Link to an actual site in English about it.
Here is a new input method that is awesome.
It is made by a swedish company.
It allows for wrong stroke order, cursive, ect.
Right now it is free to HP 568 buyers march 2 -april 15th 2002
from what I can make out on the hp japan site.
Hopefully it will be available to other Pocket PCs soon.
Here are some web links tranlated to english through excite japan.
http://www.excite.co.jp/world/url/body?wb_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jpn.hp.com%2Fhho%2Fjornada%2Fcampaign%2Finputcampaign%2Findex.html&wb_lp=JAEN&wb_dis=2
also:
http://www.excite.co.jp/world/url/body?wb_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wince.ne.jp%2FNewsLink%2FNewsClick.asp%3FID%3D18708%26URL%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fpcweb%252Emycom%252Eco%252Ejp%252Fnews%252F2002%252F03%252F05%252F11%252Ehtml&wb_lp=JAEN&wb_dis=2
and:
http://216.33.148.250/cgi-bin/linkrd?_lang=EN&lah=b07ae2a69b5e079750a76c879e33e702&lat=1015871281&hm___action=http%3a%2f%2fwww%2eexcite%2eco%2ejp%2fworld%2furl%2f%3fwb_url%3dwww%2ewince%2ene%2ejp%26wb_lp%3dJAEN
I plan on getting a Japanese hp 568 and will post again if I do.
-Steve
Sorry if I'm harping on this but I just wanted to point out and experience I had last week. Up to this point in my Japanese class we've been using textbooks to study. For each chapter those textbooks have a vocabulary list with all the kanji and above it the hiragana reading making it easy to lookup the meanings in any dictionary. In the text of the chapters though there is no hiragana so we have to prepare before we come to class.
Well, last week we finished the last textbook and are now using everyday materials like magazines, newspapers etc. The first time the teacher did that she handed out a vocabulary list for us to prepare with with NO HIRAGANA READINGS. In the next class when we were supposed to read the article it turned out none of the other students had prepared. When asked why it was because the hiragana readings were not there and because of that, looking up 70 or 80 words on the other e-dictionaries was too much of a pain in the ass.
For me though it was same as always. Since I had a CE machine with Kanji recoginition I've never used the vocabulary lists since I didn't need the readings. I just read through the article and translate as I go, no problems.
When it came up in class that I was the only one that had been able to prepare because I didn't need the readings the other students started asking about how to get a CE machine.
Wordtanks have there place. Certainly the newer models like the IDF-3000 and IDF-4000 are great machines. But, the whole point of an Electronic dictionary for me was to give me something I didn't already have. Sure, having a Wordtank to look up a word in hiragana is faster than looking it up by hand in a book. But not *that* much faster. I mean, if electronic dictionaries are so great why doesn't every student in America carry an English electronic dictionary instead of using a regular paper one? The reason is, the paper one just isn't that inconvienent.
What CE gives me is the ability to look up Kanji words without having to know how to pronouce them first. This is a huge blessing when studying Japanese. Even Japanese people using Japanese Kanji dictionaries take minutes to lookup even a single Kanji. You can get this book and read all about the author inventing the S.K.I.P. system of looking up kanji trying to a faster system. He claims the S.K.I.P. system brings the average time to look up a kanji down from 2 minutes to 30 seconds and goes over all the problems with the older methods (by stroke count, by radicals, etc). With CE, I just jot down the kanji and up comes the word. It's got an even bigger advantage than other methods when looking up words vs lookup up single kanji.
I would look at it this way, a Wordtank is a replacement for a paper dictionary. It will making looking up words by pronounciation much quicker than a paper dictionary. A CE machine though provides you with something that neither of those do and that's a quick way to lookup kanji words. It's not perfect (yet) but it's much better than going without and the CE machine is usually able to provide enough info that you don't need to resort to using a paper dictionary or it's alternative.
