The iDic EPWING reader has just been released in beta for 2.1 firmware here. There were a bunch of posts about the iPhone/dictionaries so I didn't know where to put this, but it seems cool enough for its own post. Tiny portable J-J dictionary with handwritten (sort of) input! So far I've tested it with 大辞林 and Kenkyusha 新和英大辞典 and they're both working fine. Haven't tested with 広辞苑 though because it's freaking ginormous and I need to find a way to cut it down first.

BONUS: You shouldn't need a jailbroken device to run it if you use iFunBox. Mine is though so I'm not sure.

Cool, I had never heard of ifunbox.

You can cut 広辞苑 down using ebstudio to remove all of the sounds, pictures, and videos. Finally, assuming idic support it, you can ebzip it.

-edit-
It looks like ifunbox is extremely risky to use. You won't brick your phone but it looks like you can no longer use it with iTunes unless you do a restore. Also, I see nothing there about running unsigned apps :/

I'll let someone else try it first and wait for a 2nd g. jailbreak in the meantime.

-edit2-
It looks like the author just meant to use iFunBox to move dictionary files over on an un-jailbroken iPhone/iPod. iTunes refuses to sync the .app saying it couldn't be verified though so I can't even get that far. Maybe his dev keys don't work for iPhone/iPods that are authorized for the Japan iTunes store?

Jarvik7 Wrote:It looks like ifunbox is extremely risky to use. You won't brick your phone but it looks like you can no longer use it with iTunes unless you do a restore. Also, I see nothing there about running unsigned apps :/

Were did you read that? I just used SCP to install the app but I used ifunbox to move the dictionary files over because it was about a hundred times faster. I just tried syncing with iTunes and it was fine.

Thanks for the EBStudio tip, I'll try that later. Although I find I prefer daijirin 95% of the time anyway. You may not need to wait for a jailbreak, I think the author is planning it for the appstore. Pretty sure this is just for the beta.

Edit:

Jarvik7 Wrote:iTunes refuses to sync the .app saying it couldn't be verified though so I can't even get that far. Maybe his dev keys don't work for iPhone/iPods that are authorized for the Japan iTunes store?

iDic dev Wrote:I have bought iPhone SDK and embeded my certificate in the binary, it may run on un-jailbroken iPhone.

They don't seem too sure, maybe you're right. Anyone with a non Japan non jailbroken touch care to try it?

There is a bunch of stuff on http://i-funbox.com/blog/ about how to get your iPod/iPhone recognized by iTunes again. Maybe it's only syncing music/video that can cause problems. Either way I can't get the app loaded up yet so it's a moot point

iDic dev Wrote:11/09/2008 16:20 Version 1.91 : Hi, it's me again. I got a report that the version 1.90 doesn't work. I found an issue regarding the iPhone Apple certification thing, and I think it's fixed.

This was updated pretty soon after my post, so you may have already been using it. If not, worth a shot.

So, how exactly do I install the dictionary files? No matter what I put in the photos/iDic folder, it only results in one of two things: iDic not working, or iDic not finding any dictionaries.

Also, I find the lack of documentation to be infuriating.

I don't know if this is useful but my Photos folder in funbox looks like this:


The dictionaries have to be EPWING format obviously. Mine are from demonoid. If it's just that you're getting an empty looking directory when you open iDic, try searching for something, then it will give you a list of results divided by dictionary. It's not like EBWin where you choose a dictionary first then search. Sorry if that doesn't help, just about to leave for class.

I seem to need a password to download the program? Am I missing something?

EDIT: Nevermind I was in a hurry and didn't read the log, I got it now. Thanks for this BTW. Its great news.

I discovered today that iDic has gone official. Its available in the app store for 600円 yen or $4.99.

After a lot of mucking around, I got the app store version working.

Here is what I found out:

1. The ftp via FileZilla is a good idea, but it's still buggy. I tried from a MacMini and I tried from a Vista machine. There were timeouts and all sorts of flakiness during the ftp. No good.

