Pleco 2.0 Released!

[mikelove]

Greetings all,

Just a quick note to let everyone know that the new version of our handheld Chinese dictionary software, Pleco 2.0, is finally available. Lots of amazing new features, like a Chinese-Chinese dictionary, audio pronunciation, stroke order diagrams, and a massively overhauled flashcard system with multiple-choice tests, stroke-order tests, and even a mode where you're shown a word and its Pinyin and definition but have to fill in the correct tones.

See our (also-upgraded) website at http://www.pleco.com/ for all of the details.

Best wishes,

[roddy]

Congratulations on the new release, Mike - eagerly anticipated by many. I haven't looked at 2.0 since about Beta 3 as I've been out of China for a few months, but will certainly be installing this.

[Luobot]

Can you also update us on the desktop version?

Thanks.

[imron]

Congratulations!

Is the official 2.0 release different from the Beta 8 RC? i.e. am I going to be missing anything big if I don't update from the Beta 8 RC I'm currently using?

[Shadowdh]

Imron - there are a few tweaks in the final version that I feel makes it a bit smoother and nicer to use. I think its worth it...

Mike - well done to you and the team...!!! Its a brilliant product and such a huge improvement over 1. The audio features are clear and spot on... flashcards very cool. Keep up the good work...

[randall_flagg]

This is like Christmas and CNY all in one! Yes....oops, just realized that I am having some problems downloading the program. So this really IS like Christmas and CNY, always some disappointment.

[imron]

Or more like just like CNY - hordes of people all trying to do the same thing at once

[gato]

oops, just realized that I am having some problems downloading the program

If you are in China, you should try to download it from Pleco's HK mirror server. It was 20 to 30 times faster than downloading from the US server for me.

http://www.pleco.com/palmdownload.html

[Bryan]

Woohoo! Congratulations, Mike! I've been checking pleco.com every day like a little boy who just can't wait for his present to arrive. You just made my day.

[roddy]

Good to see you're taking Paypal - I know I've spoken to a few people over the years who were interested in buying Pleco but didn't have a credit card - and also nice to see discounts for bulk purchases - organize yourselves, forum members, and save cash

[Ole]

Mike Love,

thanks a lot for this marvellous new version Pleco 2.0.

Great stuff!

Ole

[Stefani]

I checked Pleco's website last night (before seeing this post) and lo and behold, I saw the announcement of the release of Pleco 2.0. I stayed up late to download and install it. Now I am sleepy I haven't played too much with it, but what I saw so far is great!

Thank you so much and great job, Mike & co.

I am saving money to upgrade the dictionaries (I had Professional Pleco 1.0) and I am waiting for my Chinese to get to "advanced" so the more complete dictionaries are worth it

[randall_flagg]

I just can't get my stupid hotsync to work (Tungsten T5). I've always had problems doing that, but this time I've tried 50 plus times, just can't get it to work for me. I am using a cable. My computer makes the little sound when I plug it in, but then, as soon as I start hotsyncing, it makes the "device has been removed sound".

Sad.

So sad.

Ever so sad.

Any help?

EDIT My PC has blue tooth, but I don't know how and where to turn it on. Sometimes I think I should have born in the age of Mengzi, not of Windows.

[mikelove]

Thanks, everyone! I really need to stop by Chinese-Forums more often...

roddy - there have been a ton of changes since Beta 3, so you should definitely see some interesting new stuff in this release. And yeah, PayPal support was a long time coming - was already supported unofficially (in that if people e-mailed us asking to pay by PayPal we'd take their payments manually) but it's good to have it officially-integrated now.

Luobot - the desktop version is still just in the planning phase at the moment; it's probably going to come after iPhone in our development schedule, both because there's a ton of demand for an iPhone version and because we're planning to release it on Mac OS X as well as Windows (and hence will benefit from having some code already ported to iPhone which we can recycle in the desktop version).

imron - there are a few tweaks, yes; you can download an updated application from the 2.0 Beta forum at Pleco. And yeah, it does feel a bit like Chinese New Year both excitement- and crowding-wise; our bandwidth usage in the last 24 hours has been about what we'd go through in 3 months in the days of 1.0.

Stefani - sorry about the loss of sleep, but I'm glad to hear it's working well at least :-)

randall_flagg - Bluetooth sync is a bit tricky, but one thing you could easily try would be reinstalling Palm Desktop; often errors like this turn out to be caused by a driver issue or somesuch. You could also install using a memory card reader if you have one of those (if not, they're really cheap, especially in China).

Edited November 12, 2008 at 10:03 PM by mikelove
(additional reply)

[randall_flagg]

Thanks, Micheal. I have now moved the pleco.prc to my memory card and inserted it into the device. I found the file on the device, but nothing happens when I click on it.

Thanks again!

[Stefani]

I just can't get my stupid hotsync to work (Tungsten T5). I've always had problems doing that, but this time I've tried 50 plus times, just can't get it to work for me. I am using a cable. My computer makes the little sound when I plug it in, but then, as soon as I start hotsyncing, it makes the "device has been removed sound".

Sad.

So sad.

Ever so sad.

Any help?

EDIT My PC has blue tooth, but I don't know how and where to turn it on. Sometimes I think I should have born in the age of Mengzi, not of Windows.

Hi Randall,

I have a Palm TX with Windows XP on the PC and I am using a cable as well.

A couple of things that came to mind (I guess actually 4 things): You have HotSync Manager running on the PC, correct?

Have you tried a different USB port?

Were you having problem hotsynching even before you installed Plecodict?

Do you have Plecodict 1.0?

Hm... I'll post if I can think of anything else.

ETC typo.

Edited November 13, 2008 at 08:16 PM by Stefani

[imron]

I have now moved the pleco.prc to my memory card

Don't you also have to move a bunch of other files as well? That's what I had to do when I installed via a card.

[ipsi()]

Randall, best bet would be to copy them over to your SD card directly. If you don't have a reader, you can download a trial version of CardExport or CardReader that will allow you to install it.

There should be instructions in the manual for doing that. Hopefully that might save you a bit of grief.

Having been using the beta for a while now, I've been pretty impressed with the changes it's gone through over the last year and a bit. Glad to see it finally released. Looks like No Rest for the Wicked, though, as it'll be straight into the iPhone version, yes?

[imron]

I've been pretty impressed with the changes it's gone through over the last year and a bit.

I didn't try any of the betas until the last one, and I've also been impressed with the changes between v1 to v2.

[roddy]

How are people finding the audio flashcards? I think that's one of the most interesting new features, and I can see them being incredibly useful for beginners (and, cough cough, perhaps some not-so-beginners) in developing tone-recognition skills.