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.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-22-2008 @ 6:35PM
Gene Cowan said...
Can I just say, that icon is gorgeous!
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7-22-2008 @ 7:00PM
seamless said...
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.
7-22-2008 @ 8:22PM
Jason Hung said...
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)
7-22-2008 @ 7:06PM
Simon Arch said...
Looks like a nice app. Can't wait to give it a try.
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7-22-2008 @ 8:25PM
south said...
hey, i was excited to find a useful new app here that ISN'T just for iPhones. yeehaa!
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7-22-2008 @ 10:52PM
Xoviet chiK said...
Can get them both in a $40 bundle. Great deal, iKana is a terrific App.
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7-22-2008 @ 11:57PM
niclet said...
This app (and its beautiful icon) waked-up my desire to learn Japanese!
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7-23-2008 @ 3:07AM
jcane said...
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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7-23-2008 @ 12:39PM
darrenjgore said...
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/
7-23-2008 @ 4:47AM
Jeff said...
How sad, kanji is Chinese, now everyone says it's Japanese.
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7-23-2008 @ 5:38PM
Rhywun said...
The Chinese word is "Hanzi". "Kanzi" is Japanese.
7-24-2008 @ 5:29AM
albi said...
@Rhywun
you are right, just like "English" is english, and "Anglais" is french
7-23-2008 @ 6:03AM
Mark said...
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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7-23-2008 @ 5:38PM
xyz591 said...
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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7-24-2008 @ 5:29AM
Rhywun said...
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.
7-24-2008 @ 5:29AM
Simon Arch said...
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.
7-24-2008 @ 5:29AM
Jeff said...
Well, better not use the word "steal". But it's just sad that some don't even know Kanji was from China ;-)
8-04-2008 @ 6:01PM
Andre Khromov said...
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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