Apple Adds Chinese Handwriting for Multi-Touch Capable Macs in New Snow Leopard

Apple has seeded developers with a new version of Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) tonight. The build (10A354) adds one particularly interesting new feature to Apple's Mac operating system: Chinese handwriting recognition specifically for multi-touch capable machines.

Apple recently acquired Chinese handwriting technology for use in the iPhone, and appears to be incorporating this same technology into Mac OS X. Most interesting, however, is the fact that it is specifically enabled on multi-touch capable machines. We presume this to include Apple's notebooks which include multi-touch trackpads. While Apple does offer an English handwriting recognizer based on old Newton technologies, it is only available when you have a drawing tablet connected to your Mac. This could open the door to more novel uses for Apple's multi-touch trackpads or even suggest a more robust full-screen multi-touch screen as has been rumored.

Meanwhile, those who were waiting for the release of Mac OS X 10.5.7 today were likely disappointed. Apple has, however, seeded a new version (9J61) to developers tonight as well.