I think the Cassiopea with the "Extra" dictionary (although it's inside a WP) it's a great thing, still if we run down a list of pro/cons (CE problems VS Wordtank) for beginners and not only for them, we can see the following results
CE-> Wordtank :
The machine costs $350 (the IDF-3000 average cost in Japan is $150)
The Machine it's in Japanese, no menu command or on-screen feature is in english (the IDF-3000 it's in english, all menu screens and commands are in english)
The operating manual too is in japanese (the IDF-3000 comes with english manual at no extra charge)
Stroke Order (not an issue with Wordtanks, just imput kana, radical/components &/or stroke number, components or word pronunciation+ other search functions such as "&" or wild cards)
Number of Strokes (it is an issue with any machine, you have to know how to count strokes or just forget about japanese)
Stroke direction (not an issue with wordtanks)
Staying inside the box (not an issue)
Slow using Handwriting lookup mode (not an issue with Wordtanks)
Input focus (not an issue for wordtanks)
Having *insert* insert a return (not an issue, and by the way,<u> YOU CAN </u> create flash cards and dictionary lists with the IDF-3000 and the feature has been developed even further on the IDF-4000)
CE lockups (of course not an issue, and certainly one of the best advantages of a dedicated machine)
No useful built in dictionaries, have to download, then transfer, then install (With wordtanks you get Out of the Box comprehensive dictionaries)
Awkward/inferior Hiragana/Katakana input (if you are reading "furiganized" text there's just no comparison)
Results come at you, with no examples of usage or any other extra info (just the opposite with the Wordtank)
The IDF series of Wordtanks it's an exellent alternative to CE, they are extremely comprehensive, they have many advantages (as you've seen above) and superior "out of the box gratification".
Today I tried to install the newest version of EDICT, the dictionary that JWPCE uses. Unforutnately it has not become TOO LARGE to fit in an E-65 even with nothing else installed except JWPCE, JFC and no other data files. It has grown by about 2.5 meg since the last version. I think the E-65 is the only model with only 16meg of memory so other CE machines would not have this problem.
One solution is to put the dictionary on a CompactFlash card. To put both dictionaries on a card you need at least a 24meg card (16 being to small, 24 being the next larger size) The only problem with that solution is, JWPCE has a bug currently that doesn't allow it to read the CompactFlash card on a Japanese CE machine. The reason is that an assumption was made that the filename for the dictionary would not use certain characters in the filename and that assumption turned out to be false on a Japanese machine as the folder for accessing the memory card is something like "\\メモリカード\My Documents" Anyway, that's supposed to be fixed in the next version now that Mr. Rosenthal has his own personal Japanese CE machine.
In the mean time I've personally hacked my copy of JWPCE so it will look on the memory card for EDICT and ENAMDICT (the name dictionary). Other dictionaries still have to be internal at the moment. If anybody else is running on a E-65 and needs my interm version of JWPCE, e-mail me and I'll forward you a copy.
First I want to say that I really appreciate EDICT and all the people envolved in making it. I couldn't have gotten this far in my Japanese study without it, but...
I have to say that I'm actually getting more and more disappointed with EDICT, the dictionary that JWPCE uses. And, I'm not sure how to fix it. I'm the only student in my school of about 150 students that uses a WinCE machine. About 70 percent of the students have one form or another of an Electronic Dictionary either from Casio or Canon and few from Sony and Sharp.
There are several problems with EDICT and I have no idea of they are being addressed or how to help out really but for studying Japanese here are some of the problems
1) EDICT currently provides very short definitions and no examples
Example: If I look up "Kaihatsu" in EDICT I get "development, exploration". That's it. But if I look it up in Microsoft Bookshelf 2.0 I get not only that but examples:
"denken kaihatsu" : development of power resources
"keisai kaihatsu" : economic development
"shinseihin o kaihatsu suru" : develop new products
"tensai shigen o kaihatsu suru" : develop [exploit] natrual resources
That is less than 1/4 of the 16 examples I get from Microsoft Bookshelf 2.0. The higher end Casio and Canon electronic dictionaries give similar results to MS Bookshelf. This is very important because looking up "development" in EDICT I get "enkaku", "shinten", "shinpo, "hatsuiku", "yoisei", "seiiku", "ugoki", "nariyuki", "keihatsu", "kaihatsu", "hatten" and "hattatsu". Which of those is appropriate to use is impossible to tell using EDICT.
2) EDICT is full of errors.
At least according to my teachers.
One example "wakamono" is listed in EDICT has "young man, youth, lad". It really means "young adult" as in say 18 to 24 but I wouldn't be able to tell that from EDICT.
Other times strange prouncations come up so for example I'll enter two kanji for a word, click search and 2 or more readings will come up. According to my teachers only one is correct but of course most of the time I'm not around my teachers so I just have to guess. Where these other pronouncations come from I can only guess that either they are genuine errors or they are local dialects but if so they need to be marked as such.
I wish I had written down more examples but it seems like about once a day I come across an error.
