A MacRumors reader recently spotted a “job opportunity” for a handwriting recognition engineer on Apple’s website.
Whether or not this means handwriting recognition is in the works for either the iPhone/iPod Touch or even OS X is unknown at this point.
We can only hope that Apple will make this audacious move, and delve into the world of handwriting recognition on both portable, and not so portable devices.
What could handwriting recognition on the iPhone mean, you ask? Well, depending on how much time and effort Apple decides to put into utilizing handwriting recognition software on their devices, it could either make composing emails, text messages, and surfing the web (on the iPhone) a much easier task, or it could do just the opposite and make it more cumbersome (than the current keyboard? yeah right…)
I am very interested in seeing how this pans out, and whether or not Apple will seriously pursue this technology for both the iPhone and OS X (tablet Mac?)
Whether or not Apple is actually planning on utilizing any handwriting recognition software is purely speculation, but as I said before, this idea has potential, and I would love to see what Apple does with this.
[via MacRumors]
June 26th, 2008 at 5:37 pm
The last version of the the Newton had the best HWR I have ever seen. Apple has the technology. Job’s killed the Newton when he came back to Apple. He never seemed to be a fan, but he shouldn’t over the potential to make the Iphone a better product.