Ah, well--I would encourage at least just a version of Pleco that removes any pixellation when going into iPad fullscreen mode. Seems like the App Store is dominated by racing to be the first at something, get top billing on search results, and then making incremental updates, more so then being good/best out of the gate.
Official iPad Thread
- Thread starter mikelove
- Start date
Oh I'm pretty sure we will end up doing an iPad-optimized version, and if not then at least coming up with native-resolution text / icons / etc would seem like the least we could do, I just don't want to make a lot of promises about what level iPad support might be ready when, given that it seems we're just barely going to meet our "early 2010" goal for iPhone flashcards 
mikelove said:I just don't want to make a lot of promises about what level iPad support might be ready when, given that it seems we're just barely going to meet our "early 2010" goal for iPhone flashcards
I'm oh-so-curious to know when early 2010 finishes; patience evidently wasn't a virtue I was blessed with.
I think it will be a lot easier to know how to work with the iPad once you pick one up and have a chance to play with it. Although I guess there is a simulator for developers, there is nothing like picking up the real thing and seeing how it works in your hands. Somehow Apple managed to turn late March into April though, huh? Oh well, soon enough I guess.
"Early 2010" has never been an exact figure, but I think the average customer estimate for the end of "early 2010" would be the end of the first quarter, which means April 1st. I can't even be sure we'll have a released app then, but I'm pretty confident there will at least be a feature-complete and largely bug-free app in the hands of beta-testers by 4/1, and more likely than not if the app's not out by 4/1 it'll be submitted to Apple and taking a while to get approved because of all of the iPad-optimized updates coming out at the same time.
dcarpent said:
While you're waiting for the iPad, or as an alternative, consider Skritter.com. This is a fantastic subscription-based web site for learning to read/write Chinese characters. I've been using it for a few months now with a Wacom tablet, and it's really helping. Their character recognition is Flash-based, so I don't think it'll ever work on the iPad, however.
There will be a specific section of the iTunes store that will feature iPad-optimized Apps.
http://www.apple.com/ipad/app-store/
http://www.apple.com/ipad/app-store/
Well, I too now have an iPad on order. Do you think it will be possible, in the optimized version, to create some kind of virtual white board to use for writing practice as one goes through flashcards, as discussed here before? That would be great, but I have no idea of how much work it would be for you. I had the idea of using one of the many separate white board apps for the iPhone, but then I realized that without multitasking I wouldn't be able to use these in conjunction with Pleco's flashcards, which defeats the whole point.
There's already a simple whiteboard function implemented in flashcards on iPhone (it's what that mysterious button between the "fan" and the audio button is in the screenshot). It's basically a full-screen version of the old drawing box from Palm/WM; comes up as a translucent overlay over (almost) the entire screen into which you can sketch whatever you like, automatically cleared when you advance to the next card. So I think even initially we'll have that same function available on iPad, and certainly down the line there are other possibilities for writing practice too.
Great! And thanks! I'm really looking forward to being able to use the new flashcard system on my iPod Touch (not to mention the iPad with the added screen real estate). I think the iPad will be the ideal platform except for when one is on the move and needs something to fit in a pocket. The two together will be perfect.
Now if only there were a feature to magically infuse a few thousand characters into the user's brain.
Now if only there were a feature to magically infuse a few thousand characters into the user's brain.
I'm wondering about the fourth update that you mentioned for the iPod version, which I understand to be necessary for the iPad version to run properly. You said you had already submitted it to Apple, but as of this afternoon it still has not shown up in the App Store. Will those of us who receive an iPad Saturday not be able to run Pleco on it until this latest update appears? Any ideas of how long it will take Apple to make it available?
Assuming the simulator we've been using is accurate, it won't really be usable at all without that update; about half of the dictionary entries will be clipped off / missing their definitions owing to an iPad-specific font bug. This only happens in some dictionaries, though, so at least a few (CC-CEDICT, for example) should still be fully viewable, but definitely not a good Pleco experience at all.
I just sent Apple an email pointing out this fact to them and asking them to please try to expedite the review process so that the update is out by Saturday, but I'm not sure whether that'll work or not - they're probably extremely jammed-up right now with apps to review.
I just sent Apple an email pointing out this fact to them and asking them to please try to expedite the review process so that the update is out by Saturday, but I'm not sure whether that'll work or not - they're probably extremely jammed-up right now with apps to review.