Japanese language programs for the Palm OS
Dictionary/Flashcard programs
Dokusha
(http://www.geocities.com/andrew_brault/dokusha/)
|
Program type |
Flashcard/dictionary program |
|
Price |
Free! |
|
Requirements |
1.5MB with 6MB(!) free space on RAM, 9MB on RAM with name dictionary |
|
Advantages |
Allows Japanese documents to be viewed, free, radical lookup, kanji (premade!) flashcards |
|
Cons |
No hi-res support, big, can't import flashcards, dismal english-japanese search times |
|
Rating |
4/5 |
WDIC
(http://www5b.biglobe.ne.jp/~ekuta/wdic.html)
|
Program type |
Dictionary/ document viewer |
|
Price |
Free! |
|
Requirements |
A memory card |
|
Advantages |
Allows for study and dictionary viewing, free |
|
Cons |
Requires Japanese OS |
|
Rating |
4/5 |
Beiks palm
dictionaries (http://www.beiks.com/palmzonebg/Lexicons/Japanese.htm)
|
Program type |
Dictionary |
|
Price |
Not free |
|
Requirements |
|
|
Advantages |
Is in romaji for beginners, doesn't require
Japanese OS |
|
Cons |
Romaji is annoying! no examples, expensive,
annoying dictionary layout |
|
Rating |
2/5 |
|
Program type |
Dictionary |
|
Price |
Not free |
|
Requirements |
|
|
Advantages |
|
|
Cons |
There are better free programs |
|
Rating |
2/5 |
|
Program type |
Dictionary |
|
Price |
Not free |
|
Requirements |
? |
|
Advantages |
? |
|
Cons |
? |
|
Rating |
? |
|
Program type |
Japanese tutor |
|
Price |
Not free |
|
Requirements |
? |
|
Advantages |
? |
|
Cons |
? |
|
Rating |
? |
Anki (http://www.anki.com/)
|
Program type |
Dictionary/ document viewer |
|
Price |
US$49.95 |
|
Requirements |
Any Palm OS Hardware, any Palm OS |
|
Advantages |
Is an actual flashcard program as opposed to looking up each word in documents |
|
Cons |
Expensive |
|
Rating |
3/5 |
KDIC
(http://www002.upp.so-net.ne.jp/kei-k/index-e.htm)
|
Program type |
Dictionary/ document viewer |
|
Price |
Free with a "Register Me!" notice |
|
Requirements |
Any Palm OS Hardware, any Palm OS |
|
Advantages |
Allows for dictionary viewing, free, DA support |
|
Cons |
Requires Japanese OS |
|
Rating |
4/5 |
WDIC
(http://www5b.biglobe.ne.jp/~ekuta/wdic.html)
|
Program type |
Dictionary/ document viewer |
|
Price |
Free |
|
Requirements |
Any Palm OS Hardware, any Palm OS, a memory card |
|
Advantages |
Allows for study and dictionary viewing, free, DA support |
|
Cons |
Requires Japanese OS |
|
Rating |
4/5 |
PADict
(padict.sf.net)
|
Program type |
Dictionary/ study card program |
|
Price |
Free (GPL)! |
|
Requirements |
Any Palm OS Hardware, any Palm OS |
|
Advantages |
Doesn't need Japanese OS, free, High-Res supportallows lookup by radical and by writing the characters |
|
Cons |
Isn't very good at study cards, difficult to search partial words sometimes |
|
Rating |
4.5/5 |
PocketLingo
Japanese
(http://www.pocketlingo.com/products/palm-pl-tpl.asp?product=japanese)
|
Program type |
Dictionary/ study card program |
|
Price |
Not free, sample available |
|
Requirements |
21MB space (in card or in RAM) |
|
Advantages |
Has good examples and usages for words |
|
Cons |
Slow, lookup by kana only for J-E, big |
|
Rating |
4/5 |
KingKanji (http://web.uvic.ca/kanji-gold/)
|
Program type |
Kanji study card program |
|
Price |
