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Oct 18

Handwriting Recognition Coming to iPhone?

Posted in: Apple, Gadgets, iPhone, Software, Today's Chili

This article was written on March 31, 2008 by CyberNet.

When Apple announced the iPhone last year at MacWorld, it seemed as though their goal was to introduce something new and fresh which they successfully accomplished. The phone itself is an incredible device with revolutionary new features. The fact that the iPhone is touch-screen showed that Apple wanted to get away from buttons or a stylus like what we’ve seen in phones and PDA’s for quite a while now, and offer something different. The whole touch-screen method has gone over well for them which is why we’re a little confused at a job that they recently posted on their site.

The job was posted on March 14th on Apple.com, and the title is “Handwriting Recognition Engineer.” When you read the description, you learn that they’re looking for someone to advance Apple’s handwriting recognition technology for Mac OS X. This makes sense if they’re hoping to launch a tablet computer like what has been rumored for a while now but what doesn’t make sense is the last sentence in the description. It reads, “The recognition technology you create may extend beyond Mac OS X to other applications and the iPhone.” Yes, it says the iPhone. Does this mean that if they were able to perfect the handwriting recognition technology, that they would try to incorporate it into the iPhone? If so, does that mean we might be seeing a stylus with a future generation iPhone?

apple job description

Of course we have to think outside of the box and think about other ways in which Apple could use handwriting recognition technology on the iPhone. An Engadget commenter (VganTN T) makes this point and says:

Maybe the recognition isn’t for user input…
What about writing on a piece of paper, taking a photo of it, and having any recognized text be put into the notes app?
Ready for editing or emailing.

We really can’t see Apple selling an iPhone with a stylus, so it’ll be interesting to see what comes of this, if anything. Apple could have just thrown that line in the job description about the iPhone to get people talking, who knows! Any thoughts?

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