Latvia’s largest mobile operator, LMT (Latvijas Mobilais telefons) finally launched the long awaited iPhone 3G last Friday (September 26th).
Although Baltic language text has been displaying perfectly in iPhones and iPods for at least the last 2 years it is only with the latest iPhone 2.1 Software update that the user is able to input Latvian letters as well.
To activate the Latvian keyboard on the iPhone 3G (or iPod Touch) go to Settings -> General -> Keyboard and from the list of International Keyboards switch on the Latvian option. To access the diacritical letters simply touch on the appropriate letter for more than 1 second and choose from the popup list. Latvian language purists may be disappointed since neither o-macron or palatalised-r are offered as input letters, however both will display correctly.
Riga is now also selectable as a city from the World Clock application (previously you had to choose Helsinki since none of the Baltic capital cities were available).
The User Manual for the iPhone 3G is also available in Latvian.
There was a lot of buzz about the announcement of the new iPhone 2.0 software and the new iPhone 3G, but no-one expected that this was all going to be available in the Baltics as well. Latvijas mobilais telefons (LMT) will carry the iPhone 3G in Latvia with an expected release date later this Summer.
How much the iPhone interface will be localised into each of the Baltic languages is yet to be seen. Users who have unlocked their current iPhones can already enjoy the unofficial Latvian interface pack.
Apple’s announcement of the iPhone today is going to cause a bit of a stir in the mobile phone industry with its revolutionary 3.5” touch screen, built-in music and video iPod, GSM mobile phone, Internet capabilities and a user interface like never before in a smartphone.
Although we are still many months away from the final release early reports suggest that the Latvian language could also be supported. iPhone will run on a mobile version of OS X and feature Unicode friendly full version applications such as Safari, Calendar, Address Book and Notes. The big question remains on how Latvian letters will be input via the onscreen QWERTY keyboard.
As reported in the November 2006 issue of “Next” (magazine published by SK Latvia) the BenQ-Siemens EF71 mobile phone supports the Latvian language.
