Latest Announcement E-mail

mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
For those of you who aren't on the mailing list. Some things in here which I think people will be very excited about :)

Greetings all,

A couple of announcements to share with everyone.

First, we've recently released a small update to PlecoDict for Windows
Mobile which addresses a crashing issue on Windows Mobile 6-based
phones; it doesn't make any other changes aside from fixing that one
issue, but it should at least make Pleco work about as well on Windows
Mobile 6 as it does on earlier versions of Windows Mobile.

The patch is available at http://www.pleco.com/ppcdownload.html . To
install it, exit PlecoDict completely (using the Quit command in the
Dict menu), then download and run the "Update from 1.0" installer from
that site and that should get you up and running with the new version.
To check whether your phone is running Windows Mobile 6, choose Start,
Settings, System, About and look at the first line of text on the
screen; if the version listed is Windows Mobile 5 or Windows Mobile 2003
you do not need this update. We haven't released any updates for the
Palm OS version of Pleco recently; this update is only for Windows
Mobile devices.

Secondly, after almost two years in development we're finally ready to
announce that we expect to release the next major version of our
software, Pleco 2.0, on June 5th of this year. So only a few more months
to go. If you really can't stand to wait, we're having an open beta-test
of the new software for all Pleco customers at
http://www.plecoforums.com - this is an experimental version of Pleco,
is still unstable / unfinished and may crash or do other nasty things to
your handheld, so if you're not very computer-savvy we'd recommend that
you wait for the finished release, but if you are good with computers we
welcome you to try it out and post your feedback. The next beta-test
release, Beta 4, should be out by April 1st. For more details on Pleco
2.0 and some slightly out-of-date screenshots, visit
http://www.pleco.com/pdpreview.html.

Third, also on the 2.0 front we've recently licensed two more
dictionaries in addition to the new ones we were already planning to
launch with 2.0. The first of these is the "Tuttle Learner's
Chinese-English Dictionary"; this is a dictionary of the 4,800 most
common Chinese words (including all HSK level A/B vocabulary) with lots
and lots of example sentences and usage notes, far more than in any of
our other dictionaries. So it should greatly improve our product's
usefulness for beginning Chinese learners along with providing a handy
extra reference for more advanced ones. The second new dictionary is
also the second subject-specific dictionary we've licensed, Nigel
Wiseman & Ye Feng's "A Practical Dictionary of Chinese Medicine" - this
is strictly focused on Traditional Chinese rather than Western medicine,
but it's both a dictionary and a comprehensive TCM reference text, so if
you're a TCM practitioner / enthusiast it should be an extremely useful
thing to have on your PDA.

We're still working out how exactly to fit these new dictionaries into
our product line as far as bundles / pricing / etc; the Tuttle
dictionary will most likely cost $30 as an add-on, the Wiseman
dictionary we're less certain about but it'll certainly be a lot cheaper
than the $160 printed version. And for those of you who've already
bought 2.0 upgrades, don't worry, if we include either of these
dictionaries in a bundle package with another 2.0 upgrade you've already
paid for we'll make sure you can get it for just the difference in price.

Fourth, as some of you may have read, Apple has just released a
development kit for third parties to develop software for their iPhone /
iPod Touch platform. While we're not actually ready to announce an
iPhone product just yet, based on our evaluation of the development kit
along with discussions with some of our licensing partners I can say
that we're pretty confident that we'll be able to offer an iPhone
version of Pleco eventually, in spite of the fact that Apple is forcing
all iPhone software to be delivered/sold exclusively through iTunes.
When that version might be released, what features it might have, what
it might cost and what our upgrade policy for it might be like are all
questions for which we don't have answers yet, though we'll certainly
let everyone know once we do have them.

Finally, for those of you living in Beijing, I'm going to be in town for
a few days in mid-April and am organizing an informal Pleco customer
meet-up for the evening of Monday the 14th; location is TBD but will
likely be somewhere in Haidian since that's where I'm staying. I've set
up an online invite at:

(redacted, send me a note if you didn't get the announcement message and I'll forward you the link)

so sign up there if you want to be kept updated. And if anyone has any
thoughts on a good venue for this sort of thing (i.e. a friendly bar /
coffeehouse type place that could accommodate a decent number of
people), please let me know.

