Comments on: Michael Love on the Pleco iPhone App

By: David

David — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 16:30:16 +0000

I’ve been using Pleco on the Palm platform for a long time and and still use it even though I now also have an iPod touch. I have a Chinese dictionary on my iPod that has flashcards, but it does not currently permit multiple lists. I really like this capability on my Palm because I can set up flashcard sessions for specific sets of vocabulary. This is one of the most important features for me so I will probably wait to get the iPod version of Pleco until flashcards is implemented.

By: BeijingDreams

BeijingDreams — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:07:42 +0000

@Esther: Once Pleco for iPhone is out, the iPhone should probably be the device of choice for your needs. You’ll need to unlock it (very easy to do on the mainland here, not sure about Taiwan) and then you can just switch SIM cards when you go back and forth.

By: Esther

Esther — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:49:08 +0000

I’m a big fan of Pleco and I’ve been holding off on getting a smart phone to see how different platforms would work out with it, and waiting for the bugs to get worked out. But there are so many different products out there, and more all the time. Add to that the fact that I hope to buy one all-in-one (phone, email, web browsing that isn’t as slow as dial up) device that I can use in both Taiwan and the US (not necessarily with the same plan/carrier). Anyone have experience they would like to share? What’s worked (or not) for you?

By: Tzm

Tzm — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:55:04 +0000

Thanks for the reply Mr.Love. A 2010 update is not too long to wait for.

By: Michael Love

Michael Love — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 20:00:46 +0000

Tzm – A lot of these functions are already available on Windows Mobile, actually, they’re just turned off by default – tone coloring for example can be enabled through the Misc panel in Preferences. There are a few little tweaks we made to the engine on iPhone that aren’t on WM yet (like sandhi transformations for syllable-by-syllable audio playback, and the ability to search for partial dictionary matches even when full ones are available), but those should show up in the next bug-fix update (2.0.4) – a beta of that will show up on plecoforums.com sometime soon (probably shortly after we submit the finished iPhone version to Apple).

About the only major things on iPhone that aren’t already on WM are character component search and the finger-oriented touchscreen interface. Character component search should be coming in the 2.1 update (early 2010). The touchscreen stuff we’re trying to hold off on doing until Microsoft releases some official documentation / API references for Windows Mobile 7 – we’d rather not get halfway through implementing it only to discover we’ve been doing it wrong and have to rewrite it to get it working correctly on WM7.

There’s also no built-in document reader for web pages on WM yet, but reading pages in Pocket IE with our Instant Access / Search for Clipboard on Open features works pretty much the same way; likewise there’s no file manager built-in on WM since Windows Mobile has an open file system and lets you move / transfer files using ActiveSync / File Explorer / etc.

By: stuart

stuart — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 06:50:04 +0000

Thanks for the great info. The solution for the mouse over issue looks cool. I would love to play around with a lite version on my wifes Iphone especially as longer term I think I will get an android phone especially if pleco becomes available. I use a blackberry at work and I don’t see these kinds of tools becoming available any time soon especially if our IT department doesn’t allow us to install software;-)

By: coljac

coljac — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 04:11:44 +0000

Thanks John and Mike for the interview. As a Chinese student, computer programmer and iPhone fan I got a lot out of this.

I'm very interested in the document reader and clipboard integration, can't wait to put those features to the test.

By: Tzm

Tzm — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 03:54:35 +0000

When can we expect to see a windows mobile version with similar functions?