It was a pleasant surprise to find the Progressive J->E and Daijisen J->J dics in the new iOS. I also like the new input method, it's a lot less messy than the old one.

Too bad they didn't throw in a Japanese handwriting module as a cherry on top

I hope KDDI will put the screws on Apple some more and get it added into 5.1

Oh really? Didn't know about that, nice.

Edit: I didn't even realise iOS 5 was out

Oh wow, I hadn't noticed this. It's like having rikaichan built into the operating system, only a bit more awkward to select words.

You just highlight any Japanese word and then tap the "define" box that pops up.

I was actually just starting to get frustrated with the input system, so the changes came at a good time. It's much easier to convert to katakana now. I thought the dictionary was a nice touch. It's a shame that one doesn't have pitch accent though.

That's a game changer for me right there. I was fixing my eyes on the newest generation of Kindles doing the same thing but couldn't find a relevant report about it. But now that I see the iPad/iPhone has it already I realized most of my "reading" comes from the web not books anyway and Kindle is horrible for browsing the web (Fire should be better but I don't know about its dictionary capabilities).

Did Apple just found a thing to lure me in?

Apparently iOS5 won't run on the iPhone 3G, 'cause my iTunes tells me my software is up-to-date. I dunno if I really want to be locked into another 2 year contract now, but it's like an early Christmas for you guys... Hnnnnh.

iPhone... Android... wait another year... hmmmn.

I'm trying to decide between the iPhone 4S and the samsung Nexus Prime (Android)... it's a really tough decision.

iOS5 seems so cool! And the 4S seems really slick and fast.

zachandhobbes Wrote:I'm trying to decide between the iPhone 4S and the samsung Nexus Prime (Android)... it's a really tough decision.

For Japanese studies Android is not a great option. You won't even have proper Japanese fonts (only Traditional Chinese) unless you jailbreak the phone. There is also a much wider selection of dictionary apps on iPhone.

In addition, I personally prefer the high-dpi screen of the iPhone for kanji reading, but ymmv - I guess the Samsung jumbo-pixels are OK if you hold the phone far enough

kerecsen Wrote:

zachandhobbes Wrote:I'm trying to decide between the iPhone 4S and the samsung Nexus Prime (Android)... it's a really tough decision.

For Japanese studies Android is not a great option. You won't even have proper Japanese fonts (only Traditional Chinese) unless you jailbreak the phone. There is also a much wider selection of dictionary apps on iPhone.

I'm not a big fan of Android (from a usability perspective), but I really doubt that. Android is selling relatively well here in Japan and I assume that it can display Japanese so that people can use it. Perhaps some carriers in the west are customizing the distribution to remove it? (carriers being able to do things like that is another reason I'm not a fan)

Jarvik7 Wrote:I'm not a big fan of Android (from a usability perspective), but I really doubt that. Android is selling relatively well here in Japan and I assume that it can display Japanese so that people can use it. Perhaps some carriers in the west are customizing the distribution to remove it? (carriers being able to do things like that is another reason I'm not a fan)

Yes you are correct, my statement was incomplete. What I meant was that pretty much any Android phone you get outside of Japan won't have the Japanese fonts (and Japanese UI) in the distribution...

This is one major advantage of Apple software (including MacOS), that you can switch them to any supported language with a simple configuration switch.

Microsoft (and Nokia) products on the other hand are famous for being built and sold individually for each language and the only way to switch them is to buy a new box.

Android is somewhere in-between -- while the platform allows switching languages, most manufacturers don't want to test anything more than absolutely necessary and remove the "fluff".

Interesting discussion here! I never realized that my choice could affect my studies.

Thanks for the information. This helps a lot.

Siri vs Japanese, tube has few of those already

mac products display japanese chars better than any of their competitors in any format...mobile or desktop.

the core identity of mac products is that they look great, with large high res screens. sure you can use jpnese on a linux/windows/android but god it is so painful.

i used to have a blackberry in jpnese (which required a fairly complicated OS switch) and after getting the iphone there is no going back. now if they can just get rid of that damn home button... but i digress.

Oh, well, I guess I'm going to stay with iPhone then. Any other concerns are trivial next to proper Japanese support!

I am a little concerned about signing a 2-year contract though. I'm considering ways that I might manage to get myself employed in Japan, but if I move to Japan six months into a 2-year contract with a phone that's no longer going to work... ? Ouch!

(Buying the phone outright is also rather expensive, of course.)

I assume there's some sort of horrible international roaming charges, but I don't really know.

dtcamero Wrote:i used to have a blackberry in jpnese (which required a fairly complicated OS switch)

Really? How long ago was this? I got a Blackberry Curve last year and was surprised at how simple it was to change languages (which which was part of what made the Blackberry my go-to portable Japanese dictionary/text reader device), and how easy to use, and accurate the built-in Japanese IME was.

whoo i guess 2 years ago... i bought it in america, and in order to display asian characters (which looked terrible) you had to download a whole new OS from RIM, and then load it through one of their forever buggy desktop clients. The whole process took about an hour, not to mention how long it took to figure out how to do it...

I forget which dictionaries were available back then but none of the main kokugo dics, and even the J-E I ended up with was meh at best. And forget about looking up words from directly within a document, like the iOS5 global J-J dic, or expanding text in case their 12-point font doesn't describe the 20-stroke kanji well.

perhaps things have changed, but you'll have to switch pretty soon anyway as the BBerry is soon to be an extinct species.

dtcamero Wrote:whoo i guess 2 years ago... i bought it in america, and in order to display asian characters (which looked terrible) you had to download a whole new OS from RIM, and then load it through one of their forever buggy desktop clients. The whole process took about an hour, not to mention how long it took to figure out how to do it...

I forget which dictionaries were available back then but none of the main kokugo dics, and even the J-E I ended up with was meh at best. And forget about looking up words from directly within a document, like the iOS5 global J-J dic, or expanding text in case their 12-point font doesn't describe the 20-stroke kanji well.

perhaps things have changed, but you'll have to switch pretty soon anyway as the BBerry is soon to be an extinct species.

Hmm, I needed to update the OS, but it was a one-click install, and I would have checked for updates anyway. As for dictionaries. I'm not a fan of built-in dictionaries, because I prefer EPWING readers (and the Blackberry one works like a dream), and having the same dictionaries anywhere, but I guess the regular dictionary apps would be a problem if I used them, and I could change the font size if I ever had issues with the current one (the kanji look fine to me ^-^; ).
Also, I researched and tested out tranditional denshi jisho, ipod touches and android as Japanese study devices, and Blackberry was the one that fulfilled my needs best (after playing with a shop's demo ipod touch, I learned that I preferred physical keyboards to touch screens, which was a big factor as well), and was the only one which "just clicked" with me (I never thought I would fall in love with a gadget before...), so I got one solely for learning Japanese (no SIM card). Even if Blackberries die out tomorrow, ones owned by people I know have lasted for years and years, and even after that, if only the other same options are still around by then, there's always Ebay. ^-^ I'm glad you found a phone which you are really passionate about though.

Jarvik7 Wrote:I'm not a big fan of Android (from a usability perspective), but I really doubt that. Android is selling relatively well here in Japan and I assume that it can display Japanese so that people can use it. Perhaps some carriers in the west are customizing the distribution to remove it? (carriers being able to do things like that is another reason I'm not a fan)

The other thing to note in regards to apps is that Apple let you freely switch back and forth to the Japanese app store. You can download free Japanese apps and furthermore it's relatively easy to obtain Japanese iTunes vouchers that will allow you to purchase apps without a Japanese credit card.

Google lock the regions and you need to root the phone and use an market enabler app to even see Japanese apps. Then good luck actually buying and downloading them, it's not something I've succeeded in managing as they "aren't available to devices in your region". I've not seen any good solution to bypass this other than setting up a Japanese google account, with Japanese credit card (and you might also need to use a Japanese IP address, but I'm not sure).