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Yes, my Apple devices are the first where I felt AI was integrated for something actually useful. I can just select and copy text in pictures as if it was the m

Yes, my Apple devices are the first where I felt AI was integrated for something actually useful. I can just select and copy text in pictures as if it was the most normal thing. I can search pictures based on their content, again including visible text. And it runs locally. Too bad it only seems to work on the latin alphabet. With greek letters, chinese symbols etc I get nothing at best.

wharvle 3y ago
> Yes, my Apple devices are the first where I felt AI was integrated for something actually useful. I can just select and copy text in pictures as if it was the most normal thing. I can search pictures based on their content, again including visible text Apple’s so good at pushing out these kind of “little” features that immediately feel like a kind of bare minimum a system should do. Having to use a system where these two things weren’t automatic, quick, and practically flawless would feel like taking a big step back. See also: Live Photos. I wouldn’t even consider any kind of phone or camera without that feature, now that I’ve experienced it. [edit] context of how good it is: some days back there was a link here that went to an image with a bunch of text on it. I followed the link, read it, and did my usual compulsive-text-selection thing I do when reading on the web. I didn’t realize I’d been looking at an image, rather than html, until I came back to the thread and read complaints about it. Double checked, yep, it was an image.
GaggiX 3y ago
I mean I have these features too on my Xiaomi phone and it does work with other alphabets and chinese characters locally.
- alpaca128 3y ago
  That's great, but I wanted a small phone with long update support. Xiaomi isn't bad in that regard for Android standards though. Either way I also get that feature on the laptop, where it's more useful to me overall.
Scubabear68 3y ago
I was really surprised and happy to be able to take a picture of my son’s hand written Christmas list and the phone made the text selectable with very few errors.
reaperducer 3y ago
Too bad it only seems to work on the latin alphabet. With greek letters, chinese symbols etc I get nothing at best. Works with Japanese on my MacBook Pro. I use it quite frequently.
- crazygringo 3y ago
  I wonder if it has to do with languages enabled on your system?
  - MBCook 3y ago
    No, I believe it only works with two or three alphabets. It’s a limitation that was documented somewhere. At least I think that was the case when first released. Just like Siri/voice recognition I’m sure Apple will add additional scripts over time.
    - crazygringo 3y ago
      Here's the list, I looked it up -- 12 languages across 5 different written scripts by my count, with lots of further national variations per language: https://www.apple.com/ios/feature-availability/#live-text-live-text https://www.apple.com/ios/feature-availability/#live-text-li...
      - MBCook 3y ago
        Oh cool, thanks.
- ls612 3y ago
  I tried using it to translate printed Russian text on a package once and it wouldn’t recognize the Cyrillic characters as text. YMMV
1000100_1000101 3y ago
Worth trying again. I just cut and paste from a screenshot of my daughter's Chinese homework. (edit: and iPhone photo translate worked for her Chinese homework too!) A recent iOS update greatly improved identification. It would often get the breed of our dogs wrong. Recently it was not only was more accurate, it started being able to identify both dogs in a single image, which I'd never seen before two days ago. A Flickr contact posted a picture of an animal I'd never seen or heard of earlier today. I took a picture of my monitor, and it was able to identify it as a coati.
- alpaca128 3y ago
  You're right, it works now
lostmsu 3y ago
> Yes, my Apple devices are the first Have you had non-Apple devices?
- alpaca128 3y ago
  The only Apple device I ever owned before 2022 was an iPod Nano. So yes, I kinda know the alternatives.

wharvle 3y ago

> Yes, my Apple devices are the first where I felt AI was integrated for something actually useful. I can just select and copy text in pictures as if it was the most normal thing. I can search pictures based on their content, again including visible text Apple’s so good at pushing out these kind of “little” features that immediately feel like a kind of bare minimum a system should do. Having to use a system where these two things weren’t automatic, quick, and practically flawless would feel like taking a big step back. See also: Live Photos. I wouldn’t even consider any kind of phone or camera without that feature, now that I’ve experienced it. [edit] context of how good it is: some days back there was a link here that went to an image with a bunch of text on it. I followed the link, read it, and did my usual compulsive-text-selection thing I do when reading on the web. I didn’t realize I’d been looking at an image, rather than html, until I came back to the thread and read complaints about it. Double checked, yep, it was an image.

GaggiX 3y ago

I mean I have these features too on my Xiaomi phone and it does work with other alphabets and chinese characters locally.

alpaca128 3y ago
That's great, but I wanted a small phone with long update support. Xiaomi isn't bad in that regard for Android standards though. Either way I also get that feature on the laptop, where it's more useful to me overall.

Scubabear68 3y ago

I was really surprised and happy to be able to take a picture of my son’s hand written Christmas list and the phone made the text selectable with very few errors.

reaperducer 3y ago

Too bad it only seems to work on the latin alphabet. With greek letters, chinese symbols etc I get nothing at best. Works with Japanese on my MacBook Pro. I use it quite frequently.

crazygringo 3y ago
I wonder if it has to do with languages enabled on your system?
- MBCook 3y ago
  No, I believe it only works with two or three alphabets. It’s a limitation that was documented somewhere. At least I think that was the case when first released. Just like Siri/voice recognition I’m sure Apple will add additional scripts over time.
  - crazygringo 3y ago
    Here's the list, I looked it up -- 12 languages across 5 different written scripts by my count, with lots of further national variations per language: https://www.apple.com/ios/feature-availability/#live-text-live-text https://www.apple.com/ios/feature-availability/#live-text-li...
    - MBCook 3y ago
      Oh cool, thanks.
ls612 3y ago
I tried using it to translate printed Russian text on a package once and it wouldn’t recognize the Cyrillic characters as text. YMMV

1000100_1000101 3y ago

Worth trying again. I just cut and paste from a screenshot of my daughter's Chinese homework. (edit: and iPhone photo translate worked for her Chinese homework too!) A recent iOS update greatly improved identification. It would often get the breed of our dogs wrong. Recently it was not only was more accurate, it started being able to identify both dogs in a single image, which I'd never seen before two days ago. A Flickr contact posted a picture of an animal I'd never seen or heard of earlier today. I took a picture of my monitor, and it was able to identify it as a coati.

alpaca128 3y ago
You're right, it works now

lostmsu 3y ago

> Yes, my Apple devices are the first Have you had non-Apple devices?

alpaca128 3y ago
The only Apple device I ever owned before 2022 was an iPod Nano. So yes, I kinda know the alternatives.