Version 2.2.7 Released

  • Fixed a crash that could occur when deleting lessons

  • Tweaked how the app handles new cards that are passed or marked unknown in study session

Passed new cards will be marked yellow and still be considered to be new. Unknown new cards will be marked red, given an unknown count of 1, and will no longer be considered new.

  • Added a Study Due Variance setting that will randomly add or subtract a day from your cards’ study due dates which may make card shuffles appear to be more random

  • Added a New Card sorting setting to Options so it can be set individually for each lesson

  • Cleaned up the look of the Options screen

  • Removed the Dislike button from Shared Lessons; Lessons will now only be sorted according to Liked count

Version 2.2.6 Released

  • Fixed document name behavior to make sure lessons with names that have special characters aren’t accidentally overwritten

This was covered in a previous post.

  • Fixed card study due date synching behavior on iPad

There may have been some strange behavior when syncing study dates on iPad but it should be inline with the iPhone version now.

  • Added an option to smooth card study dates from the Sync Study Dates button on the Lessons view

You can still turn smoothing on in the Settings app as well but you’ll now have the options to do a one-off smooth from the sync button should the need arise.

  • Added card number limits to Options so that you can set it individually for each lesson

This setting will remain in the Settings app as well, to be used as the default setting for new lessons but you’ll need to set this for your lessons that already exist.

  • Various fixes to ensure iOS 9 compatibility

I think there may have been some problems with font sizes but it should be fixed now.  If you feel that your font sizes are too small you can reset your font cache from the Settings app.  Just turn on the option at the very bottom and you’ll get a message that the cache was reset next time you launch the app.

Please let me know if you have any questions or notice anything strange with the app.

Happy studies!

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:

Version 2.1.1 Released – iCloud

Version 2.1.1 is now available

  • This version supports iCloud file syncing.

I hope you’ll read through this if you intend to use iCloud. If you do not have multiple devices or if you don’t need to sync your files across your devices, you should select ‘No’ when prompted after upgrading:

If you accidentally turn it on, you can find an option to turn it back off at the top of the Settings app:

If you do decide to use it, your files will sync into the cloud and will reappear once they are ready for use:

You’ll only see the “Syncing with iCloud” message the first time you turn it on (or if you turn it off and then back on again). After that, the only indication you’ll get of iCloud activity is the small Network Activity indicator on the Status Bar.

It takes a bit of time to sync up the data when you start up the app on another device, so give it a few seconds to do so. If you don’t, you’ll end up with conflicts.

If you’re an experienced iPhone or iPad user, you know that iCloud usually works pretty well but, like all cloud services, has some quirks. The most important thing to remember is that iCloud only works as fast as your network connection will allow.

If your connection is bad or slow, file syncing and opening will be slow as well. Even if your connection seems good (But I got six bars!?) or fast (YouTube’s working!?) there could still be a problem with the iCloud server that you’re currently connected to or you could just be hitting a bad router somewhere on the internet that’s dropping all your data packets.

So, if you seem to be getting stuck when you tap on a file to open it or when you try to start a study session, restart the app (double tap the home button and swipe up and away), try again later, or just turn iCloud off.

If you get keep getting errors when you try to open your files, there could be a problem with your iCloud metadata. The best way to fix that is with a device restart: Hold down the home button and the power button on top of your device until you see the Apple logo appear.

As long as your connection is stable, you really shouldn’t have any problems. Just try to avoid doing things such as renaming a file that’s already open on another device. If you do something like that, you’ll probably get a conflict warning. Go back to your Lesson List to resolve the issue.

As always, please let me know if you experience any trouble; especially any crashes.

  • A new sorting option is available as well:

New cards (cards that haven’t been tested yet) will always appear at the top of the Edit view. Tested cards will appear in order of creation, oldest first, by default. Use this option to reverse that.

  • Tapping the Edit tab while on the Edit view will to auto-scroll to the bottom of the table.

You can also auto-scroll to the top by tapping the Status Bar (this works in pretty much every iOS app).

Happy Studies!

Version 2.0.1 Released

Apple helped me out with an expedited review to fix the New Lesson bug in the last version. You can now create new lessons. I really appreciate everyone that got back to me quickly to let me know about the problem so I could get it fixed asap.

I also added in new card shuffling as requested by Mugen89k. You’ll get an alert when you open the new version to turn on the option if you so desire. The default behavior is to leave it off and I recommend that most users do leave it off so that you can edit your new cards in order during study sessions. You can change the option at any time via the Settings app.

I also tweaked card sorting so that cards always appear in order of creation on the Edit view. I think it was kind of silly and annoying for them to be shuffled there. Memorized cards will continue to be shuffled during study sessions unless you choose a different sorting option yourself.

As always, please let me know if you notice anything strange or would like me to add something to the next version of the app.

Happy Studies!

Version 1.1.2 Released

Version 1.1.2 is available now. Actually, this update was mostly just for me. I cleaned up a lot of the code and tweaked how the font cache is managed a bit. However, I did want to add something that users would actually notice so I put in an option to automatically synchronize your card study dates when you tap the Study tab. You’ll have the option to turn this on or off the first time you launch the new version and you can change it later in the Settings app.

I guess I’m gonna start working on artwork for an iPad native retina version. It’ll probably take a while to finish up but hopefully I’ll have it done sometime this summer. Please let me know if you’d like to see any changes or additions to the app during the meantime.

Happy Studies!

Version 1.1 Released

Version 1.1 is processing for the App Store and will be available soon. This update integrates speech synthesis powered by iSpeech®. So, you’ll be able to practice repeating your words and example sentences along with a natural, human quality text to speech reader. Besides Japanese, numerous languages are available for reading translations. This feature requires a network connection and you may incur extra charges if you don’t have an unlimited data plan.

In order to use speech synthesis, long-press on any revealed entry during a study session. A menu will pop up.

Selecting “Speak” will bring up a popover player. You can change the speed of the voice to whatever you’re comfortable practicing with. Please keep in mind that the fastest possible setting is just slightly faster than a “normal” speaking speed, so if you can repeat smoothly along with that, you should be good to go.

Languages for translations can be selected from the Settings app.

If you change the language settings, you’ll need to select “Speak” from the pop-up menu again in order to make the changes take effect. While I know that there are many users in Thailand, Vietnam, and The Philippines, those languages are, unfortunately, not supported. Of course, you probably don’t really need to practice your native language anyway, so I think the feature will be useful for everyone.

Please do feel free to send along any feedback you might have about the new feature.

Happy Studies!

Version 1.08 Released

Version 1.08 was released today. Just a couple of small but necessary fixes. First, the conjugation feature for examples will now ignore any newlines that happen to be in your examples or in the kanji entry for your cards.

Also, selecting 0 for max cards in Settings will now cause the app to properly ignore the option completely.

This should be the last minor update for this version. The next version will be a major update to version 1.1 and will include some new features that will greatly enhance the app.

Happy Studies!