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Version 2.2.2 Released

  • Added over 12,000 of the most common Japanese words to the example database

I tried to come up with a script that would pick out up to 8 of the most common words for each kanji. This includes verbs and adjectives so you won’t just be getting 熟語 (jukugo) for everything:

  • The app will now automatically display example words for over 2800 kanji characters and example sentences for almost 100,000 words during Study sessions

If you don’t want auto-examples you can turn them off in the Settings app under the AUTO EXAMPLES heading:

You might want to turn off the Kanji – Example Words setting if you have Reading lessons with single-kanji words. I’m going to disable displaying examples for single-kanji words in Reading lessons in the next version.

  • Added Study session smoothing to help prevent a large number of cards from suddenly being due for review on a single day

You can turn this off in the settings app as well:

  • Study sessions will now automatically restart if the app is forced to close while in the background during a study session
  • New examples will now appear first in the list

These are just some minor quality of life changes.

  • Fixed new card sorting on the Edit view
  • Fixed new card selection for Study sessions

My tweaks in the last version actually kind of broke things. Should be right now.

Thanks to EDRDG for the JMDict’s word data:

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Version 2.2.1 Released

This was actually out yesterday but I was a bit behind and didn’t have time to do the notes, sorry. Anyway:

  • Example sentences from Tatoeba.org

You can now access a database of example sentences right on the Examples view. Move them into your examples list with a single-tap if you want to view them on-card during study sessions. I only chose to import the smaller database with examples for common words to keep the size down. Also, this won’t show word examples for individual kanji. That would actually require a dictionary database which would probably be way too big so you’ll still need to go to imiwa? for words.

  • Easier importing with automatic duplicate checking

You no longer have to choose the type of import and dupe checking will occur immediately giving you the option to import everything or just the new stuff.

  • Tweaked imports from imiwa?’s Open In… feature
  • Tweaked new card sorting
  • Tweaked card resetting

The tweaks probably won’t be noticeable to most but they should make things a bit better.

  • Fixed Edit view searching
  • Fixed CSV exporting via e-mail
  • Fixed a bug that would sometimes cause examples to show the wrong translation

Searching and CSV exporting were basically totally broken; they work now. The translation hint bug was only a bit annoying but shouldn’t be a problem anymore.

In the next version I’m going to see if I can get those examples from the database I added to optionally show up automatically if you haven’t added any of your own yet.

I’m also planning to try release some updated Youtube videos about how to use kanji Flow, Reviewing the Kanji, and imiwa? most efficiently.

Let me know if there’s anything else you’d like to see or if you notice any problems.

Happy studies!

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Version 2.2.0 Released

The new version should be available soon.

  • No more ads

‘Nuff said.

  • Lesson sharing lets you share your cards and download lessons made by other users

This is a totally new feature making use of a totally new API so it’s quite possible that there will be some issues.  I’ll be monitoring this closely and will try to push out a fixes quickly if anything goes wrong.

You’ll need to make an account in order to access this website but it has a lot of very helpful info if you’re using mnemonics to memorize new kanji. And if you’re not using mnemonics, you really should give it a try; I think it’s much easier than the stroke-by-stroke method. You can search the site directly from the Study view pop-up menu and find a good story to copy and import or use them as inspiration to make up your own story.

 

  • Review missed and passed cards when ending Study Sessions early

  • Copy cards’ examples to the clipboard

This works from the Edit view and during study sessions. If you’re planning to re-import these as cards in a different lesson you should select “imiwa entries” from the import menu.

  • Initial iCloud syncing is now even more stable

It might be just a bit slower now but that seems to help fix some of the occasional crashes.

  • Other minor bug fixes and performance enhancements

I’ve already found a few minor issues that I’d like to fix in the next version but please be sure to let me know if you notice anything strange. The next version’s major new feature will be to have an example database available directly within the app and to optionally display a random example automatically if you haven’t added your own examples. I’m probably going to implement this as an In-App Purchase. This is so that users that don’t need it don’t have to worry about the extra space that an example database will take up and Apple now hosts downloadable IAP content meaning I won’t have to worry about serving it myself. I’m not sure if I’m actually going to charge anything for it or not but it’ll probably be free.

Please let me know if you have any other ideas for new features.

Happy studies!

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Version 2.2.0

Well, I’m sure you’ve all seen the information about the new iPhones and the new iOS. I’ll tell you right from the start, most people are probably going to be a bit disappointed with the operating system itself. iOS 7 was a big change for users because so much of the user interface elements changed. iOS 8 is more of a behind the scenes update so users probably won’t notice that much of a difference at first. Let me assure you though, the new tools for developers that they’ve built into iOS 8 are amazing and once you start seeing updated and new apps come out, you’re going to be very impressed…I think…I hope.

