Official iPad Thread

[poncin]

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.

Hi,

I just switched from WM to a Ipad and I'm really positively surprised.

I'm still a bit confused by the "Tap-hold list to add" option.
I tried to enable it (the keyboard masking the "add" button is really annoying) but when I "tap-hold" on the dictionary entries in the list on the left of the screen, I don't see anything added to the flashcards. ?!?

--
Frédéric Poncin

 

[mikelove]

That's odd - it's definitely working on a test system here. Does nothing at all happen when you tap-and-hold your finger on an item in the list, or does the popup message come up but the card not get added to your flashcard database?

 

[numble]

FWIW, it works over here, though I'm using the older beta version.

 

[poncin]

That's odd - it's definitely working on a test system here. Does nothing at all happen when you tap-and-hold your finger on an item in the list, or does the popup message come up but the card not get added to your flashcard database?

Found it! I was mixing the following settings:

Settings->Dictionary->Entry Command->Editing Entries->Tap-hold create card
and
Settings->Flashcards->Card Creation->Tap-hold list to add

So no problem at all

 

[radioman]

Well, Jumping on here because I just got my order status update on my iPads, due in early June (maybe I'm a little biased then?? )

Anyway, the whole iPad thing is just getting going. A few people on Pleco using it now might not be compelling, but I figure that will all be changing soon enough.

I attribute this to the fact that I believe the concept of having a device to throw around flashcards, dictionary lookup, textbooks, notes, integration with many other services, some not even imagined - on a platform that brings them all that together - as compelling. And it would seem that, to date, the iPad is exceeding all expectations. I do not think there is one manufacturer out there at this point that has not radically alterned their business plans for tablet development after Apple's release (and the same could be said about most tablet providers).

So with regard to Pleco, I really am not in a position to comment about legacy support. Pleco has done a great job with that in the past (that's their balancing act to figure out...). But my guess is that, irrespective of current product offerings, its probably a good idea to be well positioned to take advantage of the whole iPad market "inflection point" (cliché I know...).

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

 

[mfcb]

Anyway, the whole iPad thing is just getting going.

and anyway, i probably will never buy one. not solely because its from apple, but because its just not what i need.
i need a machine to work with (so that means at least a laptop with keyboard and a screen that is not a shaving mirror) and i need a machine to take with me, preferably in my trousers pocket...

i did never say, that mike should not enhance the iPad version, i just think that making pleco support for the near-blind is making a minority-software supporting another minority within. besides me, i know 2 people learning chinese seriously (hehe, but i made at least 5 or 6 buy pleco), and i know 1 blind person and 1 near-blind person. both of the latter not even in the least think about learning chinese. well, there might be some, but again, how many of them will have an iPad or just could afford to buy one? my guess is, we are talking about maybe 100 people worldwide here...

 

[mikelove]

Yes, my understanding was that mfcb was commenting on my accessibility focus specifically. But I wasn't limiting my comment to blindness. The number of blind people using iPads will probably stay pretty small, but the number of elderly people using iPads has the potential to be enormous - that whole generation has been kind-of left out of the smartphone revolution, but a lightweight, durable, big-buttoned 3G tablet would give them most of the benefits of iPhone ownership on a device they could comfortably use. So the question was more about what we can do for people with problems a bit less severe than total blindness - merely-poor eyesight, arthritis / tremors / other issues that might make precise finger positioning difficult, etc, who I'm betting will make up a very large portion of iPad owners once the supplies get a bit less constrained and they start showing up in a wider range of stores.

 

[Kongruisi]

The reader has a lot of trouble with text files that are ebook-sized, from places like Project Gutenberg (that can reach file sizes of several megabytes). It won't let me open files of that size I've saved locally, and using the in-app browser, it will crash two or three words into the file. Is this is a limitation, or is it solvable?

 

[mikelove]

We haven't observed that (or had any other reports of it) - we don't hold the entire file in memory at the same time, so the system should open large files just fine. I just tried opening a 50MB text file on an iPad here, and while the initial load took a while it was perfectly fast and stable once it had opened.

Have you tried this with a lot of different files, or just a couple of them? It's possible the issue might involve an encoding / formatting error in one or two specific files... what text encoding are the files you're opening in? What do you mean by "it won't let me open" - what exactly happens when you try to open a large file?

 

[radioman]

Yeah, I was just jumping in without doing a complete review of comments. I know I complained before about reading small print on Pleco for Palm. My eyes are not that great, so I do use Mac OS (for example) to zoom in in many cases.

