Posted in Uncategorized on 12/12/2009 05:09 am by admin
Panda V.1.3 Released
&
A Brief Note on Creating Wordlists
Apple just approved our latest update and it is now available in the app store. Past users may upgrade for free. This update fixes a few bugs which had been brought to our attention in the comments section of the App Store or in communication with customers. First, the bug whereby users were limited in the “Random” mode to going backward one card has been eliminated. Users may now scroll freely through a carddeck without limitation in Random mode. Second, the program now autosaves your place within in a flashcard deck, allowing the user to switch between apps without losing their position with the app. Finally, we disabled analytics when an overly large card deck was loaded. This should increase the apps speed when using the full HSK decks.
Finally, it seems the Create New Wordlist feature is perhaps less intuitive than we had hoped. In order to create your own wordlist/carddeck for use in Panda please use the following steps:
As far as creating wordlists. You can Create New Wordlists from the main menu screen. Briefy:
1. Open Panda
2. Click “Create Wordlist”
3. Click “add/edit”
4. Click green “+” Button”
5. Name the wordlist (let’s say “test”)
6. Click Save
7. Click “Done”
Now the wordlist is created but is empty. To insert your own words
8. Click “Test”
9. Click “Add”
10. Click green “+” sign.
11. Enter pinyin or english
12. repeat as necessary
Upon the completion of this process your wordlist will be saved and can be selected from the Select Wordlist button on the Flashcard or Quiz main menus. (The Select Wordlist button is the top button on these screens. It defaults to the current wordlists display name).
Posted in Panda Flashcards, Site News on 10/21/2009 02:15 am by admin
News and Updates
First off, thanks to everyone for their downloads and comments. We have gotten a ton of great feedback and with the amount of downloads we’re happy that we can continue to update and improve on Panda Flashcards. With all that’s been addressed in private recently I wanted to make a post highlighting some of the forthcoming changes we will be making and addressing some other issues that have been raised.
First and foremost. Version 1.2 is currently being tested and will be uploaded soon. This version will fix the program change bug whereby the program failed to remember your past location when leaving the application. As with all updates this will be a free upgrade.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Uncategorized on 10/01/2009 02:53 am by admin
Panda Radicals Released!
Our free version of Panda Flashcards, Panda Radicals, has been released in the App Store and is now available as a free download. Panda Radicals is a limited version of Panda Flashcards containing wordlists covering over 100 of the most common measure words with examples as well as the 214 Chinese radicals.
For more information please see our product info page or visit the app store via Itunes
Current updates for Panda Flashcards are awaiting app store approval.
Posted in Panda Flashcards, Panda Radicals on 09/05/2009 09:02 pm by admin
Panda Radicals, Panda Flashcards v.1.1 in Review
Two quick items of note. First, Panda Radicals, our freeware flashcard program has been submitted to Apple and is currently in review. We hope to have it available at the end of the week. Second, we’ve fixed a minor bug in the program with v1.1 also currently in review.
V1.1 fixes the following: first, we’ve been alerted that selecting the Radicals wordlist in 1.0 will crash the program. The reason for this is because the Radicals wordlist is intended for the Panda Radicals software and not Panda Flashcards. Somewhere down the line we must have put it in the wrong directory. Current users can steer clear of any mishaps by not selecting the radicals wordlist. Those wishing to study radicals should check back later this week when Panda Radicals will be available for free.
Second, responding to comments in the app store, we’ve increased the font within the flashcard viewer. We’ve also fixed a small naming problem that had arisen.
Comments have also been made on the landscape orientation. For now this is the only setting for the app as we believe it works best in this format in terms of card movement. However for those operating the program one-handed we concede there might be some difficulty operating it (though its not impossible). We will consider changing this down the line but for now and the near future it will remain the default.
Posted in Panda Flashcards, Panda Radicals, User Help on 09/03/2009 10:57 pm by admin
Understanding User Analytics
We’re about to release Panda Radicals, our freeware version of Panda Flashcards but while that simmers I wanted to pick up where we left off in explaining some of the features in Panda Flashcards. If you missed part one on creating Hotlists you can look at the entry underneath this or click here.
Following from the hotlist post we now have a special wordlist devoted solely to traditional characters. We want to use this list to test our recall and practice our writing; at the same time we also want to measure our progress. This can be done using the user analytics tools located at the bottom of the screen.
The Flashcard Toolbar
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Panda Flashcards, Panda Radicals, User Help on 08/27/2009 08:00 pm by admin
HOW TO CREATE A USER HOTLIST
With Panda Flashcards now in the App Store I wanted to take a minute and explain how the “hotlist” feature works in the program. The idea behind hotlist is as follows: normally in Panda you are studying flashcards from a certain deck, either already preloaded or created by you the user. Sometimes you will find that your knowledge of the deck you’re studying is almost complete. At such time you will probably want a way to create a new deck out of a preexisting deck containing the words you still don’t know. In Panda flashcards there are two ways to do this: 1.) use hotlists 2.) use the “missed words” feature of the user analytics. We’ll save the missed words for another post and concentrate on hotlists here.
For this example we’ll be using a situation I recently encountered: namely, the need to learn traditional characters coming from a simplified background. To help me with this I decided to create a user hotlist of all the traditional characters I didn’t know from the HSK Beginner card deck. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Panda Flashcards, Site News on 08/24/2009 07:27 pm by admin
Panda Flashcards has been completed and is currently “in review” at the app store. We are expecting an answer this week. Panda Radicals will be released shortly thereafter and we will be finishing a website redesign in mid-September along with our next products in the Panda Software suite.
Posted in Site News on 07/31/2009 09:45 am by admin
Please excuse the tacky ‘asian’ theme. Panda Flashcards website coming soon!