Looks good. I hope something similar will be developed for the Japanese input mode. Typing in Japanese is already pretty good, but occasionally it can be difficult to get the correct character -- particularly when typing in names of people and places that use uncommon characters. It would be great to be able to just draw the character instead of having to jump through hoops trying to find it under a different reading.
Combine it with a dictionary FTW.
There's already an iPhone/iPT app called iChinese that lets you draw characters on the touch screen. It's not a general input method, mind you; it's specifically for learning and practising Chinese. But it's a good technology demo.
Depends if it requires correct stroke order. Some Casio e-dicts don't require correct stroke order. While this is very convenient it doesn't help promote good stroke order habits. Always a debate on this.
Correct stroke order is for actual language apps like Pleco to cover, not for HWR IMO.
For what it's worth, I think focusing more than a token amount on learning how to write Chinese is a waste of time. [I'm biased as my handwriting is equally horrible in Chinese or English, and that's only getting worse]. That said, being able to scribble in a character you don't know and get a definition is golden.
Handwriting recognition is generally a dog, but it make sense for Chinese and Japanese....anywhere the language has far more characters than can fit on a standard keyboard.
i found the newton handwriting recognition quite usable (at least on the MP2000), if you take the time to train it for a week or so. the hard part was to actually write by hand again. then again... it did have a sweet optional keyboard, that also worked on macs. not that i miss adb much...
when i got my ipod touch, i had flashbacks. i'm looking forward to whatever comes next...
Handwriting is the easiest method to input chinese into ANY electronically (phone, pda, pc etc.), there are no easy way to type chinese, and lots of chinese do not know how to input chinese. There are more then 30 ways or method to input Chinese character, whatever way you use you need a certain level of understanding chinese, I don't see any chinese input method that need not to learn in a proper way, and need months and even years of practice to type it fast.
You may think speech recognition is a good way to input chinese character. Years of developing chinese speech recognition is as long as english but you can see even by now the accuracy is still very low. And believe me, it is much much harder then any other languages to be recognised but computer (I'm not going into details and this will take me a thousands word to explain). Briefly speaking, pronunciation is a nightmare even to Chinese people themselves (there are 200+ dialects in Chinese languages).
Here's a link for some very interesting facts of Mandarin (The official and the simplest, easiest dialect out of the 200+) pronunciation.
Someone may ask Japanese and Korean character input. Japanese has only 50 basic characters and all the characters can be pronounced in English way within 3 English alphabets. All Japanese words or borrowed-from chinese characters (which pronounce differently to chinese) can be formed by the 50 basic characters. Therefore all japanese are able to input japanese characters with a standard english keyboard withount any learning curve. I'm not as familar to Korean as Japanese, to my knowledge it is similar to Japanese, it has very limit amount (less then 50) of basic characters, the way it form characters is more complicate then Japanese, and its a simplier version of Chinese character formation. So it shouldn't be a problem to input Korean character with English keyboards.
Unlike english, all the alphabetes are list on the keyboard or the keypad in mobile phones. Chinese character is being formed in a rather complex structure, there are alphabets -like concept to form Chinese characters but you may need a keyboard with around 700 keys and it will only able to allow you to input not more then 80% of every single chinese characters.
There are straight rules to the order of writing chinese characters, early chinese handwriting recognition softwares still require you to write the character in exact writing orders to recognise properly. As processing power is much fast nowadays and with more sophisticated technologies it is now not a big problem (many Chinese do not know how to write properly).
Back to the main topic, I'm so excited that apple is putting chinese input into iphone and itouch, i have been waiting for this since the first day it announced iphone, and i am always worrying that apple is not paying much attention to the chinese market and therefore not caring to include chinese input. For everyone who are not Chinese and upset about it not supporting handwriting recognition in your language. Believe me, you will never want to use it even it recognise it. The software keyboard is much better. And the handwritting recognition is the only way to ensure all Chinese people who can write chinese (let me repeat...many chinese people don't know how to write chinese) to input chinese character. Foreign people can also have a chance to study and draw the chinese characters to see how much they can do. LOL.
