This week ChinesePod released a new app for Android mobile phones called “ChinesePod – Learn Chinese.” This app is more than just “Quick Review” (see info on that app for Android, for iPhone); Learn Chinese allows ChinesePod users to download their latest lessons, listen to them, read the lesson transcripts, review vocabulary, review expansion sentences, drill down into vocabulary, play individual word audio, and more. This app is our first big step toward being able to study ChinesePod content entirely on your mobile device.
The app is designed to be most useful for ChinesePod subscribers, but non-subscribers can also try some sample lessons as well. Subscribers log in using OAuth, so you can be sure your login info is secure. (The iPhone version is already waiting on Apple’s approval for release to the iTunes App Store.)
Here are screenshots for the basic functionality (the main lesson featured in the screenshots is a recent one called Playing Wii):
For those of you with an Android phone, there are two ways to get the app:
- Scan the QR Code
- Open your ‘Barcode Scanner’ app (available from Android Market)
- Point your phone camera at the screen, and scan the QR code below.
- Once you’ve found the “Learn Chinese” app, touch to install.
- Follow the onscreen installation directions.
- Install from the Android Market
- Go to “Market” on your Android-powered device.
- Select “Search”.
- Enter “chinesepod” into the search field.
- Once you’ve found the “Learn Chinese” app, touch to install.
- Follow the onscreen installation directions.
This initial release includes basic functionality, but you can expect further updates in the near future. In the meantime, we appreciate your feedback.
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Looks great! Can’t wait for the iPhone version. One question, will we be able to display the Chinese as pinyin instead of hanzi? (The lesson screenshots is from an Elementary level, so I was kind of surprised to see no pinyin at all — and on that note, can we also choose between simplified and traditional hanzi?)
Hi John, Hi Cpod Team.
Besides looking great, feeling great and being well received (it was my first application on my android), I must say, I would be more happy with an app that keeps playing while I’m looking at the dialogue and that would actually allow me to play the file without pressing the “play” button 20 times.
Thus looking forward to an slightly improved version!
Matthias
PS: is the cpod api somewhere accessible already?
Nahan,
Pinyin and simplified/traditional options are planned for a future version coming soon.
Matthias,
Same goes for podcast playback while you read/review. This functionality is a no-brainer, and we wanted to finish it for the initial release, but some trickiness in the code required us to cut back in the scope for the initial release. Don’t worry, though… that functionality is coming.
Looks interesting but Oauth just get invalid request token on my cpod homepage so app never gets logged in!
seanD,
There’s a small bug we’re working on where if you go to validate with OAuth, but then get your username or password wrong the first time, entering it correctly the second time (or third time) results in an invalid token.
I recommend trying again from the app and being very careful to get your username and password right on the first try. That should work.
In the meantime, we are working on the token bug!
-John
Hi,
I believe username and password were right first time as I saved them when I first entered them and it logged me in to my cpod page correctly.
Having saved them I am now automatically logged into the Cpod site, so no chance of not getting the right username/password first itme. However I still recevie the invalid request token on the Cpod site.
Using cupcake on HTC Magic btw
SeanD,
Thanks for the clarification! That helps a lot.
We’ve been looking into your issue, and we suspect it’s related to time differences. We have adjusted our server’s clock to better deal with this issue, but please make sure that on your phone, under Settings > Date & time, the “Automatic” option is checked.
Let us know if that works for you, please.
-John
@John
thanks for the reply.
Want to make you aware, that a) the playback also stops when turning the phone or when it goes into “sleep”-mode (which doesn’t happen for e.g. “Google Listen”) and that b) I cannot add vocab.
What I really love is the top down approach sentence->word-> char. Looking forward to the update
Matthias
Yep all works now great app.
Looking forward to playing with this.
Thanks for putting out new features all the time. Going to have buy one of those new Droid phones now.
Is there a Windows Mobile release planned?
The new Update works like a Charm. Thank you, guys.
Problem with iPhone app:
hangs at authorize/deny. User name and pass were right first time; iPhone doesn’t have automatic time setting. I have removed and reloaded twice, reported problem to cpod help, waited a day and a half, and I’m itching to use this new great tool.
Any advice?
Very cool looking forward to it on my iPhone Thanks
Got the Android phone (HTC Hero) – got the app installede via HTC sync – Logged in, downloaded, its all there – BUT, the Listen! is showing but not playing. The play “button” is not responding – has anybody else experienced the same problem? (I can play music and videos, but the app is not working)
I have the same problem with my HTC Hero – no audio. The play button just doesn’t work. The HTC Hero does only run Android 1.5. What Android version was the app built for?
Hi Brian and Tage,
Can you please email us at support@praxislanguage.com? Please include your account email address and the version of the app installed (if it’s not the latest please update: http://download.praxislanguage.com/apk/chinesepod-apk/chinesepod.zip). Also please note if it’s a custom rom or stock rom loaded on the device.
Thanks!
Suggestions:
1. Combine this with the “quick review” app, they overlap in functionality (the flashcards) and no one wants to remember which app does which.
2. I need pinyin! I want to focus on speaking/listening, not reading and writing and it sucks that the example sentences/dialogue only give the chinese and english.
3. For the flashcards function, include an option to view example settings when reviewing a word. Also, maybe a random display option?
Otherwise, keep up the great work, I’m excited to see the next version!
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