15 ☆☆☆☆☆ Reviews in a Row for Japanese Phrases iPhone app

Posted on February 17, 2010 by Clay

We’ve been rolling out updates on our main iPhone app (Japanese Phrases and Lessons) quite often over the past few months.  I think it is shaping up to be a quality product (with a lot more to come!).  Auto play, enhanced favorites, more display preference options, and more phrases are just a few of the recent additions.

Looking through our recent reviews, I noticed we have 15 Five Star reviews in a row!  But #16 is a one star review.  The app description said, “For Beginners Up.”  Apparently, he is an advanced student and was not thrilled the app was mostly geared for beginners.  (We are working on an advanced app!)  The description has since been changed to, “For Beginners and Upper Beginners.”

A few recent comments:

This is a stunning app and it’s easy to understand you get used to everything within 2 mins :D I love this app, I’d recomend this to anyone learning Japanese :)

I have never written a review before, but this app is so comprehensive, I felt I needed to voice my satisfaction

This is an outstanding application that gets better and better with each update…

If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch, please try our free version.  It isn’t nearly as good as our paid one (I need to go back and add some of the new features to it!), but it will give you an idea.

Posted in iPhone | 2 Comments

An Outstanding Application

Posted on February 10, 2010 by admin

A great review for our flagship iPhone app: Japanese Phrases & Lessons

Fabulous
This is an outstanding application that gets better and better with each update. The new fast track grammar 100 is remarkably clear and organized in a way that makes learning a joy. This is successful where most books fail. There are now a lot of good Japanese learning apps but this is a run for the money. The price of some of these apps is a giveaway compared to what was available before them and are an invaluable tool. This is one of the finest examples. It now has a growing number of kanji (50 from JLP4) complete with audio for the On and Kun readings and sample words and sentance. There is so much more on this app that I can’t recommend it enough. Great one.

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在庫一掃 zaiko issou Inventory Clearance

Posted on February 10, 2010 by admin

The reason for looking at the front page (and finding the trojan attack) was to announce our Inventory Clearance Sale:

在庫一掃
zaiko issou
Inventory Clearance

Inventory reduction super sale! Instead of offering one item on sale for one day, we are going to try to thin out our overstocked items by putting a dozen or so on sale for a whole week. We may either discontinue some of these items or else keep a very low quantity in stock.

Next week, we will rotate 12 more, so if you see anything you could use, grab them now while they are in stock and on sale.

The following items are on super sale all week:

E de Wakaru Kantan Kanji 160 $ 19.88 $ 14.00 Save 30%
E de Wakaru Kantan Kanji 80 $ 19.88 $ 14.00 Save 30%
Japanese for Busy People Kana Workbook $ 14.00 $ 8.00 Save 43%
Japanese for Busy People I Romaji 3rd Edition $ 27.00 $ 16.00 Save 41%
Japanese for Busy People I Workbook 3rd Edition $ 22.00 $ 14.00 Save 36%
Japanese for Busy People II: Text 3rd Edition $ 29.00 $ 17.00 Save 41%
Japanese for Busy People III: Workbook 3rd Edition $ 29.00 $ 17.00 Save 41%
Taiko – An Epic Novel of War and Glory in Feudal Japan $ 35.00 $ 20.00 Save 43%
The 47 Ronin Story $ 14.95 $ 9.80 Save 34%
The Samurai Banner Of Furin Kazan $ 14.95 $ 9.80 Save 34%
Bushido – Inazo Nitobe $ 12.95 $ 8.00 Save 38%
The Tale of Genji – Genji Monogatari $ 14.95 $ 9.80 Save 34%

 

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Trojan Redirect Apologies

Posted on February 10, 2010 by admin

I hadn’t been to the front page of 1Nichi1Kai.com for a while (the admin pages were not affected) and was surprised to find the site redirecting to various shady sites wanting to sell me things. I don’t know how long it has been doing this, but I am VERY sorry for not catching this earlier.

