Pocket PC for Pleco

[daniu]

Hi!

I had this posted in the Chhinese-forums forum. Someone adviced me to also post it here. In addition reading more brought me to the question: when will probably be the date when the first non-beta version will come out for Pocket PC?

I am in the fortunate situation that I would like to buy some kind of electronic translation device and will be traveling to both Taiwan and Singapore soon (usually I stay in Germany as I'm German).

Actually I thought of buying a Besta translator until a friend asked me why I would want to spend so much money and not buy a handheld instead.

After browsing a bit around here I came to the conclusion that Plecodict on a Pocket PC should be the right thing for me (would also like to use another program - e-sword - currently only available for pocket PC - so Palm is more or less out)

Can you give me some advice where it might be best to buy this device (also taking in account that I would like to be able to read and write Chinese not only in plecodict - thus might need additional software for pocket pc). I got local friends in both Asian countries who can help me to bargain at simlim (Singapore) or that messy pc-market in Taiwan.

So far I cannot really overlook what else I might want to do with a palm. As I do not really miss it so far - not too much I guess, but I am a pretty technology loving person - so I will soon figure out and might be annoyed by the limits (like my cell phone - Nokia 6230 - being used as mailreader via WAP, Mp3-Player, Radio, camera but ... it cannot take software larger than 64kb Still have never watched a movie on it ... I should go for that soon!)

As I said before: I would have bought a Besta - so the amount of money I am willing to spend is around 300 Euro (happy if it is possible for less) That is around 12 000 NT or 600 SGD. As a handheld has much more functionality I would be willing to add the price of plecodict.

I would appreciate any help for my decission.

Thanks
Daniel

 

[mikelove]

We at Pleco have a long and glorious history of spectacularly missing release dates (our success at meeting our 9/1 goal for the PPC beta version nonwithstanding), so I'm trying not to give out too many estimates about when the finished version might be ready - best guess at this point would probably be sometime in November, but that's just a guess and should not be taken too seriously.

As for your question about where to buy a PPC, I know very little about the electronics markets in Taiwan or Singapore, so I don't have much to say on that. For performance reasons I think you'd be better off with a low-resolution model and not one of the newer VGA ones (which are glorious to look at but feel kind of slow to me at least), aside from that just make sure that it has Pocket PC 2003 or later and a reasonably fast processor and that's about all you need.

However, I'm not sure if it's really a good idea to buy a handheld in Asia when you're mostly planning to use it in Germany - most of them don't come with worldwide warranties, and they break very easily, so you could save yourself a lot of money in the long run by buying one in Germany with a good warranty / replacement policy; you should still have no problems getting a high-quality model for under 300 Euro.

 

[daniu]

Hi!

Thanks for your reply!

I know that it is very common to miss release dates so I would not be surprised if it would become January But ... another point is: is the beta version in generall usable or is it really very beta? From reading this forum it sounds like it can be used already even there are some minor bugs. So ... it is not Alpha any more. Lots of software is called Beta even though it should be called pre alpha ... As for Plecodict Pocket PC it does not sound like this at all - rather like: we want to sell this - so it must be more or less bug-free.
Do you have any specific device that you use for testing purposes?

It is interesting that you say that handhelds break easily ... Just yesterday I read about his IPAQ tuners and someone wrote that he never regretted loosing his warranty because of this. I will check the prices and maybe I can get international warranty and still get a cheaper price in Asia than in Germany (buying the thing before my holiday now is not necessary anyway).

But ... can you say something about the Software that bundles with the devices? Someone said it might be an advantage that you get the Chinese Input Method Software (to read/write chinese documents besides from using plecodict) for free when buying the device in Asia while you have to pay for it in other countries. I only use legal software so this might become a major issue. I do not know much about Input Method Software for handhelds. Are there any pointers to read more about this? Is there really no Chinese version of Windows Mobile? If such a version was there it would make it pretty uninteresting for me to buy the thing in Taiwan as I could not use it - my Chinese is not sufficient to really use a Chinese computer - well use yes but not own.

regards
Daniel

 

[mikelove]

Well it seems to be pretty useful, but I'm probably not the best person to comment on that We didn't release the beta because we felt it was bug-free, we released it because we'd gotten several hundred e-mails from people asking to be beta testers; it seemed easiest to just let anyone who wanted to try the beta version do so.

I've never bought a Pocket PC in Asia, so I really don't know what the bundles are like... there certainly is a Chinese version of Windows Mobile, though, so that might be something to avoid. I think your chances are much better in Singapore than in Taiwan of finding an English-language PPC with a bundled Chinese localizer. I don't know of any good resources on input method software, but Monster Chinese (http://www.mactiontech.com/english/index.htm) seems to be the most popular one at the moment.