Alternative Japanese iPhone Input Method in the Wild

Posted on 10. May, 2010 @ 9:07 am by in Gadgets, Language Views: 2,224

A friend showing me how fast she can use the alternative Japanese input method on the iPhone.

… don’t mind what she says.

Most other people I know use the straight romaji qwerty keyboard method. She prefers this one.

Here is another video from the YouTube wild ™ more clearly showing how this “flick” method works.

Do any readers out there -not- use the regular romaji method?

- Harvey

  • zuanka

    You -can- use the romaji method? I did not know that. I thought everyone used the kana method (and didn’t realize there was a choice).

  • Mac

    I had no idea it even DID that. I was using it Japanese cell phone style by tapping each “button” repeatedly… That was an exercise in aggravation, so went back to qwerty style.

    This, though, looks awesome. Radial menus are made of rainbows and unicorns. I just switched back and think it looks promising. I’ll see how I like it after I get used to it. A quick bit of research shows me this is available on Android, too.

    Thanks!!

    (Man, am I a nerd… why am I excited over a keyboard layout?)

  • krushgroove

    I don’t know anyone (Japanese) who uses the romaji input. It’s slow, clunky, and works horribly for Japanese input. The 9 key flick-style input is one of the best things about the iPhone.

    • http://www.japannewbie.com harvey

      My wife is Japanese and only uses the qwerty style input on her iPod Touch.

  • http://durf.org/ Durf

    My Japanese wife uses only the 10-key layout shown in the videos. That said, she hates the iPhone’s Japanese input, mostly because the software is so idiotic and has such a meager capability to remember things you’ve typed before or show you likely phrases that come next.

  • http://marfilium.blogspot.com Marfil

    成る程。。。

    I “knew” how it worked, still didn’t really “understand” it until I see the video. I’m going to give it a try these days.

  • http://www.twitter.com/attilam attilam

    There are some games that help you get faster at using this method, I have one called FlickMaster on my iphone.

    I think it could also be handy for Japanese learners to get into the AIUEO way of thinking as well as recognizing hiragana in general :)

  • http://JapanDave.com David LaSpina

    I prefer the kana method when it works… but it often doesn’t work very well. Just too damn slow on my 3G. The input method itself is much faster than qwerty (IMO), but the software is so slow and the lag so great that it just makes it frustrating. (It is slow with qwerty too, but I can trust myself a little more and so can just type without worrying that the screen is lagging about 5 words behind my fingers)

    If I had a 3gs I would use it much more. I’m looking forward to the forthcoming 4g/HD.

  • Valmain

    Is this new on the iPhone? I have been using this flick input on my Android for a long time. It takes some getting used to, but is a breeze once you get it working smoothly.

    • http://www.japannewbie.com harvey

      It’s not new, this mode was available when the iPhone was first released.

  • http://www.zdwonline.de Haf

    Why does everyone seem to own an iPhone? I prefer my Motorola Milestone/Droid with the Android OS, which has so much more to offer. :)

    Anyway, there’s a Keyboard app with that input style for the Android system as well, it’s called OpenWNN Plus. It’s really nice and switching keaboard styles is quite fast and easy.

  • http://ducsu.com Duc

    I love my iPhone but I am too slow in using the Japanese keyboard. Maybe is best I am still learning Japanese.
    I can’t wait for the 4G iPhone to come out.

  • Jenny

    I’ve seen a lot of Japanese people use the flick method while on the train. I use the romaji version myself because that’s what I’m use to on my Mac.

    BTW, it’s nothing new because my iPhone had it for over a year now. What is new I believe is the ASCII emoji that’s included.

  • kenny

    putting qwerty on a phone is a misunderstanding. the 10 key method has become the norm, much like how qwerty, though non optimal, is the norm. And like dvorak and colemak, it’s hard to replace the norm.

    Why the 10 key prevails is because of how easy it is to learn, and remember how it works. The japanese alphabet is organized into 10 sets of 5 characters (that’s the natural phonetic organization), hence the natural mapping to the 10 key. Anyone can learn that in a matter of seconds.

    There’s also the beeper method, where the grid (10 sets of 5) can be entered numerically, so, the 2nd character of the the 4th set will be, 42, resulting in the sound “chi”. There was a time when people could punch these numbers into phones faster than they could type.

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