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電子辞書 Database - Asriel - 2010-05-26
If there's something that I missed when I was searching, please feel free to point me in the right direction...
Anyway, I'm in the market for a portable dictionary, and while money is a concern, I don't mind paying more if I get just what I'm looking for.
Therefore, I'm wondering if there's some sort of online database where I can choose which dictionaries I want included, and it will give me a list of the machines with the desired dictionaries loaded?
if they're not loaded, how about putting in a memory card that has some dictionaries which may or may not be in epwing format?
Or if anything knows anything offhand, what I'm looking for is:
広辞苑, 大辞林, 大辞泉 (basically, some big, large, respected 国語 dictionary)
研究社 新英和大辞典 (assuming it goes 和英 as well)
漢字源
Secondary things would be like:
ジーニアス, collocations, 四字熟語, ことわざ, ジーニアス, possibility to install other dictionaries, etc...
電子辞書 Database - Daichi - 2010-05-27
Probably not quite what your looking for but do you have a DS or an iPhone/iTouch? There are quite a few big dictionaries on those platforms.
電子辞書 Database - Katsuo - 2010-05-27
I don't know of a general database where you can look up combinations of functions. But off the top of my head...
Quote:広辞苑, 大辞林, 大辞泉 (basically, some big, large, respected 国語 dictionary)• Nearly all mid- and upper-price models of denshi jisho will include one of these.
Quote:研究社 新英和大辞典 (assuming it goes 和英 as well)• Casio, Canon and Seiko all have (expensive) models with the Kenkyusha J-E 大. Casio also have it available as an add-on.
Quote:漢字源• Canon and Sharp have the KanjiGen, while Seiko and Casio used to but have now changed to the Kangorin. The Kangorin models do not include multi-radical look-up, which would be a major drawback for me.
Some random comments & opinions: Casio and Sharp go more for quantity over quality (in terms of content and features). Conversely, Seiko's upper models have the best quality keyboard and screen, but lack some useful features (e.g. handwritten input).
Build quality: Canon is best, Sharp worst.
Extra content: Casio has by far the biggest selection of add-ons.
If possible, try before you buy, because there may be some feature /missing feature that's not apparent from the spec. (e.g. slow turn-on time).
In this post I linked to makers' data, but it was a while ago now.
電子辞書 Database - Asriel - 2010-05-27
Daichi:
I've got the DS right now, but my current cell phone has the same dictionary built in, as well as some more, so it's a little disheartening.
Katsuo: Super helpful, thanks a lot. I think I'm coming, independently, to the same conclusions drawn in that thread, with either iPod or the something 10000 model.
Although, the idea of having an iPod Touch with dictionaries + anki + whatever on it sounds very intriguing. Do you have any experience? I've got tons of EPWING dictionaries that I would LOVE to put, and hopefully use it with some sort of handwriting recognition (or something just as useful). Are they fast enough to be a feasible replacement?
EPWING aside, how about the official Dairijin and Kenkyusha programs they have out there?
edit: sorry, it's kind of slowly leaking into having a lot of overlap with that other EDICT thread going on right now.
電子辞書 Database - Jarvik7 - 2010-05-27
imo single purpose denshijisho are a relic. They are useful, but you don't get much for the high prices (hardware stuck in the early 1990s and a bunch of useless dictionaries mixed in with a couple good ones), and you get it in a lousy limited formfactor. I don't see them being around much longer once more Japanese people get smartphones. The space allocated to them at electronics/book stores seems to be shrinking already.
電子辞書 Database - Asriel - 2010-05-27
Jarvik7:
It's been a long and bumpy ride down this denshi jisho excursion of mine in these past few days, and that's close to the conclusion I'm coming to.
What's keeping me back is inputting onto the iPhone. I would love to write in, just like on a real denshi jisho. This, speed, and battery life are probably the things I remain unsure about.
電子辞書 Database - Katsuo - 2010-05-27
The iPod touch has built-in system-wide support for handwritten Chinese, but not Japanese. In practice you can use that for Japanese to some extent; maybe eighty percent or so of Japanese kanji are recognised (but of course it doesn't work for kana). However quite a few Japanese apps, such as the Daijirin, come with their own handwriting recognition support.
I don't use Epwing myself, so can't comment on that.
One advantage deshi jisho do have is that it's quick and easy to jump between dictionaries.
If you do get an iPod Touch, then the next version of the OS (coming soon) will allow multi-tasking, which should mean that jumping between apps gets a bit less tiresome. But note that the cheapest model of the present iPod Touch range (8GB) will not be able to employ that feature (a shame because you can get refurbished models from Apple for only 14,800 yen).