2. iFunBox works from a Vista box, but it was a little annoying - had to install a monster-sized iTunes app just so I could get the Mobile drivers for the iPod Touch. Kinda ugly, but it works. iFunBox is smart and identified my iPod Touch as a Jailed Touch, but I copied the files as described by shakkun's snapshot and it worked fine.

3. I think the file structure has to be like shakkun's snapshot, because when I tried a Kojien having a different directory tree, iDic failed to recognize it. KenKyuSha and Genius were okay.

Ok, I just got iDic from the AppStore today. I have an iPod Touch 2nd Gen and I'm on a mac. I connected my device to FileZilla, no problem. Uploaded some dictionary files. No problem. However, on FileZilla, it shows the directory as empty. Also, within iDic, it says I have no dictionary sets. And on top of that, my iPod has now 2gb smaller and I don't see how to delete any files!

Then I tried reloading FileZilla and this time the dictionaries I had uploaded did appear. But when I tried to delete them, it said that the directories didn't exist.

Any help would be appreciated!

I suggest you try emailing the developer here is website. http://bigskyflier.com/iDic.aspx

Cliffius Wrote:Ok, I just got iDic from the AppStore today. I have an iPod Touch 2nd Gen and I'm on a mac. I connected my device to FileZilla, no problem. Uploaded some dictionary files. No problem. However, on FileZilla, it shows the directory as empty. Also, within iDic, it says I have no dictionary sets. And on top of that, my iPod has now 2gb smaller and I don't see how to delete any files!

Then I tried reloading FileZilla and this time the dictionaries I had uploaded did appear. But when I tried to delete them, it said that the directories didn't exist.

Any help would be appreciated!

I tried the same with an iMac and had the same issues as you (the reason they don't show up in FileZilla initially is, for some insane reason you have to pick: "Show All Files" in one of the menu options.

Anyways, the ftp via FileZilla was very flaky for me - I have a feeling, there is probably a bug in the implementation of the client. I suggest using i-FunBox (PC) or the Mac-equivalent (what the iDic developer previously suggested).

I apologize if this post is off-topic but I am aware that the iPhone has Kanji Handwriting Recognition support. I would like to know whether the iPod Touch has the same feature with the new v2.

atreya Wrote:I apologize if this post is off-topic but I am aware that the iPhone has Kanji Handwriting Recognition support. I would like to know whether the iPod Touch has the same feature with the new v2.

Nothing has kanji handwriting recognition. They have hanzi handwriting recognition. While it generally works fine, some characters either don't exist in Chinese, or are written differently, so you won't be able to input them with handwriting. And of course you can't input kana either.

Although, on the iPhone at least (sorry, don't have an iPod Touch but I assume it's the same), you can also enable a kana "keyboard" which will let you input kana keitai style, from which you can select kanji pretty much like any IME. It's not direct handwriting recognition, but it's a lot faster than writing with your finger (or is for me, anyhow). See screenshot below:

Jarvik7 Wrote:Nothing has kanji handwriting recognition. They have hanzi handwriting recognition. While it generally works fine, some characters either don't exist in Chinese, or are written differently, so you won't be able to input them with handwriting. And of course you can't input kana either.

annabel398 Wrote:Although, on the iPhone at least (sorry, don't have an iPod Touch but I assume it's the same), you can also enable a kana "keyboard" which will let you input kana keitai style, from which you can select kanji pretty much like any IME. It's not direct handwriting recognition, but it's a lot faster than writing with your finger (or is for me, anyhow).

I see. Hmm, and since the iPhone and iPod Touch share the same software version at the moment, both should have hanzi support and kana input support. I saw the Japanese version of the guided tour and they did mention about the kana input support (Keitai style) but there was no mention about the hanzi handwriting recognition support which I saw in the iphone guided tour and hence I had the doubt. Thanks ^^