News and Features - Winter Wonderland

For those outside the US,Wikipedia explains the use of Black Friday in the above context here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Friday_%28shopping%29

"JANUARY 1966 -- "Black Friday" is the name which the Philadelphia Police Department has given to the Friday following Thanksgiving Day. It is not a term of endearment to them. "Black Friday" officially opens the Christmas shopping season in center city, and it usually brings massive traffic jams and over-crowded sidewalks as the downtown stores are mobbed from opening to closing."

Wow,the new mobile learn chinese app looks really cool.I'll have to ask 圣诞老人 {Santa} for the iPhone version for Xmas.Currenly I have the quick review app and a link to the mobile version of the site on my phone.I take it this new app will replace the quick review app and will have flashcards and dictionary as well? With the mobile version of the site I do already listen to the latest lesson if I'm out and about,but it doesn't seem to keep this download if I wanted to listen to it later.I can keep up with the other parts of the site on it such as the community.I'm wondering why the features of the new app weren't just enabled in the mobile version of the site,but I guess the answer is for technical reasons.Anyhow,when it's all up and running I'd be interested in the best way to use it all on a mobile.Thanks CPod .Jiayou.

great work with the flash-cards !

Flash-cards (Fonts) were the only major part of your website which I had troubles with from my windows mobile cellular (Toshiba tg01). Now it works great so I can use the flash-cards on-the-go.
Thanks again for your hard work !
Karl
PS: FYI, a minor issue I still have on my cellular is the sentence-reordering in the lesson exercises section. Drag-and-drop feature is cool on a PC but having some "move-up", "move-down" buttons may be more pratical for cellulars.

Am I missing something - it's been possible to listen to lessons on your mobile device for ages.  I've got an HP iPAQ and simply open the web browser, go to chinesepod.com and then click on the lesson link - in fact exactly the same process I go through when using my laptop.

Could someone clarify how what John was referring to is different to this?

Thanks

Chris

chris,

I don't know about your mobile device,but does it not only download the lesson but save it for listening to later? [I couldn't as far as I could tell anyhow on my iPhone].Also,previously you couldn't get all the other tabs like vocab and expansion.Have you checked out the mobile tab under resources?

I hugely appreciate the improvements to the CP site! I've never been able to use the flashcards in the past. Seems I can use them now but I was wondering, is it my computer, or the site - the character is about one third the size of the huge forward and back arrows. Also the font is a "thick" type, not the easiest to read. If I enlarge the screen using the cntrl feature within the browser software, the arrows barely show in the screen and the character gets thicker and thicker. I am the semi-blind one in the group, however, and enlarge everything much more than the average person. Is it possible to change that font so it's not the blocky-thick style? Just wondering, NOT complaining! :)

Again, my bad eyesight is a factor so I am not asking for special consideration, only if there is a way to change the thick font, and if the arrow-to-character ratio is like I describe or if it is my old, crippled laptop! I do pen & paper character writing and in fact am juggling home-made flashcards, notebook and pen with my laptop in my recliner at this very moment as I type.

Love love love ChinesePod! With or without extra features, it's well worth my money.

我的小儿子刚刚买了Android手机。我想试试新的CP app.

（对不对？） What if I want to say "I would like to try the new app on his cell phone"? 我想在他的手机新的CP appl (?) or 我祥用他的......

Which brings up another question: How does one type the "......" six dots/periods when having Chinese selected for the language in Windows? If I try using the period, of course I get "。。。。。。“ If I switch back to English, the dots are inppropriately close together.

@Chris: What you're saying is "mobile devices have had web browsers for a long time", and that's quite true. I can look at CPod on my WinMo phone and if my old iPaq still worked, I can browse the web on it.

John's announcement concerns an Android application that uses CPod content. Think of the "We Love Chinese Pod" for the Android phone. He made one for the iPhone previously, but the Android became cooler and John is just way too hip to stick with the old hipness : )

@bababardwan 

I just heard on our local news (west coast, USA) that the term Black Friday indicated it was the first week that put retail stores "in the black" because of the huge sales.  Don't actually know which is correct for origin.  It's come to have a lot of meanings over the years. 

@John

Everytime I use the flashcards since the site was "upgraded", it automatically skips ever other word - the character actually flashes on for a second, but skips to the next one.  I've tried it many times over the last week & it happens every time.  I've tried using only "hanzi" or "hanzi & audio" and it always happens, both on the site and on my iPod.  Is anyone else having this problem??!!??  It's very frustrating!

jian

The new G1 app is awesome.   Thanks!