3) Often it's hard to find somthing
Try finding the word to use for "egg". You type in EGG and you get 50 matches. Including anything with "eggs" in the definition. You can limit it to just "egg" but still 24 matches come up and you have to figure out which one it is. It would be nice if there was some way to have it give you the one that matches just "egg" before all the others like "egg beater", "egg cell", "egg custard", etc. Try that same thing in almost any other dictionary and you'll get the answer you need "tamago" first.
4) Lots of words are missing
Of course this is true of all dictionaries and it's especially hard in Japanese since what consitutes a word and what's a compound word is hard to decide sometimes. But, some basic words are missing like
"houshokuhin" : jewlery
Something you see written in any department store.
"kaden" : household appliances
Something you see in every electronic store
5) Very little grammer. Most of the other dictionaries cover most grammer issues like "izure ni shiro" or "marude____no you/mitai". Some of those appear in EDICT but especially in those cases you need examples to understand how to use them
---
What is also upsetting is that Casio makes both great Electronic Dictionaries and Casio makes Windows CE machines. So, why don't they put those same dictionaries in their Windows CE machines? That would give them a leg up on the other CE manufactures who all don't have dictionaries readily available.
I found some 3rd party commerical dictionary software for CE. It's $230.00!!!! Hello!!! I can buy any of the electronic dictionaries for that or less.
I wrote to Microsoft Japan and asked them to put MS Bookshelf on CE. Hopefully they'll do it. MS is trying to beat Palm and here in Japan, better software would help.
I would like to help EDICT or maybe JMDICT I think it's called. I'm not sure how. I would really like to see a super dictionary that had not only definitions with examples but also cross-references to synonyms, antonyms, often mistaken words, etc. I'd be willing to write or help write some software to make it easier to contribute to such a dictionary.
That's another problem with JWPCE. I do, from time to time, try to enter fixes in the user dictionary but there are frustrations. First, when you can't find the word, you pick [user] and then you have to pick [add]. It would be nice if there was a button directly to [add].
Then, there are currently 3 fields. Kanji, Kana(pronunciation), and meaning. If you had entered Kanji in your original search then Kana and meaning are blank. If you had entered Kana then Kanji and meaning are blank. It would be nice if regardless of which one you entered, both were filled in, maybe with the option to *reconvert* if it guessed the reading or the kanji wrong.
It sounds small but usually when I'm looking something up I'm in a hurry to continue reading. Every thing that slows me down in entering new data is another reason to put it off until later (which ends up meaning until I run into the problem again)
Another problem with JWPCE's dictionary is that the meaning part can only handle ASCII. That means that you can't enter examples since the examples would require Japanese which is NOT ascii. And of course you want the examples separated because otherwise if the word you wanted as "bowl" you would get every word with a definition where "bowl" was used in the examples like "break the bowl", "clean the bowl", "cast a bowl" etc.
Note: I'm not complaining, JWPCE is free AND I know that the people working on it have better things to do. I would like to help out but one of the first changes I want to make is to allow Japanese in the definitions so that I can enter examples and that requires a MAJOR change to the code as is and I'd like to separate the examples so that searching for "egg" doesn't match "to boil, ex: john boiled an egg"
What I think I would like to do is write my own. I don't really want to duplicate effort but I'm not sure how I can help with JWPCE until those changes are made as they are too big for me to make. For my personal needs it would not be that hard to get my own started. I wouldn't reproduce all of JWPCE but I could probably reproduce a basic notepad with a dictionary look up relying on Japanese CE for Japanese input. Then I could make the dictionary support cross refrences etc. I thought about trying to hack the MS dictionary into my CE machine. That would make it take longer.
Another problem is that user definitions show up last in a search meaning that if I enter a correction I probably won't notice as it will be off the bottom of the screen. I'm sure that's an easy fix.
A cool feature to have would be a quick way to mark something as bad so that it would be easy to tag errors. Not only mark them as bad but maybe also instantly add a new definition. In this case, all the stuff from the previous definition would appear in the new so you would need to edit as little as possible.
I still like CE. All but 3 of the 50 or so electronic dictionaries do NOT have Kanji input without which I would be lost. And the 3 that do have relatively small dictionaries. JWPCE/EDICT also has the names dictionary and all the other more specific word dictionaries. And, although I do not use the CE machine for much else I do use the notepad for notes, JWPCE's Word Processing functions to keep lists of words and JFC to flashcards. Stuff that I couldn't do with an electronic dictionary
Also, as far as I know, NONE of those electronic dictionaries allowed editing so when there are missing words for example or when you recieve a better example from you can't add them. You can do this with JWPCE/EDICT so that's a major plus. Now if I could just figure out how to get the quality of the dictionary to match.
