Afterword

ThimphuTech was the first technology blog in Bhutan. We started writing it in 2009, just as broadband and mobile internet started to take off. (Although internet in Bhutan was launched in 1999, it was either super-slow or super-expensive, and was only used by a selected few).

In the blog, we wrote about technology and food, but also about plenty of other stuff. The blog became popular and influential in Bhutan. A companion bi-weekly column -- Ask Boaz -- was published for many years in the Kuensel, Bhutan's national newspaper. (The complete Kuensel columns are available as an ebook, Blogging with Dragons).

We stopped updating the blog when we left Bhutan in 2014, but the information within the posts can still prove useful, and thus we decided to keep it online.

We thank all our readers.
Tashi Delek,
Boaz & Galit.

Friday, May 6, 2011

Dzongkha on iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch

A few months ago we demonstrated the first Dzongkha-enabled smartphone, the Nokia N900. The list of supported devices has since expanded. If you own an iPhone or iPad (or an iPod Touch), you will be glad to learn that these devices now fully support Dzongkha (Update: some stacking combinations are not available as this is a Tibetan keyboard. Our N900 currently remains the only smartphone with 100% support as well as a DDC keyboard). 

In a recent operating system update (iOS 4.2, November 2010), Apple added a Tibetan keyboard as well as the ability to display Tibetan/Dzongkha letters correctly. Note: Apple's Tibetan keyboard layout is different from the DDC's Dzongkha keyboard layout, as can be seen in the image below. You can find more information here.

If you own one of these devices, you are now able to browse Dzongkha websites (such as www.bbs.com.bt/bbs/dzongkha, see below), type emails in Dzongkha, and - if you have an iPhone - send an SMS in Dzongkha.

To enable the Tibetan keyboard, go to Settings → General → Keyboard → International Keyboards → Add New Keyboard ... → Tibetan.

Hopefully, built-in support for Tibetan/Dzongkha keyboard is in the works also for Google's Android, which is destined to become the most popular operating system for smartphones in upcoming years.

The BBS Dzongkha Website


The Tibetan Keyboard

1 comment:

  1. thank you very much for this useful information.....works great!

    ReplyDelete

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