Apple launches Japanese version of its guided tour of the iPhone 3G

Jul 7, 2008 20:16 GMT  ·  By

Three weeks after the introduction of iPhone 3G, Apple released "iPhone 3G. A guided Tour." Days later, the Japanese version of the very same tour was available, featuring a Japanese bloke, of course.

The video uses a well versed Apple employee to tell you what's new, and, just like with the English version, it doesn't hold many surprises. Something that the US version of the guided tour didn't offer is a demonstration of the iPhone's handwriting recognition capabilities.

Since the Japanese and Chinese are also fans of the iPhone, Apple thought ahead and developed a technology especially for them. In one of its iPhone 2.0 software releases Apple quietly added Chinese (Traditional and Simplified). Users must select Chinese input and draw characters on the screen with their fingers. The handwriting recognition function helps users write better and faster by displaying four possibilities on the right side of the screen. It works the same with Japanese.

"At the time we reported this functionality with the iPhone OS, screenshots of the new feature emerged, courtesy of Wretch.cc, while MacRumors was able to independently verify that this did exist in the latest iPhone firmware beta available to registered iPhone developers," the website noted in May. English support was never found and, as we could see last week, never added.

Other than Handwriting Recognition, the video shares more or less the same information about the capabilities of 3G networking, iPhone in Enterprise, MobileMe, Maps with GPS and the App Store.

Apple's new MobileMe Internet service automatically pushes new email, contacts and calendar events to your Mac, PC, iPhone and iPod touch and makes sure all your information stays up to date, across all your devices.

The App Store is accessible from just about anywhere, thanks to 3G networking. You can browse categories, do a keyword search or take a look at recommendations to ultimately download and install applications directly onto your iPhone. iPhone 3G also delivers push email, calendar and contacts using enterprise-grade networking with Cisco IPSec VPN and WPA2 Enterprise, through Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync.