Android Apps

[Morrisons]

There are a few apps out there for Android phones which allow for the input of Cantonese in Romanised format, dictionaries etc, but there are none which I am completely happy with.

Thought it might be a good idea to see what other people are using.

I'm running the following:

1) Cantonese Keyboard - [cantonesekeyboard4android.blogspot.com]

Its a good starting point, allows the input in the HK Romanisation format which is my main problem with it, but I guess this is partly related to the authors access to jyutping or Yale dictionaries. I find that if you use more than one form of Romanisation across your computer, phone etc it starts to become difficult, I've found I spend a lot of time guessing the pronunciation as I'm used to what it would be in jyutping.

2) English-Cantonese Dictionary Keyboard - [engchidictkeyboard4android.blogspot.com]

Same author as above, and again it’s pretty useful. My only problem is that when you type in a word it gives you a list of characters in Cantonese which mean the same thing. But there’s no definition and this can cause the use of incorrect characters etc. It is quite useful non-the-less.

3) eStroke - [www.eon.com.hk]

This will cost you about $50 or $60 HK I think, but it’s worth it and there is a trial version. You can draw in characters, regardless of what stroke order you use, and it will recognise it, give a definition, and pinyin, jyutping Romanisation. It also allows you to practice drawing the characters.

There is a little problem in that my keyboard won't give character suggestions unless you input the correct stroke order. This means that if characters look similar eStroke has to guess what character you are looking for.

It needs a bit of work, probably a function to write sentences for text messages etc, but it’s a pretty good little app.

__

Anyone got any others which they use?

[smithintaiwan]

I just borrowed an Android phone and had to add handwriting input. I'm using GPen. It's free and seems pretty good so far. Much better than the iphone IME that I'm used to. I'd like to hear about others though.

[Lost in Mong Kok]

I tried to put together a bit of a better review for each of these with some other programs I've found since:

http://lostinmongkok.wordpress.com/resources/android-apps/

What I'm really missing is a dictionary program that allows you to insert words into a text file once you have found them. So that you could type in this program, and on not knowing a word, look it up, copy it in, and continue writing. That way you could create text messages and emails easily. At the moment I am constantly moving back and forth between the input program and the dictionary which can be annoying when I'm typing a lot of characters which I cannot recognise.

I've heard that a Pleco version for Android is on its way, so I guess we'll have to wait and see what that is like.