Final words. Depends on the character database built-in, I'm expecting iPhone software 2.0 is not going to able to recognise not more than 3000 chinese characters (out of around 100,000 total characters), but it should account more than 99% of the character in most texts.
Few more links for interesting facts about Chinese characters:
Handwriting is the easiest method to input chinese into ANY electronically (phone, pda, pc etc.), there are no easy way to type chinese, and lots of chinese do not know how to input chinese. There are more then 30 ways or method to input Chinese character, whatever way you use you need a certain level of understanding chinese, I don't see any chinese input method that need not to learn in a proper way, and need months and even years of practice to type it fast.
You may think speech recognition is a good way to input chinese character. Years of developing chinese speech recognition is as long as english but you can see even by now the accuracy is still very low. And believe me, it is much much harder then any other languages to be recognised but computer (I'm not going into details and this will take me a thousands word to explain). Briefly speaking, pronunciation is a nightmare even to Chinese people themselves (there are 200+ dialects in Chinese languages).
Here's a link for some very interesting facts of Mandarin (The official and the simplest, easiest dialect out of the 200+) pronunciation.
Someone may ask Japanese and Korean character input. Japanese has only 50 basic characters and all the characters can be pronounced in English way within 3 English alphabets. All Japanese words or borrowed-from chinese characters (which pronounce differently to chinese) can be formed by the 50 basic characters. Therefore all japanese are able to input japanese characters with a standard english keyboard withount any learning curve. I'm not as familar to Korean as Japanese, to my knowledge it is similar to Japanese, it has very limit amount (less then 50) of basic characters, the way it form characters is more complicate then Japanese, and its a simplier version of Chinese character formation. So it shouldn't be a problem to input Korean character with English keyboards.
Unlike english, all the alphabetes are list on the keyboard or the keypad in mobile phones. Chinese character is being formed in a rather complex structure, there are alphabets -like concept to form Chinese characters but you may need a keyboard with around 700 keys and it will only able to allow you to input not more then 80% of every single chinese characters.
There are straight rules to the order of writing chinese characters, early chinese handwriting recognition softwares still require you to write the character in exact writing orders to recognise properly. As processing power is much fast nowadays and with more sophisticated technologies it is now not a big problem (many Chinese do not know how to write properly).
Back to the main topic, I'm so excited that apple is putting chinese input into iphone and itouch, i have been waiting for this since the first day it announced iphone, and i am always worrying that apple is not paying much attention to the chinese market and therefore not caring to include chinese input. For everyone who are not Chinese and upset about it not supporting handwriting recognition in your language. Believe me, you will never want to use it even it recognise it. The software keyboard is much better. And the handwritting recognition is the only way to ensure all Chinese people who can write chinese (let me repeat...many chinese people don't know how to write chinese) to input chinese character. Foreign people can also have a chance to study and draw the chinese characters to see how much they can do. LOL.
Final words. Depends on the character database built-in, I'm expecting iPhone software 2.0 is not going to able to recognise not more than 3000 chinese characters (out of around 100,000 total characters), but it should account more than 99% of the character in most texts.
Few more links for interesting facts about Chinese characters:
Comments
Is this genuine? I mean just look at the name of the network in the photos.
Erica Sudan of TUAW wrote an app called Make It Mine that makes it simple to change the carrier name of jailbroken iPhones.
May mean that it 3G phone will be released in China soon, despite what news reports suggest. Might go well with their new store in China...
Perhaps but not without problems.
iPhoneAsia: http://idannyb.wordpress.com/2008/02...or-this-world/
Combine it with a dictionary FTW.
There's already an iPhone/iPT app called iChinese that lets you draw characters on the touch screen. It's not a general input method, mind you; it's specifically for learning and practising Chinese. But it's a good technology demo.
