Overseas Chinese Web Guide

Tag: iphone

  • Restaurant Chinese

    Some colleges offer conversational Chinese. Others teach business Chinese. However, for Chinese Americans, the real deal is Restaurant Chinese. If you want to order off the Chinese menu, but can’t quite figure out a few of the characters, what do you do? At one point in time, I could only order dishes whose names I had memorized. I couldn’t experiment or try something new because I couldn’t read the entire menu. Now, I have a solution.

    ji

    Last weekend, I used the DianHua Dictionary iPhone application to order 红烧划水 and 京都里肌. For the first dish, I didn’t recognize the third character. For the second dish, I didn’t recognize the fourth character. If I used a typical Chinese-English dictionary, I would have to count the strokes of the radical, look up the radical, then count the remaining strokes and look up the word. A slow and sometimes unreliable process. However, in DianHua, I copy the character with my finger and the application tells me the pronunciation and meaning of the character. Yum!

  • New York Times iPhone Application

    Something appears to be missing. I can read the article. I see the reload button. I see an e-mail button. I see two buttons for changing the font size. And, I see the save button. But, where is the back button? Once I read an article, I get stuck in a dead end.

    New York Times iPhone Application

  • Apple iPhone Biometric Security

    AppleInsider reports that Apple is developing biometric-based security features for the iPhone and Mac. While the concept sounds promising, I cannot help but think of how their current facial recognition efforts in iPhoto consistently triggers false positives.

  • Free Wi-Fi at Starbucks

    I tried out the free wi-fi at Starbucks this morning. It works. The good news is that Starbucks is practically every where. The bad news is that when I usually need wi-fi, I’m not inside a Starbucks. I really need free wi-fi inside Costco, Target, and Ranch 99. Now that would be good.

  • Midomi is a Fun iPhone App

    Last Thursday, I downloaded several iPhone apps in anticipation of the iPhone 2.0 release. Once iTunes upgraded my iPhone and synced all the apps, I finally had a chance to test some of them. I really like Midomi because it is both fun and free. Just sing a few bars from a song and it will return a list of potential matches. When it works, it’s really impressive. However, when it’s off, it’s way off.

    I saw a few bars from Frere Jacques, and Midomi was able to match that song, as well as Are you Sleeping? and 两只老虎. That’s one of the more impressive matches.

  • iPhone 3G is Everything That I Wanted…

    Last year. If I didn’t already have an iPhone, I would be heading to the Apple store this Friday to grab an iPhone 3G. However, since I already have one, the excitement level isn’t quite there. Of course, that’s what I said last year until I caved in and bought the greatest cell phone ever.

    The two big features of the iPhone 3G are GPS and 3G speeds. Ordinarily, GPS would be a compelling upgrade. However, since the iPhone 1.0 can already vaguely identify my location by triangulating Wi-Fi signals, I will not by plunking down another $200 for GPS. As for 3G speeds, paying an extra $10/month is worth it for 3G speeds. Paying an extra $200 plus $10/month is an iffy proposition. So that’s how I see it a week before the iPhone 3G launch. If all goes well, I will treat the iPhone as a computer and upgrade in 3-4 years. What I will be doing this Friday is upgrading to the iPhone 2.0 software. Can’t wait to see what’s in store.

  • iPhone Phone Book

    So I just received my first wireless phone bill book from AT&T. Talk about not being able to teach an old dog new tricks. Despite all the time AT&T spent working with Apple, none of Apple’s minimalist design philosophy rubbed off. I mean a 35 page bill? I’m waiting for Greenpeace to ding Apple again for selecting such an environmentally unfriendly partner. A big chunk of the bill was the itemized list of all data transfers over the (lagging) EDGE network. Since the iPhone plan provides unlimited domestic data transfers, why itemize it? 8:41 AM – 1 KB. 8:49 AM – 24 KB. 9:08 AM – 23 KB. 9:23 AM – 49 KB. 9:42 AM – 23 KB. 10:00 AM – 31 KB. Talk about worthless information. Save a tree.

  • More iPhone Tips

    When EDGE takes way too long to deliver a web page, I turn to Google (again). The Cached link has come in handy on more than one occasion when I got tired of seeing the page loading icon. Click back to the search results page and view the Google cached version. The next best thing to having lynx on the iPhone, I guess.

  • The Best Thing About an Apple iPhone is Google

    Apple iPhoneHonestly, I had my doubts about the Apple iPhone: slow data network speeds, no integrated GPS, and high cost. I tried to hold off until Apple released iPhone 2.0, presumably with a 3G chipset and other goodies, but I surrendered to frustration. And, I blame Google for it all.

    Without a doubt, Google revolutionized the Internet. Suddenly, I could find anything on the Internet. Not just standard information like who is the First President of the United States, but really relatively obscure facts like who is the Second Emperor of the Northern Wei Dynasty. And, the more useful I found Google, the more I used Google until I couldn’t part from Google. I needed to take Google along with me. And, that’s why I had to buy an iPhone. I just experienced too many instances where I encountered a problem while away from my computer where I realized that I could solve my problem in seconds with access to Google or the Internet.

    • Dull EDGE. All the iPhone reviews noted that AT&T’s EDGE data network was slow. Unfortunately, the reviewers understated the problem. I could not use EDGE for regular web browsing; e.g., reading the New York Times or visiting other websites. I don’t like waiting in line. I don’t like waiting for pages to load. I don’t like waiting. Period. Safari is fine with Wi-Fi access, but seriously underwhelming on EDGE. Would love to see Lynx on an iPhone.
    • Maps. I would certainly welcome faster network speeds, but EDGE is passable for Mail and Maps. Maps has already saved me on one occasion when I was lost in an area for which I did not have a paper map. If you commute at all and forget to check the traffic before you leave your house or place of work, Google Maps shines there as well.
    • Google. While every other website features congested layouts and graphics, Google focuses on speed. Google is one web site that I can use even with EDGE. To quickly search another company’s website, I use the site:domain.com modifier on Google. I find that I can get instant results even on EDGE instead of waiting for someone else’s graphic-intensive website to load.
    • Notes. Notes is good if you’re not taking a lot of notes. On my MacBook Pro, I take notes using Yojimbo and would welcome an iPhone version. Despite its counterintuitive name, Yojimbo is a fast and easy application that lets me store information and documents with password and tagging options. For example, I have one note where I keep the store hours for all the shops I visit frequently; i.e., Target, Costco, Home Depot, Farmers Market, etc. I look at that page most weekends. Why memorize store hours when all the data is just a few clicks away.
    • Killer App. The true killer app on the iPhone for me is Google + Safari. When I’m out at some of the shops mentioned above, I can easily price shop. Oh, Target is selling this for $15? I wonder how much Costco, Crate and Barrel or some other retailer is charging? Now, I have the answer. 😉