iPhone OS 4 betas show new iPad-style spelling features

Developers familiar with the iPhone 4.0 beta report that the new firmware brings spellcheck and suggested word replacement features from the iPad to the iPhone and iPod touch.

The new features first premiered on the iPhone OS 3.2 used exclusively by iPad, but when iPhone OS 4 hits this summer, it will extend the new features across Apple's range of mobile devices.

The spelling system extends the mechanism Apple created for copy and paste operations, enabling users to touch a misspelled word to select it, and then touch "Replaceâ€¦" as an alternative to cut or copy operations.

The system then offers replacement word suggestions in blue type, allowing for one touch correction. Misspelled text is underlined in red, a convention from Mac OS X's system wide spell check that was originally taken from Microsoft Word.

Apple has also announced that iPhone OS 4 will bring iPad's Bluetooth keyboard support to the iPhone and iPod touch. For more information on the text features that debuted with iPad, see AppleInsider's In-depth review: iPad and iPhone OS 3.2.

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91 Comments

solipsism

said about 13 years ago

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think this has been included since Beta 1, but with Beta 3 it got the familiar blue text to differentiate it.

Beta 1 was surprisingly stable, Beta 2 was surprisingly unstable, and Beta 3 is working out very well. While I don't think Apple would move up any release timeframe because of Gizmodo's unceremonious reveal of the iPhone HD I do wonder if the rumour of its release during WWDC might, in fact, be possible. I believe v2.0 had 7 Betas and v3.0 had 5 Betas before going Gold. At Beta 3, v4.0 is much farther ahead than I recall the other Betas at this point in the game.

prof. peabody

said about 13 years ago

Quote:

Originally Posted by AppleInsider

Developers familiar with the iPhone 4.0 beta report that the new firmware brings spellcheck and suggested word replacement features from the iPad to the iPhone and iPod touch. ...

Two comments:

The pictures don't do a very good job of explaining what's going on.
This will be a big disaster outside of the USA until Apple introduces an English dictionary for the iDevices.

I don't write American, I write using English. Having the squiggly red underlines is annoying if all the suggestions are going to be incorrect.

Apple needs to get the finger out and put UK English, Canadian English, Canadian French etc. dictionaries into the iDevices.

irnchriz

said about 13 years ago

This was listed among the features from the very first beta of 4.0 a month ago. Good to see AI is up to date. :s

nagromme

said about 13 years ago

What does this add to the spell-check and word-replacement that iPhones have always had? Is this just for times when you didn?t accept the spelling suggestion the first time, but should have, and want to go back and have another shot at checking your document?

tomozj

said about 13 years ago

Anyone else here not like the blue text? It seems a but unclear with the black background.. red would make more sense to correspond with the underline or green to contrast it conveying a correct suggestion.

On the other hand, I could just be going mad..