What if I'm not Chinese nor need the functionality? Can I disable, and thus delete, the files?
The .lproj folders the first ones I nuke on my Mac, which saves me about 1GB.
Will this mean that in the US, a 16G iPhone will really be a 13G one due to what has to be huge handwriting recognition system files?
What if I'm not Chinese nor need the functionality? Can I disable, and thus delete, the files?
The .lproj folders the first ones I nuke on my Mac, which saves me about 1GB.
I would assume that this would only apply to the Chinese market.
Depends if it requires correct stroke order. Some Casio e-dicts don't require correct stroke order. While this is very convenient it doesn't help promote good stroke order habits. Always a debate on this.
Correct stroke order is for actual language apps like Pleco to cover, not for HWR IMO.
For what it's worth, I think focusing more than a token amount on learning how to write Chinese is a waste of time. [I'm biased as my handwriting is equally horrible in Chinese or English, and that's only getting worse]. That said, being able to scribble in a character you don't know and get a definition is golden.
Handwriting recognition is generally a dog, but it make sense for Chinese and Japanese....anywhere the language has far more characters than can fit on a standard keyboard.
i found the newton handwriting recognition quite usable (at least on the MP2000), if you take the time to train it for a week or so. the hard part was to actually write by hand again. then again... it did have a sweet optional keyboard, that also worked on macs. not that i miss adb much...
when i got my ipod touch, i had flashbacks. i'm looking forward to whatever comes next...
I am Chinese and I tell you why.
Handwriting is the easiest method to input chinese into ANY electronically (phone, pda, pc etc.), there are no easy way to type chinese, and lots of chinese do not know how to input chinese. There are more then 30 ways or method to input Chinese character, whatever way you use you need a certain level of understanding chinese, I don't see any chinese input method that need not to learn in a proper way, and need months and even years of practice to type it fast.
You may think speech recognition is a good way to input chinese character. Years of developing chinese speech recognition is as long as english but you can see even by now the accuracy is still very low. And believe me, it is much much harder then any other languages to be recognised but computer (I'm not going into details and this will take me a thousands word to explain). Briefly speaking, pronunciation is a nightmare even to Chinese people themselves (there are 200+ dialects in Chinese languages).
Here's a link for some very interesting facts of Mandarin (The official and the simplest, easiest dialect out of the 200+) pronunciation.
http://www.pinyin.info/chinese_characters/
Someone may ask Japanese and Korean character input. Japanese has only 50 basic characters and all the characters can be pronounced in English way within 3 English alphabets. All Japanese words or borrowed-from chinese characters (which pronounce differently to chinese) can be formed by the 50 basic characters. Therefore all japanese are able to input japanese characters with a standard english keyboard withount any learning curve. I'm not as familar to Korean as Japanese, to my knowledge it is similar to Japanese, it has very limit amount (less then 50) of basic characters, the way it form characters is more complicate then Japanese, and its a simplier version of Chinese character formation. So it shouldn't be a problem to input Korean character with English keyboards.
Unlike english, all the alphabetes are list on the keyboard or the keypad in mobile phones. Chinese character is being formed in a rather complex structure, there are alphabets -like concept to form Chinese characters but you may need a keyboard with around 700 keys and it will only able to allow you to input not more then 80% of every single chinese characters.
There are straight rules to the order of writing chinese characters, early chinese handwriting recognition softwares still require you to write the character in exact writing orders to recognise properly. As processing power is much fast nowadays and with more sophisticated technologies it is now not a big problem (many Chinese do not know how to write properly).
Back to the main topic, I'm so excited that apple is putting chinese input into iphone and itouch, i have been waiting for this since the first day it announced iphone, and i am always worrying that apple is not paying much attention to the chinese market and therefore not caring to include chinese input. For everyone who are not Chinese and upset about it not supporting handwriting recognition in your language. Believe me, you will never want to use it even it recognise it. The software keyboard is much better. And the handwritting recognition is the only way to ensure all Chinese people who can write chinese (let me repeat...many chinese people don't know how to write chinese) to input chinese character. Foreign people can also have a chance to study and draw the chinese characters to see how much they can do. LOL.
