Everyone should note that a quick Google search reveals that this app is Beta and has been known to 'brick' (I'm sure they're using the term wrong) iPhones.  Take care.

Yeah, Iphone2 will allow this stuff (and maybe iphone1 as well with firmware)

now if only someone made anki for iphone and I would buy an iphone in an instant, even if I never used the phone aspect (which I would)

chexxor wrote:

radical_tyro wrote:

http://www.apple.com/jp/iphone/features/sms.html

What are you trying to say? This post/link is too non sequitar. Thread-hijacking is bad, mmkay.

Um, it's completely relevant. I was going to say something about native Japanese input in iphone 3G, but I had to run so just posted the link since it's self explanatory. There's supposedly handwriting recognition too but I don't have a link for that. It might be only for Chinese, I don't know.

I've had an iPhone 2G from day one, and I've somewhat well researched the 3G and its Japanese capabilities.

First of all, if you already have an iPhone 2G or iPod Touch, software wise you'll be fine-- all three devices will run the exact same firmware, although iTouch users will have to pay a nominal fee for it.  Otherwise, the main advantages of buying an iPhone 3G are better battery life(?), GPS, and 3G.  Software-wise, they're all the same.

Next, as far as Japanese input goes, the iTouch has had input from almost the beginning, and the iPhone has had it since 1.1.1, although some hacking was required.   In firmware 1.1.1, the Japanese input was actually present, although you had to change a preference file to make it appear in the options.  Since 1.1.2, however, those support files were removed -- although some enterprising developers copied the support files from the iPod Touch, and made a hack to install them via Installer.app if you jailbreak your iPhone.

As of 2.0, Japanese input will be available on all devices, no hacking required.  A Japanese version of the QWERTY keyboard will be available (type in romaji, predicts how to change it into kanji/katakana/hiragana/etc) as well as Japanese keitai style input (press the 2 key to switch between あ＞い＞う＞え＞お and such).

As I mentioned on another thread, the kanji drawing is actually part of the Chinese input method, NOT the Japanese.  It apparently supports both Simplified and Traditional Chinese, but how close either or both are to Japanese kanji I don't know -- I know very little about Chinese.  So, in other words, if Japanese kanji are similar to Traditional or Simplified Chinese kanji, then that input method will be very useful -- if not, then... not so much.

In terms of actual apps, wedict works fine for me, although it only has EDICT... so it's good in a pinch, but it's more of an emergency dictionary than anything.

The makers of iFlash and Mental Case, two flashcard apps for the Mac, have already stated that they're working on iPhone versions of their software.  Seeing as how I use Mental Case, I'm pretty excited about that.  Unfortunately, if you're not using Mac OS and want desktop<->iPhone/iTouch flashcard fun, I'm not sure what your options will be with those two apps.

Other random notes:
* Even in the US, if both iPhones support Japanese input, I can send and receive SMSes in Japanese with no trouble.

* You *can* send email to Japanese keitais, but since the iPhone uses Unicode, not all Japanese keitais will be able to read your mail; having said that, I have yet to receive something *I* couldn't read.  In my experience, anyone with a relatively new DoCoMo keitai can read my mails no problem.  My big question is when the iPhone launches in Japan, what they're going to do about this -- obviously they're not going to get everyone to switch from keitai mail to SMS over there.  If they understand anything about the Japanese keitai use, they'll fix this and theoretically the fix would be universal.

* Mixi and other Japanese websites work great out of the box -- no hacking required, meaning anki's internet site ought to work, but I haven't tried.

It'll be an unlimited data plan, like everywhere else, but the monthly fee will be kind of high, depending on how you look at it.  I think it's roughly around 10000 yen/month, but then again I was paying that a year or two ago when I had unlimited data with DoCoMo, so I think it's not all that bad considering it's Japan.

Oh, and another thing of note: Styletap, the company who made the PalmOS emulator for windows mobile, is working on a version of their emulator for the iPhone, meaning that that dictionary program for PalmOS that does handwriting recognition ought to be usable when that emulator comes out.

Yeah, my docomo unlimited data plan was about 4000 too back in the day.  Don't know what it costs now...

As far as I can tell, it seems that the iPhone will not have special plans in Japan, it'll just use Softbank's regular plans, so ... yeah.

http://iphone-japan.blogspot.com/2008/0 … icing.html

EDIT:
Oh, and here's a youtube video showing the keitai-style keyboard on the iPhone.  Looks pretty slick:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQUiXQP5tu8

Last edited by ajishiosean (2008 June 26, 5:24 pm)

Looks great, but I guess you have to jailbreak your iPhone to install it?

I'm picking one up in a few hours when the stores open here, but if it requires jailbreaking, well, shoot. I guess I'll have to wait and see how long it takes to crack the new phones.

(and as for Anki, it's coming..)

Depending on how the iPhone/iPod touch version of Anki works out (and the distribution method - don't want to jailbreak if I can help it) I might have to make my next iPod a touch instead of a nano.

Last edited by Jarvik7 (2008 July 11, 5:14 pm)

Jarvik: due to Apple's policies, a jailbreak version is the only viable option for now.

skinnyneo: looks like a basic leitner system. Boring. :-)

Of course. :-) This is all about using Anki offline.

Intepreted languages are prohibited on the iPhone. Anki would have to be rewritten from scratch.