iPhone: 汉字输入 / Chinese character input

连第一个iPhone 也能看汉字 。

比方说，在电子邮件里或者在网上等等。
Even the first version of the iPhone could display Chinese (in Unicode encoding), for example, in e-mail, on the web, etc. (see right).

不过从固件更新到了2.0版本起来，也能输入汉字。

打拼音，写在手记上都可以。

But since the 2.0 firmware update, you can enter Chinese characters either by typing pinyin or writing directly on the screen (see below).

The pinyin input even recognizes 2-character words. Below, you can see how after typing in "xiezi", my first two choices are 鞋子 xiézi "shoe" and 写字 xiězì "write character(s)". This example is interesting because the ITABC pinyin input in the full Mac OS doesn't seem to give 写字 as an option for this string. The handwriting recognition also works well and can be even faster than typing pinyin.

These input methods are enabled in the iPhone Settings>General. From there, go either to International>Keyboards or Keyboards>International (both ways take you to the same screen). At the bottom, you can choose Chinese (simplified) and/or Chinese (traditional).

For each, you can enable pinyin and/or handwriting. Once you have more than one input system, tapping the small globe at the bottom of the keyboard moves from one to the next in a set order.

Since I haven't been taking formal classes for a little over a year now, I haven't had to handwrite much and I realized that I was forgetting characters left and right. So now as a learning device, the iPhone rocks, because even shooting off a text message or posting to the blog gives me an opportunity to slip in some practice, without making time to sit down with pen and paper.

Now I really hope Apple introduces handwriting recognition into the Mac OS, so I can hook up a little graphics tablet to my laptop.