now only if i had an iphone

I was really good with Graffiti 1.

It was right about the time they changed to G2 (after a suit) the Palm OS handheld world went to shit for me.

My last two Clies I had to hack G1 into.

The iPhone seems like a natural for this. I hope it works out.

The iPhone gets software that's been out for ages on other devices.

So... uh... yeah.

and how long that crappy palm has been around?

where to you keep your stylus?

I have a suggestion

@strider_mt2k: YEAH!! LET'S HAVE A G2 BASHING, POLEEEZE!! G2 really sucks, glad to find a fellow sufferer, at long last. I was near 100% with G1, now with G2 max. 95% on a good day. Doesn't sound like a big deal? Well, just imagine having to write every 20th word again when you are writing pretty fast, and you know what a pain in the back it can be (this is only for non-G2 sufferers, to make commiserating easier). Also, those two-stroke letters like 't' and 'i' really f... up Graffiti Anywhere, since it will write an 'l' only if there is a letter or a mark after it. If a word terminates in 'l' or 'i', as they are wont to do every now and then (unfortunately in Portuguese more than other languages, and I am currently on a Portuguese diet), you have to write something after it just to get the letter in.
I have said it once and I will say it again: Palm has been mostly making it's only software worse over the last years. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot... Maybe they do not include Graffiti on the Treos and Centros out of embarrassment?

@kaneshadow: behind the ear, of course.

@strider_mt2k: I was so addicted to Graffiti that it actually influenced my handwriting. I still make my "E"s look like backward 3s

@OMG! Ponies!: let's have a petition to bring back Graffiti 1 to the Palms, Treo, Centro and all!

For some reason my Touch is hanging at "refreshing Sources"

@yogibimbi: Absolutely. That was when Palm had good ideas.

How do you make your software recognize people's handwriting? Make people change their handwriting to a format that the software will recognize. It it works, people WILL change.

A watershed point in engineering on par with the Click Wheel.

hmmmm, Hanwang's website only gives me the login to webmail, in Chinese, no less...

@yogibimbi: there is an easy fix: learn Chinese

Article corrected: source is at

[iphonecake.com]

Video coming up.

see article, comment system won't let me leave the http

The iphone cannot already do this? That's stupid.

The Chinese have an alphabet?

@Kiamat: ideobet.. heh

Chinese is a great language and all, but ideographic is not the way to go for language. It should be retired. :P

Is there an Instinct port yet? lol

Yeah, tell that to the 5000 year old civilization, lol. :P

@Kiamat: It's more like 6 or 7 alphabets put together, but yeah.

Okay, I have to ask.. Why?

What is the point of a Palm-like handwriting system on a device that already has a pseudo keyboard? Maybe this is just to tell the two Palm users in the world 'see, I can go graffiti, too'?

Ideographic might not be ideal, but for languages like Japanese there are some advantages. A lot of meaning is implied through the kanji; which cannot be done through a syllabic alphabet.

Liveint, I used to be with you on that one, but I have gone the other way in recent years.

How am I supposed to draw on it though, a stylus won't work on the phone

@Monty: it is cool?

@Chris Magor: Kanji is simply stealing chinese ideograms. Same problem, but Japanese have two alphabets as well as thousands of Chinese characters. What a mess!

@DaOtter: I think I just did? :)

I speak a little hanyu, and a bit more nihongo, but was not really interested when I was supposed to learn 10,000 - 30,000 characters to read. Shrugs :)

Has nothing to do with chinese, or japanese, which are great cultures and people, but an objective opinion about lexical organization.

This brings back Newton memories!

budcase.com

@cdawson2000 Where's the complete newton firmware hack?

This is a pretty cool POC but not really practical if you're using english, as I can type much faster with the keyboard. It does do a really good job of recognition, though.

@cdawson2000: I thought that as well... doesn't look like an iPhone he's using in the strip :) Love Dunesbury!

Is it me, or does it look like China is poised to leap way ahead of US in tech innovation.

Really not talking about the handwriting app here. I'm no expert, but China seems to be as committed to technology as we are to defense spending.

I guess it also helps to have dirt cheap labor and non-existent patent law enforcement.

@misterwho: You mean, slaves and corruption :p

Sorry, but the installer source should be: iphonecake.com/src/all

and for the Hanwang website, you need add prefix: www.
like www.hanwang.com.cn

Beat up martin.......Eat up Martha....BAH!!

G1 forever.

Has anyone considered that handwriting recognition software on handhelds and tablets could be used to teach children penmanship? Everyone whines about kids not learning to write any more, but a smart handwriting recognition program could be tailored to be more (or less, I guess) demanding as kids using these devices grew older.

You'd possibly wind up with the situation of 100+ years ago, when all reasonably well educated people had very similar handwriting, having learned from only a couple of very popular templates that were taught in a relatively unforgiving manner.

Just an idea, if anyone wants to bring the handheld/tablet revolution to schools and make a fortune.

I should have added Clies forever, too. I love my iPhone, but I sorta miss my Clie.

No one has pointed out that Graffiti started out as a simplified Newton MessagePad recognizer. Later, USR/Palm bought Graffiti and put it on the Palm.

Now it's found its was back to an Apple handheld - but it sure would be nice if tech sites like this had longer memories to put things in the proper context.

Yea. Right. I'm gonna install some unknown Chinese software on my iPhone. NOT

Looks like spelling recognition to me! Very slow in comparison to typing and doesn't offer any advantage. In order to be effective, handwriting recognition should parse whole words, not rely on a single letter at a time.

i stand by g1 as well. I have an iphone but I'm still waiting for the palm operating system to run on it

And you have to, what, write with your finger? No thanks.

Even with graffiti no one was as fast at communicating as they were with tap9 or a qwerty keyboard. I thought the virtual keyboard of the iPod Touch and iPhone would be hard to use, but our brains are now wired for qwerty and my miss rate is far below what I thought it would be.