iPhone

[mikelove]

To pre-empt the obvious question: yes, we probably will be developing a version of our software for the iPhone at some point, as it has a touchscreen and runs Mac OS X. Which implies we'll also be developing a version for Mac OS X (something we'd already been considering which is made more likely by the iPhone announcement).

 

[Azabu]

Whilst watching the Macworld Keynote, I immediately came to the forums to check on this and unbelieveably the answer was here! Thank you for the great news!

So much for the Treo 680...

 

[mikelove]

I should add that given that the iPhone won't even be out in the US until June, and will only run on Cingular (slowing its penetration in the US significantly), if we do indeed release an iPhone version it most likely won't be out until a few months into 2008 if not much later.

And given the slightly-obscene pricing for the thing ($499 and you have to sign a 2-year service contract) I imagine we'd want to wait and make sure it actually sold well before we began development.

 

[panamajack]

Yeah !

Thanks Mike,

As a Mac user who just got his Palm TX swiped (arrgh !) I've been saving my pennies for this admittedly expensive machine. I agree with you; the pricing would be appropriate IF it was an unlocked machine without an agreement. This makes it rather steep. Nonetheless, I do plan to buy one as my first forray into the smartphone world.

My friend has lent me an old Tungsten W for the interim. Will it work with the latest version of Pleco ?

 

[lmcjipo]

I took a look at the specs for the iPhone. Looks good although since I'm in Canada, I'm not sure when it will be out here.

My Treo 650 broke over the weekend. I started to get a looping reset/reboot and it wouldn't stop. I tried to do a soft reset but this obviously didn't work. The system continued to loop right after the soft reset. I then tried a warm reset and it looped right after the warm reset. I then tried a hard reset and when I pressed the "up" key, it looped again. I then tried a zero-out reset and all I could get was the boot-loader screen. Since I can't get into my Treo 650 at all (the looping happens the moment I put the battery in and does not stop regardless of what I do) and my Treo 650 still has about 3 months of warranty left, I sent it back to Palm. They informed me that they would probably send me a refurbished unit.

I'm not sure what happened to cause the looping reset/reboot. I was just using Blazer and click on a PRC link to download it. In the midst of downloading, it just started to reboot/loop.

I'll probably get the iPhone at some point. It looks like a very good device and if it runs a version of the Mac operating system, it should be a great device since the Mac OS is supposed to be very stable (at least more stable than Windows and hopefully more stable than the PalmOS).

Right now I'm waiting for my Treo 680 which I hope will arrive next week or my fixed/refurbished Treo 650 which I should also receive next week (and will sell the moment I get my Treo 680 and transfer everything over).

 

[Dan_78cj5]

Whatever, its just another phone... right?...

well if you think that, watch the keynote address, its addicting.

As with my current addiction to my Palm T|X, your program will be the 'straw' that broke the camel's back. I had never intended to get a PDA (I liked my pen and paper too much), but once seeing your software I had to have it! The use / addiction to the other funtions followed, and I became a slave to my Palm. Now I have a phone and a palm filling up my pocket (and banging each-other up). I was thinking about a smartphone, but the interface and tiny screens are all very anoying so I've resisted. Well recently I discovered Chinesepod.com, the second best Chinese learning tool in the world (next to Pleco). Although my Palm will run MP3s, a friend introduced me to the powerful and phenominally easy to use software of iTunes. Have you seen this, the interface of the device and the podcast management in iTunes is so crazy simple and natural! (Do I sound like an add for Apple yet? I'm NOT a Mac user, really), but I had to get a iPod, it is so easy to use.

So now I have three items, none of which are fully satisfying, beating eachother up in my pocket (by the way, although the iPhone is crazy expensive, so much that I'll have to save for a year, but compared to the cumulative cost of the three devices I have now its not unreasonable),

BUT NOW...

There is a solution to all problems... ONLY IF you make an iPhone version of the PLECO application. I know you will have to wait on demand, but I really think this device is going to be the answer - PLEASE hurry up and jump on the band wagon.

 

[mikelove]

Bad news on this front, I'm afraid:

http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/09/the-iphone-is-not-a-smartphone/

So Pleco for iPhone may not happen for a while - even if someone comes up with a homebrew solution for writing iPhone software, I don't think we could justify developing a program for something that wasn't officially supported. Seems like Apple are shooting themselves in the foot here...

Oh, and panamajack: yes, the Tungsten W should work, though since it runs OS4 it may be a bit on the slow side...

 

[panamajack]

Saw that too Mike

From Macintouch:

"The only two iPhones at the show were under glass, and Apple representatives said it is a "closed platform", refusing even to identify the specific processor it uses, and there's apparently no developer kit for it, though "developers who want to do applications [for the iPhone] are welcome to contact Apple developer relations." "

I hold hope in the word "appartently" ... while your at it Mike, please beg Apple developer relations. Given OS X's flexible unix underpinnings, saying no to 3rd party guys like Pleco is quite odd. This is unreleased 1st gen hardware still.

 

[Aunty]

Mac OSX

Wonderful news, a Macintosh version one day!

I've always used FreeBSD for my desktop and server machines. Mac OSX is basically FreeBSD with a different kernel and GUI, so that suits me fine. Thanks Mike!