Having easy methods to quickly zoom in and out would be helpful. I have the iPad waiting for me when I get to the U.S. in about 12 hours... I am not clear if it has the same "zoom" accessibility function that the 3GS has. which has proven handy to use in the past. 3 finger double click zooms in.

Yes, my understanding was that mfcb was commenting on my accessibility focus specifically.

 

[numble]

Would it be possible to implement a pinch-to-zoom or some type of context-specific font resizing?

 

[mikelove]

It might be, though pinch-zoom is kind of a tricky thing with simple / fast text controls like ours - regular boring larger / smaller font buttons might actually be a better bet (and on iPad at least there's plenty of room for them).

 

[numble]

Having used the reader a lot recently, I think the arrow buttons for next, etc. are really too small on the iPad.

 

[mikelove]

Fair point, though there may be better solutions to that than larger buttons - some sort of gesture, e.g., or tappable empty areas of the screen.

 

[radioman]

I would also like to put in my vote for my interest for something easier to "strike" than the small arrow buttons in the reader.

As well, I personally would like to see the pinch/zoom feature for the reader. It seems that just about all the reader type apps have that approach, which seems quite natural, although not sure about the challenge of having the text flow to fit the screen.

Not reviewing all the threads, but I remember talk about a dedicated area at the bottom for the reader (like the old Palm versions). Would that be possible as an option to the definition bubble that is currently employed?

 

[radioman]

Might have already posted this... but...

With the old readers (like on a Palm device), you could set up the bottom part of the screen as a section for the dictionary so as characters are highlighted, the definitions are provided. In this way you could just advance the cursor with some arrow key and always have the definition, without having to have the definition bubble always being presented. This way was also less labor intensive as you do not have to run your hand all over the screen to highlight characters to bring up the definition. (your hands would never have to move away from the bottom of the iPad.

Is that split screen approach currently in the plans for iPad? I personally thought it very useful.

 

[radioman]

Another thought - Is there anyway to get the reader to come up automatically when Pleco is pushed. Basically, a "where I last left off".

This could actually apply to anything within Pleco, including dictionary, flashcards, etc.

Right now, in the case of the reader, I believe I need to hit 4 keystrokes to get back to the document I was reading. If I have a long list of reader files, I also have to find the one I was reading, etc. (not always easy in my case...).

Alternatively, some sort of separate icon on the springboard that would take you the module of interest.

 

[mikelove]

radioman - a splitscreen document reader interface is in the works, though to be honest I'm not wild about it since I feel like it's a bit of a "crutch" - it's very easy to get into the habit of just reading through a document by tapping on the -> button, so that you don't have to keep continuously recalling / reinforcing your memory of the words you do know but can simply keep having the dictionary remind you about every one. I'm not quite sure if I see how it's less labor-intensive, though - can't your hands stay at the bottom / top of the iPad now with the bubble on the screen?

Text reflow would be the big challenge in a pinch-zoom system; might actually be better to just leave the lines / pages intact and allow text to run off the side of the page once you zoomed in.

As far as going back to where you were when you reopen Pleco, with iPhone OS 4.0 that becomes largely irrelevant since Pleco an stay running in the background / instantly bring you to where you left off when it resumes, but we're still planning to add the ability to return to the last viewed screen on a cold startup too eventually; just didn't make it a priority once OS 4's multitasking support was announced.

 

[character]

radioman - a splitscreen document reader interface is in the works, though to be honest I'm not wild about it since I feel like it's a bit of a "crutch" - it's very easy to get into the habit of just reading through a document by tapping on the -> button, so that you don't have to keep continuously recalling / reinforcing your memory of the words you do know but can simply keep having the dictionary remind you about every one.

For learners, their needs vary with different material. Someone who can easily make it through basic texts will be reduced to looking almost everything up if he tries a more advanced text. That's been my experience trying to read Gu Long, for ex.

I'm not quite sure if I see how it's less labor-intensive, though - can't your hands stay at the bottom / top of the iPad now with the bubble on the screen?

I find the big problem with the bubble is that it obscures the context of the looked up word. With a dedicated area for the definition, the word and the surrounding text remain visible.

 

[stephanhodges]

I also have that "learning problem", and I do learn more quickly with the assurance of being able to glance down when needed. It's sometimes a matter of unconscious learning, and also of self-discipline

Second, with pinch-zoom, the reflow problem might be localizable if they are doing it temporarily. Of course they might decide to leave it that way, but would the new multi-tasking allow for background reflow to continue as the reading progresses?