iPhone Demo Video
- Thread starter mikelove
- Start date
benzhen - well maybe it's not a hack per se, but since Apple doesn't officially support it, they could arbitrarily change the directory structure in a future iPhone release in a way that causes it to stop working (even if that's just accidental). So I definitely wouldn't want to rely too much on it.
anchan42 - yes, it should work on any iPhone / iPod Touch model, though it's looking like the "Live Mode" reader feature will be considerably more usable on the iPhone 3GS / iPod Touch 3G due to their greater amount of RAM. (performance for dictionary / plaintext reader / flashcard functions should be excellent on any iPhone, though)
shorel - flashcardexchange.com is a bit tricky because they don't reliably separate Chinese / Pinyin / English; our system relies heavily on that separation in pretty much every flashcard study mode. We might eventually be able to add a feature to auto-detect / automatically extract each of those from whatever text we were given, but it'd be difficult and (without a Google-sized research budget) less-than-reliable, so we prefer to see flashcards in that separated format, as a lot of other sites now seem to support.
It probably wouldn't take very long to manually reformat a flashcardexchange.com file for use with our flashcard system, though; it's just something that needs a little human involvement to work reliably, recognizing how the file is organized / divided up and reformatting it so that Pleco knows what to do with it.
anchan42 - yes, it should work on any iPhone / iPod Touch model, though it's looking like the "Live Mode" reader feature will be considerably more usable on the iPhone 3GS / iPod Touch 3G due to their greater amount of RAM. (performance for dictionary / plaintext reader / flashcard functions should be excellent on any iPhone, though)
shorel - flashcardexchange.com is a bit tricky because they don't reliably separate Chinese / Pinyin / English; our system relies heavily on that separation in pretty much every flashcard study mode. We might eventually be able to add a feature to auto-detect / automatically extract each of those from whatever text we were given, but it'd be difficult and (without a Google-sized research budget) less-than-reliable, so we prefer to see flashcards in that separated format, as a lot of other sites now seem to support.
It probably wouldn't take very long to manually reformat a flashcardexchange.com file for use with our flashcard system, though; it's just something that needs a little human involvement to work reliably, recognizing how the file is organized / divided up and reformatting it so that Pleco knows what to do with it.
Great news! I'm taking a trip home in a few months and was going to buy a new machine to replace my aging and over-used Palm. I was starting to get discouraged about the iPhone version, and was considering making the switch to Windows Mobile. Now I'm convinced: I'll either get an iPhone (depending on what kind of issues I face as a foreigner in China) or the iPod Touch.
mikelove said:
I'm not sure if this is just differences in terminology and I'm just misunderstanding what you are saying, but it is certainly possible to have one app access data files of another app on the iPhone, in order to create modular-like packages.
For example Dianhua Dictionary (JSQ) is able to playback the audio files that are part of the separate app, Dianhua Audio Module, and WordWeb Dictionary (WordWeb Software) is able to cross-reference entries from other titles from the company.
It would be possible to list say, Pleco Dictionary Engine, Pleco Stroke Order, Pleco Audio, ABC Dictionary for Pleco, etc as individual products on the App Store, meaning you can avoid having to put out a bloated monolithic bundle, and/or several popular bundles, which as you said would be a pain to maintain since you'd need to submit the whole bundle every time you make a change, even if it only affects one of the modules.
The main downside to this option is that individual modules still appear as an app on the iPhone, and as per Apple's guidelines, need to provide some measure of standalone functionality.
Anyway, just thought I'd mention this as a possible Plan B, in case there are problems getting the current design approved.
Actually, at least in every app like that that I've seen, the data files are duplicated in each component that uses them - the only sharing that's going on it something to tell one component that another component has been installed / purchased (via a custom URL protocol or possibly a preferences key) so that that component knows it should give access to its version of that data. Applications aren't allowed to access other applications' data files for security reasons - each application has its own file storage "sandbox" and can only access files inside of there.
estudiando
探花
I couldn't tell for sure, but is there going to be a (cheaper) version of Pleco without the Flashcard feature. I'm one of those who has never used the flashcard feature. Regarding license transferring, I'm not sure if the app store allows things like coupons or discound codes, but one way is to use rebates (of course Apple will still get 30%).
Yes, we're planning to make flashcards optional on iPhone, though like everything else that's subject to change.
As far as license transfers, rebates are unfortunately not workable because thanks to the way some of our licenses are structured we'd still be on the hook for royalties for both purchases - between those and Apple's share, the portion of the price we'd actually be able to refund would be too low to make it worthwhile. (and having everyone except us make money off of someone's iPhone transfer, but giving up any profit ourselves for the sake of being able to refund a small portion of the purchase price, doesn't make a whole lot of sense - the financial impact on Pleco is vastly disproportionate to the goodwill we'd generate)
I'm pretty optimistic that we'll be able to offer a good license transfer option, since Apple seems to be allowing similar behavior in lots of other apps - I just can't make any promises about it until the app is actually approved.
As far as license transfers, rebates are unfortunately not workable because thanks to the way some of our licenses are structured we'd still be on the hook for royalties for both purchases - between those and Apple's share, the portion of the price we'd actually be able to refund would be too low to make it worthwhile. (and having everyone except us make money off of someone's iPhone transfer, but giving up any profit ourselves for the sake of being able to refund a small portion of the purchase price, doesn't make a whole lot of sense - the financial impact on Pleco is vastly disproportionate to the goodwill we'd generate)
I'm pretty optimistic that we'll be able to offer a good license transfer option, since Apple seems to be allowing similar behavior in lots of other apps - I just can't make any promises about it until the app is actually approved.
estudiando
探花
Yeah makes a lot of sense. Since I already got rid of my Palm TX, I will buy the iPhone version no matter what, but many thanks for thinking about "a good license transferring option". I love the new E-C ABC dictionary, but because of the unknown license transfer issues, I held up buying it until the release of the iPhone version. Hopefully the app store will not take weeks approving the application.
coljac said:
I use my Palm every day in class, but lately instead of listening to my teacher, I've often been daydreaming about the 64GB iPod Touch I plan to be using in class next semester. I'm planning on buying it in the States when I go back during the Chinese New Year holiday, so I really wouldn't be able to use the new version of Pleco until February. (Also, I wouldn't make the switch until flashcards are ready - I spend more time with that than anything else.) But I still itch every day to check out the latest news.
mariachimike
Member
Hi Mike,
Like many others, I've been coming to the site frequently to check for the iPhone release announcement.
Can you set up a mailing list so we'll be informed when the iPhone app is released?
Thanks!
Mike
Like many others, I've been coming to the site frequently to check for the iPhone release announcement.
Can you set up a mailing list so we'll be informed when the iPhone app is released?
Thanks!
Mike
http://www.pleco.com/company.html has a signup for our general announcement list - the next message on that will probably be announcing the iPhone version release.
