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FB Group: Apple, Add Handwriting Recognition to the iPad

Difficult to comment on this given that no-one's actually got their hands on one yet....
 
The iPad is a revolutionary product. It will change the way people live.

Handwriting is among the most natural and cherished human acts. It's both an art form and an efficient means of communication.

Whereas the form factor of the iPad mimics a common paper notepad, the most natural way of "writing" on the device might be handwriting.

Handwriting would allow iPad users to hold the device with one hand while writing with the other. The efficiency of input for some users would be greatly increased over touch typing.

Apple has already developed one of the best handwriting recognition engines, named Inkwell. Inkwell is already a part of the Mac OS X operating system, and could be included in the iPad with ease.

Users could choose to use finger input, or buy "pens" designed for use on the iPad.

Apple, we love the iPad. We expect the product to continue to evolve into a more perfect device.

Apple, please include handwriting recognition in a future update of the iPad OS.
 
Timothy said:
The iPad is a revolutionary product. It will change the way people live.

Handwriting is among the most natural and cherished human acts. It's both an art form and an efficient means of communication.

Whereas the form factor of the iPad mimics a common paper notepad, the most natural way of "writing" on the device might be handwriting.

Handwriting would allow iPad users to hold the device with one hand while writing with the other. The efficiency of input for some users would be greatly increased over touch typing.

Apple has already developed one of the best handwriting recognition engines, named Inkwell. Inkwell is already a part of the Mac OS X operating system, and could be included in the iPad with ease.

Users could choose to use finger input, or buy "pens" designed for use on the iPad.

Apple, we love the iPad. We expect the product to continue to evolve into a more perfect device.

Apple, please include handwriting recognition in a future update of the iPad OS.
Click to expand...

Boy... sign me up for the "apple please work on other stuff instead" group... handwriting is about the slowest way to enter text. I'd never use it, and think it's a dead-end as far as text entry goes. Sure, there are probably some niches that could use it, but fine - build an app for those niches. As an OS add-on, I'd rather Apple focus on other things.

As far as the artistic side - I agree with you there... handwriting can be beautiful. But in those cases, it "stays handwritten"... there's no need to "recognize" it.
 
Except, Apple ALREADY has the technology, and it's already in Mac OSX.

Having been a previous Newton owner, I can attest to being able to input text much faster using hwr than with touch typing. And, given the form factor of the iPad, I just think for many uses this would be a more natural form of input.

Of course, the inclusion of HWR doesn't preclude the use of keyboard input. So, you don't really lose anything if you choose not to use it.
 
I would use handwriting for taking notes/orders in the field. I work in the housing industry and many orders are not simply words, many numbers, dimensions etc.. that I can write out 10x faster than swapping from the on screen keyboard to the numbers and back. I can take short hand of items much faster than typing even on a real keyboard.

I say bring it on!
 
That would be interesting, if you had a "keyboard" that you could change to which was blank -- which looked for handwriting input with either a finger or a capacitive stylus. But I don't think it'll happen, Apple is kind of against styluses.
 
MythicFrost said:
That would be interesting, if you had a "keyboard" that you could change to which was blank -- which looked for handwriting input with either a finger or a capacitive stylus. But I don't think it'll happen, Apple is kind of against styluses.
Click to expand...

Apple* used to be against phones, tablets, etc.


*by Apple, we mean Steve Jobs, of course. ;-)
 
amorya said:
What? Really?
Click to expand...

Really. I got to where I could write about 40 words per minute on my Newton. Without errors.

Don't get me wrong. I like my iPhone, and I appreciate the mini on-screen keyboard, but it's just not a natural input in certain situations.

For example…sitting in a meeting. Touch typing feels so intrusive to the context of a meeting, especially in a small meeting. It would be much more natural to input via handwriting.

Anyway, there aren't many of us left, but for those who were part of the Newton world, and despite the oft-repeated jokes, the final versions of the handwriting recognition were remarkably good and stable.
 
Does anyone have experience using any of the styli available for the iPhone? Can you give me a quick review?
 
Hand writing recognition takes alot more processor power. Having it on your MAC is one thing but on the iPad?

I would be happy if it would just record hand written notes that I could email to myself or my office manager. Pictures and diagrams done by hand would be great! I am sure that this will be in the iPad apps soon if not now.
 
Timothy said:
While I appreciate the effort, I'd still like to see Apple fully integrate HWR into the device at the core level.
Click to expand...

How would that work though?

Would you click on an area to enter text and then a little box would come up that you would write in? Or would you simply click on the text area and then write over top the screen and it would translate that into printed text?
 
Bodhi395 said:
How would that work though?

Would you click on an area to enter text and then a little box would come up that you would write in? Or would you simply click on the text area and then write over top the screen and it would translate that into printed text?
Click to expand...

There are any number of ways to do it. On the Apple Newton, you could just write anywhere on the screen, and it would convert the text and place it where ever the cursor happened to be at the time.
 
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