There is an incredible homepage called http://www.rikai.com that will automatically "look up" every kanji. You just cut and paste the text you want to read and then when you run your mouse over the kanji, it will show the reading and English definition. It will also load any Japanese homepage into a frame and let you read everything. Check it out. It's one of the most useful sites on the internet.
http://ftp.cc.monash.edu.au/pub/nihongo/#wince_r
Hi! I'm so thrilled to find this page.
I'm a Singaporean, and seriously wanting to learn Japanese. I've been using JWPce for a couple of years on my Win98, and recently bought an English Jornada 548 from a friend thinking (not completely in error) that it would be much much better for Japanese language study than the PalmIIIc I previously owned. I assumed there would be lots of Japanese input and display freeware since there was JWPce. But now, I'm losing hope. If I had known I needed a Japanese machine, I wouldn't have bought this, but waited to get one through my friend in Japan.
From what you say, it seems only Japanese versions will support japanese output for no cost, and chances of having kanji input are almost zero?
Now I have an English HP Jornada548. Is there no way I can perhaps buy/install Japanese WinCE3.0 or something? I'm desperate!
If anyone knows otherwise, please let me know?
My email is: vhtt@yahoo.com
I'd really appreciate your answers, and if you would email me as well.
Thanks!
Victor
Thanks! You were correct about the wrong version. I was ignoring the PPC (palm) version because of the word "palm" but this is the correct Pocket PC version. I had installed the Handheld PC version.
Window size is fine now.
I really like JWPce as a dictionary etc. and similarly never have liked the WordTank.
Sorry I don't now why you could have a problem on your M500 screen. I'm pretty sure the author of JWPCE has a M500 which he runs JWPCE on. Maybe you installed the wrong version? You should probably ask him. I think his e-mail is in the help for JWPCE.
As for the J548, as far as I know it should work. As it's free, if you already have a J548 why don't you download it and try it?
I've installed JWPCE and the main screen is fine but the Radical lookup, dictionary screens don't fit on my Casio M500 screen. The radical lookup screen that you show does fit the screen. Do you know why my windows open too large?
So, if I have this right, I could probably use the JWPCE for my J548? All I really want is a dictionary. However, my J548 was bought in the U.S.A... I would like to have some concrete evidence that it will work. Do you or anyone you know have some???
hi there.
this link i found might be interesting for all those with western CE running: http://ftp.cc.monash.edu.au/pub/nihongo/#wince_r
This is from Stacy who told me she was using a PalmPilot for Japanese study. Maybe it will help you guys with Pilots:
------------
Let's see, I have quite an elaborate setup here to look up words and kanji:
**Skip this if you have a japanese palm**
First of all, to view the kanji, you need this program called CKJOS. You have to pay 30$ for it but it's worth it, it displays japanese really well. The input isn't so great though. Or, if you have anything but OS 3.5 you can get J-os. This is free but even when I tried it on my emulator I didn't like it much because it only has the little font. A last option, if you don't want to pay for CKJOS or do any copying of japanese letters, you just want to VIEW them (it doesn't work otherwise) there is this weird software called Wormie OS which is free and has large japanese fonts. You have to email the author for the font though. You can find all of these softwares at www.palmgear.com There are other super expensive japanese OSes called Jos plus or something like that but they are too expensive for me..I guess they have better input systems and are similar to an actual japanese palm though. Here you can check out those extra ones
http://www.muchy.com/review/ctmakejp.html
I use a program called Gogopen to recognize the kanji. It's a commertial software and it expires but you can still keep using it after that date, the only thing is that you can't make it pop up when you press the keyboard button anymore. (I'd register but it's really hard to in Japanese. I think I'll try to get it when I go to tokyo) You can get the Gogo pen software and another recognition software on this page. The other one is called Akok pocket but I haven't tried it because there is no evaluation. http://www.muchy.com/review/ctjpinput.html
Extra stuff I have:
A program called Kdic, a japanese dictionary
A program called Sage, which will give a nice big version of little pixley
kanji
A file for the doc reader Isilo that contains all the kanji information
(this works as my kanji dictionary because there's nothing out there like
that except a program called KanjiTable, but this is veryyy buggy)
A program called Syodo, to practice writing kanji
A program called Quizzler to quiz me on japanese words :)
I have found something funny that want to share with you guy.
