14 DAY TRIAL // Bitstream, the company behind the highly-acclaimed Bolt browser, has just announced that its application will now provide full support for Indic languages. The new version targets over 1.3 billion people living in India and the surrounding regions.
According to the developer, thanks to the new features, the browser will now be able to to perfectly render Indic text on a Web page and will provide end users with the ability to input Indic text into the browser.
Currently, BOLT browser is available in JavaME and BREW and can be used on all mobile phones that feature one of these two technologies, including those phones without native Indic language support.
“Interacting with Indic languages presents unique challenges on mobile devices,” said Lokesh Joshi, director of research and development at Bitstream India.
“Indic characters are not independent from one another the way characters are in Latin alphabets. Each letter’s size and shape is determined by the characters that surround it, making it a very complex language to work with in a mobile context. With BOLT’s Indic solution for device manufacturers and mobile network operators, Bitstream has also perfected Indic rendering in mobile browsing,” added Joshi.
Specifically the BOLT browser now supports the following Indic languages: Hindi (India’s official language), Bengali, Gurumukhi, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Gujarati, Malayalam and Oriya.
Apparently, other currently available mobile browsing software packages render Indic text incorrectly, which makes reading difficult. Bolt perfectly renders Indic text on a Web page and allows users to scale text to larger or smaller sizes.
“Bitstream has engineered Bolt to maximize the utility of the Internet on mobile for end users, giving handset manufacturers an important competitive differentiator for their mobile phone lines, and providing mobile network operators another way to compete for new users as well as to better manage the data usage on their networks,” said Anna Magliocco-Chagnon, CEO of Bitstream.
“Now with the addition of Indic language support, Bitstream is introducing the mobile Internet as it was intended to be seen to millions of new users in India and surrounding regions,” added Anna.
Bitstream is expected to demonstrate the Bolt cloud computing browsing platform, as well as its new Indic language support and a preview of the forthcoming Android version, at the upcoming India Telecom event, which will take place between 9 -11 December in New Delhi.