So it's been about a year since my last update email and it seems like it's high time for another one — a few actual announcements plus a status update on our (extremely delayed) next big iOS update and some other things.
New «Early Access» Dictionaries
Android
iOS Update Status
Problems
Solutions
Current Status
Website Redesign
iOS Standalone App
Windows Phone 8
BlackBerry 10
Desktops
1) New «Early Access» Dictionaries
While our big iOS update isn't quite ready yet (see below), we have released a few of our upcoming dictionaries ahead of schedule. Specifically:
· Gu Hanyu Da Cidian: Classical-to-modern Chinese dictionary from 上海辞书出版社, known as both the 《古汉语大词典》 and the 《古代汉语大词典》。 (same contents, different cover)$29.95. Note that this dictionary was originally written in simplified characters, and while we've painstakingly added traditional-character versions of all of its headwords (much more carefully than in most of our previous efforts, checking against multiple sources) and have now done a reasonably good job of automatically adding traditional characters to definitions too, it's not quite as good for traditional character users as a dictionary developed originally in traditional characters would be. We have at least one other Classical dictionary in the pipeline that should be a better fit for traditional character users, though, and of course if we find any significant problems in the traditional conversion in this one we'll be happy to fix them too.
· Longman Advanced Chinese Dictionary: 《朗文中文高級新辭典(第二版)》 $24.95. This is a monolingual, traditional-character-only dictionary from Hong Kong, which, rather ironically, only includes Mandarin and not Cantonese readings (does have Cantonese for single characters, but since our software doesn't support searching that yet we've left it out for now); we hope to add Cantonese readings to it ourselves in the future, though. We have no immediate plans to convert anything but its headwords to simplified, but might consider converting the definitions too if there's sufficient demand.
· Pocket Oxford Chinese Dictionary, a revival of our very first Chinese dictionary ever. $9.95, but if you bought it on Palm/WM years ago and transferred your license you get it for free. (if it's not already listed that way, go to Settings / Registration ID / Check for new purchases) The return of this dictionary gives us some pretty cool bragging rights, since we can now say that anybody who bought a dictionary from us on their Palm Pilot in 2001 still has the ability to use it on an iPhone 5 in 2013.
· Practical Dictionary of Chinese Medicine by Nigel Wiseman and Ye Feng, $49.95, originally licensed all the way back in 2007 but left abandoned on a shelf for several years thanks to (among other things) the distractions of frantic iOS / Android porting. This is a dictionary of Traditional Chinese Medicine , and actually it's more of a «medical reference» rather than just a dictionary; goes into a great deal of detail (often several pages) on the ~6700 terms it covers. A few early testers also seem to appreciate it for cultural literacy purposes (certainly tells you a good deal about that aspect of Chinese culture), though in general it's aimed at / priced for a professional Chinese Medicine audience.
· Chinese Medicine Term List, another Traditional Chinese Medicine title also developed by Wiseman & co; this is free and covers a lot more words than PDCM, but just gives you the translation without any explanations. (available in the Free tab in Add-ons)