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I dunno about Kanji zooming or non-English translations to/from Japanese, but you can't beat GooDict for price (free) and basic look up features.

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Another EDICT/JMDICT dictionary? People, this dictionary is horrible. HORRIBLE. Here's why:

1. The entire dictionary assumes that the Japanese and English words are direct translations for each other, even when a word can have many different meanings in English. For instance, look up the verb _suru_.
2. No examples are given to provide usage examples.
3. The dictionary is J>E only. This means you can easily find an English translation of a Japanese word, but it'd be difficult (if not impossible) to get the right Japanese translation of an English word.
4. Definitions tend to be exhaustive rather than helpful. You'll see any possible translation for the word given equal weight with no emphasis on the meaning that's used 99% of the time. This is further hindered by the fact that no usage examples are provided.
5. Japanese transliterations of English words are included and treated as valid Japanese words.

In short, the project suffers from poor editing and oversight -- a common flaw in the open-source community. This dictionary, though, is not open source. That's right, you'll have to pony up $15 for a free, open-source dictionary.

Do yourself a favor: save your $15 and don't bother with this program. If you want to see how useful EDICT/JMDICT is for yourself without paying for it, there's any number of free utilities you can use (http://ziggr.com/mayjay/). Personally, I'd suggest using a good dead-tree dictionary -- such as the excellent Oxford Beginner's Japanese Dictionary (available on Amazon for $13) or Kodansha's Furigana Dictionary (available for $23 on Amazon). Both are much more helpful in translating Japanese than the horrible, horrible EDICT/JMDICT, regardless of which program you use.

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If you are connected to the web all the time, then you won't need this app at all.
The problem I have with the name of this App is that it implies a simple dictionary, when in reality what they should've called this a "translator" = "HONYAKUSHO."

You can use a multitude of on-line translators that are fairly decent, and all you need is a web connection and they're free. I use 2 or 3 of them, and they work fairly well. They all look similar, may be they all use the same engine?

http://www.kotoba.ne.jp/

http://www.google.co.jp/language_tools

http://tool.nifty.com/globalgate/

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@ms: Obviously I have no idea what your actual proficiency in Japanese is, nor what your criteria for judging lexicon quality are based on, but the reality is that while EDICT has its weaknesses, it is nonetheless an extremely valuable resource.

Its definitions are excessively pithy and lack usage examples, but for translation work, when I already know what the context is and simply need vocabulary clarification, EDICT's breadth more than makes up for its lack of explication. It is a minefield for language learners, I'll agree, but for professionals it's a great tool.

By no means, though, should it be used in lieu of other tools; I use the Genius E-J/J-E dictionary and the Kojien J-J dictionary when I need to be sure or when EDICT is missing a term; when I need exhaustive usage examples but don't care about kana I go to ALC, an experience that's often as instructive as it is hilarious. Hell, sometimes I just google for a term and glark it from context.

The point is, use of EDICT is no reason to dismiss the app entirely, as long as the user is cognizant of th lexicon's limitations -- which any reasonably intelligent user should be. If Jisho has improved (last time I tried it, it was unusably simplistic, but that was at least two years ago) then it might be time to reevaluate its utility as a part of my translating toolbox; in the somewhat rarefied space of OS X-native EDICT interfaces, I doubt it can surpass the ugly-but-deeply-functional JEDict, but if it does, the author could well earn my $15.

Oh, and I'm a professional translator, so I know what the fuck I'm talking about.

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The electronic dictionary I use is JEDict, which runs on the same EDICT file as Jisho, supports other EDICT-formatted files, includes Kanji lookup, and (killer feature for me) supports EPWING formatted dictionaries, so I can use it to search the Green Goddess. Although the interface is kind of hinky, it's the best EPWING reader I know of for the Mac.

And to respond to ms' criticisms:
1. you can make this accusation of any bilingual dictionary.
2. there is an "examples" file that goes along with EDICT.
3. True to a point, but that's inherent in bilingual dictionaries. Compiling a E-J dictionary is not just reversing the headwords and glosses of a J-E dictionary.
4. Again, a common problem with bilingual dictionaries, paper or electronic.
5. Surprisingly often, these transliterations *are* valid Japanese words.

