Up now on Play. (https://play.google.com/apps/testing/com.pleco.chinesesystem to sign up)
This is the first beta of an update that is probably also going to end up including a major OCR revamp (though that will stay in 'beta' for a while in our release app, akin to 'New OCR' on iOS) and possibly even a few other big cool things like EPUB support. However, this first beta doesn't include any of that stuff (not quite ready) but we're releasing it now to get feedback on two big low-level changes it does include:
EPUB is potentially in the offing because as I've said elsewhere we already did most of the work for that for our e-book releases, and OCR is due to a) further wariness of an accessibility service crackdown (better Screen OCR -> Screen Reader matters less) and b) a convoluted chain of decisions that traces back to the 'bundled data files' change; basically, the only way to make sure that we can revamp OCR without going over Google's 100 MB APK size limit was to actually implement much of that revamp. (we're now at 95 MB with that new OCR, which is tight but workable - 4.0 is going to cut 26 MB off of that thanks to its much much smaller data file format, so we're not in any danger long-term, but we didn't want to be in a situation where we couldn't update OCR until 4.0 is out on Android)
Also, the second beta of this is probably going to include our new OCR engine, and since we have to pay royalties on that we can't just give it to everyone for free; however, if you'd like to help us test it email or PM me with your Registration ID and we'll add a copy to your account.
This is the first beta of an update that is probably also going to end up including a major OCR revamp (though that will stay in 'beta' for a while in our release app, akin to 'New OCR' on iOS) and possibly even a few other big cool things like EPUB support. However, this first beta doesn't include any of that stuff (not quite ready) but we're releasing it now to get feedback on two big low-level changes it does include:
- No more 'bundled data files'; everything is in the APK. So Pleco starts instantly on first run + will no longer give you any startup errors about missing files or any prompts to give it file storage access permission. (the same hassle-free all-in-one experience our iOS users have enjoyed for years, and one which we expect will greatly improve the first impression we make to new users, along with saving us a couple hundred dollars a month in bandwidth charges from the many many users who download our app from sketchy third-party app stores that mirror the app but not its expansion data files)
- New option for 'external' Screen Reader, in anticipation of Google possibly making us stop building it into our Play app. Also, since it's in a separate APK + separate process, it tends to stay alive more reliably + doesn't have to be turned on again every time we update our app. You can download the APK from pleco.com/screenreader - install that on your system and you'll see a new "(External)" version of Screen Reader in your Accessibility settings, enable that one and disable the other one and Pleco will use it automatically.
EPUB is potentially in the offing because as I've said elsewhere we already did most of the work for that for our e-book releases, and OCR is due to a) further wariness of an accessibility service crackdown (better Screen OCR -> Screen Reader matters less) and b) a convoluted chain of decisions that traces back to the 'bundled data files' change; basically, the only way to make sure that we can revamp OCR without going over Google's 100 MB APK size limit was to actually implement much of that revamp. (we're now at 95 MB with that new OCR, which is tight but workable - 4.0 is going to cut 26 MB off of that thanks to its much much smaller data file format, so we're not in any danger long-term, but we didn't want to be in a situation where we couldn't update OCR until 4.0 is out on Android)
Also, the second beta of this is probably going to include our new OCR engine, and since we have to pay royalties on that we can't just give it to everyone for free; however, if you'd like to help us test it email or PM me with your Registration ID and we'll add a copy to your account.
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