New Apple File System: Possible Language Issues

Apple's new APFS file system (replacing HFS+) has been implemented in iOS 10.3 and will also become standard in MacOS 10.13 when it is released this fall.   It changes the way Unicode Normalization is handled for file names, which could have implications for various languages where the same filename can have different forms depending on the normalization applied.

Whether that will matter in practice I don't know, but readers interested in this complex topic may want to have a look at these two articles and their comments:

https://eclecticlight.co/2017/04/06/apfs-is-currently-unusable-with-most-non-english-languages/

https://mjtsai.com/blog/2017/03/24/apfss-bag-of-bytes-filenames/

See this page for updated info from Apple about problems that can arise with file names in iOS during the period before certain normalization issues are fixed via the updating process.

Here is a report of such a problem.

Apple TV To Support Arabic/Hebrew With tvOS 11

According to this article, tvOS 11 will include support for RTL languages like Arabic and Hebrew.  This will be welcomed by many users who have been waiting for it for 10 years now.

Better Arabic/Hebrew Support In iWork Apps

The info provided with the iWork app updates released June 13 by Apple says that "improved support for Hebrew and Arabic" is included in Pages and Keynote for MacOS and Keynote for iOS.

I don't know yet what that entails, but it apparently does not include the availability of RTL spreadsheets in Numbers, which many users of these languages have been waiting for.

Hands-On Neural Network Translation

I was intrigued by Apple's announcement last week of its new Core ML system for incorporating trained machine learning models into apps for iOS and MacOS.  Anyone interested in how such models for neural network language translation can be produced may want to check out this Google tutorial.

MacOS: Better Khmer Fonts

If you find that the Khmer fonts supplied by Apple (Khmer, Khmer Sangam) have bugs, try these other ones from SIL.  I think they should also work OK in Word for Mac 2016.

iOS 11: New Language Features

During the WWDC Keynote June 5, Apple announced some new language features that will be available in iOS 11 and the new iPad Pro:

+Siri will include voice translation, starting with English to Chinese, French, German, Italian, and Spanish.

+The Smart Keyboard for the iPad Pro will be produced in 30 language variations, including Chinese and Japanese.

From a separate source, it appears that iOS finally will have a Persian keyboard (according to this.)