A thing that bothers me with the T-Mobile’s G1, aka HTC Dream, is the lack of Arabic support. I thought it wouldn’t be a problem considering the fact that I’ve been using Arabic for a very long time on computers with several different Linux distributions. Furthermore, rumors came out that the Android OS update 1.5 (Cupcake) will have built-in support for Arabic including localization. This, unfortunately, did not happen. However, this is Android after all, and as is the tradition with Linux, “if it is not available, build it. If you can’t build it, wait for someone else to and use that.. ” or so it goes.
There is a good effort regarding getting Arabic to work Android. This is not completely easy though. First, you should have your phone rooted (another link to get root). Afterwards, you need to install fonts that allow you to see Arabic, this was harder before, but thanks to Aman Alshurafa, you are able to install the fonts using the regular “copy to your memory card, rename to update.zip, restart phone holding down home+power, press ALT-s to install update.zip”. This does not really give you total Arabic support but it is a step forward. I should mention that Ahmed Essam was the first to write the Arabic reshaper class, and Amr Gawish updated it and wrote the first Arabic SMS reader.
After this start, many other Arabic programs started to show up on Android. Abdullah Bahitham made Arabic soft keyboard for Android 1.5 (Cupcake). He also made an Arabic Notepad. There are several other programs that you could find in the Android market.
Thank you everyone for the effort you put in so that the rest of us can actually use Android and enjoy it.
NOTE: There is a related post called Arabic on Android – Take 2 that is relevant.
#1 by Aman Alshurafa on 31/07/2009 - 4:18 am
Hey, just wanted to say thanks and hopefully you will get a better Arabic support with connected letters everywhere including the browser. Almost all the people you mentioned here are involved in the project.
#2 by saif on 03/08/2009 - 3:22 pm
I hope so too. Arabic is an important addition to Android which I believe is evolving amazingly fast. Did you see HTC Hero’s “Sense UI” which is based on Android? It is amazing and I’m hoping other developers will follow in adding eye-candy to Android.
#3 by Aman Alshurafa on 04/08/2009 - 12:02 am
Actually, They are. Before Hero came out. A developer called Haykuro Hot Hero’s UI and build a similar one based on it called Rosie. Thanks to him there are now 9 builds called Hero builds which are made for G1. Check it out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiU3v_VLmcY
Sony Ericsson has its own UI as well. It’s called Rachael. You can see it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUfTzdxON4E
To tell you the truth I think the way Motorola supports Android is better. These UI are made for specific model and they will not help Android. HTC did that for Windows Mobile but that did nothing. People need apps. That’s what Motorola chose to do. That is why Google is doing thee developer challenges. I like Android Market. You can add any app there without being afraid that it will be rejected. Unlike iPhone.
#4 by saif on 05/08/2009 - 12:49 pm
Thank you for your reply.
For different ports of Android to G1, I always went here.They have a list of the latest builds and what they have (and don’t have). However my main problem with the Rosie UI and Hero in general is the slowness. It is very slow and buggy on the G1 and I have tried several. The HTC Hero doesn’t really improve much on that from the reviews I’ve seen, plus it runs on the same processor and a bit more RAM.
I did see the Sony-Ericsson phone’s photos and specs. I think this will be a great phone. I’ve always liked Sony-Ericsson’s phone but not the OS, maybe Android with change that.
I also agree with you regarding developing for the general good versus developing for a specific model, but as Linus Torvalds puts it: We all “scratch our own itches”, meaning that we develop for selfish reasons even in open-source, it just helps other people on the way.
#5 by A Sulaiti on 05/08/2009 - 9:17 pm
Sallam Alaikum,
Nice post.
The Hero is not as slow as the reviews make it. I got the Hero recently and i use the iphone 3GS too. I can tell you that the HTC Hero is not slow, but it does have a slight (Very slight) delay when flicking through the home screens. The UI is amazing indeed. When flickering the home screen using the trackball it is almost instant move!
When you hold the Hero for the first time you can feel the great quality and built.
Unfortunately when compared with the iPhone 3GS, the Hero falls short in the apps/games and graphics. I still use the 3GS as my primary phone and LOVE it..
I installed the Arabic Soft Keyboard on the Hero but it didn’t work as expected. I would get the keyboard and type fine but when i send a sentence more than one word, the whole sentence is received in boxes/squares except for the last word which is displayed in Arabic.
It is a real shame because i can’t use the phone much with no arabic support
Sallam,
#6 by saif on 06/08/2009 - 2:25 pm
@ A Sulaiti: It is good to hear that the Hero mod isn’t that laggy. I could not bear to use it on the G1. Hopefully some genius developer/hacker would make it work well on the G1 and I’m sure improvements are coming to the Hero mod as well.
As for the iPhone 3GS, keep in mind that the software version there passed 3.0 now whereas Android is only 1.5 and much newer time-wise. From what I see, Android is developing at a much faster pace that that of the iPhone OS. Only time will prove it though.
#7 by kevin on 30/08/2009 - 3:59 pm
hey guys need a HTC Hero (white) to purchase in the UAE where i can find one pls help me im witout a phone and im nt ready to settle for anything but this
#8 by saif on 09/09/2009 - 12:30 pm
@ Kevin: I do not know of a place that sells HTC Hero in the UAE. I’ll post here if I found a place.
#9 by Bashar on 30/10/2009 - 3:55 am
i got mine from http://www.expansys.ae although it was shipped from france to Kuwait (was supposed to be hsipped from UK originally)
#10 by nayyar on 11/02/2010 - 12:19 am
hi saif, are you from dubai ? and are you a member of xda-devs…….??
i am nayyar from dubai , and was searching any guy of tech know how so solve the problems faced in rooting , updating etc, i a m member of xda-devs and regular flasher of android magic roms….
nice to see you ….
#11 by saif on 12/02/2010 - 11:40 pm
I am from the UAE. I’m not a member of xda-devs. Nice to see you too.
#12 by questions asker on 16/08/2010 - 1:40 am
you can also have an arabizaion or an arabic version of android os on http://www.cyanogen4arab.com we have arabic support verion of cyanogen famous mods free for download