Android device for learning Chinese?

[Zeldor]

Hi,

We all know that Pleco for Android is not coming [at least soon], but I need a new phone. Maybe there are some people here that don't want to get into dead platform [WM] or pay huge premium [Apple] and still want to learn Chinese.

So, what would be the best Android device to use for Chinese learning [so stylus input for writing characters] + use it as mp3 player.

What Android stuff is available for Chinese students? Anki does not support handwriting?

I was thinking about N900, but just someone hacking it to put Android on rather does not qualify as Android device

Oh, and certainly contract-free and not from top shelf, like that cool new Dell.

 

[mikelove]

We all know that Pleco for Android is not coming [at least soon], but I need a new phone

Depends on your definition of "soon," but I'd definitely recommend signing up for our email list if you haven't already. Though if we do release an Android version it'll most likely require (or at least be heavily optimized around) the latest version 2.2 of Android, so older / cheaper phones may not work with it - some older ones like the Motorola Droid/(Milestone?) will be upgradable to 2.2, though, and while nothing's 100%, my own personal let's-see-if-this-Android-thing-makes-sense test phone is a Droid so that's high up on the list of likely-to-be-supported devices in a potential Android version.

pay huge premium [Apple]

Huge premium? You can buy a brand new iPod Touch for US$200 - used / previous-generation they get as low as $100. You can even get a used unlocked iPhone 3GS for around $300 I believe. The latest-and-greatest Apple stuff is a bit pricey, but partly because they're so good at making the previous generation of their devices seem comparatively unsexy and out-of-date, there's a ton of cheap used iStuff out there. The older stuff also tends to be very easy to jailbreak / unlock / hack to your heart's content. We're very excited about the potential of super-cheap used iPods for our business, actually - even looking into whether we might be able to source / resell them in bulk as economical student-friendly Pleco setups.

Android device to use for Chinese learning [so stylus input for writing characters]

I don't believe there are any Android devices with stylus-friendly resistive touchscreens, actually - everybody's using finger-driven capacitive screens now. If you want a stylus then honestly your best bet would probably be to stick with Windows Mobile, though given the way the market is moving it might be worth trying to make things work with a finger-driven touchscreen.

 

[Zeldor]

Mikelove:

Right, I think I did not sign for it still But I totally agree - I should invest a bit more into Android 2.x. That's why I am not getting any budget ones, like Samsung 5700 or 7500.

iPod touch is not a phone I don't want to carry few devices. 8GB iPod Touch would be $250 +. iPhone 3GS would be $700+. Apple prices outside US are even more insane unfortunately. I loved all that refurbished [mostly on woot] stuff you can buy in US. Too bad I'm not traveling any time soon... But my point is that all Apple products are way way overpriced around here. And buying used ones would make them more expensive [I need to buy them for company, so some paperwork, anything bought from private person, not a shop is like 30% more expensive then].

Motorola Droid is certainly an option [yeah, called Milestone in Europe].

I know about touchscreens, that's why I mentioned Nokia N900, which comes with a stylus. It has Maemo 5 which should be good for most Linux apps and maybe that Android hack is good enough [but certainly nothing can compare to HTC community and their ROMs].

 

[mikelove]

I loved all that refurbished [mostly on woot] stuff you can buy in US. Too bad I'm not traveling any time soon...

Many eBay sellers will ship internationally, actually - if you can get a used unlocked 3GS for $300 in the US there's no way you'd have to pay $700 to get it shipped to Europe. And many of those sellers are corporations rather than private individuals - especially the ones with "top-rated seller" badges. There's also the possibility of just buying a new phone from a different European country and taking advantage of differing policies on carrier subsidies / unlocking. Anyway my basic point is that with a little effort you can probably get a very nice unlocked iPhone for about the same as what you'd pay for an equivalent Android phone, though I can certainly imagine you might have other reasons for preferring Android.

I know about touchscreens, that's why I mentioned Nokia N900, which comes with a stylus. It has Maemo 5 which should be good for most Linux apps and maybe that Android hack is good enough [but certainly nothing can compare to HTC community and their ROMs].

Another thing to be wary of with that is that many newer Android apps may be oriented around finger-driven touchscreens and multitouch - if we released Pleco on Android we'd certainly plan to use multitouch gestures in our handwriting recognizer as we do on iPhone, and we probably wouldn't even offer a small / stylus-oriented handwriting input box like we do on Palm/WM since outside of a few hacked devices there wouldn't be much demand for one.

 

[Zeldor]

Well, all things would stack [at least 30% import fee, no tax-deduction, shipping, very high $ and euro prices atm]. Well, taking closer look, I found some used 8GB iPhone 3's for around $300 around here indeed. I can certainly get Android devices for that price. But well, a bit more for 2.x one with good specs. But I simply don't like Apple So I can pay more for Android. Still, Android devices are cheaper when you compare them.

Good to know about Pleco Android plans. Hmm... well, I will have to take a look. There is Motorola Milestone, HTC Legend & Desire, Acer A1...

 

[character]

FWIW, don't buy an iPhone 3G in any event because there are lots of reports of it becoming very slow when running iOS 4.

Interesting to hear more about a possible Plecodroid.

 

[mikelove]

Interesting to hear more about a possible Plecodroid.

Well the emphasis for the moment is on possible - not saying we're doing one, but we'd be crazy if we weren't at least continuing to explore the possibility; while I still think Antennagate had more to do with media perception than with reality, it does clearly illustrate the dangers of relying too much on just one company's products. Though then again, the widespread anti-Microsoft hatred picked up at right around the same time that Microsoft entered their most dominant period - the two antitrust lawsuit years were also the two years in which IE's market share went from 35% to 85% - so the Steve Jobs / Darth Vader comparisons don't necessarily portend bad things for iPhone.

 

[spinoza]

I first heard of Pleco from classmates when studying at BLCU in 2006 and have been desperate to get it ever since. So in June of 2007 I bought myself a brand new HTC touch mini. Only then did I realise Pleco was not yet supporting WinMo 6.5
Fast forward 2 years, I bought an iPhone 3GS. Of course Pleco had been saying since 2007 that they have no plans to develop for iPhone.
One year later (a few months ago) I bought an HTC legend, and I check the Pleco website again, and funnily enough they now have an app for iPhone, but nothing for Android!!
I just thought this was a humorous story.. of me constantly getting software too early! Please develop for Android soon. I promise I wont have moved to WP7 by then!