Greetings,
I'm pleased to announce that we've just released a new update (version 2.1) for our iPhone / iPod Touch software which (finally!) adds support for flashcards and user dictionaries. With this update, all of the features available in our Palm OS and Windows Mobile software are now available on iPhone OS as well.
If you've already installed Pleco on your iPhone / iPod, the new update can be downloaded through the "Updates" tab in "App Store." If you transferred over a Palm/WM license, or purchased a "bundle" of Pleco on iPhone, the iPhone flashcard module is a free upgrade; if you don't receive it automatically, go to the Pleco "Settings" tab, tap on the button under "Registration," and tap on "Check for new purchases" to activate your free upgrade.
If you haven't installed Pleco on your iPhone / iPod yet, just do a search in iTunes or in App Store for "Pleco" and you can download it from there. To transfer over a Palm OS or Windows Mobile Pleco license to the iPhone / iPod version, see http://www.pleco.com/ipxfer.html for instructions.
Along with the flashcard / user dictionary additions, this new version of Pleco is the first to be optimized for use on the new Apple iPad tablet; we haven't finished all of our iPad-related enhancements yet, but even in this first release it's very fast and takes good advantage of the large screen. (really great for using the document reader to translate text files / web pages)
Licenses originally purchased on iPhone / iPod can be used on the iPad version of Pleco without having to purchase again, assuming your iPad syncs with the same iTunes account as your iPhone / iPod; just install the new version on your iPad, go into the "Add-ons" tab and tap on the "Restore Purchases" button to activate your purchase. However, licenses transferred over to iPhone OS from Palm or Windows Mobile are still subject to the one-device-per-copy rule, so if you've already moved a Palm/WM copy of Pleco over to your iPhone or iPod you'd have to buy a new copy to use on your iPad - there's not much we can do about that since it's specified in the license agreements we've signed with publishers (which make an exception *only* for copies originally purchased on iPhone / iPod, and that only because Apple requires it).
We're still working on a full tutorial / walkthrough for the iPhone OS flashcard module, but since it's already been available for a few days, we didn't want to wait any longer to let you all know about it. (we were expecting it to take Apple a lot longer to approve the new version / release it on iTunes
That tutorial should be added to the instruction manual by the end of this week, along with a detailed guide to transferring flashcard databases over from the Palm OS or Windows Mobile version of Pleco - a quick-and-dirty guide to that is available now in our discussion forums at viewtopic.php?f=17&t=2269.
A few other notes.
I was somewhat surprised by the size of the response to the comment in my last email about not developing a native desktop version - between that and some recent discussion forum posts, it seems like there may still be some very strong interest in a native desktop version out there. So while we're certainly not ready to announce anything on that front, we are going to do some experiments with porting our Windows Mobile software to desktop Windows and see if the results are usable enough to consider turning into a real product. (Mac OS X might eventually be doable too, but Microsoft's desktop and mobile OSes are actually a lot more similar to each other than Apple's)
Also, as many of you have probably heard, HP has just announced that they're going to buy Palm and start building Palm's new operating system webOS (which runs on the Palm Pre and Pixi) into a wide range of smartphones, tablets, etc. Pleco currently only works on webOS in emulation, and that not very well, so this doesn't immediately expand the range of devices that can run Pleco, but it's certainly an option we'll be keeping our eyes on - programming-wise it might actually turn out to be less of a challenge than Google Android.
We'll be keeping our eyes on Android too, but it's unlikely we'll be ready to announce anything on that front anytime soon - for the time being, our main focus is on continuing to improve our software on iPhone OS and (for as long as it still makes sense) on Windows Mobile.
Thanks again for your continued support, feedback, and word-of-mouth, and a special thanks to the few dozen hard-working Plecophiles who served as beta-testers for this new iPhone / iPad update. I'll be sending out an email in a few weeks about beta-testing the next big update (2.2), which will mainly focus on user interface improvements, so if anyone else is interested in getting in on that next beta (we still have a few open slots, and if your phone is jailbroken we're always happy to have you) send me an email.
As always, bug reports / feedback / comments can be sent directly to me at mikelove@pleco.com.
