Official iPad Thread

[mikelove]

Well, RAM does eat up a fair amount of power - has to be on continuously, after all, even when the screen is off - so it may be battery-life-related; not sure why they were so stingy with RAM on the iPad with its gonzo batteries, but on the iPhone at least it might make a significant difference. I still think the things developers could do with 512 MB of RAM would be worth the tradeoff, though, so hopefully we'll see that in the second-gen iPad next year and the iPhone that follows it that summer, and in the meantime we can try to get a slightly less exciting mouseover Live Mode working in a desktop version of Pleco

 

[numble]

Does using the built-in popup menus in iPhone OS 3.2 for the iPad (or 4.0 for the iPhone) consume any less RAM/processor power?

 

[mikelove]

I don't believe so - Apple's UI code is not spectacularly efficient, there's not really any interface-rendering trickery they have access to that we don't.

 

[stephanhodges]

Are videos of Pleco on iPad coming soon? I'd really like to see some. But, mostly, I'd actually prefer screen casts taken from an emulator, assuming it accurately shows the actual screen appearance (since an actual camera video is going to degrade quite a bit, and I don't need to "believe it's real")

 

[mikelove]

They're on the to-do list, but we're trying to finish up the 2.1.1 update first, so it could be another few weeks before we get to them.

 

[mikelove]

Interesting question raised by a recent email conversation.

It seems like the iPad might be a great way to make Pleco accessible to people with limited vision and/or manual dexterity who wouldn't be able to use our software on iPhone / Palm / WM (or even necessarily that well on a PC).

We've already added an option to make handwriting and radical input fullscreen again for 2.1.1 - probably should have had that option in the first release, actually - along with a larger font option for radical input, so that seems like it'll go a long way towards making those features at least more accessible. However, it seems like there ought to be more we can do - can anyone think of anything in your iPad user experience that might prove challenging to somebody who can't see / control their finger positioning that well? Buttons that are still difficult to hit / ought to be bigger, icons that look very similar to other icons, etc?

 

[character]

^^ That might be an opportunity to make a "Low vision" switch to toggle a bunch of settings. You might also want to look at where you could play audio to make it easier for people to select characters/definitions.

 

[stephanhodges]

Have you thought about contacting your local Society for the Blind? They might give you some free consulting.

If so, keep notes, as it would make a good "blog" entry (which can also be used for good publicity down the line!) Something to post on a generic site.

 

[numble]

A larger custom keyboard? A pinyin keyboard (not sure if that would actually have more room/space).

 

[mfcb]

hmmm, dont want to offend anybody, but somehow i got the feeling, that the number of WM pleco users is a lot bigger than the number of "near-blind" iPad-owning-chinese-language-learners... mike, as long as you do not see this as a growing market, i think you should try to keep those existing customers than to acquire an absolute minority.

i think it would be a better idea to make the WM version a little bit more finger-friendly, than to put any effort into iPad features for maybe 5 to 10 people... just my 2 cent, dont want to start any flame wars here, hehe

 

[mikelove]

character - good thought, maybe we can combine it with VoiceOver.

stephanhodges - very good idea, and you're right, this could definitely have some larger interest; I've actually had a few email discussions with people about support for the near-blind specifically, they're a group that currently isn't very well-served by electronic or print titles (not a lot of large-print Chinese dictionaries out there).

numble - might work, though I don't know if the non-QWERTY layout a larger keyboard would necessitate would cost more than the larger keys would gain.

mfcb - well yes, but this is kind of an idealistic thing - I like the idea of making modern Chinese learning tools available to people who haven't previously had access to them, and the iPad seems like a neat way to do that.

I also take kind of a dim view of HTC adding a capacitive screen to an OS that was never designed to have one - they already have Android, they'll have WP7 in a few months, couldn't they have just waited and not created yet another headache for developers who've already had to code around the various prior iterations of TouchFlo?

 

[sweiz]

Hello,

I just bought an ipad. None of my dictionaries or purchased stuff is there. How do I download it onto the ipad?

 

[mikelove]

Go to the "Add-ons" tab and tap on the "Restore Purchases" button at the bottom of the screen.

 

[sweiz]

Hi Mike,

There is no button for restore purchases on the bottom. It just says "manual upload"

 

[mikelove]

Sounds like you have an old version - actually not even an iPad-optimized one, so you're not getting all of the benefits of larger screen area etc. Open up App Store and go to the "Updates" tab - you should be able to update to the latest version of Pleco from there.

 

[numble]

Here's a recommendation: Since there's so much space, why not not hide the toolbar when the keyboard or HWR is up? Hope this isn't already buried in the options.

Another suggestion: Is there any way that settings for things could be more closely linked to what's being adjusted? A settings icon or link in the flashcards or reader section, to bring up specific settings for that area, or a swipe/gesture to bring up settings in that section, etc.

 

[mikelove]

Not already an option, but it's a bit tricky because with any finger-driven touchscreen you need a lot of vertical space between buttons - layering toolbar on top of toolbar can lead to a lot of accidentally-pressed buttons.

As far as context-specific settings, those could work as long as they were still accessible through the main settings screen as well - easy enough to program, but I'm worried people might be confused about the differences between accessing settings one way or the other; it would have to be clear that they were actually jumping to a particular part of the Settings tab and that there wasn't some extra set of settings that could only be accessed in one place or another.

 

[numble]

One reason I ask about that extra toolbar option is because I'd like the option to add the current entry to my flashcard/wordlist without having to press done or hide the keyboard.

Additionally, I've always thought the ability to quickly change modes without having to make multiple button presses would be neat.

 

[mikelove]

Oh, you can already do that with the "Tap-hold list to add" option in Settings / Flashcards - no need to access the toolbar to add flashcards.

Which sort of mode change are you referring to?

 

[numble]

I meant switching between different sections, Dictionary, Flashcards, Reader, Settings, etc.

If I've just made an entry, I'd have to press done, press the settings button, and then press reader to get to the reader options (and then another press for the browser, etc.). The toolbar on top of keyboard/HWR option would alleviate the multiple button presses somewhat, though my original idea that I've mentioned is for something like a three-finger swipe between sections.