No one uses EPWING It's a computer-only standard.

As far I know Casio only works with Casio, Seiko only with Seiko, Canon only with Canon, etc.

Jarvik7 wrote:

No one uses EPWING It's a computer-only standard.

Not exactly, EBPocket works on Windows Mobile 6. I own a HTC P3400i Windows Mobile phone which I purchased for about 260$ (with a 4gb SD memory card) and I have loaded every free epwing dictionary that I could find on the net.

Jarvik7 wrote:

Windows mobiles are pocket computers.

It's not a standard embraced by manufactures of consumer electronics such as electronic dictionaries. Furthermore you can't add your own software to them so no third party can make a reader.

Actually, I am not sure, but as far as I understood these things, the EPWING format is the standard established by Japanese consumer electronic manufactures to allow dictionary publishers to easily release a dictionary in a format that could be licensed for electronic dictionaries.  I thought that most of them use the EPWING format.  Furthermore, I thought that if you have one of the higher end electronic dictionaries, the dictionary cards they accept are nothing more than flash memory with an EPWING dictionary on them.  I assumed that the versions of these dictionaries that are floating around the net were at some point copied from these cards.  Admittedly, I could be wrong here though...

Last edited by dilandau23 (2008 September 26, 12:43 am)

sub: Casio Ex-word xd-gp9700 or the xd-gp6900

Background:
I'm about to buy a denshi jisho. Not that I -need- to, really. I'm at a level perhaps between level 2 and level 3 of the jlpt.

But I love good dictionaries and like constructing a forest of ideas in my mind using one.
I studied French and German (some Sanskrit as well) in order to achieve fluency of expression in English. I loved tracking down words down to their origins and examining how their association with meaning changed over time. I used to spend a lot of my free time with various unabridged editions of North American dictionaries - till I spent about three months of pay to purchase the entire 20 volume OED.

I can perhaps absorb a good amount of information straight from a good dictionary, to those who are against that - well, I am perhaps one of those who can read a dictionary not just as a reference tool, but as a novel, as a history, as a study of human representation of meaning by symbols. Language acquisition is a by-product.
(One of my hobby project dreams ('maybe-i'll-do-it-someday') was the study of ancient languages to try and understand their relationships with the data structures of the mind. (inspired by neal stephenson's 'snow crash' and my own experience with the ancient Indian science of Mantra shastra.))

So ... given that background ... and the fact that I have gone through each kanji in heisig at least once and can now recognize about 500 odd kanji with readings (having put in about a total of 40 odd hours over the last 6 months into Heisig), and that I am not fluent, but can pretty much communicate whatever I want with 'copy-paste-and-workaround' japanese.  And my current dictionary of choice is a Kumon Kokugo jiten with furigana for all kanji and about 10,000 words (however, I have a feeling that my dictionary mining will perhaps gain a lot of momentum with the jump feature in the denshi jisho ... ne?) now ...

Question:

Is the ex-word 9700 with the better ei-wa wa-ei dictionaries (notably the big kenkyusha and the big ei-wa genius) a better option than the 6900 with the big nihon kokugo daijiten and a lot of cultural books about old japanese, haiku, keigo and the likes ?

I find myself leaning towards the 6900. Heavily. Because, I could add the 'green goddess' to the 6900 (would I really need the big genius ei-wa or the reader's ?)
BUT I CANNOT ADD THE big three volume nihon-kokugo-daijiten to the 9700 (as I don't see it as being available in the Casio catalog I got from Joshin.)

So, given that I decide to go with the 6900 ... is there any major difference in the hardware between the 6900 and the 9700 ? like the input method or the jump function or in the base software like the flash card functionality or the text file reader functionality ?

If there isn't, then I go with the 6900 + green goddess.

What say?

thanks a lot for your input!

Thanks a lot!
Done.
xd-gp6900+green goddess ordered from amazon.

aaah. http://kakaku.com lists many cheaper options for buying the 6900.
http://kakaku.com/item/20753010419/
It can be had for as little as 32700 jpy (with shipping) as compared with the 36800 jpy on amazon vs the 42000 jpy gurai in midori denka.

I will perhaps cancel the amazon order, since none of the online shops seem to be able to fulfill the order before 3rd October anyway.

So if anyone else in Japan is looking for the cheapest deals - kakaku.com seems to be the place to go.

hey jarvik san,

yodabashi lists special price as
特価：￥44,800 (税込)  定価：オープン価格
消費税総額表示です
on http://www.yodobashi.com/enjoy/more/i/81844544.html
it also says 20% off at the top.
Does that mean a 20% off of 44,800?
or does Special Price: 44800
mean that it is the price after discount?

thanks!

aah ... sokka... ryokai.
arigatou!
The amazon.co.jp deal comes to exactly the same as the current yodobashi price.
44800 - 20% is 34800. I should've checked for the campaigns.
I should've cancelled the amazon order yesterday itself.
Anyways ... but the dictionary is now already in transit.

If not for this thread I wouldn't have discovered the nihon kokugo daijiten and would've bought the 9700!
Thanks for the help in choosing the dictionary!

tokyostyle wrote:

Best of all it's under 2man.

I was like 'Wow, that's a great price!' until I realized you are in Tokyo.  Buying things from overseas is so much more pricey.  -sigh-

As a bright spot, I'm now at the point that when someone says '2man' I get an immediate value in my head, instead of having to think 'What was man again?'  Hehe.  (As a bonus, I got the USD price conversion in my head a fraction of a second later as well.)

mentat_kgs wrote:

mistamark wrote:

I fully recommend this pda/dictionary/everything hybrid.

http://www.japaneselanguagetools.com/

You can download a stupid amount of dictionaries to put on it. Use it to surf the interwebs,  email, watch films, listen to music, read books, manga, SRS. in short, anything.

Edict really doesn't count as a dictionary.

Haha, it's more like a toy you outgrow.

mistamark wrote:

alyks wrote:

mentat_kgs wrote:

Edict really doesn't count as a dictionary.

Haha, it's more like a toy you outgrow.

While I partially agree about the pre-installed Edict, you should read the post again. Does Kenkyusha count as a 'real' dictionary? how about 三省堂必携辞書 (Sanseido)? Those two are among the 37 on there at the moment, even a Kogo jiten dictionary.

The only dictionary in my heart is the Super Daijirin 3.

I agree with Transparent_Aluminum; Edict is really, really underestimated by a lot of people.  It's nice to have both Edict & Kenkyuusha around.  I know some people will never accept it (and it's been discussed here before), but don't dismiss it out of hand.