Pleco appreciation thread

[mangochutney]

I opened this thread as a way of saying Thank You to the makers of PlecoDict — in addition to giving them my money.
Every good company should have one. It's about time we get one in here.

(If there already is a similar thread, please notify me.)


When I started studying Sinology in Trier, I was lucky enough to come across an article by some NY Times editor who uses PlecoDict. It spared me from the mostly awful user experience of dedicated electronic dictionaries and their inherent limitations.
I started out using a Treo 650, which has finally been pensioned off with the advent of the iPhone version.

Pleco has made my life with the Chinese language much easier and helped me progress faster in my studies.
The superb handwriting recognition was invaluable during my first trip to China, and the comprehensive dictionaries actually saved me a lot of money, because I didn't have to buy printed ones.

Having actively used the beta for a few months now, I finally got around to downloading the app from the AppStore today; immediately adding some dictionaries I've been craving for a long time.
The wait for the iPhone version was worth is. The amount of customisability is — in my opinion — unprecedented in the AppStore, yet the app is easy to use and intuitive.

The fact that the company trust its current and potential customers enough, that it's using a honorary approach to educational discounts, sheds a very positive light on the company as a whole.
This is further improved by the quick response to problems, questions and suggestions, whether via email or in the forum (not to forget the great user base in the forum).

You can be sure that when you launch new products in the future, I'll have my credit card at the ready.

 

[gandq]

Taipei Times' Reporter D. Chen showed his appreciation for Pleco Dict today in a very detailied and positve review of the iPhone/iPod Touch version. The half-page article mentions all the features that make Pleco the greatest study aid there is: HWR, available dictionaries, the Pleco Reader and even the not-yet-available Flashcards.

 

[jejohnston]

Here's a link for the Taipei Times article.
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/ar ... 2003464805

 

[挪威森林]

I just wanted to chime in, and say thank you as well! I had some problem with my iPod the last two days - it wouldn't turn on, etc. I managed to solve it by upgrading the firmware, but for a few days I was without it. Walking around in Beijing, I kept seeing characters I didn't know (which I would have just ignored before, they were never critical to my understanding), and thinking - I wish I had my iPod so I could look them up. I've really become addicted to having it in my pocket always with me - that, and Stanza for reading on the long subway trips.

I am actually quite fluent in Chinese, I speak it every day, do academic research in it, etc. But there are still a number of characters that I have just never learnt - maybe they appear in road signs, or in descriptions, or they are characters I've kind of guessed the pronunciation and meaning of, but I am not quite sure. With Pleco, because it's so easy to do handwriting input etc, I've suddenly begun looking these guys up - and it's such a great feeling the next time you see that road sign, and you know what the characters mean, you know how to pronounce that ingredient in your gan doufu or what it might be.

So thank you!

Stian
(I just wish there was anything remotely similar for some of the other languages I'm learning. Especially Hindi - but then again, Hindi doesn't even render properly on the iPod!)