Version 1.6 of KTdict includes Apple's iAd in the free versions (paid version are add-free, of course). The data from the iAd network provides one interesting insight: it is possible to see in which countries people are using KTdict: see chart below.

This pretty much lines up with the downloads. It is a pity that iAds are only available in US, as I am losing 88.9% of my potential ad-revenue this way... (overall "fill-rate" is ~2%: 25% in the US and 0% everywhere else).

Version 1.6 of KTdict is out. It includes several important features:

- support for iPhone 4 and iOS 4.0 (multitasking, retina-display)
- Chinese characters and pinyin can be mixed in searches
- it is possible to search for individual characters of a word

What is not so nice: A critical bug made it into this version. The app crashes for certain English words. A fix was submitted to Apple on July 21st, so it should become available within a few days. My apologies for everybody affected by this issue - the Emails and comments I get on the app-store show that many people are relying on KTdict for day-by-day use. I'll be definitely more careful in future when doing changes to the core search engine.

New versions of KTdict C-E and KTdict+ C-E are available (KTdict C-D will follow very soon).

Both free and paid version have a further enhanced search algorithm: speed is improved and the relevance of results is enhanced. Also, it is now possible to delete words from the search history. The dictionary database is updated to the newest version of CC-CEDICT. As the age-rating of KTdict is now set to 12, I could include an uncensored version of CC-CEDICT (some of the previous versions had few words removed).

The paid version has the following extra features:

• an integrated web-browser allows a quick lookup of words in internet sources (e. g. Wikipedia)
• flashcards can be exported via Email
• it is possible to search in flashcards (I realized that some users have quite a lot)
• the configuration of the daily lessons is much more flexible

KTdict requires now iPhone OS 3.0 - I assume most people did upgrade their iPhone or iPod touch in the meantime so this doesn't cost me too many potential users.

Let me know what you like / don't like about the upgrade.

Below an updated download trend for KTdict C-E, the free version of my Chinese-English dictionary. Two interesting observations:

• after I changed the name of the app in the store to "KTdict C-E (chinese-english dictionary)" downloads increased quite drastically. I am sure this is due to people find it when searching for a Chinese-English dictionary.
• KTdict C-E is back in the "top 100" in Hong-Kong and Malaysia. This gave downloads a further boost in these countries.

Total downloads of KTdict C-E are now over 160.000. From the updates I can estimate, that roughly half of people downloading KTdict keep it installed on their iPhone or iPod touch.

Tags: Chinese, iPhone

With OS 3.0, Apple added parental controls to the iPhone. Therefore, each application in the iTunes App store needs an age rating from 4+ to 17+ (true "adult" content cannot be sold via the app-store at all).

During the submission of an app, the developer has to answer questions like: "Does the app contain nudity?", "Does the app contain obscene language?", "Does the app contain simulated gambling?". Based on the answers, iTunes calculates the age rating.

Two weeks ago, I submitted a bug-fix for KTdict C-D (there is an error handling the German "ü" correctly, which I realized after some bad reviews). I thought a dictionary shouldn't be a problem for children, so I answered all these questions with "none". This gives an age rating of 4+, which is no change to the current version.

One week later the surprise: Apple rejected the update due to "profanity" and "mature/suggestive themes". Okay - they obviously found some "dirty" words in the dictionary. As I didn't want to censor, I changed the age rating by moving "profanity" and "mature/suggestive themes" to "mild". This increases age rating to 9+.

One week later the next surprise: App again rejected. This time the reason is "sexual content in Chinese". So I change now also this setting, which makes KTdict C-D now a 12+ app. I hope Apple will release the update this time, so it makes it finally to my customers.

I must say that I find this pretty annoying. It would be O.K. with me if Apple would say: We looked at your app and think it should be rated 17+. But right now, I have to play trial and error to see what Apple thinks about an app. Due to the review process, each trial costs one week.

Anyway: I hope to get the update out soon and not to lose too many customers between 4 and 9 years of age...