Best wishes,
Michael Love
Founder & President
Pleco Software
www.pleco.com
I'm pleased to announce that we've just released a new update (version 2.1) for our iPhone / iPod Touch software which (finally!) adds support for flashcards and user dictionaries. With this update, all of the features available in our Palm OS and Windows Mobile software are now available on iPhone OS as well.
If you've already installed Pleco on your iPhone / iPod, the new update can be downloaded through the "Updates" tab in "App Store." If you transferred over a Palm/WM license, or purchased a "bundle" of Pleco on iPhone, the iPhone flashcard module is a free upgrade; if you don't receive it automatically, go to the Pleco "Settings" tab, tap on the button under "Registration," and tap on "Check for new purchases" to activate your free upgrade.
If you haven't installed Pleco on your iPhone / iPod yet, just do a search in iTunes or in App Store for "Pleco" and you can download it from there. To transfer over a Palm OS or Windows Mobile Pleco license to the iPhone / iPod version, see http://www.pleco.com/ipxfer.html for instructions.
Along with the flashcard / user dictionary additions, this new version of Pleco is the first to be optimized for use on the new Apple iPad tablet; we haven't finished all of our iPad-related enhancements yet, but even in this first release it's very fast and takes good advantage of the large screen. (really great for using the document reader to translate text files / web pages)
Licenses originally purchased on iPhone / iPod can be used on the iPad version of Pleco without having to purchase again, assuming your iPad syncs with the same iTunes account as your iPhone / iPod; just install the new version on your iPad, go into the "Add-ons" tab and tap on the "Restore Purchases" button to activate your purchase. However, licenses transferred over to iPhone OS from Palm or Windows Mobile are still subject to the one-device-per-copy rule, so if you've already moved a Palm/WM copy of Pleco over to your iPhone or iPod you'd have to buy a new copy to use on your iPad - there's not much we can do about that since it's specified in the license agreements we've signed with publishers (which make an exception *only* for copies originally purchased on iPhone / iPod, and that only because Apple requires it).
We're still working on a full tutorial / walkthrough for the iPhone OS flashcard module, but since it's already been available for a few days, we didn't want to wait any longer to let you all know about it. (we were expecting it to take Apple a lot longer to approve the new version / release it on iTunes
That tutorial should be added to the instruction manual by the end of this week, along with a detailed guide to transferring flashcard databases over from the Palm OS or Windows Mobile version of Pleco - a quick-and-dirty guide to that is available now in our discussion forums at viewtopic.php?f=17&t=2269.A few other notes.
I was somewhat surprised by the size of the response to the comment in my last email about not developing a native desktop version - between that and some recent discussion forum posts, it seems like there may still be some very strong interest in a native desktop version out there. So while we're certainly not ready to announce anything on that front, we are going to do some experiments with porting our Windows Mobile software to desktop Windows and see if the results are usable enough to consider turning into a real product. (Mac OS X might eventually be doable too, but Microsoft's desktop and mobile OSes are actually a lot more similar to each other than Apple's)
Also, as many of you have probably heard, HP has just announced that they're going to buy Palm and start building Palm's new operating system webOS (which runs on the Palm Pre and Pixi) into a wide range of smartphones, tablets, etc. Pleco currently only works on webOS in emulation, and that not very well, so this doesn't immediately expand the range of devices that can run Pleco, but it's certainly an option we'll be keeping our eyes on - programming-wise it might actually turn out to be less of a challenge than Google Android.
We'll be keeping our eyes on Android too, but it's unlikely we'll be ready to announce anything on that front anytime soon - for the time being, our main focus is on continuing to improve our software on iPhone OS and (for as long as it still makes sense) on Windows Mobile.
Thanks again for your continued support, feedback, and word-of-mouth, and a special thanks to the few dozen hard-working Plecophiles who served as beta-testers for this new iPhone / iPad update. I'll be sending out an email in a few weeks about beta-testing the next big update (2.2), which will mainly focus on user interface improvements, so if anyone else is interested in getting in on that next beta (we still have a few open slots, and if your phone is jailbroken we're always happy to have you) send me an email.
As always, bug reports / feedback / comments can be sent directly to me at mikelove@pleco.com.
Best wishes,
Michael Love
Founder & President
Pleco Software
www.pleco.com