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Guide: Android: Japanese Environment on the go - Printable Version

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Guide: Android: Japanese Environment on the go - jettyke - 2012-01-14

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Aedict
Probably the best free dictionary app for android yet? Correct me, if you know a better one please.

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Lifehacker
Lifehacker has a mobile version of it, which works pretty well with android. Just go to the website on your phone.
The only thing that I don't like is that I feel that lifehacker's articles have been degrading recently. I don't feel as interested in reading them as I used to before.

[Image: CTlQRKiBjYyCMaaV9CIOu3rZ5Msl6jMGomLVzKWZ...4_fjF=w124]TuneIn Radio app

You can listen to radios from all around the world, including Japanese radios of course.



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Google Reader

Add your favorite ONGOING Blogs' and Podcasts' RSS feeds to your google reader (can do it on your pc also) and add a big nice Google reader Widget to your Android desktop. It will sync automatically.

I'm subscribed to:
( just follow the link and add the RSS feed of these podcasts to your Google Reader account)

HOTCAST
&
Japanese Classical Literature at Bedtime


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Anime Online
I'm not sure if it's the best website for that, but yeah you can watch some anime on this site online for free on your android.
Perhaps It'd be better to just transfer some episodes on your android.

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DICE Player
Plays 720p MKV!
Just transfer some short anime episodes on your android!

Reading on Android

As there's still no rikaichan-like thing that works for android, reading is kind of pointless for me. The best thing that can be done is to use Aedict but it is too much of a hassle.




Others:

Lang-8
Mixi (+ the 2 widgets)
ankidroid

Okay, I've run out of ideas, guys Big Grin If you have any slight ideas on how to make this small guide better, post some even the smallest of ideas or suggestions and I'll make changes to this post.

There are probably some better substitutes for the apps/links that I posted.

Guide: Android: Japanese Environment on the go - ta12121 - 2012-01-15

pdf format for a jp novel? With possible furigana being included would be good reading practice while your waiting or on the bus or on the go. In terms of reading that's what one should do. Looking up dictionary look-ups are probably better to be done on a desktop or a laptop.

Guide: Android: Japanese Environment on the go - jettyke - 2012-01-15

ta12121 Wrote:pdf format for a jp novel? With possible furigana being included would be good reading practice while your waiting or on the bus or on the go. In terms of reading that's what one should do. Looking up dictionary look-ups are probably better to be done on a desktop or a laptop.
Wow, perhaps those Buonaparte's line-by-line bilingual e-book thingies could work!

Guide: Android: Japanese Environment on the go - vix86 - 2012-01-15

An android app list without any IMEs listed is like a person without an arm.
(Having re-read re-thought about the OP, jettyke was posting apps for Japanese immersion on the go I think. Not simply a "Good apps for your Japanese phone" kind of thing. Regardless, I'll leave my post as is since you need IMEs to work with Japanese content.)

IMEs:
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ATOK

The Japanese IME on this superb and its kanji conversion prediction is probably one of the better ones that I have seen on the android. That said, it costs 1,500yen and the trial version only goes for 15 days. Its one of the few Japanese IMEs though that has a somewhat decent English input in my opinion. The word prediction is pretty good so long as you type everything in correctly. ATOK does not have auto word correction though which makes it a pain for me to use. The QWERTY keyboard design is pretty decent and pretty close to the Gingerbread default which I like a lot, but without the auto-correction, it still makes it hard to use. It has a unique flick style input system which I found easier to use than the usual hanabi style flick. Additionally, it has support for inputting cell phone emoji codes which most IMEs don't add. I believe if it had automatic english correction I would pay for it.

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MultiLing

Since I'm not using ATOK anymore what I am using is MultiLing. MultiLing is actually multiple IMEs; you have to download plugins to use other languages. The things I like about Multiling is that it uses the Gingerbread keyboard design which is much easier on my big fingers compared to others (see Simeji). It has awesome english word prediction and correction. Finally, you can switch between languages by swiping the space bar which I have found to be way more convenient and easy to use than pressing a button for some reason. The kanji conversion prediction is ok in my opinion, but I still find myself wishing it was as fluid as the Google IME on my computer.

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Google IME Beta

I actually just saw this when I was looking on the market for links. A rudimentary check on it shows that kanji prediction is probably as decent as the computer IME version. It pops up place names that I usually have to enter letter by letter sometimes. That said...IT HAS NO AUTO-CORRECTION. I like the keyboard design and input is very fluid but trying to use English input on this would be a test in paitence as you would have to constantly go back and fix errors like "Englush." One thing I kind of like though that I just played around with a bit more is the layout for symbols. You simply hit the 信号 button and it has stuff laid out in tab style menu that you can slide through which is nice. It also has a menu for 顔文字 with a decent number of entries but there isn't an easy way to add new entries, nor is there an easy way to add new words in general. If you long press on the data box and get the Edit/Copy/Paste window to pop up, you can add the word just behind the cursor, to your dictionary, but I think that might be a system wide dictionary. All-in-all, very fluid, smart layout, but little in the way of features and customization. This is beta though.

