iPhone or Android phone for Pleco & Chinese learning

[langxia]

I wouldn't buy anywhere else but in an Apple Store. China has way too many fishy places and some of their fake iPhone models are look so damn real that it's really hard to tell it's fake. Just buy it at an official store and you'll save yourself any worries.

Easyer said than done At the moment you can't buy iphone 4 in the apple stores in china (mainland and hongkong seem to be out of stock).

[hanxue]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe you can pre-order it/make a reservation and they will let you know once it's available?

[gato]

Apple Store is out of stock (including for online pre-order). Don't you know anyone who's bought an iPhone in Beijing? If you were in Shanghai, I could recommend you a dealer here.

[langxia]

A friend of a friend bought one in zhonguancun, but at a price I am not willing to pay.

Well I am going south next week, if I can make it to Shanghai I will send you a pm for the adress of your dealer

Otherwise my tactic will be : to wait until they restock the iphone 4 or pelco comes out for androids whatever happens first.

[Brian US]

I bought an android and I was wondering how to write out characters. Only free apps are available on the Chinese market, right? Looking for a dictionary to ditch my ipod touch.

[gougou]

Mine came pre-installed with a Chinese input method - try checking in your language settings whether you can add it there. If not, I think there is one to download.

As for dictionaries, I am pretty happy with Cidian.

[Brian US]

I meant actually draw out the character with my finger. The phone is pretty fast with entering pinyin, but a lot of times when I look up a word it's because I don't know how to say the character. Is Cidian a paid application? I can't find it when I just did a market search for that name.

[gougou]

Yeah, that's what I meant too. I can choose between pinyin, drawing（手写）and stroke order （笔画).

I don't have any paid applications myself. The full name is Cidian Chinese Dictionary, comes up alright when searching for "Cidian" for me. See here: http://www.androidzoom.com/android_applications/books_and_reference/cidian-chinese-dictionary_mkfc.html

There's also Hanping which I've seen getting good reviews, but I haven't had the need to check it out yet.

[Morrisons]

Check out HanWriting IME 漢書輸入法. I think that has a finger paint style keyboard.

I have one called PenPower which I got from the people who developed eStroke. I can't seem to find it on the market though. It works on shape recognition, so if you don't know the stroke order, e.g. are copying a street sign etc, it will (or should) still display the possible characters. I found the stock keyboard worked on stroke order instead.

[Brian US]

Thanks for the link, but all three ways to download it come up with no search results. The dictionary does not show up in the market. I have Hanping, but I don't think you can write characters and it doesn't have many features.

I did find an application called hanwriting that should give me this option. However, when I click on it through the market I only get the message that it is not found.

[gougou]

That's weird, I just tried and it shows up in the market for me.

I'd get an IME for the entire system, rather than just a dictionary that offers it - maybe try those mentioned by Morrisons above?

[Brian US]

Like Morrisons just said, Penpower doesn't show up on the market. I'm trying to update my phone from 1.5 to 2.1, but this appears to be a little harder. Hanwriting shows up in the market, but then says it can't be found when I try to download it.

[gerri]

Are you guys checking the same (country) android marketplace? (From what I heard of it, they get localized depending on the sim you have in your phone...; sorry if that doesn't apply here...)

[Brian US]

I just got my sim and phone in Beijing. Pretty sure only free applications show up in the Chinese marketplace. I still don't understand why I can see the HanWriting IME application, but when I click on it I'm told it cannot be found. This is the only app that has ever failed like this.

[Morrisons]

For PenPower Google "HandWriting IME". There are a few links to the .apk file, most seem to be Chinese sites and I don't have the time to translate them to see what they actually say. As far as I know this is a free app, and it looks to be up to version 1.0.4. I guess it just isn't available on the market yet.

If you're installing apps outside of the market I'd make sure you have an antivirus installed - you never know what you're installing.

Markets vary between countries as well - there are some things which appear on the market on my PC, but when I choose to install they aren't available in the Hong Kong version of the market.

[Morrisons]

I just found the company website for PenPower:

http://www.penpower.com.tw/

They have it advertised for the tablet:

http://www.penpower.com.tw/product.asp?sn=248

But thats not the same version I have. Not too sure whats going on there.

[smithintaiwan]

PenPower is 9.99, which seems a bit steep. I just started using a free handwriting app called GPen and it seems good so far, much better than HanWriting in my eyes. Please let me know if there is a good handwriting input for iphone. I find the packaged one frustrating, especially after getting used to Pleco's input.

Has anyone found a better dictionary package yet?

[马盖云]

For those waiting for Pleco Android, and willing/able to sideload (not in the Market) there's a little something waiting for you at Pleco's website! ;)

[westmeadboy]

@Brian US Hanping Pro has far more features than Hanping Free, and also includes Chinese handwriting recognition built in:

https://market.android.com/details?id=com.embermitre.hanping.app.pro

[Brian US]

But you have to pay for Hanping Pro and I'm pretty sure only free applications show up in the market in China. I have a few apps for IME, but I haven't gotten around to the 136mb download. I actually prefer using my Ipod as a dictionary, so I'm not draining the battery of my phone too fast.