 

[mikelove]

panamajack - I'm sure there'll be legions of loyal Mac developers pestering Apple about opening up the platform, my best guess is that they're not doing it because they don't want to commit to a particular processor / hardware spec / feature set just yet. Given the history of Apple's new product launches, they could easily decide to give the iPhone a complete architectural overhaul in version 2, and they wouldn't want developers to invest a lot of time developing for a platform that would be obsolete within a year.

At the same time, downloadable content is a large and growing cash cow for the carriers, so I imagine they'd be getting a lot of pressure from Cingular to offer some sort of third-party development framework, even if it was just a J2ME interpreter to run simple mobile games and such.

Aunty - that's been a goal of ours for a while, really the only hangup has been the handwriting recognizer and we now have two good schemes for how we can get that working on Mac. (one of which would only work on Intel Macs, but by the time that we actually release a Mac version most serious Mac fans will likely be running Intel anyway)

 

[fredrik]

Nice of you to post so fast Mike

Many thanks on the quick response on the apple phone. Is a mac os X version already cooking? I would be delighted if so. Wenlin is functional for use on the mac but a bit ugly in it´s apperance.

 

[mikelove]

An OSX version is still a while off, I'm afraid - we'll want to make sure that the Windows version is a success before we start seriously working on that. Though with Apple's excellent development tools and our extremely cross-platform-friendly engine code, it shouldn't be too difficult to produce a Mac port once we do start working on one. However, if we do do a Mac version we'd want to do it right, with all of the eye candy and system integration (Spotlight, Dashboard, a Safari-friendly version of our browser annotation tool, etc) that Mac users expect, which might make things take a little longer.

There's also the handwriting recognizer issue, Hanwang doesn't make a recognition engine for OSX (they'd probably do a port if we asked them, but we'd have to pay for it dearly) which means we'd likely end up reviving the old WisdomPen engine we used before PlecoDict came out - still a fine system, and handwriting recognition is less important on a desktop than it is on a handheld anyway, but it wouldn't be quite the same as the Windows version on that front.

 

[Jim]

Just a guess on my part but I think it will be awhile before we see an iSmartPhone. We must keep in mind that this is Apple's first phone and it makes a lot of sense to make it just the way they have.

While smartphone market share has been increasing the vast majority of people still buy just a regular phone with whatever features they want built in. Much easier to sell in volume with even a small share of the larger market.

With the closed platform they won't be worried about software conflicts. This will be a turn it on and use it phone with a very easy learning curve. It is very stylish and combines the features of the extremely popular iPod and a nice phone. This thing should sell like hotcakes with very high customer satisfaction ratings. This is a unit that will solidly establish Apple's reputation in the phone market.

Once their reputation is firmly established it would seem logical for Apple to bring to market an iSmartPhone and this is probably already under development. Keeping in mind that this is a much smaller market with more demanding customers and some well established competition that Apple will want to clearly better and not just match, it is anybody's guess when it will come to market.

That said, I am really looking forward to it. Plecodict has already shown us that people are willing to wait politely, if a little iimpatiently, for a quality product.

 

[mikelove]

Plecodict has already shown us that people are willing to wait politely, if a little iimpatiently, for a quality product.

Appreciate the subtlety there... no comment on the current release date situation, except to say that the "before Christmas" announcement was a bad idea and is a mistake I most definitely won't be making again.

 

[Jim]

That wasn't a dig Mike. I appreciate all the work you put into getting Plecodict right and I will wait for as long as it takes. Sure, I can become a little impatient (about a lot of things in life) but I won't push a guy who has always done his best for his customers.

 

[sfrrr]

Oh, but I have no compunction about nagging. Hurry up. Hurry up. I just lost a year of flash cards. (Usually I lose only the user dict.) Still, PD is one of my most frequently used Axim apps--maybe more than my calendar and contacts.

Sandra

 

[mikelove]

Jim - no problem, I mostly posted that because I realized I hadn't said anything on that subject in a while.

sfrrr - How could you lose a year of flashcards? Don't you back them up regularly? Usually when I hear someone's lost that many it's not because of anything PlecoDict-related but because they forgot to make backups and their Pocket PC was run over by a bus/train/tank/etc.

 

[flameproof]

I wonder what's the hype about? There are really no new function compared to a new Nokia or Sony/E. Apple is good in marketing, the products are OK, but not that outstanding. Specially, I can really not see how a Mac OS on a phone can beat, let's say, a Symbian OS, which is designed from phone experts for phone use.

I prefer use Pleco now, rather then wait to "maybe" 2008.

I think in terms of marketing all the talk is counterproductive. People will wait, rather then just go out and buy the software.

 

[sui.generis]

FYI

Possibility of Java dev on iPhone

Thought you'd like to know. There's an unorthodox communication method listed there as well to allow developers to make their wishes known to Apple.

 

[mikelove]

A Java port would be tricky on our end, though, PlecoDict is currently written in C (with a few C++ extensions, but no classes), both on Palm and WinCE, and in the upcoming Win32 port. Hence, a Java port would involve a LOT of work - the entire program would need to be restructured to make it object-oriented and compliant with Java syntax. Now we'd have to do that anyway if we do a BlackBerry port, but if we don't, it would be very difficult to justify doing it just for iPhone, particularly given the still-strong likelihood that Apple will allow Objective-C iPhone development at some point in the not too distant future.