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Simeji

Any talk of IMEs that excludes Simeji isn't worth its stuff. Simeji was probably the first Japanese IME on Android that non-Japanese phone users could use to get Japanese input on their phone. That said, I've never liked it really. The kanji prediction is horrible and sometimes leaves you scrolling through lists to find what you need. The English prediction wasn't any better. It does have auto-correction though. It has some very superficial skinning as well. The number one reason why I avoid this IME though is the keyboard design is quite horrendous. Keys are blocks on the screen that you hit instead of circles or blocks with spaces between them. I found myself hitting other buttons way more on Simeji compared to any other IME on my phone. It is because of this that back before I found Multiling, I would always switch to a native English IME if I had to do any sort of long typing in English.

EDIT: Added a bit more on the Google entry.

Guide: Android: Japanese Environment on the go - jettyke - 2012-01-15

Simeji wasn't convenient enough for me , or it missed some important features, don't remember, but anyway I think that Simeji isn't worth it.

Guide: Android: Japanese Environment on the go - Betelgeuzah - 2012-01-15

Android's basic JP font is pretty damn bad. I can't change it either. Sigh.

Quote:As there's still no rikaichan-like thing that works for android, reading is kind of pointless for me. The best thing that can be done is to use Aedict but it is too much of a hassle.
There is, but it's some sort of mini-browser with rikaichan-features. Not that useful but at least it made reading Tae Kim's site easier for me.

Guide: Android: Japanese Environment on the go - pudding cat - 2012-01-15

縦書きビューワ for reading. You can set it to look up words on an installed dictionary or a dictionary website.

Guide: Android: Japanese Environment on the go - TwoMoreCharacters - 2012-01-15

Betelgeuzah Wrote:Android's basic JP font is pretty damn bad. I can't change it either. Sigh.

Quote:As there's still no rikaichan-like thing that works for android, reading is kind of pointless for me. The best thing that can be done is to use Aedict but it is too much of a hassle.
There is, but it's some sort of mini-browser with rikaichan-features. Not that useful but at least it made reading Tae Kim's site easier for me.
There are options for changing the fonts if you have rooted your phone, the thing that holds me back though is that having an average Japanese font on it makes the JP characters look great while the English will look horrible. Are there any Japanese fonts that uses a decent style for alphabetical characters?


Oh, and if you'd like to read 2ch on your phone despite the lack of a rikaichan, there are a number of different viewers. I tried a few and the one I like best is
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anちゃん

Another good option could be Nibroid

Guide: Android: Japanese Environment on the go - pudding cat - 2012-01-15

TwoMoreCharacters Wrote:There are options for changing the fonts if you have rooted your phone, the thing that holds me back though is that having an average Japanese font on it makes the JP characters look great while the English will look horrible. Are there any Japanese fonts that uses a decent style for alphabetical characters?
I like Meiryo.

[Image: MEIRYO-s.png]

Guide: Android: Japanese Environment on the go - jettyke - 2012-01-15

Betelgeuzah Wrote:Android's basic JP font is pretty damn bad. I can't change it either. Sigh.
Strange, mine looks perfect on both languages.

Perhaps it's because I have an Android 4.0 phone purchased in Japan.

Guide: Android: Japanese Environment on the go - Betelgeuzah - 2012-01-15

jettyke Wrote:
Betelgeuzah Wrote:Android's basic JP font is pretty damn bad. I can't change it either. Sigh.
Strange, mine looks perfect on both languages.

Perhaps it's because I have an Android 4.0 phone purchased in Japan.
Perhaps...the kanji in mine differs quite a bit from Heisig's/my PC's font. It's quite annoying.

Guide: Android: Japanese Environment on the go - jettyke - 2012-01-15

pudding cat Wrote:縦書きビューワ for reading. You can set it to look up words on an installed dictionary or a dictionary website.
Wow, seems like it's almost perfect for text file e-books!
The only thing that makes it not perfect is that it doesn't show definitions on the same page as the book, but otherwise very cool! Thanks!

Guide: Android: Japanese Environment on the go - Elenkis - 2012-01-15

jettyke Wrote:https://lh5.ggpht.com/FavVuO6qE4OUu0tEIHaBR0SY8WKE837MvqOMR-hpcMlDKWU67kj6bog0sk9lJl2nHg=w124
Aedict
Probably the best free dictionary app for android yet? Correct me, if you know a better one please.
As far as edict apps go I prefer JED personally. Especially since you can tag vocab and then it has the option to export the tagged words into an Anki deck. So I can tag a bunch of words I want to cram, export to Anki and then just open Ankidroid and they are right there for me.