The problem was, I hadn’t updated WordPress to the latest version and somehow someone wrote over the header.php file in the active theme with a Javascript redirect command.

It would have taken me hours to figure this out had I not stumbled on this post some kind soul took the time to write.

So if your WordPress blog is redirecting, do this:

1) Make sure you have the latest version of WordPress
2) Check to see if /wp-content/themes/NAMEOFTHEME/header.php has any JavaScript in it. If it does, delete it.
3) Write an apology post for not catching it sooner

Many apologies for not taking care of this sooner.

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Brand New TheJapanesePage.com

Posted on January 3, 2010 by Clay

TheJapanesePage.com has a new face!  If you have been a regular visitor to TJP you know we’ve been trying to improve the site for quite some time now–over three years.  We’ve tried several web design firms and spent waaay too much money (for a free site), but nothing seemed to work the way we wanted–I’m sure a lot of this is because of my poor managerial skills.

Thanks to Phreadom (a long time member and maestro web designer), we have a new look:

TJP TheJapanesePage.com

This time, I think we have a keeper.  There are still a few issues to work out, but take a look at the new TJP.  Kick the tires and let us know if anything falls off.

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Brand New Instant Download: Japanese Sound and Action Words

Posted on December 4, 2009 by Clay

This is our first instant download in almost a year.  We have been so busy with iPhone apps, this part of our business was totally neglected.  But I’m happy to announce we have a new $5 download!

Or actually, we don’t.  After some thought, we decided to change our pricing schedule.  Up until yesterday, all of the instant download products have been a flat $5. But some products, such as the readers, were more work intensive than others.

Most of our current stock will actually become cheaper. But some will be more expensive. We have already lowered the prices on the ones we will lower but we are keeping the others at $5 for now. We will probably raise those prices in 1-2 weeks (after our monthly newsletter goes out).  So if there are any readers you are interested in, grab ‘em while they are still cheap.

This pack contains about 90 common giongo (onomatopoeia) and gitaigo (mimetic words) sound words. Each sound word has an example sentence.

Beginners can get a lot out of this product, but very basic Japanese is recommended.

This pack includes:

  • A E-Book in Flash for interactive studying and listening (click to hear)
  • A 35 Page PDF (for printing)
  • Folders with individual MP3 files for each word AND for each example sentence in Japanese
  • Works with PCs or Macs

In the flash file, click to hear it instantly read by a native speaker. Print the PDF for offline review. The PDF and Flash program contain the words and example sentences.

Drop the MP3 files into your MP3 player to listen when away from the computer. Or burn the MP3s to a CD to listen in your car.

Please see the product page for sample audio and images.

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Japanese Phrases and Lessons iPhone, Blackberry, Android, Windows Mobile App

Posted on November 15, 2009 by Clay

Ever since the launch of our first iPhone app, Japanese Phrases, we have had requests for other platforms.  I’m happy to say, we are simultaneously working on an Android and Windows Mobile version.  Blackberry will come soon after these are completed.  It will still be about four weeks before the projects are complete, but it is exciting!

Here are a few reviews from the past few days in the iPhone App Sotre:

No person studying Japanese should be without this app. Very impressed with the huge amount of new content. The lessons are a very welcome addition.  10 stars for the grammar section- I haven’t seen anything like this before in any other Japanese education app – very, very useful !!

I’ve been learning Japanese for two years and have found the application very useful and one of the best on the AppStore. I love the lessons!

And from the free version (which has about 500 sound files compared to the 2,200 found in the full version):

I used this app to learn phrases while holidaying in Japan. Now that I’m actually studying Japanese, this app now provides a means of doing my revision wherever I am. The recent update was stellar in turning the app from a humble phrasebook to respectable study tool.

While this can’t take the place of a instructor led class it gives those with no Japanese language experience some useful phrases to get started with and those of us who have had some classroom experience a refresher. Kudos to the team that put this together you have made what I believe is the finest educational app to date.

