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Ask HN: No built-in handwriting recognition on iPad Pro

3 points by CyberFonic ↗ HN
I finally got around to checking out the new iPad Pro. It is really nice and fast. BUT ... I cannot understand why it doesn't have handwriting recognition built in. The Palm Pilots had it years ago and both Microsoft and Samsung (Android) tablets that come with a pen support quite good handwriting recognition. Surely, Apple isn't still aching about the Newton's poor recognition capabilities.

Any ideas why this might be so? Yes, I know there are 3rd party apps that claim to do the task, but a built-in facility which works alongside the keyboard would be far more uniform.

1 comment

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qubex
It isn't "built-in" (or not built-in) into the iPad device, but rather in the operating system. Indeed there is no handwriting recognition built into the current release of iOS10, but certain hints are visible in the beta of iOS11 that will be released in a few months (Notes can search handwritten notes) and CoreML presumably can be bent/repurposed for the sake of enabling this kind of capability.

Anyway Apple's lack of emphasis on handwriting as an input method goes back to the (ahead-of-its-time, ultimately unsuccessful) Newton platform of the mid-to-late nineties, whose handwriting recognition was both ahead of its time and ultimately limiting.