News
Xiao CiDian Mac Desktop 1.7 Released
Friday, September 30th, 2011 | News | 2 Comments
I’ve just put up the latest Mac Desktop release of 小词典. The new version, 1.7, is just a dictionary refresh of the latest CC-CEDICT dictionary.
小词典 Desktop will only work with Mac OS X Leopard and later (I am using it on Lion without any issues).
You can download it from the download page, be sure to read the installation guide (If this is your first install). Checkout the FAQ if you run into problems.
学习努力！
Updates soon-ish
Wednesday, September 28th, 2011 | News | 2 Comments
大家好！
I’ve started up my Mandarin class again, and with the restart in study comes a refresh of my tools.
I’ve been brushing off the code for all the versions of 小词典 and I should have releases coming out soon-ish. Most are just dictionary data refreshes.
One project that isn’t going to make the cut, however, is the Adobe Air version. I rarely use that version. Purely selfish reasons I know, but I can’t see a reason for me to spend any more time on it.
If you actually use the Adobe Air version please leave a comment and I’ll figure out if I can release the source. If no one is using it, I am going to trash it.
Updates soonish.
Xiao CiDian Android 1.1 Released
Saturday, August 21st, 2010 | Android, News | 2 Comments
I’ve just uploaded Xiao CiDian 1.1 to the Android market place. This is a quick demo of the new feature – the “?” search character:
Searching “without being so specific” was the number one requested feature of Xiao CiDian 1.0. If you have any feature suggestions, please feel free to post them here! I write 小词典 in my spare time, but I do try to put in features everyone likes (and remove the ones people find useless :D)
I would also like to thank everyone who has downloaded 小词典, and thank you all for your nice comments and ratings! I am very happy with the number of times 小词典 has been downloaded. While not a mega number of downloads, it has been downloaded 3 times more than any of the other mobile versions I’ve done – and it’s only been available for about 2 months!
Xiao CiDian 1.0 now in the Android Market
Sunday, June 13th, 2010 | Android, News | No Comments
Just a quick note to let everyone know you can now download 小词典 from the Android Market place. I just installed it on my HTC Desire from the market place. It should run on any Android 2.1 device. I can’t wait for later this year when I get an Android tablet – good times :-D
Here is a movie of what it looks like (Nothing new if you’ve seen Xiao CiDian before).
To find it, just search the Andorid Market Place for “Xiao CiDian” or “Mandarin”
Happy studying!
Xiao CiDian on Android 2.1 (HTC Desire)
Monday, June 7th, 2010 | Android, News | No Comments
I’ve made a lot of progress porting Xiao CiDian to Android. I had been too busy to work on the project, but sat down a few days ago and made it my priority (now that I use an Android phone and need the app myself). Here is a short movie showing the progress and a demo of the app
I still have some work to do, but as you can see most of the heavy backend lifting is done. I still need to get the UI sorted, and tighten things up a bit, but I should have a beta “soon”.
Mac Desktop Release 1.6 and Traditional Support
Tuesday, January 5th, 2010 | News | 1 Comment
新年快乐！
I’ve had quite a few requests for Traditional character support in the Mac desktop version of Xiao CiDian.
I think that the Traditional character set is very beautiful, but all of my study material is based around the Simplified character set. For obvious, selfish reasons I have put off doing a Traditional version.
Well, I had a few extra hours today, and I thought I’d get this off my todo list. So without further ado, there is now a dictionary available for download on the right side of the page that supports the Traditional character set and should work exactly like the Simplified version.
Additionally, I have update the other two dictionaries – the Simplified and the English to Chinese versions – to use a newer cc-cedict dictionary. The dictionary is now from January of 2010.
Get it while it’s hot, and happy studying!
Xiao CiDian Air 1.1 Release
Saturday, July 18th, 2009 | News | No Comments
Coming out hot on the heals of the 1.0 release of the Adobe Air version of 小词典 is version 1.1.
My wife felt a bit ill today, so our weekend outing was cut a bit short. While she was recovering, I occupied myself by adding a few often asked for features to 小词典－气. They are:
Traditional character display, and searching.
Hiding of the HSK level.
Check for auto update every time the app launches.
Bit more feed back when the app is searching
You can toggle the new settings by clicking on the “Preferences” button on the bottom right in the application. The new preferences screen looks like the following:
You can get the new version by clicking on the install badge on the right side of the xiaocidian.com home page or if you are patient your app will likely auto update in 5 days.
Enjoy!
Xiao CiDian Air 1.0 Release
Friday, July 10th, 2009 | News | 2 Comments
I am happy to announce the release of Xiao CiDian Air 1.0 (小词典－气).
Xiao CiDian Air is a port of the iPhone version of Xiao CiDian to Adobe Air. Adobe Air is a way to write applications so that they can run on many different types of computers – Mac, Windows and Linux.
What this means in the real world is that you can run Xiao CiDian Air on any modern computer – Ubuntu Linux, Mac OS X, and even Windows (there are rumors that Adobe Air will run on the next generation of cell phones too).
The boon for my study is that Xiao CiDian Air the fuzzy pinyin searching to my desktop. So I can now search using things like “mei-” when I forget tones.
It has the large character view like the iPhone as well, and since it’s on the desktop copy and paste work – an added bonus.
To download Xiao CiDian Air, just click on the “Install Now” badge on the xiaocidian.com home page.
汉语学习快乐!
Release 1.3.2 has been appstore rejected
Sunday, April 19th, 2009 | News | 20 Comments
Just a quick note to let everyone know that 1.3.2 has been rejected from the appstore because it has the ability to define curse words.
It would appear that Apple doesn’t care that the current version already does (and has always done) that, and they don’t seem to mind that the dictionary.com dictionary application defines curse words – that application is ok in their eyes for some unknown reason.
I am not going to limit 小词典’s functionality for no reason. Words are words. Every dictionary that I’ve ever used has defined curse words as evident by the approved dictionay.com app.
It looks like 1.3 will have been the final version of this application, and to be frank, I am tired of the drama with Apple’s AppStore. I just want to write software, but this seems to be the wrong platform to do that on.
I had a lot of plans for this appliction, but I am throwing in the towel. There are several other Chinese dictionary apps on the app store, and I recommend you switch to using one of those.
Thank you for using 小词典 on the iPhone, and I am deeply sorry for the on again off again nature of this project. When I have actual control of my projects, they are managed far better than this.
iPhone Xiao CiDian 1.3.2 Release
Friday, April 10th, 2009 | News | No Comments
I’ve just finished uploading the new version of 小词典 to the App Store. Pending any unforeseen problems, you should be seeing the update pretty soon.
Aside from several bug fixes in the new release there is one new feature. Here is a quick movie showing the feature: