iPhone. Definitely. If you can afford it.

The iPhone has a built-in professional Japanese-to-Japanese and Japanese-to-English dictionaries. What's great about that is that you can use it to highlight and translate Japanese words on webpages and apps.

Also, the iPhone has much better apps for Japanese learning.

Programmers make apps for the iPhone because there is more money in it.
There was a recent article that said the average Android app makes 7 percent the amount of money that an iPhone app does. So if an iPhone app makes 100 dollars. An Android app would only make 7 dollars. Ouch.

Last edited by chamcham (2012 June 22, 11:05 am)

The technology in the latest Android phones will continue to trump the iPhone. The only thing the latest iPhone really has going for it is the retina display which is pretty nice. In terms of other stuff though, it falls behind.

In terms of Japanese learning. The key app you really need to worry about is Anki and that's available on both phones. You pay for it on the iPhone and get it free on Droid. They're different programmers though. The Droid side is open source (like most droid projects) and the Iphone one is closed. The Iphone version of Anki is waaay behind, because Damien programs it and he's been consumed with getting Anki 2.0 on the PC released. Ankidroid however has an Alpha version available that works with the 2.0 stuff and the author keeps it constantly up to date.
Compare.
Iphone: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ankisrs/id373493387?mt=8 (last update Feb 2011)
Ankidroid: http://code.google.com/p/ankidroid/downloads/list (3 days ago on Anki 1.0, and about week ago on 2.0 update)

Honestly, any app that you "direly" need, is likely going to be available on both platforms.

Choose which phone you like by how it appeals to you. Ignore "which phone has better Jp learner capability." They're both equally capable.

EDIT: And if I actually was considering the screen the major thing on the phone in my decision. I wouldn't be freaking out over the iPhone, I'd be getting the new Ipad 3rd gen.

Last edited by vix86 (2012 June 22, 12:04 pm)

I have a droid device, and I would also say that anki is probably the key app you would be using for learning Japanese. So either a droid or an iphone would probably be fine in that case.
Just don't get the idea that one of these devices will be able to replace a pc for all of your Japanese needs. Both input and reading are very difficult on a small device like a phone. The lack of a rikai-chan like thing is a major drawback (though there is something kinda like rikaichan for droid, its rather clumsy to use, and I just don't even bother with it), and also know that dictionary lookups are going to take you some time, so you probably wont bother using a dictionary app all that much. Maybe the dictionary on iphone is better though.

Fillanzea wrote:

So, is there a better input method for Japanese on Android than simeji yet? I got an Android phone for financial reasons, and I don't really have any Japanese learning stuff on it, but when I have to input Japanese it's a pain.

Yeah, there's a list of IMEs now.

Last edited by Bokusenou (2012 June 22, 1:11 pm)

Is there a free Japanese IME for Android that does handwriting recognition?

Last edited by monitor (2012 June 22, 1:52 pm)

Bokusenou wrote:

monitor wrote:

Is there a free Japanese IME for Android that does handwriting recognition?

The WWWJDIC app has it, though the app itself is a dictionary, not an IME.

OK, thanks for the info. I checked out the free trial for the "7notes with mazec" keyboard and it's pretty good, but $12.37 is a very steep price for a keyboard. Looks like it's derived from a Japanese price of 千円, which isn't that much considering the steep price of software in Japan, but it doesn't exactly translate abroad.

Last edited by monitor (2012 June 22, 2:29 pm)

Apple iOS 6 vs. Android vs. Windows Phone (Comparison Chart)
http://www.pcworld.com/article/257363/a … chart.html

Switching from Android to iOS: What I’ll miss and what I won’t
http://gigaom.com/apple/switching-from- … at-i-wont/

Yes, if you don't need a phone as such, get an iPad. It's very portable too, and it'll be soooo much better to read RSS feeds, Flipboard, PDFs etc.

chamcham wrote:

From a purely technical standpoint, the Android platform is better since it uses open
standards. There's almost nothing than an iPhone can do, that an Android app can't.
If Apple used the same technologies as Android, developing software for tablets would be SOOOO easy. Maybe too easy.

When I was talking technology I was strictly talking hardware, not the software that goes into the phone. Android's hardware is better.

Again I wasn't talking quality, although I will agree that some Android phones are crap, but then there are many android phones but 1 Iphone.

If you look at Samsung's phones though, like the Galaxy S series, they always tend to trump the current iPhone in specs (except display). And I can say Samsung's products are top notch, I've owned 2 of their phones, I know at least 4 people that have owned one too. No problems and they are still affordable. PLUS, Samsung gives you direct access to the bootloader and basically allows for customization of the system.

If none of this matters to you, then I guess that is really where the divide between iphone and droid users is. Many of us want more bang for our buck and power to do what we want with our phone. You can't do that on an iPhone easily.

chamcham wrote:

If you have the money, the new iPad would be a great investment, especially with it's retina screen. Manga looks so beautiful and there are so many good apps.

does this mean a screen you can use outside in the sunlight?

chamcham wrote:

Apple, however, is very consistent. I've never had any major hardware issues with any Macbooks, iPads, or iPods I've bought throughout the years. If you get an Apple product, quality is above average (not the best, but definitely above average).

Myth. Apple has numerous well-known hardware issues. Just do a search on "home button" or "headphone jack". What's worse is that they don't take accountability for their faulty hardware. If you show up to the Apple store and tell them your home button has poor response or isn't working, they'll immediately tell you the hardware needs to be replaced but that they don't replace the individual components and you need to buy a new phone (unless your warranty is still valid). With Apple, any hardware problems require a full replacement, unless you want to risk buying individual components from shady sellers online and then further risk destroying your device in the process.

Edit: re: reading in the sun, does anyone actually read in direct sunlight? Even reading a paper book in direct sunlight is painful due to all the light reflected by the pages.

Last edited by vileru (2012 June 23, 9:15 pm)

HelenF wrote:

How much of a difference do the higher specs make on the new phones? Of the older Samsung phones, which ones run Anki nicely?

I've had the Samsung Galaxy S and now I'm using the Galaxy S2.

The biggest jumps from one phone to the next in that series is the cameras. The S is basically somewhere around an Iphone 3 or so. On the S2 I notice the GUI runs quite a bit smoother, and with more RAM I don't have to worry as much. Dual facing cams are great and worked with Skype. Some of the S2's had Near Field Communication capabilities which is really cool technology, the S3 has that now too. Mine didn't have it though unfortunately; I got mine from Docomo and Docomo opted to have the NFC pulled out and a Seg1 TV tuner put in. I've flashed my ROM though since then and installed a new ROM onto the system which doesn't support it though, not that I can use it in the middle of nowhere anyway. All of the Galaxy's also supports external microSD cards (up to 32gb on S1 I think, 64gb on S2 and S3). So yo can expand/swap your memory around as you need to.

vileru wrote:

Edit: re: reading in the sun, does anyone actually read in direct sunlight? Even reading a paper book in direct sunlight is painful due to all the light reflected by the pages.

Generally its not "Direct" sun light reading that is the issue. Simply standing out side and in the shade can still make a screen hard to read. It has to do with all the reflecting light all over the place.

On the point of outside,
Samsung's AMOLED screens can get bright enough once they are outside to be readable. Its still far from what you would wish, but I've never had to cover my phone with my hand to see the display. It'll eat the battery up like nuts though. I think the new Galaxy S3 has a specially designed display now so that some of the light can leak through the display and get reflected back out. This has the effect of making screens 20-30% easier to read in sunlight. I saw this tech in electronic dictionaries about 2 years.