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"Japanese transliterations of English words are included and treated as valid Japanese words."

As indeed they are in spoken and written Japanese. I fail to understand how this can be blamed on a dictionary application.

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Two other excellent, and free resources are:

Jim Breen's WWWJDIC: http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/wwwjdic.html

and

goo.ne.jp (aimed at native speakers, but still useful):
http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/

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While there are some useful online resources, I thought it might be nice to have a local J-E dictionary. However, Jisho is not it. I input three words that came to my mind: Jisho could not find the first two (gasshuku and shikkoubu) even at super broad search, although jisho.org (not related to my knowledge) pulled them right up. The last word I tried was "jisho" just to see a successful search. Guess what? Not in the database, unless you're interested in the Jishou era of the twelfth century... Save your money and use the online resources listed above.

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Like pts & Adam, i also use JEDict, because it has the best features. Kanji search including the ability to draw kanji directly in via your wacom (admittedly still a bit hit & miss), searching on clipboard change, user-generated dictionary that can be used to generate word & kanji quizzes.
Also the ability to filter searchs for 2 kanij-only words, commonly used words etc. Plus of course you can use whatever dictionary file you like (including the Oxford dictionary that comes with OSX if you want to integrate all your dictionaries into one)

If Jisho can do all of this better than JEDict, i'll happily jump ship, but from the looks of it we'll be waiting a long time for that.

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What I'd like to know is why the one screenshot of the software has the reading konpon for 根元, while listing the reading kongen for 根本 in the list box?!

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jogloran, I just waved Rikaichan's magic wand over those, and the readings are correct, even if they're not the first in the list. As they mean essentially the same thing, I imagine it's matter of preference or possibly context which reading you'd use.

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I wouldn't hire a professional translator relying on Genius... Not that those aren't good for what they are but they're nowhere near tools for professionals. But maybe you're at native level and only need those to check up on things...? (not sure whether I'm sarcastic or not when saying that, but any talk about Japanese language always seems to end in a pissing contest) Do yourself a favour and at least get a electronic dicitionary with Kenkyusha (the big one) and the ability to cross reference queries.

JEdict is functionality wise (not taking word count etc into account, though you can add your own dictionaries with JEdict) the nicest I've found so far when it comes to studying. There are some from the maker of ATOK (a in some ways very nice, in some ways "you're in the way" kind of input manager for Japanese - http://www.justsystem.co.jp/) and the Genius one is also included in ATOK for quick reference when writing but in many cases I find it lacking. A good paper dictionary (either the furigana one already mentioned or if your'e a bit more advanced check out the Lighthouse series from Kenkyusha which are quite practical or their big ones) or an electronic dictionary (w/ cross reference and something like the big Kenkyusha/Kojien/whatever you might need) is still both learners and advanced speakers best bet, IMHO. Ideally both, actually.

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jogloran: If they want bad PR for their app that screen shot is as good as it gets. "This is how well [read: bad] we know the langugae we're *selling* you and app for". They should fix that screen ASAP.

"What I'd like to know is why the one screenshot of the software has the reading konpon for 根元, while listing the reading kongen for 根本 in the list box?!" QFT

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"This is how well [read: bad] we know the langugae we're *selling* you and [sic] app for"

Except, of course, for the part where they're both legitimate readings for those kanji.

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The above mentioned bug has been fixed and a fix will be released later next week. I should note that the above bug only effected entries that had restrictions to how the kanji are read.

James Van Dyne
Sugoi Software

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Simon Arch: The readings are wrong, as simple as that. 根本 can never be *read* as kongen ("gen" is the chinese reading of "moto") and　根元 can never be *read* as konpon ("pon" is the japanese reading; "hon" with a change in sound - essentially stemming from easier pronunciation). As for thhe meanings of the words being similar is different matter entirely.

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Wow, didn't know Japanese dictionaries was such a touchy topic! At least I got one or two helpful links out of these comments...

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I've tried it and even for the simplest words ("salmon"), it doesn't have the Japanese word. It's a nice idea, but fails. What the Japanese call "a daylight lampshade" (昼行灯）- i.e. pretty useless. I think an English expression might be less polite!

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