There are some words which is found in Jdic but can't be found in the built in dictionary of Casio WinCE.
e.g. Darui -- feeling heavily
Dasai -- out of fashion
I think it would be good to have both dictionary installed.
A quick updates for CE star issue, I have tested CE star and it can display and input Chinese/Japanese in both English Casio CE and Japanese CE.
A pretty cool, shareware (but doesn't timeout) Japanese dictionary that links to the windows clipboard. Does automatic kanji breakdowns of words and even shows radical breakdowns of the kanji all automatically. Works with Edict format dictionaries and such. Its at coolest.com.
Also there is a kinda strange freeware kanji learning game too: Kanji Trainer Penpen. Worth a look. Requires directx 7 though.
wikyama
For reading and writting Japanese in English CE, I would suggest you install CE-star 2.0. You can download the demo version in
www.ce-star.com. Actually, it is a Chinese system for CE but it does support Japanese viewing and inputing.
CE-star is bundled in the Asia for Casio E500 and E125 but you have to buy it if your CE is outside Asia. CE star is excellent and the handwritting recognition is good.
However, I have a Japanese E700 and I can't view Chinese in my CE. I did install CE star, nevertheless, there were code page collision between Chinese and Japanese.
Let's give CE-star a try!
If you own a Sharp Zaurus you might want to check out this page which has info about porting other dictionaries into your Zaurus.
emichan,
Yes, you can just get the dictionary. It will run fine on your Japanese Windows 2000. Download it from here.
Which is better. Well, when I wrote this article I thought a CE machine was clearly better than a wordtank. I'm still pretty sure but not 100 percent. Most of the students in my class at school have wordtanks because they are cheaper than CE machines but then most of them already know Kanji or know enough to read it because remember, wordtanks are made for Japanese speaking people learning English and not the other way around. That means when you look up a word you get example sentances in Japanese which if you are learning Japanese you CAN'T READ THEM. Also, you can't enter Kanji into most wordtanks so then you ALREADY have to do know how to read Japanese to use a wordtank.
On the otherhand, watching my friends use their wordtanks I see that for most words there are several example sentances. At my present level of Japanese, intermediate, I can usually read *some* of the examples.
Sorry I can't be more clear. If it was me I'd pick the CE machine over the wordtank because I could not survive without the kanji input. As for which is a better dictionary well that's also not clear. JWCPE's dictionary is a USER supported dictionary. That means if you find a word that's not in it you can ADD the word and then you can e-mail your list of words to the keeper of the dictionary and he will add them to the main dictoinary. It also means people have made specialized dictionaries for things like medical terms, computer terms, legal terms and PLACES. Those are all things you can NOT look up in a wordtank. On the other hand I sometimes find words missing JWCPE. I don't know how often they miss in a wordtank as I don't have one.
wikyama
I don't know. You'll have to ask Microsoft. (www.pocketpc.com) I don't think you can add Japanese support to an English CE machine but I really don't know.
I have Japanese windows 2000 on my PC and so the Japanese input is not a problem, but I would like the dictionary. So can I still download this program. Is there another place from Microsoft where I can just get the dictionary? Thanks.
First, thank you for creating such a fun and informative website. I want to buy the best electronic dictionary available in Japan and cannot decide between the Cannon word tank and now the new Casio E-503 that you mentioned. I can't get both and so I am trying to decide between the two. As a dictionary, which is one better? Because the Casio is also a PDA and has many other functions, is the dictionary lacking at all? Does it depend on how much you plan to use your dictionary? I guess my question is for a learner of Japanese, which one is better. I wouldn't mind having a PDA, but I still want a good dictionary, you know what I mean?
Now I'm Use Cassiopeia E-125 (English).
I aready Use Jwce twoday ago. It's work on my pocket pc.
But when I open my Pocket Internet Explorer I can't see japanese web page?? the text dosen't change to japanese? How should I do?
Please help....(i_i)
1. How easily can you use the other functions of the Cassiopeia? Considering all the menus and such are in English?? Did you change any other software to English versions,too. To enlish word and english excell etc.?
The menus of JWPCE are in english. the menus of everything else in the Japanese Cassiopeia is in Japanese. I havent' changed any other software. I did install an MP3 player software for fun.