Final words. Depends on the character database built-in, I'm expecting iPhone software 2.0 is not going to able to recognise not more than 3000 chinese characters (out of around 100,000 total characters), but it should account more than 99% of the character in most texts.
Few more links for interesting facts about Chinese characters:
http://www.clavisinica.com/character-test.html
http://chineseculture.about.com/libr...blccbasics.htm
Guys,
I am Chinese and I tell you why.
Handwriting is the easiest method to input chinese into ANY electronically (phone, pda, pc etc.), there are no easy way to type chinese, and lots of chinese do not know how to input chinese. There are more then 30 ways or method to input Chinese character, whatever way you use you need a certain level of understanding chinese, I don't see any chinese input method that need not to learn in a proper way, and need months and even years of practice to type it fast.
You may think speech recognition is a good way to input chinese character. Years of developing chinese speech recognition is as long as english but you can see even by now the accuracy is still very low. And believe me, it is much much harder then any other languages to be recognised but computer (I'm not going into details and this will take me a thousands word to explain). Briefly speaking, pronunciation is a nightmare even to Chinese people themselves (there are 200+ dialects in Chinese languages).
Here's a link for some very interesting facts of Mandarin (The official and the simplest, easiest dialect out of the 200+) pronunciation.
http://www.pinyin.info/chinese_characters/
Someone may ask Japanese and Korean character input. Japanese has only 50 basic characters and all the characters can be pronounced in English way within 3 English alphabets. All Japanese words or borrowed-from chinese characters (which pronounce differently to chinese) can be formed by the 50 basic characters. Therefore all japanese are able to input japanese characters with a standard english keyboard withount any learning curve. I'm not as familar to Korean as Japanese, to my knowledge it is similar to Japanese, it has very limit amount (less then 50) of basic characters, the way it form characters is more complicate then Japanese, and its a simplier version of Chinese character formation. So it shouldn't be a problem to input Korean character with English keyboards.
Unlike english, all the alphabetes are list on the keyboard or the keypad in mobile phones. Chinese character is being formed in a rather complex structure, there are alphabets -like concept to form Chinese characters but you may need a keyboard with around 700 keys and it will only able to allow you to input not more then 80% of every single chinese characters.
There are straight rules to the order of writing chinese characters, early chinese handwriting recognition softwares still require you to write the character in exact writing orders to recognise properly. As processing power is much fast nowadays and with more sophisticated technologies it is now not a big problem (many Chinese do not know how to write properly).
Back to the main topic, I'm so excited that apple is putting chinese input into iphone and itouch, i have been waiting for this since the first day it announced iphone, and i am always worrying that apple is not paying much attention to the chinese market and therefore not caring to include chinese input. For everyone who are not Chinese and upset about it not supporting handwriting recognition in your language. Believe me, you will never want to use it even it recognise it. The software keyboard is much better. And the handwritting recognition is the only way to ensure all Chinese people who can write chinese (let me repeat...many chinese people don't know how to write chinese) to input chinese character. Foreign people can also have a chance to study and draw the chinese characters to see how much they can do. LOL.
Final words. Depends on the character database built-in, I'm expecting iPhone software 2.0 is not going to able to recognise not more than 3000 chinese characters (out of around 100,000 total characters), but it should account more than 99% of the character in most texts.
Few more links for interesting facts about Chinese characters:
http://www.clavisinica.com/character-test.html
http://chineseculture.about.com/libr...blccbasics.htm
Thank you for a very interesting, and informative, post.
Come back again.
Guys,
I am Chinese and I tell you why.
You're parents are Chinese.
Seriously, great first post. Welcome to AI.