Best wishes and warm regards,

Michael Love
Founder & President
Pleco Software
http://www.pleco.com
 

Henry

进士
mikelove said:
The second new dictionary is
also the second subject-specific dictionary we've licensed, Nigel
Wiseman & Ye Feng's "A Practical Dictionary of Chinese Medicine" - this
is strictly focused on Traditional Chinese rather than Western medicine,
but it's both a dictionary and a comprehensive TCM reference text, so if
you're a TCM practitioner / enthusiast it should be an extremely useful
thing to have on your PDA.
This is great news! Man, so many times in class I wish I had PD on my palm, and even at home I'll be happy not to have to lunk that huge book down from my bookcase...

Approx release date, please? :D (same as 2.0 release?)

Henry
 

ipsi

状元
Interesting. I'll definitely pick up the Tuttle, and probably the TCM dictionary (though that'll have to wait until I can afford it. Even at US$80 instead of $160, for example, it would still hurt).

Sounds like your license partners are being understanding about Apple's 30% cut then? May be good news for iPhone owners.

You should also swing by New Zealand on your way back! Though I'm not sure if you have even a single other customer down here... I'm sure you must have a few in Australia though.
 

koreth

榜眼
Perfect timing -- I'm leaving for my next trip to China on June 11. Version 2.0 is going to get a good workout almost from the get-go on my PDA.
 

mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
Henry - should be about the same release date, yes.

ipsi - yeah, it'd be at least $60 I imagine so not necessarily something to buy right away if you're not sure you really want it. The licensing partners reference was more about extending licenses to cover iPhone than anything else - royalty-wise I doubt any of them will be inclined to give us much of a break given how expensive iPhones are and how much we can therefore theoretically get away with charging. NZ isn't exactly an easy stopover on the way back to the US from China, though :)
 

ipsi

状元
Sure it is! Just double the cost and the amount of time it'd take you to get back, and... Wait... Maybe it's not so easy...

Ah well. Fair enough then. And I certainly wouldn't need the TCM dictionary, but it'd be good to have so I can show it off to people. :). And it may come in handy one day...
 

Shadowdh

状元
Cannot wait till the latest releases of P2 are out... literally I want them now...!!! :D but on a more serious not, b4 is timely as my family is coming across and it will help a bit there, and the full release will be out right before the HSK test in June... however that means I only have about 1.5 months left in china... sigh... no chance of it coming out sooner is there...?
 

mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
Not much chance of it getting out sooner, but given the instabilities/quirks in the current official WM version Beta 4 should actually be surprisingly close to 1.0.3 as far as polish is concerned; still plenty of minor annoyances, of course, but a lot more finished-feeling than Beta 3 anyway.
 

daniu

榜眼
Hi!

I think everybody wants to (know) but nobody really dares to - so I am going to do it:

[...] should be out by April 1st [...]

10 days down the road ... how is it? Still like that date? Counting the days ... unfortunately march has 31 days :)

best regards
Daniel
 

mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
Should be accurate to within a day or two at least, the current builds are pretty solid so really we can release another beta whenever we want but there's always the possibility of a last-minute showstopper bug that might force a brief delay.
 

stoney

举人
mikelove said:
For those of you who aren't on the mailing list. Some things in here which I think people will be very excited about :)

How do I get on mailing list?

Bought Pleco a month ago and use it every single day. I'm really looking forward to version2. Hoping the flashcards will be a bit more streamlined and having sound will be great.

Thanks
 

mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
Looks like Beta 4 may be a couple of days late now, unfortunately - I've been battling a nasty flu all week and I don't think 3 days aren't quite going to do it at this point. Won't be too long a delay, though - it's about time we put another beta out even if there are a few areas that still need polishing, if for no other reason then to make sure none of the design changes we've made cause too much controversy.
 
Hey Mike,

I am dying for beta 4 . . . well . . . not literally, but sometimes it sure feels like it. :)

Anyway, as much as everyone here, including myself, is chomping at the bit to get their hands on the new beta, we will be quite understanding of you taking some time to recuperate from your flu and recover your health. Anyway, I think you definitely deserve a break.

Make sure to wear a lot of warm clothes, drink lots of hot water, and get plenty of rest.

Take care,

hairyleprechaun
 
Top