Category: Hawaiian Language Tech

Miscellaneous posts about the use of Hawaiian Language in technology

It Was 20 Years Ago Today, Apple Helped ‘Ōlelo Hawai‘i To Play…

On August 24, 2002, Apple Computer released Macintosh OS X 10.2. Among the many improvements included in that now-ancient release was the first official support for ‘ōlelo Hawai‘i (the Hawaiian language) by any major computer platform. The story, originally published by the Honolulu Advertiser, was syndicated by Associated Press and was picked up by over a hundred news outlets (here it is on MacWorld). Here is the original press release sent out by Hale Kuamo‘o on that date. I later posted a story about how a serendipitous meeting at Apple’s headquarters led to this development. I couldn’t share the backstory…

The Origins of Hawaiian Language Support in Mac OS and iOS: So You Want To Change The World?

Only a handful of my friends will recognize the gentleman standing in the back of this picture, Brian Frye. He is one of the unsung heroes of getting technology support for ‘ōlelo Hawai‘i to where it is today. I’ve told this story to some folks privately, but never shared it publicly before. Since he’s not at Apple anymore, it’s safe to do so. Brian was an Apple support engineer for Hawai‘i in the mid-late 1990s. During his time here we became friends, and he tried to help me find the individuals who could assist us in getting support for the Hawaiian…

“HI” Fonts on Newer Versions of Mac OS

I occasionally get emails from folks telling me that the old “Papa Pihi HI” for “HI” fonts no longer works on more recent versions of Mac OS X. While I’ve always encouraged folks to abandon those fonts and use the “Hawaiian” keyboard and Unicode fonts built into Mac OS X, sometimes there are valid reasons for using the old fonts. A few years ago the format for keyboard layout resources changed. The old format is actually a remnant of the pre-OS X operating systems. The new keyboard layouts are XML based, and I created one of these kinds of keyboard…

Visual Basic Scripts Back In Word 2011 For Mac

For whatever reason, I never did warm up to MS Word 2007 for Mac, and continued to use Word 2004 until recently. When I received my new MacBookPro 13′, I decided to abandon Office 2004 and make the leap to Office 2011. I’m glad I did, and just noticed something pretty cool. The ability to run Visual Basic macros-removed from Office 2007–is back. This means that the VB macros I originally wrote to convert documents written in our old HI font system to Unicode work again. So if you happen to have older documents that have Hawaiian text in the…

New Windows 8 Operating System Supports The Hawaiian Language

While still a devout Macintosh user, I’m extremely grateful for friends at Microsoft who shepherded this project through to completion, and saw that the work we did stayed embedded as Windows 8 was being developed. I’ll be documenting how to activate the keyboard and type the ‘okina and kahakō later, but if you have Win 8, please feel free to explore and experiment. And I would like to ask my fellow Macintosh aficionados to refrain from the normal litany of Windows bashing. This is significant development for the language that will help other important projects move forward. I’m cautiously optimistic…

More Details on iOS 5’s Hawaiian Language Support

Last week Apple released iOS 5, the latest version of their operating system for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. There has always been some support for Hawaiian language in iOS. Since it shares some core software with OS X, and OS X has supported Hawaiian since 2002, iOS has had the ability to display the ‘okina and kahakō since it first shipped, and we were delighted when some of our translated strings showed up in that first version as well. With version 3, iOS has been able to generate the ʻokina and kahakō by pressing and holding the vowels…

I Love It When A Plan Comes Together: More ‘Ōlelo Support in iOS

A new iPhone was announced today, the iPhone 4S, and the response to Apple’s press conference was a bit lukewarm. Many were expecting the iPhone 5 and/or iOS5 today. But one of the more exiting developments for us was found on the specification sheet for the phones (tip o’ the cap to Joseph Erb for the heads up): there will be a Hawaiian keyboard and spell-check document included. Yes, we’ve had support for the ‘okina and kahakō in the iPhone and iPad for a while; however, while you can generate them from the soft keyboard by long-holding your finger on…

Using ‘Ōlelo Hawai‘i On Your Computer or Mobile Device

With the start of the school semester and the flow of questions coming in about the support available for ‘ōlelo Hawai‘i in various computer operating systems and mobile devices, this is a good time for me to pimp the ‘Ōlelo-Tech portion of my blog (see the menu under the masthead). There you’ll find links that describe the extent of keyboard, font and other support for Macintosh, iOS, Windows, and Android, as well as tricks to using ‘ōlelo Hawai‘i on the web and with Microsoft Word. As always, a caveat that I don’t provide tech support for any of these (unless…

Featured on Indigenous Tweets

Kevin Scannell have corresponded for many years in regards to issues that face indigenous and endangered languages and the use of technology in their revitalization. I was honored that he asked me to do this interview and talk about the work that I’ve done at Ka Haka ‘Ula O Ke‘elikōlani over the years in regards to Hawaiian language and its use in technology. His website, Indigenous Tweets, keeps track of the use of various indigenous languages around the world.

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