iAcces offers more Chinese input method than iCosta

Earlier, I reported that iCost offers more Chinese input method on iPhone. Now I have to eat my word. iAcces, which is the successor of NativeCN, offers far more Chinese input methods and functionalities than iCosta. The latest version of iAcces supports iPhone firmware up to v2.0.1. And, to name a few of the great features that may interest you:

It offers over eight different kinds of Chinese input methods (of course, it includes my favourite ChangJie and Easy). And, it’s available for both Traditional and Simplified Chinese.
The Chinese keyboard is available in both portrait and landscape mode. That’s pretty great!
It even incorporates the infamous Chinese handwriting recognition software – “PenPower” and definitely it does a better job than Apple in this area. At least, you can now write Chinese and English at the same time.
Also, it offers a minor enhancement on iPhone’s keyboard that you can now type special character (e.g. []{}) and numeric character on the same keyboard.

Support eight different types of Chinese Input Methods

iAcces supports eight different types of Chinese Input Methods including ChangJie, Easy, PinYin, Zhuyin, Cantonese phonetic method, China phonetic method, Boshiamy method (嘸蝦米) and Stroke method. For these methods, they can support both Traditional and Simplified Chinese. And you can choose from iAcces configuration screen to further customize each input method.

Chinese Keyboard – Portrait & Landscape mode

iAccess offers Chinese keyboard in both portrait and landscape mode on iPhone.

PenPower Handwriting Recognition – Write English & Chinese at the same time

The infamous Chinese handwriting recognition software – PenPower is incorporated on iPhone (via iAcces). It does not replace Apple’s handwriting pad. You can switch between Apple’s handwriting pad and PenPower easily. Base on my first impression, PenPower works much better than iPhone’s built-in handwriting recognition. It’s more responsive and offers a small pad for you to write English. That’s the feature I think most iPhone users look forward. Now you can write Chinese & English at the same time without switch between Chinese & English keyboard.

Enhanced iPhone Keyboard

iAcces even offers an enhancement on the iPhone keyboard. Look at the below figure. You can now type special characters and numeric one on the same keyboard.

Installing iAcces on iPhone

Cydia
Same as other third party application, iAcces is available on Cydia. To start with, you should first add the following source in Cydia (tap Manage -> Sources -> Edit -> Add):

http://www.iacces.com/apt

After installing the source, refresh the packages. And you can find the iAcces in “iAcces Community”. Install the package and restart your iPhone when complete. You’ll then find an iAcces icon on your iPhone. Tap the icon to start using iAcces.

Installer 4
iAcces can also be installed via Installer 4 on iPhone. The source for iAcces on Installer 4 is:

http://www.iacces.com/repo4

If you follow my recommendation earlier to install iCosta, you may need to remove iCosta before installing iAcces. And I highly recommend iAcces over iCosta. Try to grab a copy for free before iAcces charges you money! (note: iAcces is now still in beta stage and free for download. But it’ll probably charge you a small amount of money after official release)

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Tagged as: chinese, iPhone, jailbreak-iphone

{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }

1 Dennis December 2, 2008 at 2:32 pm: Hi Simon,

Thanks for putting this up. However, I can’t seem to find a way to type Chinese in pin yin. Can you show me how?

Thanks!

-Dennis.

2 Dennis December 3, 2008 at 2:22 am: I’m done! Thanks anyway for putting up article

3 spacer December 6, 2008 at 1:42 am: Maybe it is better for Traditional Chinese users as iCosta supports only Cangjie. As experience of a SC user, iCosta is still the fastest and most stable input method sytem. And most important, it is free.