As on iOS, we're bringing forward a few 4.0 features early, in this case enough of them to justify a beta test; go to https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.pleco.chinesesystem to activate beta on Google Play or download the APK directly from us at http://cdn.pleco.com/androidapps/plecodroid-161025-website.apk.
- Added experimental AnkiDroid integration. (this requires AnkiDroid 2.6 or later)
The approach we've opted for on this is basically to assume that anybody who wants to use Pleco with AnkiDroid a) is a committed AnkiDroid user already and so would like us to fit into (rather than replace) their existing AnkiDroid workflow, and b) probably has little or no interest in using our own flashcard system alongside AnkiDroid; we've therefore designed it to 'take over' Pleco flashcard functions entirely, so that all flashcard adding + duplicate check commands will now go directly to AnkiDroid instead of to Pleco.
You can configure this in Settings / Flashcards; each AnkiDroid model you want to use with Pleco needs to be configured as far as how our simplified/traditional/mandarin/cantonese/definition fields map into it. We even support cloze deletions; turn on "+ for each example" in Settings / Definition Screen and configure a model for sentences in Settings / Flashcards and you'll then be able to automatically create Anki cloze cards from Pleco example sentences in a single tap.
Tags are handled a bit oddly - there's not currently a way to query AnkiDroid for the list of active tags, so instead we have you type in a comma-separated list of tags that you'd like to be able to view / assign in Pleco in Settings. (we also display tags in dictionary definition headers, though not yet with any particular associated colors)
Integration also includes a duplicate dialog (with an HTML preview of the card) and even an editing screen, so you can actually view + edit the text of your existing AnkiDroid notes within Pleco if you for example come upon some new insight about a particular word while viewing one of our dictionary entries. Long-pressing the + icon will let you preview a card before creating it + customize its model / deck / tags.
This should not be interpreted as a sign that we've lost confidence in / are scaling back our efforts on the 4.0 flashcard revamp; if anything, we're hoping this will provide us with some useful feedback for that revamp (a few of the things we're trying out with AnkiDroid here - clozes e.g. - are areas we're also pursuing in our own system). Also, the same APIs that let us send cards from Pleco to AnkiDroid now can also very easily be used to move data the other way, and we're hoping this may let us streamline people's migration from Anki to Pleco once we blow you all away with the new stuff we're adding in 4.0
But it's also an acknowledgement that there are a lot of people out there using AnkiDroid now and that using Pleco for your Chinese dictionary should not preclude you from using another system for flashcards. (in fact we have another popular non-Pleco flashcard system integration in the offing that should work along very similar lines to this one) - Made PDF + (still image / block recognizing) OCR scroll around to follow the popup reader instead of staying in one spot.
- Made PDF reader remember your last location when returning from a different part of Pleco.
- Changed Screen Reader invocation a bit so that it will now default to showing a notification along with a floating button for new users, in anticipation of changes coming in future versions of Android that will require background services to show notifications in order to avoid being terminated.
- Added new experimental Kai-style stroke order diagrams; you can download them in Add-ons / Features, they'll unlock the same characters as our existing free ones in the free version + unlock about 8500 additional characters if you own our paid Stroke Order Diagrams add-on; for that latter bit, you may need to go into Registration / Check for other purchases for them to activate. Toggle between those and the older Song-style stroke order diagrams by tapping on the button at the bottom left corner of the stroke order box.
- Added an option in Settings / Definition Screen to auto-play stroke order diagrams.
- Added a 'report missing entry' button to the long search breakdown toolbar.
- Added an option in Settings / Miscellaneous to delete + force a re-download of Pleco's built-in data files (in case they get corrupted).
- Fixed a bunch of missing Cantonese readings for single syllables in CC-CEDICT.
- Fixed a bug that made bundles show up in item detail screens in Add-ons even when you already own / are no longer able to purchase them.
- Fixed a bug that could cause the audio buttons next to variant pronunciations in dictionary entries (e.g. in the Cross-Straits dictionary) to play the audio for the original word instead of the variant.
- Fixed a bug that could cause some valid Yale Cantonese search strings to fail to return results.
- Fixed a bug that could make it impossible to hear Cantonese text-to-speech when you had the male Cantonese recordings installed and only those.
- Fixed a bug that made the option to put up a category prompt on just tapping the + button not work with example sentences.
- Fixed a bug that could cause the dictionary order in Manage Dictionaries to be reset when reloading the add-on catalog.
- Fixed a bug with OCR 'reopen last image' on PDF files.
- Fixed a bug that could prevent custom flashcard creation from working correctly after choosing a caetgory with the multi-level category chooser.
- Fixed a bug that could cause third-tone pinyin syllables to go missing in flashcard multiple-choice tests on some devices from Chinese OEMs with inexplicably buggy Pinyin support.
- Fixed (we hope) some bugs relating to Pleco's persistent access to opened files.
- Fixed a few more random crashing bugs, including one when putting Pleco in the background on Android 7, one when opening the image picker on some devices, and one when changing text encodings in the reader.
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