There has always been tons of interest for an iPhone version of Skritter. Even with it in the FAQ, we hear this almost every day: “Is there anyway I can skritter on my iPhone?” “Well, have you ever thought about making an iPhone app?” “If there was an iPod/iPhone app…” “If you guys make an iPhone app for this…” “Can you buy this application for iPhone?” “An iPhone app would really help a lot!” “When will the iPhone version be released?” “Don’t suppose you have any plans to release an app for the iPhone or iPad?” “If I could access Skritter using an iPad / iPhone, I may actually purchase one.”
Because the iPhone operating system (iOS) can’t run Flash, we’ve only been able to get Skritter running on Android 2.2 devices so far. Getting it to run on iOS would require rewriting 18K lines of ActionScript client code in Objective-C. That’s a lot of work. So we’ve always put it off–until now. We’re doing it. It will still take a long time, but one day, on the plane, on the train, on the toilet, wherever–Skritter will be there.
I just finished the handwriting recognition and stroke drawing code, to see how well things could run. I haven’t optimized anything yet, and this is running on an old iPhone 3G, which is much slower than the newer models, but things are looking very smooth! So I wanted to show you a video, to get you as excited as I am. This is George demonstrating the writing of 你.
If you can’t access YouTube, I’ve put it on Youku here: Skritter on iPhone
I’ll say again, this will yet take a long time! There’s much to be done. I’m going to be focusing on this, while George and Scott will continue building and refining the main Skritter site. The current idea for the app includes being able to do reviews without an internet connection, but requiring one to add new words. An iPad-specific app would follow afterward.
What do you think? Are you excited? Is there any part of Skritter you’d particularly like to see in an iPhone version? Let us know in the comments!