What is going on everybody?
I'm Mike.
And welcome back to Tech 24/7 TV.
A few weeks have passed since Apple unveiled iPad OS 14 as a
developer beta and it is the company's latest attempt to
catapult the iPad into the portable computing powerhouse
that we all know it is destined to become.
One of the really creative ways that Apple is intending to
accomplish this is by continuing to blend analogue
techniques from the real world into the iPad to deliver a
cohesive user experience.
I have spent the last several weeks dissecting the second
developer beta and there are a lot of great features coming to
the iPadOS this fall but really nothing has me excited for
iPadOS to come out as scribble.
And in today's video I'm going to tell you all about scribble
and why it can be a game changing feature that's going
to redefine your iPad experience.
Let's get started.
The fundamental technology behind scribble is nothing
new or groundbreaking.
As a matter of fact the core technology has existed since
the early part of the 20th century.
And if I really want to date myself here I remember using a
very primitive version of handwriting
recognition called graffiti.
Wait for it in a Palm Pilot.
Now if you don't know what a Palm Pilot is.
Let me know in the comments below but this is really one of
the founding members of the modern smartphone.
Much like all things Apple really the secret sauce is
going to be in how the technology is implemented.
As I said in the beginning the video, Apple has
a plethora of great features coming out this fall in iOS 14
as well as iPadOS 14 and I have a number of other videos that
preview each of the new features as well as the full
review of iOS and iPadOS 14.
So if you like what you've seen thus far and you want to go and
get more videos just like it make sure you click subscribe
and Toronto vacations so you can be alerted when that
new content drops.
I would describe scribble as a technology that has three core
features that are bundled together in order to create a
cohesive iPad experience
At its core the automatic conversion of handwriting into
typed text is really what makes trouble possible.
You're going to use your apple pencil you're right in any text
field and a system will AUTOMAGICALLY convert any your
handwritten text into type text that's readable by the system.
It's kind of amazing because this conversion works with a
number of different handwriting styles.
You know it doesn't me my saying styles.
You're handwriting does not need to be perfect nor is it
limited to only using you know cursive or print handwriting.
Now there's zero setup required meaning that I don't need to
write out the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog to
establish any type of training.
Now I pick up the pencil to write and the system converts
it out in the system readable text.
The analysis conversion happens very quickly and by no means is
it slow or laggy and I think it's reasonable to assume that
the speed will only get better as the beta progresses
throughout the summer because Apple is really driving this
feature heart as one of the core tenants in iPadOS14.
Strangely enough, I've seen better success rates when using
cursive handwriting opposed to print but that doesn't seem to
be like some type of limitation.
Let me know what your experiences are in
the comments below.
If you're running iPadOS 14.
For me, I would estimate the accuracy rate being somewhere
in the low to mid 90s.
Accuracy rate notwithstanding, you can simply scratch out any
text that you want to go and delete if mistake is made.
What's great here is that you can handwrite in any app even
though iPad OS 14 is still in beta for the next few months.
That's because Apple is really pushing iPad hard developers
hard if you had an app support pencil kit you know they knew
this was coming.
And now that the ability to convert handwriting into system
readable text is part of pencil kit,if you run
iPadOS 14, all of the apps including Apple's own first
party apps like: MAIL, MAPS, MESSAGES and almost all
the third party apps I have on my iPad are working with this
on day one of the beta now that includes my REDDIT app of
choice which is through the Apollo, my email
app of choice which is SPARK EMAIL,
and even Twitter.
That's not to say the support is perfect but it's I think
it's possible that many developers can update their
apps with iPad OS 14 to take advantage of scribble without a
significant amount of rework
Now most importantly the handwriting conversion is going
to stay private.
All the machine learning that is used to analyzing invert
your handwriting is performed on device and it's not sent to
or stored in the cloud
Other than the initial download of the language model that can
be used with scribble you do not need to have
an internet connection.
The second component of scribble is going to
be shape recognition.
Now this is going to take geometric shapes that you draw
by freehand and turn them into symmetrical bliss so it doesn't
resemble something that is coming from a 3 year old
This feature is going to work with circle star squares hearts
triangles ovals diamonds speech bubbles curved lines
and arrows.
Now for me this makes drawing so much easier smudging
the notes app.
When you say you wanna draw a diagram for a new studio that
you're moving into very soon much much easier.
And the last component of scribble are
expanded data detectors.
Now data detectors enable the iPad to go in automatically
recognized telephone numbers physical addresses email
addresses calendar entries in handwritten text take
action on it.
So what that means is you can write down a phone number say
call Mike on your iPad and that's going to be 3 1 2 5 5 5
1 2 1 2 and later on you can pull that note up on your iPad
to take action on it.
That is pretty freaking cool.
Since scribble work on any iPad that supports the apple pencil
Apple pencil too when the system language is English
simplified Chinese or traditional Chinese and the
fact that you can not only search handwritten texts on
your iPad but also from your iPhone and take action on
it as well.
I think this can be huge based on two factors.
First, the addiiton scribble is extremely enjoyable for iPad
users because they no longer need to approach using the iPad
with his very narrow this or that dichotomy of regarding the
apple pencil or the magic keyboard.
It enables a user to choose whether they want to use the
Apple pencil or the magic keyboard based on what is the
best tool for the job and the level of effort required to
complete the task.
I can remove my iPad from the Magic keyboard while continuing
to be productive with only my apple pencil as
the input device.
This allows me to remain in context without the need to
move back and forth between the magic keyboard and
the apple pencil.
We all know that remaining in context for as long as possible
is what's going to drive increases in productivity.
You can think of the apple pencil as abstracting some of
the jobs be done from the Magic Keyboard in order to
compartmentalize smaller tasks that be used with
the apple pencil.
Now this is not to say that the apple pencil will replace the
magic keyboard for myself or anyone else really watching
this video because no one wants it literally right a long email
with their apple pencil.
Second scribbles can change the way that you interact with your
iPad today and I think it paves the way for the technology to
come to the iPhone sooner rather than later.
Since all of your handwriting is indexed by the operating
system and searchable within the application on either
platform and it's completely reasonable to think that this
is going to make its way to the iPhone now plays directly into
the rumors that we've been hearing about that the iPhone
coming in a larger size screen and with some level support an
input device that was similar to an Apple pencil
And not to be too cynical here but this is a really convenient
way for Apple to increase the average revenue per user by
selling what arguably is one of the best accessories for the
iPad to millions of iPhone customers.
This wraps up my preview of scribble for iPad OS 14.
If you are running I've iPad OS 14 beta let me know in the
comments below how scribble is working for you again.
There's more content planned for iOS 14 and iPad OS 14
including a full review of each operating system when they are
released in the fall so make sure you subscribe with
notifications so you can be alert when that content drops
you don't want to miss this.
I am Mike this is tech 24/7 TV and I'll catch in the next one