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iPhone 2.0 Japanese Keyboard Video

Wednesday June 25, 2008 9:30 pm PDT by Arnold Kim
TokyoMango publishes this Youtube video which demonstrates the Japanese keyboard from the iPhone 2.0 firmware:



The demo appears to be running within the iPhone SDK simulator. We've previously posted screenshots of the iPhone 2.0 Japanese keyboards. Tokyo Mango describes the input method:

You can pick from a muti-tab style kana keyboard or a sliding keyboard. Japanese kana letters are organized in groups of five according to a beginning letter and corresponding vowels (a i u e o), so you can either put in the first letter and then hit the same key b/w 1-5 times to get the right sound, or you can put the first letter in and then scroll through to see all five sounds and pick the right one.

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mavis
Posted: 47 months ago
Looks pretty smooth, and a vast improvement over the current entry method. The locals are going to love this!!! :D
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kjs862
Posted: 47 months ago
Looks good, just gotta learn how to read/write Japanese now:D
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NewSc2
Posted: 47 months ago
I'm just glad English translated well onto a keyboard.
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AppleFan333
Posted: 47 months ago
When I get an iPod touch, I'm going to show this to my Japanese teacher. She'll love it.
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Mal
Posted: 47 months ago
So wait. I thought Japanese input also would allow for handwriting recognition like Chinese? I don't see any mention of that here, is that not the case? It was a big feature for me, as I'm learning Japanese and being able to draw a symbol I don't recognize to find it's meaning and pronunciation would be nearly priceless.

jW
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ppc_michael
Posted: 47 months ago
I have no idea how to read/write/speak Japanese. Aaaand watching that video, I'm glad. ;)
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jettoblack
Posted: 47 months ago

So wait. I thought Japanese input also would allow for handwriting recognition like Chinese? I don't see any mention of that here, is that not the case? It was a big feature for me, as I'm learning Japanese and being able to draw a symbol I don't recognize to find it's meaning and pronunciation would be nearly priceless.

jW


Yeah, a lot of the Japanese press and tech pundits are fuming mad that the Chinese get HW recognition for kanji but the Japanese don't, even though it's mostly the same characters... for perspective, that's like giving a really nice English spellchecker to Scottish iPhones but disabling it completely for Irish phones... makes no sense at all. :mad:

Someone will probably make a Japanese dictionary for the iPhone, but it sure would be a lot easier if they didn't have to write their own kanji input method from scratch.
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tbobmccoy
Posted: 47 months ago

Yeah, a lot of the Japanese press and tech pundits are fuming mad that the Chinese get HW recognition for kanji but the Japanese don't, even though it's mostly the same characters... for perspective, that's like giving a really nice English spellchecker to Scottish iPhones but disabling it completely for Irish phones... makes no sense at all. :mad:

Someone will probably make a Japanese dictionary for the iPhone, but it sure would be a lot easier if they didn't have to write their own kanji input method from scratch.


this will make the iPhone even less popular in Japan, believe me. it should be at least 10 times easier to do hw recognition for japanese characters, since there are only about 120 kana characters and 1000ish kanji standardly used (10k or so would make it a college-level phone). a third party better come out with this soon...
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mavis
Posted: 47 months ago

a third party better come out with this soon...

I'm sure Apple will take care of it, especially if it receives bad press here (which I kind of doubt it will - remember, most Japanese phones are so complicated, people don't know how to use them anyway. The iPhone is a HUGE step up, no matter what the text entry is) ... ;)
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Kingsly
Posted: 47 months ago
Looks very groovy. Cant' wait to put her to use! :)
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