Will Chinese or other Asian language be fully supported in OS2.1

**eliotwcn** · 05-03-2012, 09:23 PM

Hi Guys,

I am from Hong Kong and find some rumors on web that Chinese will be supported in the forthcoming OS2.1. Can anyone confirm on this? Thanks in advance.

**kenchang83** · 05-04-2012, 02:05 AM

Originally Posted by eliotwcn

Hi Guys,

I am from Hong Kong and find some rumors on web that Chinese will be supported in the forthcoming OS2.1. Can anyone confirm on this? Thanks in advance.

I've seen a couple of photos of playbook with Chinese input showing by 2 Chinese RIM employees long time ago, one of them even said the input method he/she uses is handwriting, so my guess is that it's ready, but for some stupid reason RIM just don't want to release it. Will see if things change in 2.1

**xsacha** · 05-04-2012, 02:33 AM

Yeah Chinese and Japanese are in Dev Alpha AFAIK.

**mandony** · 05-04-2012, 09:50 AM

Originally Posted by xsacha

Yeah Chinese and Japanese are in Dev Alpha AFAIK.

Japanese OS input is not likely soon. The PB is not readily available in Japan, except for personal import. Has anyone heard of a RIM Japan roll-out?

**polytope** · 05-04-2012, 10:07 AM

Originally Posted by mandony

Japanese OS input is not likely soon. The PB is not readily available in Japan, except for personal import. Has anyone heard of a RIM Japan roll-out?

I tried Japanese and Chinese on the Dev Alpha. Don't know how to get the characters out. Hmm. Maybe not yet implemented?

**eliotwcn** · 05-04-2012, 08:41 PM

Originally Posted by polytope

I tried Japanese and Chinese on the Dev Alpha. Don't know how to get the characters out. Hmm. Maybe not yet implemented?

This is encouraging that I think it shall have been workable. If you can find some Chinese guy around you, you may invite him/her to try for you.

**CrackOp** · 05-05-2012, 03:31 PM

Originally Posted by eliotwcn

This is encouraging that I think it shall have been workable. If you can find some Chinese guy around you, you may invite him/her to try for you.

Confirmed and the answer is still no for the dev alpha. There do exist virtual keyboards called Chinese Pinyin and Japanese Input, however, they are still unimplemented yet. It comes out whatever you type, just like the English keyboard.

**polytope** · 05-05-2012, 08:28 PM

Ok. The Korean keyboard spits out Korean alphabets. But you can't combine them to make actual proper Korean characters.

**mandony** · 05-05-2012, 10:17 PM

Hummm. I have been lead to believe the PB is a work in progress for the coming BB10 phones. I wonder, if the Far Eastern language sets are not on the PB, then, does RIM plan to sell the BB10 phones without the language sets in China, Japan, or Korea? Likely yes for the set availability and sales.
Using that logic, eventually the PB will eventually get those language sets too.

**polytope** · 05-06-2012, 07:54 AM

Originally Posted by mandony

Hummm. I have been lead to believe the PB is a work in progress for the coming BB10 phones. I wonder, if the Far Eastern language sets are not on the PB, then, does RIM plan to sell the BB10 phones without the language sets in China, Japan, or Korea? Likely yes for the set availability and sales.
Using that logic, eventually the PB will eventually get those language sets too.

The PB will move to the BB10 platform. So yes, it will eventually get all these languages. But from what I heard at BB10Jam, their priority is to get BB10 phones out first.

**qwang** · 05-06-2012, 10:13 PM

Originally Posted by CrackOp

Confirmed and the answer is still no for the dev alpha. There do exist virtual keyboards called Chinese Pinyin and Japanese Input, however, they are still unimplemented yet. It comes out whatever you type, just like the English keyboard.

I 'm not sure if the OS running in the dev alpha and the BB10 simulator are the same.
In the simulator,there is one working Chinese input,called handwrite,and the pinyin input in the simulator is not working either.

**lkc0203** · 05-06-2012, 11:20 PM

Originally Posted by mandony

Hummm. I have been lead to believe the PB is a work in progress for the coming BB10 phones. I wonder, if the Far Eastern language sets are not on the PB, then, does RIM plan to sell the BB10 phones without the language sets in China, Japan, or Korea? Likely yes for the set availability and sales.
Using that logic, eventually the PB will eventually get those language sets too.

actuall RIM is doing this already.
Playbook was released in Hong Kong July of last year, but the chinese input method is still unavailable.

**jetstreamblue** · 05-07-2012, 02:54 PM

On the BB Alpha simulator they have Chinese menus done (in both simplified and traditional). I can't seem to bring up any Chinese input keyboards though. Regardless, I have to think that they're working to have these available for the BB10 phone upon launch.

**zzbsb** · 05-07-2012, 09:50 PM

I've been using a sideloaded android app to get Chinese input. Only thing is its not real time input, you have to run the app, get the Chinese words/phrases and then copy/paste to where you want it like email or browser.

**mandony** · 05-07-2012, 09:57 PM

Originally Posted by zzbsb

... you have to run the app, get the Chinese words/phrases and then copy/paste to where you want it like email or browser.

Yah, these apps for non-roman characters have been in appWorld too.
Unfortunately RIM has not allowed dev's to access the part of system which drives the OS KB.

We were unsuccessful to drive the PB by inputting Japanese characters by the 'bridge' 'remote control' feature, using a BB9900 having an East Asian language OS