for a new Handwriting Recognition Engineer, so it appears Apple is reinvesting in this technology.
[ 119 comments ]

Top Rated Comments

(View all)

Avatar
TheSpecialist
49 months ago
Great news Apple is investing in this!!!!
Rating: 0 Positives / 0 Negatives
Avatar
msharp
49 months ago
This is simply AWESOME. Can't wait to try the 2.0 out!!

But how are we suppose to write the character? Use my big fingers to write complex characters?? Umm...
Rating: 0 Positives / 0 Negatives
Avatar
Romanesq
49 months ago
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
Rating: 0 Positives / 0 Negatives
Avatar
mzlin
49 months ago
Awesome. This always seemed to me to be the killer app among touchscreen devices. Chinese lends itself to computer handwriting recognition in a way alphabetical languages never did. iPhone lust just went up among 1 billion Chinese.
Rating: 0 Positives / 0 Negatives
Avatar
CalfCanuck
49 months ago
The Newton lives!! Sweet that Apple is targeting the largest language in the world - and one of the largest telecom markets. China Mobile is now fourth biggest company in the world (by most market value) and I'm sure Apple wants just a slice of that market!

http://www.forbes.com/lists/2008/18/biz_2000global08_The-Global-2000_MktVal.html

Zhi shi hen hao!
Rating: 0 Positives / 0 Negatives
Avatar
craigverse
49 months ago
This is awesome. :)
Rating: 0 Positives / 0 Negatives
Avatar
twoodcc
49 months ago
seems like great technology. glad to see apple working on this
Rating: 0 Positives / 0 Negatives
Avatar
AlphaAnt
49 months ago
So since they've added Chinese, is it safe to assume that Japanese, Korean, etc. will be in the final version?
Rating: 0 Positives / 0 Negatives
Avatar
Virgil-TB2
49 months ago

Awesome. This always seemed to me to be the killer app among touchscreen devices. Chinese lends itself to computer handwriting recognition in a way alphabetical languages never did. iPhone lust just went up among 1 billion Chinese.

It's also much more likely that this technology is not so much for the iPhone but indicates Apple moving back into tablets in a big way.

Right now there isn't a single mobile OS that can touch them. It will take years for Android to produce anything like a viable alternative to Apple's multi-touch.
Rating: 0 Positives / 0 Negatives
Avatar
Shasterball
49 months ago
I'm confused. If you can use a computer using a keyboard to input in Chinese, why do you need handwriting recognition? Why not just use the same keyboard?
Rating: 0 Positives / 0 Negatives

[ Read All Comments ]