Re: Best smart phones & apps for diverse scripts?

From: Ed (ed.trager@gmail.com)
Date: Fri Oct 29 2010 - 10:13:42 CDT

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    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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