Not free, 30 day trial |
|
Requirements |
|
|
Advantages |
Has stroke order diagrams and lets you practice kanji |
|
Cons |
Low-res fonts, slow learning if learning how to write is not wanted |
|
Rating |
4/5 |
Hotaru
(http://hotaru.sf.net)
|
Program type |
Flashcard program |
|
Price |
Free (GPL)! |
|
Requirements |
|
|
Advantages |
Is under active development |
|
Cons |
It takes too much time to make the flashcards |
|
Rating |
3/5 |
|
Program type |
Dictionary |
|
Price |
Free (GPL)! |
|
Requirements |
|
|
Advantages |
Doesn't require Japanese OS, free, small |
|
Cons |
PADict does a similar thing plus more
(Radicals is useful though!) |
|
Rating |
4/5 |
Japanese Localisers
J-OS
(http://homepage2.nifty.com/hackerdudesan/)
|
Program type |
Japanese localiser |
|
Price |
Variable, 30 day trial |
|
Requirements |
Most hardware, most Palm OS versions |
|
Advantages |
Has IME built-in, allows viewing of Japanese characters |
|
Cons |
Expensive, navigating the Japanese site is difficult |
|
Rating |
4/5 |
CJKOS
(http://www.dyts.com/en/)
|
Program type |
Japanese localiser |
|
Price |
28US$, 218HK$ or 238RMB, 30 day trial |
|
Requirements |
Any Palm OS Hardware, any Palm OS |
|
Advantages |
Hi-res support, allows usage of Japanese, Chinese and Korean programs |
|
Cons |
Expensive and slow, requires external input program like POBox, Hi-Res Japanese fonts need to be downloaded elsewhere |
|
Rating |
4/5 |
Yomeru 5
(http://www.geocities.com/b_palm_ug/yomeru5.html)
|
Program type |
Japanese localiser |
|
Price |
Free! |
|
Requirements |
Palm OS 5 |
|
Advantages |
Hi-res support, allows usage of Japanese,
free |
|
Cons |
Annoying fonts, makes palm too slow to be usable |
|
Rating |
3.5/5 |
|
Program type |
Japanese localiser |
|
Price |
Free! |
|
Requirements |
Palm OS <5 |
|
Advantages |
? |
|
Cons |
? |
|
Rating |
? |
OS5:
(http://pitecan.com/wiki/programs/search.cgi?title=POBox+for+Palm+OS5)
<OS5:
(http://www.pitecan.com/OpenPOBox/PalmInline/install.html)
|
Program type |
Japanese input |
|
Price |
Free (GPL)! |
|
Requirements |
Any Palm OS Hardware, any Palm OS |
|
Advantages |
Tries to predict Japanese (fast input), free |
|
Cons |
|
|
Rating |
5/5 |
DA
Launchers
DA Launchers let you look up words
from in other programs using a dictionary like KDIC or WDIC.
DA Launcher
OS5: (http://homepage2.nifty.com/hackerdudesan/dal50/)
<OS5: (http://homepage2.nifty.com/hackerdudesan/dal/)
|
Program type |
DA Launcher |
|
Price |
Free |
|
Requirements |
Hackmaster or equivalent for <OS5 |
|
Advantages |
Is stable |
|
Cons |
OS5 version doesn't support mapping to keys |
|
Rating |
4/5 |
|
Program type |
DA Launcher |
|
Price |
Free |
|
Requirements |
OS5 |
|
Advantages |
When selecting text, a menu appears |
|
Cons |
Can be annoying for the same reasons |
|
Rating |
4/5 |
|
Program type |
DA Launcher |
|
Price |
Free |
|
Requirements |
OS5 |
|
Advantages |
Allows mapping of DA's to the voice memo button |
|
Cons |
Can make palm unstable? |
|
Rating |
4/5 |
|
Program type |
DA Launcher |
|
Price |
Free |
|
Requirements |
OS5 |
|
Advantages |
Enables mapping to more buttons than Defaultcapture |
|
Cons |
Resets palm in some circumstances, enable after reset doesn't
work |
|
Rating |
4/5 |