- Fixed slow-loading issue (for Pro, already fixed in previous update)
- Added brand new app: Hanping Chinese OCR to Menu > Buy screen
- Minor bug fixes (including not reading clipboard)
Available from the Google Play Store (Lite & Pro).
Hanping Chinese Dictionary (Lite & Pro) 3.0.11 released!
August 12th, 2012Hanping Chinese Dictionary Pro 3.0.9/3.0.10 released!
August 6th, 20123.0.10 changes:
- Fixed slow-loading issue
- Voice recognition settings now in Settings screen (used to be on About screen). If you are lucky enough to be running Jelly Bean (Android 4.1) then you can download data files for offline voice recognition. See screenshots below:
3.0.9 changes:
- Tag names can now include Chinese characters – before, you could only use letters (a-z) and digits (0-9) but now you can use almost any characters (including Chinese characters and punctuation). However, upper case lettters are still not supported, nor are leading or trailing spaces
- Improved font handling – see this post which describes how to use a custom Chinese font. Once you have created the fonts directory you will see an entry in the Settings screen (used to be in the About screen in older versions). From there, you can easily enable/disable the custom font
- Some bug fixes – in particular, bugs related to fetching in-app billing information
This is a minor update on the 3.0.8 update a few days ago.
Ongoing promotion: 25% off ABC dictionaries (in-app purchases, pro version only)
Available from the Google Play Store (Lite & Pro).
Hanping Chinese Dictionary (Lite & Pro) 3.0.8 released!
August 1st, 2012- Search history & Settings now auto-imported from Lite version (no earlier than 3.0.5) when upgrade to Pro
- Some bug fixes
This is a bug fix update on the 3.0.5 update a few days ago.
Ongoing promotion: 25% off ABC dictionaries (in-app purchases, pro version only)
Available from the Google Play Store (Lite & Pro).
Hanping Chinese Dictionary Lite 3.0.7 released!
July 31st, 2012- Fixes a pre-Froyo bug introduced in the 3.0.5 update (which stopped Starred words working properly)
- Minor bug fixes
Available from the Google Play Store.
Hanping Chinese Dictionary (Lite & Pro) 3.0.5 released!
July 29th, 2012- Settings and search history now automatically backed up to device storage (SD card)
- Jelly Bean bug fixes
- Other bug fixes
Ongoing promotion: 25% off ABC dictionaries (in-app purchases, pro version only)
Available from the Google Play Store (Lite & Pro).
Information about the settings and search history backup file
Your settings and search history are automatically backed up to your device storage (usually SD card) whenever you press the back or home key to exit out of Hanping Pro. The backup file is stored here:
/Android/data/com.embermitre.dictroid/prefs/com.embermitre.hanping.app.pro_preferences.xml
Periodically copy this file somewhere safe (not on your Android device) so that you can restore everything should your device become damaged or lost. Consider setting this up automatically using cloud storage solutions like Dropbox or Google Drive.
However, it is probably not a good idea to use those solutions to sync the backups across multiple devices. What you probably want is a way to sync the real settings (stored in internal memory) but unfortunately we do not support this yet.
How to restore settings from a backup file:
- If Hanping Pro is running, then exit it
- Copy the backup file to the same location as specified above (this might be on the same device or a completely new one)
- If Hanping Pro is not installed, then install it, otherwise Clear Data
- Run Hanping Pro and verify that the search settings and history are restored
General notes about Starred words/lists database
Your Chinese Starred words/lists are stored here:
/Android/data/com.embermitre.dictroid/zh/user/starred.db
If you have the ABC English-Chinese Dictionary installed then you may also have starred English words:
/Android/data/com.embermitre.dictroid/en/user/starred.db
These are “live” databases (i.e. not backups) and so can, in theory, be synced across devices. However, this is not supported (because starring a word while the database is being synced might cause problems) so use with caution.
Hanping Chinese Dictionary Pro 3.0.4 released!
April 12th, 2012- Added setting to Prefer Chinese Results (only applicable with ABC English-Chinese installed). You can still switch search result language by clicking on the top-left icon. This will be made more intuitive in an up-coming update
- Faster lists
- Searches also update in Browse screen
- Some bug fixes
Available from the Google Play Store.
Hanping Chinese Dictionary Lite 3.0.1 released!
March 17th, 2012Note: 3.0.1 fixes some bugs in 3.0 (which is described in this post).