2. Are there any problems using the transfer software since it:s in Japanese and the parent PC is in English Windows?
I'm using the English version of ActiveSync which I downloaded for free from Microsoft.com. I haven't had any problems but then I'm running Win2K which has no problems with Japanese. I don't know if it would have problems in Win95/98/ME or not
3. Do you always have to enter the dictionary mode through the wordprocessor? Can you go dirctly to the dictionary in the way that KanjiPOP is supposed to?
I always have to pick the dictionary though once it's running, even if I turn off the machine, when I turn it back on it continues where it left off so I don't have to pick the dictionary again.
4.Do you have any info on using another type of PC like the Visors or the HP Journada 720 or whatever?? Is the Cassiopeia your number 1 recommendation for this type of windows ce machine.
A Japanese Journada will work fine. A Japanese Visor will not work because (a) it's running the Palm OS not Windows CE so it does NOT have Kanji input (b) as it's running Palm OS and not Windows CE you can't run JWPCE. (c) Visors only have 8meg so even if the software was ported you could not fit the dictionary in a Visor.
5.Is the main reason you picked the Cassiopeia so that you could use the stylus to input kanji?
I chose to get a Japanese WinCE machine so I would have Kanji Input and so I could install JWPCE. I picked the Cassiopeia E-65 because it was the cheapest and had the longest battery life at the time. I don't know which I would pick today. The E-65 and E-500 series are no longer in production though you can find them. Sakuraya here in Tokyo has 5 E-503s left for 29800 yen. That's cheaper than you can by an E-65 for even though the E-503 is color and has more memory. The coolest CE machine out is probably the iPaq by Compaq but the Japanese version doesn't come out until at least June. That's probably not a problem but you can play Quake and DOOM on an iPaq. ;-) The current top of the line Japanese Cassiopeia is the E-700 but it's like 59800 yen.
6. Any comments on the Canon Wordtank type of Kanji Dictionary? And: Do you know which has more english translations the Canon wordtank IDF 3000 or the IDX 9700?
I bought a Wordtank because of something I read on the net. I personally thought it was useless but that's just me. Maybe the point is that because you can't directly input kanji you have to work harder to get them in (stroke count, radical lookup etc) so maybe that means you learn better. For me though it was such a turn off that I never used it. Of course maybe I was spoiled already since I had the Sharp Zaurus before that. (www.greggman.com/japan/mobilez/mobilez.htm) You also can not install any other software on a wordtank and wordtanks are meant or Japanese people learning English not the other way around like JWPCE. There are at least 25 models of English <-> Japanese dictionaries here in Japan. Only maybe 3 or 4 have kanji input and all of them are meant for Japanese speaking people so definitions are in Japanese not English and generally (not sure about all of them), pronounciation is a separete lookup from definition. You can kind of get an idea of the steps you'd have to follow from the mobilez page above (except of course you'd have to enter the kanji some other way, how I don't know)
8. Whats the difference between the Palm OS machines and the Windows CE machines? Which are better?
For studying Japanese a Windows CE machine is better. For e-mail and appointments etc a Palm OS machine is *probably* better. They were made following different philosophies. The Palm OS was designed to be used on a palm size computer. Windows CE was an attempt to make Windows run on a palm size PC.
Window CE
advantages
* More memory
* Faster processors (good for games)
* Better color and games
* More software ??? because it's windows
more things and be ported but I'm not sure on this one
* larger higher res displays
* can run larger programs by design
* has kanji input built into OS (Japanese versions only)
* runs JWPCE
* uses True Type fonts (scalable)
disadvantages
* prone to crash
* slower to switch apps
* not design from ground up to be used on
small computers
Palm OS
advantages
* rarely crashes
* switches quickly between apps
* designed for small computers
disadvantages
* no kanji input built into os
* memory is small
* can't run larger apps by design
* doesn't run JWPCE
* low res screen
* uses bitmapped fonts (not scaleable)
(very hard to read kanji if you don't already know it)
There is now 3rd party kanji input software for Japanese Palm OS machines. I think most companies now include it with Japanese Palms (visors, sony clie, etc) But, as the memory on most Palm machines is only 8meg I don't think there are any dictionaries you can buy for them or install. The Kanji input is basically for Japanese people to use their palms with standard apps (e-mail, memos, appointments....)
Today January 25th, 2001 I saw that Sakuraya, an large consumer electronics chain here in Japan was/is selling the Casio E-503 for 29800 yen (about $300, maybe $250 at the current exchange rate)
That's a good price. The E-503 is color and has 32meg of memory vs the one I got which is the E-65 above
More info on their webpage http://www.casio.co.jp/ppc.
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