I've been using the flash cards app on the G1 since it came out.  The main problem I have is that the buttons, like "next", are so tiny and narrow that it is easy to hit the wrong spot accidentally and not realize it.  Also, be sure not to double-click when you mean to single-click.  Maybe this will help somebody.

chris,

The new Android app is a dedicated app, so you don't need to use a browser.  When you create a dedicated mobile app, you can design it to solve mobile-specific problems much more easily.

a1pi2,

Ha! We love the openness of the Android development platform compared to the iPhone's. When we finish an Android app, we can get it in the Android Market right away. iPhone apps, however, take weeks to be approved.

jianxuexi,

That's strange. Are you using the "auto" feature?  Are you using the correct/incorrect buttons at the bottom, and/or the arrows on the sides?

John,

so you don't need to use a browser.

..I understand what you mean by a dedicated app and think that's a great idea.I'm curious though how it downloads the latest lessons.Is it through a browser at that point? [forgive my ignorance]

@John 

I'm not using the auto.  I do use the arrows & the keep score buttons on the bottom.  I use my own saved vocabulary (change them each week); I click on flashcards.  Then I see the Chinese character, think of the answer & click on the flashcard and the answer appears.  Then I click on the correct or incorrect button below, then on the right arrow.  Every time, it flashes the next flashcard and immediately goes to the next one.  I can tell it's every other one because the number above (1/96) indicates the flashcard # I'm on.  And it moves quickly from 3 to 4, from 5 to 6, without pausing for long on the 3 or 5, but displays the next one correctly & waits for me to click etc.  Am I explaining this clearly?  I can't tell :( 

I agree - it is weird.  But I just tried it again & the same thing happened. . .

jian

John, a1pi2, thanks for the responses.  I must confess that I'm well behind the technological times these days and only have a very vague idea of what an "App" is, be it for iPhone, Android, or whatever.  I tend not to use my mobile device for web access since the roaming data charges are exhorbitant.  It sounds from the above that an "App" might be a cheaper way (in terms of roaming network provider charges) of accessing Cpod content.  I guess I just need to take the plunge and treat myself to an iPhone or similar device!

thanks, Chris

@chris: If you're paying by the amount of data you transfer, make sure you're using the mobile site at  http://m.chinesepod.com. It transfers less data because it cuts out a lot of the trimmings and it should look better on the little screen.

The purpose of a mobile phone app (short for "application", or program) is to present the CPod data in a way that's more interactive than what you'd get from a web page. It may transfer less data overall (because it may save some data on your phone automatically) but the real motivation is having a computer program instead of a web page.

@John: Weeks? You're lucky. New York Times today is talking about people waiting over a year, with no explanations from Apple. Open is nice...provided you figure out some other way to make money :)

jianxuexi: The flashcard program will automatically jump to the next card after a second or so delay if you click the correct/incorrect checkmarks. You don't need to click the arrows. That's why you're skipping through every other card. Stop clicking the arrows and it should be fine.

On a related note, here's what's wrong with my flashcards: the vocab item at the top of the list of items to review replaces the item at the bottom. So if I don't shuffle, the top one will be reviewed as the first and as the last card, while the bottom one will not show up at all.

Anyone else noticed this?

@simonpettersson, yes I've noticed the same thing, Mac/Vista/Safari/Chrome/whatever.  One of those cleanup things, I suppose.  I'm really happy with the traditional support and the fact that I can magnify my screen for those 30 stroke characters.  Before, even if you used traditional characters for the exercises, they were often illegible due to the font size.

The fact that you don't need to click the arrows is a pretty major time saver.  However, I did the same thing as jianxuexi at first.

@simonpettersson

Thank you so much. I use the flashcards quite a bit & it's been very frustrating.  I tried everything I could think of over the last week, but not that :)

多谢

jian

Hurray, Sarah was back on news and features! she always does such a great job.

Any chance someone could answer my questions? I'll repeat -

我的小儿子刚刚买了Android手机。我想试试新的CP app.

（对不对？） What if I want to say "I would like to try the new app on his cell phone"? 我想在他的手机新的CP appl (?) or 我祥用他的......

Which brings up another question: How does one type the "......" six dots/periods when having Chinese selected for the language in Windows? If I try using the period, of course I get "。。。。。。“ If I switch back to English, the dots are inppropriately close together.

xièxiè!

我的小儿子刚买一台Android手机。我想在他的新手机上试试新的Cpod附加组件。

Or....我想在小儿子刚买的手机上试试新的Cpod附加组件。
Or....我想用小儿子刚买的手机试试新的Cpod附加组件。

I like the new flash cards.  Thanks.  

changye, thank you very much!

eupnea63355,

Changye is right, you can say

我想在他的新手机上试试新的Cpod app.