This major update brings in several features that Hanping Pro users have been enjoying for over a year:
- Starred words – star any word (or even a phrase not in the dictionary) for easy recall later on
- Clipboard support – copy any Chinese headword to Clipboard to use outside of the app (e.g. in email/sms app)
- External links (only when you are online) – quickly & conveniently look up a word in one of the many supported 3rd party websites such as YellowBridge (for detailed word information), nciku (for sample sentences), Skritter (for stroke animations & writing practice) and many more
- Lookup Chinese words within dictionary definitions
- Lookup characters within headwords
Other improvements include:
- Search term is highlighted in results, when searching English
- Improved support for long phrases/sentences. Try pasting a Chinese SMS into the search box and you get instant Pinyin and Simplified/Traditional conversion, as well as all the vocab!
- You can now disable ads (see Settings screen)
So why buy the Pro version?
- Chinese handwriting recognition: This is much more convenient than using a 3rd party IME, not just because it is built directly into the Search screen but also because it waits for you after each stroke!
- Homescreen widgets: Have one, two, three (or as many as you like) widgets on your homescreen to test/remind yourself of the words that are important to you. You assign a Hanping word list to each widget so you can test yourself on all your starred words, or just the ones with a certain tag, or maybe use a predefined word list such as frequent characters or popular idioms.
- Audio by a real native Chinese speaker: Over 2,000 single-syllable audio files with support for Erhua variants. These are designed for the beginner, so are spoken slowly and clearly
- Multi-dictionary support. If you want your dictionary defintions to have more grammar and sample sentences then you need to invest in a high quality dictionary! The superb ABC Chinese-English & ABC English-Chinese dictionaries are available as separate in-app purchases. We have worked very hard to integrate these seamlessly into the app. So, no need to cycle through dictionaries to find the word you are looking for. Instead, Hanping Pro merges the results so you can see everything in one go
- Last but not least, Hanping Pro is, for a limited time, on special offer – HALF PRICE!
SMS breakdown
Browse Screen is now in Hanping Lite
Hanping Lite is available from the Google Play Store.
We hope you like these new changes and are always grateful for your feedback.
Many thanks,
embermitre
Hanping Chinese Dictionary Pro 3.0.3 released!
March 12th, 20123.0.3 is a minor bug fix update on 3.0/3.0.1/3.0.2 fixing an in-app billing crash, minor handwriting issues and a crash on startup on some old Motorola devices. Other recent changes are:
- Improved sentence decomposition – for example, try pasting a Chinese SMS into the search box
- Merged dictionary search (only relevant if you have ABC Chinese-English dictionary installed) – gives you the combined results for CC-CEDICT and ABC Chinese-English
- Both ABC dictionaries (which are currently on SPECIAL OFFER) now include both Simplified & Traditional characters as well as Pinyin & Zhuyin! *
- Improved search engine
- (ABC English-Chinese only) when searching English, can now switch (using top-left icon) between English and Chinese headword results
- When searching English, search word is now highlighted in bold in the search results
- Better support for Android Intents – i.e. better interoperability with other apps
- About screen now shows for each dictionary whether there is an update available
- General improvements and some bug fixes
* If you have already purchased/downloaded one or both ABC dictionaries then you can update to the latest version from the About screen (Menu button > About). There you should see an “Update available” message. Touch that to install the latest dictionary. You need to do this once for each dictionary that needs updating.
A quick word on Sentence Decomposition…
It’s been over a year now since we introduced the functionality to type a long phrase/sentence into the search box and automatically show the corresponding vocab list (breakdown). You could also see the phrase/sentence in it’s entirety by clicking on the “not in dictionary” item.
Now, we’ve gone one step further. As you type (or paste) Chinese text into the search box, Hanping automatically works out the Pinyin/Zhuyin. Furthermore, if your settings are set up to show both Simplified & Traditional characters, you will also see the Simplified/Traditional variants. In other words, you now get automatic Simplified-Traditional-Pinyin/Zhuyin conversion!
Here is the result of pasting a typical Chinese (Simplified form) SMS message:
And here is a more extreme example where the same Simplified SMS message is used, but the Settings are configured to show Traditional [Simplified] & Zhuyin!
Available from the Google Play Store.
Hanping Chinese Dictionary Pro hits 10,000 downloads on Android Market!
January 7th, 2012Today, Hanping Chinese Dictionary Pro hit the magic 10,000 downloads mark on the Android Market!
We believe this is the first paid offline dictionary to achieve this 🙂
For posterity, here is the User Reviews breakdown:
A big thanks to all the support we have received over the last couple of years to make this happen.
UPDATE 28.01.2012: Free version hits HALF A MILLION downloads!
Hanping Chinese Dictionary Pro 2.8.2 released!
January 3rd, 2012- Refreshed app icon
- Added English starred words functionality (only relevant if ABC English-Chinese installed) – from Starred Tab, touch top-left icon to switch between Chinese and English starred lists
- Fixed FC (ICS-only) when swiping on Browse screen
- Minor bug fixes
Available from the Android Market.
