hanxue Posted January 9, 2011 at 02:06 PM Report Share Posted January 9, 2011 at 02:06 PM I'm not talking about dictionaries like Pleco, but just Chinese apps in general - apps that have to do with China/Chinese characters, culture or anything like that. In short, non-Western apps that are popular on the Chinese AppStore market.... For example, I've just come across this app for $0.99 called "5000 精美家常菜" and it seems pretty neat. Is there a list of other popular Chinese apps like that (could be on any topic; I'm not looking for food apps in particular)? Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meng Lelan Posted January 9, 2011 at 02:37 PM Report Share Posted January 9, 2011 at 02:37 PM I cannot think of any iPhone apps except for one that is not even available yet and that would be a skritter app to practice writing characters right on the iPhone. Skritter did recently post up a list of iPhone apps for Chinese learning, might want to look at it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hanxue Posted January 9, 2011 at 03:48 PM Author Report Share Posted January 9, 2011 at 03:48 PM Actually, I am not looking for Chinese-learning apps in particular..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meng Lelan Posted January 9, 2011 at 04:02 PM Report Share Posted January 9, 2011 at 04:02 PM apps that have to do with China/Chinese characters You said that's what you were looking for....skritter listed some apps that may apply to what you're looking for. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hanxue Posted January 9, 2011 at 06:45 PM Author Report Share Posted January 9, 2011 at 06:45 PM Perhaps I should have used different wording, but what I'm basically looking for are the most popular Chinese apps such as the aforementioned "5000 精美家常菜 etc..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taijidan Posted January 9, 2011 at 07:20 PM Report Share Posted January 9, 2011 at 07:20 PM If you go into the app store in itunes - there is a circular flag in the bottom right hand corner. If you click on that you can select your app store location. You can select China, Hong Kong or Taiwan. That will put in the local app store. You can then see the rankings for top free apps, top paid apps and top grossing apps. I normally keep an eye on these for anything interesting, but to date have never found anything particularly special. Even on the Chinese app store most of the top rankings are still english titles. Also sometimes I just search for things like 游戏， 中， 玩， 书 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imron Posted January 9, 2011 at 11:05 PM Report Share Posted January 9, 2011 at 11:05 PM I use a nice Chinese calendar application called 萬年歷. Very handy for converting dates between the normal calendar and the Chinese lunar calendar if for example you have friends who still go by the lunar calendar for birthdays and so on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gato Posted January 10, 2011 at 02:55 AM Report Share Posted January 10, 2011 at 02:55 AM While Instapaper is not a specific Chinese app, it is great for reading Chinese websites. It works very well in combination with Pleco. 万年历 is good for looking up Chinese holidays. I know you said you are not looking for a dictionary, but the "ChineseIdiom (成语词典)" app is pretty for looking up idioms. Since Pleco doesn't have a dedicated idiom dictionary, this is a good choice. 新浪微博is an app for the Sina microblog service. 全国影讯 is an iPhone front-end for mtime.com, the popular Chinese movie site. 中国天气 is a handy weather report app for Chinese cities. 古诗词 is a classic Chinese poem app, with text and audio. 豆瓣电台 is a very nice personalized music app from douban.com, the book, music and movie social network site. 超级收音机 is a radio app specifically designed for the Chinese market. It probably has more Chinese radio stations than most other radio app. 土豆, 酷6, 搜狐, CCTV, and 凤凰 all have video apps. Many newspaper and magazine apps have their own apps: 旺旺中时 东方早报 新京报 南方都市报 财新网 (新世纪周刊) 南方周末 南方人物周刊 凤凰周刊 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hanxue Posted January 10, 2011 at 10:27 AM Author Report Share Posted January 10, 2011 at 10:27 AM Thanks guys! Of the ones you've mentioned I only have the ChineseIdiom one and it includes quite a portion of idioms, though the ads within the app are slightly annoying (yeah, I might cough up those 99 cents to get them removed, hehe). As far as other apps: - 萬年歷/万年历 seems pretty nice, though I'm not sure if I really need it that much so that I'd pay $4 or how much they want - 古诗词 seems nice, but there are like 4 different versions (小学、初中、高中 and 小学至高中)... Which ones do you have? - 豆瓣电台: I typed this into my iTunes store but apparently it's not available in my store since it only came up with with a 虾米音乐 app. When I switched to the Chinese store, it did show up. So that means I'd have to create an account in Chinese store? I can't use the same credit card as in my other store, can i? :/ - 新浪微薄: same story - doesn't show up in my store - 超级收银机 doesn't show up either... I found some other apps if anyone is interested: Explore Beijing Subway map: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/explore-beijing-subway-map/id349252601?mt=8 MetroNav Beijing: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/metronav-beijing/id363024287?mt=8 Trains (爱帮列车开发商：Aibang.com): http://itunes.apple.com/cn/app/id350787185?mt=8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fanglu Posted January 10, 2011 at 10:33 AM Report Share Posted January 10, 2011 at 10:33 AM So that means I'd have to create an account in Chinese store? I can't use the same credit card as in my other store, can i? I used the same credit card to open a Chinese itunes account as I had used for my Australian account. There doesn't seem to be any verification that you are actually in the location you open the account for, which makes me question why they have different accounts for different countries at all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gato Posted January 10, 2011 at 10:53 AM Report Share Posted January 10, 2011 at 10:53 AM - 古诗词 seems nice, but there are like 4 different versions (小学、初中、高中 and 小学至高中)... Which ones do you have?- 豆瓣电台: I typed this into my iTunes store but apparently it's not available in my store since it only came up with with a 虾米音乐 app. When I switched to the Chinese store, it did show up. So that means I'd have to create an account in Chinese store? I can't use the same credit card as in my other store, can i? :/ - 新浪微薄: same story - doesn't show up in my store - 超级收银机 doesn't show up either... Try entering "douban" in pinyin (not characters) for 豆瓣电台. Here is its iTunes store link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/douban-fm/id353732572?mt=8 Sorry. The last two have typos. They should be 新浪微博 and 超级收音机. For 古诗词, you can start with the elementary school version and work up, I guess. The free version has only a small number of poems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hanxue Posted January 10, 2011 at 11:00 AM Author Report Share Posted January 10, 2011 at 11:00 AM Nice, typing "dou ban" did the trick! 超级收音机 worked too, but the 新浪微博 one still only shows up in the Chinese store... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gato Posted January 10, 2011 at 11:08 AM Report Share Posted January 10, 2011 at 11:08 AM Here is the iTunes link for 新浪微博： http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id350962117?mt=8 It seems that its name in the store is just "微博". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hbuchtel Posted January 12, 2011 at 06:23 AM Report Share Posted January 12, 2011 at 06:23 AM 南方周末 has a pretty cool Chinese crossword puzzle app called “小强填字". I also found the "Chinese Plates" app useful for its list of all the different one-character province names. And I second the recommendation of the gregorian/lunar calendar app "万年历”. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hanxue Posted January 15, 2011 at 10:54 AM Author Report Share Posted January 15, 2011 at 10:54 AM @gato: that worked, thanks! Any other suggestions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lansu Posted January 16, 2011 at 09:52 AM Report Share Posted January 16, 2011 at 09:52 AM I also have a question about an iPhone app, I am returning to the U.S. very soon and I want to continue to listen to my favorite radio stations out of Beijing on my cell phone (right now, I have an HTC Touch Diamond, this has a built-in radio feature) ... I plan on getting an iPhone as soon as I reach the States, and am wondering whether/how I will be able to stay tuned? ... Maybe there's an international radio station app? ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hanxue Posted January 17, 2011 at 05:21 PM Author Report Share Posted January 17, 2011 at 05:21 PM I use a 99 cent app called Tune-in Radio which offers over 40,000 stations around the world and it's pretty cool. It offers quite a few Chinese stations. There is another 99 cent app called Internet Radio Box which also offers over 40,000 stations but I haven't tried it. Maybe sb else can chip in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lansu Posted January 18, 2011 at 03:06 AM Report Share Posted January 18, 2011 at 03:06 AM Thanks, jon09, so I assume I will be able to use bluetooth or similar to listen wirelessly to the radio? With the Touch Diamond, the earphones must be wired to the phone because they act as the antenna Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hanxue Posted January 19, 2011 at 08:19 AM Author Report Share Posted January 19, 2011 at 08:19 AM Hmm, I believe the first app I mentioned needs Wi-fi, while the 2nd one will work on 3G and EDGE as well. I'm not sure if it will work as a "regular" radio with antenna the way you imagined it, though. I think these 2 apps are internet radios and not actual "radios" that would connect to certain frequencies. You best check their webpages because I'm not sure if they could function as the latter, too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hanxue Posted January 30, 2011 at 11:02 AM Author Report Share Posted January 30, 2011 at 11:02 AM Meh the latest update for 中国天气 pretty much messed up the app imo: the most annoying thing is they added an ad is on the bottom of the page, but I also dislike that they changed the edit button "编辑“ to "Edit" and it now occupies more space on my screen. As a result, I can no longer keep 6 cities on my screen as I used to (they used to fit perfectly on the screen, now one of them is half covered). <_< Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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