New versions of KTdict, my Chinese-English and Chinese-German dictionaries for the iPhone / iPod touch are online. The version numbers of KTdict C-E (a free English-Chinese dictionary), KTdict+ C-E (an English-Chinese dictionary with integrated flash-card trainer) and KTdict C-D (a German-Chinese dictionary with integrated flashcard-trainer) are now all increased to 1.3.

Following improvements have been implemented:

• Performance of the search algorithm has been optimized. Especially very large result lists are now handled considerably faster.
• The user interface is more polished, especially the flash-card trainer.
• It is now possible to edit the flash-card currently displayed and and to search for it in the dictionary.
• A history function for searches as well as results has been added.
• KTdict has been successfully tested on iPhone OS 2.2.1 and iPhone OS 3.0.

The updates are free for all existing owners of KTdict C-E, KTdict+ C-E or KTdict C-D. I hope you enjoy the additional features and increased speed.

New versions of KTdict are ready and available in the AppStore:

• KTdict C-E: basic English-Chinese Dictionary, which remains free
• KTdict+ C-E: an advanced version, which includes a flash-card trainer. This version costs $3.99.
• KTdict C-D: a German-Chinese Dictionary, with the same features as KTdict+ C-E. It is a free upgrade for existing users. For new users, price is unchanged $3.99.

Features added to all versions include:

• Option to change the size of output

• Possibility to show characters in a full-screen view, so it is easier to see details

• Possibility to use search results as inputs for a new search. This allows it for example to look up an English word, then select a character of this word and search for all other uses of this character

Major new feature of the paid versions KTdict+ C-E and KTdict C-E is a flash-card trainer. It is possible to include words from the dictionary as flash-cards as well as manually adding words. This provides an easy, mobile way to memorize new vocabulary.

After one week in the App-Store, KTdict C-E reached 10.000 downloads. It is currently the most downloaded app in Taiwan and number two in Hong-Kong.

Below the download trend so far by country: It's amazing to see how Hong-Kong and Taiwan took off in the last four days. I am very curious how this will continue.

After KTdict C-E and KDdict C-D went live in the iTunes App Store yesterday, I am very curious about first customer feedbacks. The feedback in iTunes is by store (separate for e. g. US-store and China-store). In the beginning I browsed through all these stores, but eventually I found the following web-page: http://www.moopf.com/appstorereviews/. This service automatically grabs the reviews from all stores and combines into one web-page.

For KTdict C-E (App-ID 291179703), the feedback so far is:

• "Most powerful one" by kai liu
  We really need a powerful ch-en dic. Here it is! 强啊！
• "Excellent" by Chris Aubeck
  Handy and easy to use.

KTdict C-D (App-ID 292405778) has one review:

• "Sehr gut!" by sarangsong:
  Sehr g... App! Genau das habe ich die ganze Zeit gesucht...fehlt nur noch noch eine Sprachausgabe ;) Bin total zufrieden! Jetzt macht das Nachschlagen endlich Spass!
  (Translation: "Very good" by sarangsong: F... good App! Exactly what I was looking for all the time... only voice output is missing ;) I am fully satisfied! Now, looking up words is eventually fun!)

For me this is very encouraging. I am working during the next days on integrating a flash-card trainer into the dictionary. I hope I can finish this up before I return to my regular job.

After a longer then expected wait, my dictionary programs KTdict C-E and KTdict C-D are now available for download in the iTunes App-Store.

KTdict C-E (Chinese-English) is free, while KTdict C-D (Chinese-German) costs $3.99 / €2.99.

I submitted two iPhone applications to the iTunes App-Store: KTDict C-E and KTDict C-D. The first is a Chinese-English dictionary, the second a Chinese-German dictionary.
They are based on the following components:

• The excellent dictionary data of CC-EDICT (over 70.000 entries) and HanDeDict (over 120.000 entries). I used these great dictionaries over the Internet for many years. Fortunately, their licenses allow to include them into own dictionary software.
• The Chinese hand-writing recognition build by Apple into iPhone OS
• Fast indexing and search technology implemented by myself, which provides fast “search as you type” results.

I am using both programs myself several times a day and almost cannot imagine how to get along without. They should be available in the App-Store is in ~two weeks.