Filed under: Software
iKanji release due Thursday
Indie developer Rory Prior expects to release version 1.0 of his iKanji application this coming Thursday, he announced today.iKanji is a tool for anyone learning Japanese, and combines meaning, reading and writing training and tests. Over 2,000 Kanji characters and 20,000 example words are included. This is an app for advanced learners who already have a grasp of the hiragana and katakana characters (which are covered in Rory's existing iKana app).
Until release, iKanji is still in beta and Rory is still accepting beta testers, with priority given to students. If you're interested, let him know sharpish. Pre-orders are also being taken, and they qualify for a 10% discount on the standard price of €20 (about $30).
Rory also makes photo gallery maker InstantGallery, and news reader NewsLife.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Gene Cowan said 6:35PM on 7-22-2008
Can I just say, that icon is gorgeous!
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seamless said 7:00PM on 7-22-2008
Yes, but I thought the inkwell was an iphone at first, so I was disappointed to see that there is no iphone component to the App. The flashcard testing seems ripe for use on the go.
Jason Hung said 8:22PM on 7-22-2008
There probably won't be for Japanese because the iPhone 3G character recognition software is for complicated/traditional and simplified Chinese character sets. While Japanese uses both traditional and simplified Chinese characters, there are some characters that have been simplified differently in Japanese, e.g. 讀（読む），關（関），覺（覚），黨（党），櫻（桜）.
They could implement their own inkwell in the iPhone. Some software vendors have made their handwriting recognition code available to developers, including IAcces. (http://www.iphone.org.hk/wiki/index.php/IAcces)
Simon Arch said 7:06PM on 7-22-2008
Looks like a nice app. Can't wait to give it a try.
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south said 8:25PM on 7-22-2008
hey, i was excited to find a useful new app here that ISN'T just for iPhones. yeehaa!
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Xoviet chiK said 10:52PM on 7-22-2008
Can get them both in a $40 bundle. Great deal, iKana is a terrific App.
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niclet said 11:57PM on 7-22-2008
This app (and its beautiful icon) waked-up my desire to learn Japanese!
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Jeff said 4:47AM on 7-23-2008
How sad, kanji is Chinese, now everyone says it's Japanese.
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Rhywun said 5:38PM on 7-23-2008
The Chinese word is "Hanzi". "Kanzi" is Japanese.
albi said 5:29AM on 7-24-2008
@Rhywun
you are right, just like "English" is english, and "Anglais" is french
jcane said 3:07AM on 7-23-2008
Are you kidding me? 20 Euros? For doing nothing more than wrapping a shiny application around Jim Breen's free edict and kanjidic? Besides, learning kanji in isolation is useless. You need sentences that provide context. Do yourself a favor and just use:
WWWJDIC:
http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/cgi-bin/wwwjdic.cgi
Yahoo! Dictionary:
http://dic.yahoo.co.jp
Handwriting Interface to WWWJDIC:http://kanji.sljfaq.org/draw.html
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darrenjgore said 12:39PM on 7-23-2008
Absolutely.
See also...
http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~ik2r-myr/kanji/ for kanji drilling
and the app JEDICT; $25 shareware but the eval version is just fine:
http://jedict.com/
Mark said 6:03AM on 7-23-2008
I was hoping for there to be an iPhone component too, as that's something I really want! Unfortunately I already spend enough time on the computer for my job, so I mostly study Japanese away from the computer. Please somebody develop one, and I'll pay money for it.
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xyz591 said 5:38PM on 7-23-2008
C'mon, what's in the icon is Chinese.
In fact these characters are what japanese stole from china long time ago, if you must say they are japanese.
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Rhywun said 5:29AM on 7-24-2008
Yes, in the same way the letters you are using were "stolen" from the Romans. Who stole them from the Greeks. Who stole them from the Phoenicians.
Simon Arch said 5:29AM on 7-24-2008
Spoken like someone with absolutely no historical knowledge whatsoever.
In other news, the bulk of the English language was stolen from German, Greek and Latin. Film at 11.
Jeff said 5:29AM on 7-24-2008
Well, better not use the word "steal". But it's just sad that some don't even know Kanji was from China ;-)
Andre Khromov said 6:01PM on 8-04-2008
Kanji Flip is my app for the iPhone/iPod. It is out today. Here's the blurb from the AppStore...
Kanji Flip is a learning tool similar to flash cards, but with an intelligent progress tracking system that helps you learn faster. After you "flip" to the answer, you pick if you were Right or Wrong.
The program remembers which kanji you have trouble with, and which you have learned well. It focuses on the problematic items, while using longer spans of time between repetitions of learned material.
Features include:
- Progress tracking with stats & auto save
- 2230 kanji from the Japanese Language Proficiency Test
- Four difficulty levels as in the JLPT
- Meanings in English, Readings in Katakana & Hiragana
- "How To" Guide inside the program
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