i saw this today and i thought it might be cool if it can scan Japanese: http://gizmodo.com/368968/dixau-text-sca...-big-words

there is another version here: http://gizmodo.com/5436221/this-pocket-d...rds-for-me

finally... something that looks really great for sentence mining in the future:

I’m Vincent Ryu in charge of overseas sales in Unichal Inc.

First of all, I’m really appreciative of your deep interest in our DIXAU.

As you mentioned, our DIXAU doesn’t read Japanese yet but we are planning to release Japanese version in 2011.

If you want to get more information for the current DIXAU, please, don’t hesitate to contact me.

Best regards

Vincent Ryu

I'd love for my dictionary to be able to something like that! However I don't know about carrying yet ANOTHER device around with me for a convenience item only... iphone, denshi jisho, netbook, reading book, and so on.

I guess time will tell if it'll turn out to be useful. Hopefully by 2011 we all won't need it (because our Japanese is that good)!

I knew a guy two years ago in Japan who could scan a Kanji label with his cell phone and it would translate it.
Congratulations Hashiriya if you are a UGA fan

Grinkers Wrote:I'd love for my dictionary to be able to something like that! However I don't know about carrying yet ANOTHER device around with me for a convenience item only... iphone, denshi jisho, netbook, reading book, and so on.

You could just use your iphone as a dictionary (toss the denshijisho), as a mini computer (toss the netbook), and even as an ebook reader (toss the book).

iPhone makes a better dictionary than denshijisho, is almost as adequate as a netbook for web-browsing and light text entry, and is functional as a book reader.

bodhisamaya Wrote:I knew a guy two years ago in Japan who could scan a Kanji label with his cell phone and it would translate it.

My previous keitai had that functionality. It barely worked.

To completely jump off topic, I agree with Jarvik7. Since I got my iPod, I barely use anything else. However, if I'm at home reading a book and need a dictionary more than once a page, I prefer my DS.

A problem with using the iPod/iPhone as an ebook is that it sucks at reading pdfs. Or rather, it sucks FOR reading pdfs, I still haven't found any accessory which does it well. DS? No. PSP? No. iPod? No. Screens are too small, it lags too much while scrolling and demands too much time zoomed in. Good thing many .pdfs can be easily converted to .txt files!

We're so off-topic

For the most part I can use my iphone in place of my netbook, but I like my denshi jisho a lot more than the dictionaries on the iphone. It's faster, easier to switch between dictionaries, and has pen input (iphone one is slow and eh).

As for books, I like my iphone a lot. However I haven't been able to find the books I want in Japanese, so I've been stuck with English books. The new Kindle application is pretty good by the way! If anybody knows a place to get digital Japanese books, please say so!

The scanner looks like a nifty device.

On the Off Topic:

I'm really contemplating Jail Breaking my iPod Touch. I'm not allowed to bring it into work while I'm in Africa (wireless transmission device), but after I move back to Japan that won't be an issue. Hell, I bought the damn thing originally to read manga or text files which is damn near impossible out of the box.

So, what's the best resource(s) to jail break and set-up the iPhone and iPod Touch for Japanese learners on the forum?

it literally takes less than a minute to jailbreak... just download this and run the program... that's all there is to it: http://blackra1n.com/

Hashiriya Wrote:it literally takes less than a minute to jailbreak... just download this and run the program... that's all there is to it: http://blackra1n.com/

Pwnagetool is better (mac only though), since afaik blackrain can't create a custom firmware that doesn't update the baseband. I don't unlock but I want to keep my options open for possible resale in the future.