Regarding kanji Flow itself, the big new feature, the feature I’ve been thinking about implementing from the start, the feature that will basically complete the app as far as I’m concerned, was finally made possible with iOS 8.

Lesson sharing is coming. Hopefully, everyone will share their lessons and you’ll have a lot of new content to choose from.

I’ve been trying to think about what kind of features I should implement. The thing is, I’m not trying to build a community here. I just want to make more content available to everyone. Quality content. With that in mind, you’ll be able to see what’s popular and up and down rate lessons. For now, you won’t be able to comment on lessons, add a user name to the lessons you upload, or distinguish and/or subscribe to lesson content depending on the individual user that uploaded it.

Again, I’m not trying to build a community so I don’t think that kind of stuff is really necessary.  I will, of course, consider user feedback regarding that, however.

So when will it be ready? Well, I’ve pretty much completely finished the implementation of the new features. However, there are a few loose ends to tie up. That’ll probably take a few hours so I should be ready to push out a testable version next week.

That means that it won’t actually be ready for release alongside the launch of the new operating system. I’m a bit disappointed about that but it is a huge update so proper testing will be very important. The new TestFlight app means that anyone will be able to join in on the testing, though, so be sure to download it and let me know if you’re interested in trying out the new version before its official release.

Happy Studies!

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Version 2.1.3 Released

Version 2.1.3 is now available.

  • Updated example conjugation options. You can now use tildes (~), spaces, and new lines to separate possible conjugation forms and you can add an optional particle in parentheses. This will help in conjugating examples for grammatical phrases that are similar, for example: 〜た上(で) for verbs and の上(の) for nouns.

You can also conjugate examples that might have random phrases within the grammatical form such as 大して〜ない.

  • Added lesson markers to indicate if a study session has been completed today (green circle) or is in progress (yellow triangle) for each document on the Lesson List.

  • Added a complete Japanese character set; the app will now properly determine if imported text is Japanese even if it starts with a number or punctuation.

This means that you’ll now need to be more careful when importing; if you select “imiwa? Entries” when you actually have an imiwa? List on the clipboard, it will recognize the Japanese entries and import but you’ll also get some unwanted labeling.

  • Added the ability to search Apple’s Dictionary from the Study view popup menu and action sheet.

The first time you try this you’ll likely get “No definition found.” You’ll need to tap “Manage” and then download the Japanese dictionaries.

The next time you try it you’ll actually get some results. The two different dictionaries actually offer a fairly good amount of information for most entries:


IMPORTANT – This currently seems to be bugged and you might have to turn on the Japanese dictionaries every time you want to use the feature after relaunching the app. You won’t have to actually re-download the dictionaries; just tap to turn them on again. Setting your device’s language to Japanese might fix this problem. If this bothers you, you can submit feedback to Apple about it. The more people complain, the more likely it is to be fixed.

  • Added the ability to do a Google image search (explicit filter enabled) from the Study view action sheet.

  • Fixed sorting cards by creation date for study sessions.
  • Tweaked card sorting by difficulty.
  • Tweaked study date normalizing.

I think these are self-explanatory enough and not really so apparent to the average user but they should make things a bit better for those that use these features.

  • Added a slight margin to the Example view text views.
  • Added a check to prevent accidentally deleting translation examples if you hit done or back before inputting a Japanese entry.

If you accidentally leave the Example view before entering a Japanese entry the English entry will just get copied and still be saved.

The next update will coincide with iOS 8 and might include a new basic UI. I’m not really sure how much I’ll have time to do but I’ll have a better idea once I’m able to get into the new APIs and see how much work it will take. I’ll keep you posted on how things are going. Until next time…

Happy studies!

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iOS 8

iOS 8 was announced today. It has some new features that will allow me to implement some of the things I wanted to do in a much simpler way. So, I’m going to stop developing the new version that I was working on and go back to 2.1.2. I’ll release a small update to version 2.1.3 that contains some minor new features and bug fixes and then start work again on a big update to version 2.2.0 that will be released along with iOS 8.

I was planning to implement some sort of functionality to import or export Anki files. However, that was just going to be a temporary crutch to allow users a way to get at some extra content until I could get file sharing set up. File sharing itself isn’t difficult, but I would’ve needed to make a server available which wouldn’t have been so simple. I don’t need to worry about a server anymore and will be able to get file sharing working very quickly. So, I’m not so hyped about Anki files anymore. I know some people use my app only as a tool to export cards to Anki. Of course, that’s great and I’m glad you find that functionality useful but I’m not sure if I should spend time enhancing that versus using my time to actually make the app better. Thus, I might not add Anki importing and exporting after all. If you like Anki, you should just use that. I will consider feedback regarding this however.