Re: Best smart phones & apps for diverse scripts?

From: Deborah Goldsmith (goldsmit@apple.com)
Date: Fri Oct 29 2010 - 19:27:26 CDT

  • Next message: Leonardo Boiko: "Re: Best smart phones & apps for diverse scripts?"

    iPhone 4 supports Unicode in SMS messages. Furthermore, the SMS standard provides for Unicode in messages:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SMS

    I haven’t encountered any problems sending Unicode SMS messages on AT&T in the US.

    Debbie

    On Oct 29, 2010, at 8:13 AM, Ed wrote:

    > That's an interesting question Don.
    >
    > I recently bought a so-called "ChiPhone" (Chinese phone) which has
    > message catalogs and input methods for English, Français, Español,
    > Português, Italiano, Deutsch, Bahasa Melayu, Bahasa Indonesia, Türçe,
    > Tiếng Việt, русский язык, Arabic, Persian, Romanian, ไทย, 繁體中文 and of
    > course 简体中文.
    >
    > The phone has a side slide-out QWERTY keyboard which is very
    > convenient. The input method for 简体中文 is decent enough. However,
    > overall the software on the phone sucks, and a number of the other
    > language input methods are awkward or bordering on unusable. The lack
    > of Japanese is also annoying.
    >
    > And there is another big problem: at least here in the U.S., it looks
    > like at least some major carriers refuse to accept Unicode text
    > messages outside of the ASCII range. I wish I knew more specifically
    > what is or is not accepted. I know I have had problems trying to send
    > Chinese text messages with T-Mobile: the carrier refused to accept
    > messages containing "symbols". Very annoying.
    >
    > Does anyone on this list know specifically what limitations carriers
    > in the U.S. impose on unicode SMS messages? Are there specific
    > encoding issues?
    >
    > I think it would be especially valuable to know if the iPhone4 using
    > ATT in the U.S. deals with Unicode properly? The reason I single out
    > the iPhone4 is because its high-resolution screen is very much
    > superior to a typical smart phone, especially when it comes to reading
    > scripts with many strokes like Chinese, or with many small diacritical
    > marks, like Vietnamese or Thai. (If you have not done so yet, try
    > reading a Chinese web page on your typical smart phone, and then do
    > the same on an iPhone4 to see the difference).
    >
    > - Ed
    >
    > On Fri, Oct 29, 2010 at 8:20 AM, Don Osborn <dzo@bisharat.net> wrote:
    >> What do users of this list find to be the most Unicode friendly smart
    >> phones? Apps for those phones? Best input systems for texting beyond ASCII
    >> (and potentially multiscriptly)?
    >>
    >>
    >>
    >> Thanks in advance for any feedback. I’m back in the US and in the market for
    >> a new phone, and if I pay for high-end, don’t want to be limited to ASCII.
    >>
    >>
    >>
    >> Don
    >
    >



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