We’ve received a lot of requests for enhancements and please keep them coming!  The next update (already submitted to Apple for review) will add Mass favoriting (and unfavoriting) and an option to hide the romaji.

Posted in iPhone | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Orlando Japan Festival 2009

Posted on November 9, 2009 by Clay

Yesterday morning we loaded up the minivan and headed south for… the annual Orlando Japan Festival.  This was the third year we’ve gone and every year it gets bigger and bigger.  There were a ton of people–many more than last year, I think.

orlando japan fest 2

We were planning to get a booth, but decided to be a sponsor instead.  We were listed as “Japan Shop.” (Mentally write a “www.THE” before and a “.com” after)

orlando japan fest

Posted in Japanese | Tagged | 2 Comments

Release Date now only for New Releases in iTunes App Store

Posted on November 6, 2009 by Clay

Well, Apple has gone and made things worse for developers I think.  In a recent post titled Apple-is-smarter-than-this-itunes-app-store-release-date-madness, I tried to summerize a few problems for developers trying to get their apps in the Released Date front page. 

Up until now, both new apps and newly released updates appeared in the center screen “Release Date” section.  This almost guarantees a nice boost in sales for obvious reasons.  Unfortunately, it looks like Apple is only showing truely new releases there now. 

As a consumer, you may think this is a good thing so as to not clutter up that area.  But it isn’t.  It creates an incentive for developers to spend all their time making throw away apps (because only new apps appear in the spotlight) instead of polishing and making old apps better. 

Maybe Apple is just tweaking the Release Date area and will allow updates to appear too, but if not, expect to see many more new apps with fewer updates and of less quality.

If there is no boost-in-sales incentive to update, why would developers bother?

(This being said, we have several updates almost ready to be uploaded :) )

–

UPDATE: Iliya Yordanov from Cramzy.com has this to say: http://cramzy.com/news.php

Interestingly, the post (or rant) suggests the number of iPhone apps will actually dramatically decrease within a year due to the fact developers will be less likely to renew their $99 contract.

I really hope Apple isn’t going in this direction.  I can’t see how this would benefit Apple, developers, or certainly the consumers.

Posted in iPhone | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Some Things for Sale: DS Japanese Games; Casio Dictionary CD

Posted on November 2, 2009 by Clay

Cleaning up around here, I created a stack of stuff that someone can use, but I don’t really want to make a product page for it at TheJapanShop.  If something interests you, I’m willing to negotiate :)   Also email me or call 1-386-965-8774 if you have any questions or would like a photo of anything. (or you could use Google to find out more about these too!)

Nintendo DS Games (will work on ANY DS device)

1) Kanji Dragon 必殺カンフー漢字ドラゴン (game for learning kanji) – never opened; still in shrinkwrap. $25
2) Kanken DS 2 漢検DS２＋常用漢字字典 (kanji training software for the Kanji Test) – never opened; still in shrinkwrap. $38

J-Pop Music CD

1) Puffy – Jet CD – This is opened, but the CD is fine; no scratches $5

And

1) Kanji Learner’s Dictionary CD for several Casio electronic dictionaries including the XD-GP9700.  $38 (It should work with all Casio dictionary models starting with SW, GW, SP, GP, SF, GF)

Here is what Casio writes about it:

 

［講談社インターナショナル］
講談社 漢英学習字典 収録数：親字2,230字/熟語約31,000語
©Jack Halpern 1999
画期的な「字形式検字法（SKIP search）」により迅速に検字でき、中心義により各字の基本的な概念を即座に把握できる初級、中級日本語学習者のニーズに応える学習字典。常用漢字筆順図解つき。
* Speedy lookup using SKIP Search based on the revolutionary System of Kanji Indexing by Patterns.
* The core meaning, a concise keyword, enables instant grasp of the central concept represented by of each character.
*Serves as a powerful tool for beginning and intermediate learners.

 –

If anyone is interested, please call or email me.

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