Other must have apps for me:

EBPocket Professional

Excellent EPWING dictionary viewer. Allows you to search across multiple EPWING dictionaries (that you will of course need to obtain seperately) and recently updated so that the search results appear instantly as you're typing, making it even faster. Probably my most used app. Kenkyusha 5th edition is my "go to" dictionary of choice.

7notes with mazec

Japanese handwriting IME that works amazingly well in my experience. I don't think I've ever had it fail to recognise a kanji I've drawn, and my handwriting is pretty terrible. Videos here:






Guide: Android: Japanese Environment on the go - Lindley - 2012-01-15

pudding cat Wrote:縦書きビューワ for reading. You can set it to look up words on an installed dictionary or a dictionary website.
Can't get this app to download via market or website...could you possibly share the apk file? It's free, anyways.

Guide: Android: Japanese Environment on the go - jettyke - 2012-01-15

Lindley Wrote:
pudding cat Wrote:縦書きビューワ for reading. You can set it to look up words on an installed dictionary or a dictionary website.
Can't get this app to download via market or website...could you possibly share the apk file? It's free, anyways.
install a barcode reader(if you can see the bardcore on the website on the right). Then you will be able to install it Smile

Guide: Android: Japanese Environment on the go - Lindley - 2012-01-15

jettyke Wrote:install a barcode reader(if you can see the bardcore on the website on the right). Then you will be able to install it Smile
Already tried that...it says smth like "this file doesn't exist anymore" Sad

Guide: Android: Japanese Environment on the go - jettyke - 2012-01-15

Lindley Wrote:
jettyke Wrote:install a barcode reader(if you can see the bardcore on the website on the right). Then you will be able to install it Smile
Already tried that...it says smth like "this file doesn't exist anymore" Sad
So this link doesn't work for you?

https://market.android.com/details?id=org.example.android.npn2SC1815J.VerticalTextViewer&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEsIm9yZy5leGFtcGxlLmFuZHJvaWQubnBuMlNDMTgxNUouVmVydGljYWxUZXh0Vmlld2VyIl0.

Guide: Android: Japanese Environment on the go - franciscobc84 - 2012-01-15

I second the JED recommendation. Much better than Aedict. Anki's export function is really useful, but what really sets it apart are the real-time search results.

Anyway, thanks everyone for some of the other resources mentioned here.

Guide: Android: Japanese Environment on the go - Lindley - 2012-01-15

jettyke Wrote:So this link doesn't work for you?.
Nope..."the requested item couldn't be found" Sad

Guide: Android: Japanese Environment on the go - Inny Jan - 2012-01-15

I tend to refuse to install apps that require permissions that don't make sense (like access to internet or contacts). This article (When Good Apps Go Bad) gives you some idea of how things can go wrong.

Guide: Android: Japanese Environment on the go - jettyke - 2012-01-15

Inny Jan Wrote:I tend to refuse to install apps that require permissions that don't make sense (like access to internet or contacts). This article (When Good Apps Go Bad) gives you some idea of how things can go wrong.
So which ones like that did you find?

Guide: Android: Japanese Environment on the go - Inny Jan - 2012-01-16

@jettyke

I can't see how your question is relevant to my post. Obviously there are not that many applications (let alone Japanese related ones) that don't request internet access.

But if, thanks to the article I posted a link to, some unaware souls learnt that installing apps may compromise their phones then I don't think I wasted my time.

Guide: Android: Japanese Environment on the go - rachels - 2012-01-17

Probably the same 2 Motoya fonts and one other Japanese font are also included in the app called fontomiser or galaxy fonts, so I was able to install them as phone system fonts WITHOUT 'rooting'. However only the Motoya Cedar font seems to display all the characters properly. One that I checked was 誤 (keyword = mistake). Why, I wonder?. I didn't much like the Cedar font at first, but I have grown quite fond of it. It looks like old-fashioned typewriter print. Now at least Japanese displays correctly in all my apps.

Guide: Android: Japanese Environment on the go - franciscobc84 - 2012-01-17

rachels Wrote:I was able to install them as phone system fonts WITHOUT 'rooting'
Yes. I have a Samsung Galaxy SII and using Fontomiser, I was also able to install japanese fonts without having to root the phone. But I'm using the Motoya Maru font.

In case anyone doesn't want to root their phone, Fontomiser is currently the best option for properly displaying Japanese. Try it out and see if it works on your phone.

Guide: Android: Japanese Environment on the go - Betelgeuzah - 2012-01-17

Fontomiser doesn't actually let you change fonts, does it? It just downloads them.

I would have temprooted my phone but the dumb microsoft security essentials keeps thinking the rooting file is malware..