Has anyone mentioned the pdf/ebook/text reader Goodreader? I discovered it the day before yesterday, literally a day before they made me want to have its babies by addding the ability to add notes, highlighting, annotations and markup to PDFs in the software. I now do my markup as I read, then download the marked-up PDF to my desktop and c/p the necessary sentences and definitions into Anki.

(EDIT: also, and the reason why I originally bought it: it does Text Reflow well even when working with Japanese PDFs)

Note: take care that if you are saving off PDFs from a source like OpenOffice, you do NOT save them as PDF/A compliant. PDF/A compliant specs will keep you from popping highlights with notes added up in a window you can c/p from on the desktop in Acrobat Reader.

Only downside is that when you switch windows with an annotated PDF open, at the moment, when you switch back the PDF crashes. But it crashes fast, reopens fast, and reopens to where you left off without (generally) losing any data, so I'm willing to forgive this (and assume it will be fixed - the annotation is a one-day-old feature).

Other than that my most-loved apps are all obvious choices: Anki, Daijirin, Kotoba and Daijisen

Last edited by ttenani (2010 October 03, 12:23 am)

Sorry, maybe this is kind of OT, but I don't want to open a new thread for this.

I have a new laptop and want to sync my Ipod touch with my iTunes - however, it seems there's no way to get the paid applications from my iPod to my iTunes, is there?
I already tried the "transfer paid apps" thingie, but it doesn't work

If I click on the "sync app" botton, I see a preview of all apps on my ipod and the ones I bought and basically all apps that are not standard are gone! So if I really push "do it" then all my apps will vanish from my ipod because it'll sync it with the empty itunes
And yes, I've been logged in the whole time.

Hmm looks like there's actually a bunch of apps that allow Stardict dictionaries to be implemented? Looks like Touchdict or whatever maybe works, not sure if it has a clipboard function or how clipboard stuff even works for iOS...

Any news on the Kanji handwriting recognition front?

I'm frustrated that apple has not implemented this from the bottom up. Daijirin's implementation is amazing, my current system for unknown kanji compounds is to write into daijirin to get a reading and a J-J definition, then copy and paste the kanji into Kenkyusha for an English definition, then sometimes copy and paste again into Kotoba to save as a favorite to export into Anki.

However, when I'm in a hurry I'd love to be able to enter kanji directly into the other two apps using handwriting recognition of Daijirin caliber. Is this possible?

Cheers!

jimbojones99 wrote:

Any news on the Kanji handwriting recognition front?

I'm frustrated that apple has not implemented this from the bottom up. Daijirin's implementation is amazing, my current system for unknown kanji compounds is to write into daijirin to get a reading and a J-J definition, then copy and paste the kanji into Kenkyusha for an English definition, then sometimes copy and paste again into Kotoba to save as a favorite to export into Anki.

However, when I'm in a hurry I'd love to be able to enter kanji directly into the other two apps using handwriting recognition of Daijirin caliber. Is this possible?

Cheers!

Could you give a link for the Kenkyusha dictionary you are refering to, please? sounds interesting

Or you could pick up a copy of the EPWING version (my older 第4版 was just 2000 yen), and use something like EBPocket to read it.

No, I've got EPPocket Free. I put Kenkyusha on there, along with some other stuff I don't think I'll use.

You put it on there through the wifi connection, and it takes a long time if you have big dictionaries, but you can do it.
I'm not sure how to do it "officially," but I had mine jailbroken, so I just transferred the stuff into the right directory. They give you EDICT or something to begin with, anyway (IIRC).

Asriel wrote:

I've got EPPocket Free. I put Kenkyusha on there, along with some other stuff I don't think I'll use. You put it on there through the wifi connection, and it takes a long time if you have big dictionaries, but you can do it. I'm not sure how to do it "officially," but I had mine jailbroken, so I just transferred the stuff into the right directory.

I looked into transferring files and started seeing lots of acronyms so I got scared and settled for the Daijirin & Wisdom apps. I tried to find Kenkyusha too but Installous' search function leaves a lot to be desired.

The Kanji recognition in Daijirin is ridiculously good. It seems to get stuff right even when I'm sloppy and write it with the wrong stroke order.

Bargain hunters: Did you know some new apps are released at a temporary reduced price (or even free) to raise some interest. Here's four going cheap right now:

•The Ultimate Japanese Phrasebook from Kodansha 350円 (Will go up to around 1,000円). 1,800 phrases with audio. Is more conversational than the Core 2000 material.
•漢検 ２級に挑戦 (KanKen Level 2)  450円 (Will go up to around 1,000円)
•Advanced Japanese Phrases, Idioms, and Newspaper Terms From "The Japanese page". Now 600円 (will rise to double that, they say). This is not bad, but the data is limited to a few topics (they say that will also be increased in the future).
•JapanGoggles Free (at the moment). This is a simple OCR. If your iPod/Phone has a camera you can shoot and identify kanji & kana. It works well if the image is crisp & clear.

•One Second Japanese 1600 Complete Version 115円. This, on the other hand, was introduced at 800円, but is now 115円. It has sound files and an interesting colour marking system, but doesn't really appeal to me. There is a free version with about 60 words you can try.

Also, a couple of others I looked at recently:
•JLPT self study 450円．Has a simple, clean interface. Covers N1-N5 vocabulary, kanji, (& grammar to be added later, they say). There's a free version for N5 only. Needs to be proofread though; there are quite a few errors.
•超辞典 115円. E-J, J-E dictionary. I just spotted this (haven't tried it), but I'm amazed by the minimalist interface. Claims to have a uniquely useful lookup method. Seems to use an oldish Kenkyusha dictionary with others available at a price.

juniperpansy wrote:

Katsuo are you aware of any Japanese apps that list these on sale apps?

Unfortunately, no.

I noticed on Appshopper that "My Japanese Coach" is on special offer right now, i.e. 115円. Having read strong opinions both for and against it, I was curious to try it out.

It tries really hard to be motivating and stimulating, and to give you a sense of progress. There are 1,145 lessons in all. You are given a placement test, but even scoring full marks only allows you to skip the first 10 lessons, i.e. about 1% of the total.

A major problem is bugs. You have to complete each lesson successfully to unlock the next one, which is done by accumulating points in various games. But the point awarding system keeps seizing up, and even getting perfect scores sometimes has no effect. Also there are many inbuilt mistakes that mean some games are impossible to complete.

The solution is (usually) to try an alternative game, i.e. turn the app off, restart, choose "Games" rather than "Learning", select and play an alternative game to the one in the lesson. So far that's got me through (now on lesson 37).

Chinese, French, and Spanish are also going cheap at the moment.