First Newsletter!!!
Greetings everyone! This is the first Newsletter for my first real application. I’m calling this my first real application because it was an original idea — basically, one that wasn’t built off of code examples from books, but from my own knowledge. This application actually started out as just an empty episode list, and a blue bottom area. Now, it’s almost ready for prime time! I hope you enjoy it, and am very happy for all the emails sent to me. It is because of those emails that I continue to work on this project and continue to help the growing japanese learning community out as much as I can. It even seems that my application was such a wild idea, that it pushed a windows version into being made by Jason. To think that my first application was this successful before it even came out! To date, there have been about 100 downloads for the beta versions 1.2, 1.3 and 1.4, and version 1.5 is really going to make this application become a beauty. I just thought I’d let you know...
JapanesePod101 Application Newsletter
Saturday, November 11, 2006
Features
As you may know already, my application allows users to listen to or watch JapanesePod101.com podcasts and videocasts. At the top there is a list of all the episodes, while at the bottom, there are controls buttons and transcripts for the selected episode.
In the toolbar (at the top), you have controls to Refresh 
or Filter 
episodes, Visit 
the JapanesePod101.com website, or Search 
for a specific phrase, in English, Kana or Kanji.
or Filter episodes, Visit the JapanesePod101.com website, or Search for a specific phrase, in English, Kana or Kanji.Below the toolbar, you have a split that controls the visibility of the Episode Browser, and Episode Viewer. In the Episode Browser, you can view all episodes, sort them by date, name, duration, type, and weather you viewed them or not. You can re-order the columns, and if you leave your mouse over an episode for a couple of seconds, you could get a short description of that episode. If an episode has a blue 
dot, that means it has not been downloaded, or watched. If it has a green 
dot, it has been downloaded, but not watched. If is has a light blue 
dot, that means it has been watched, but has not been downloaded. Finally, to listen or watch an episode (whether it has been downloaded, or not), simply double click.
dot, that means it has not been downloaded, or watched. If it has a green dot, it has been downloaded, but not watched. If is has a light blue dot, that means it has been watched, but has not been downloaded. Finally, to listen or watch an episode (whether it has been downloaded, or not), simply double click.
In the Episode Viewer, there is episode information, playback control, and the selected episode’s transcript available while you listen. If you simply click an episode in the Episode Browser, the application will automatically start downloading an episode. If you don’t have a very fast internet connection, and just can’t wait to watch the latest installment of iLove, you can actually start watching the episode even as it’s downloading. And if you want to see the comments of any episode, just click the link that appears next to URL. The last amazing feature of the Episode Viewer, is the Kana/Kanji Close-Up. To activate it, simply click the episode transcript, and move your mouse around! Whenever you scroll over a Hiragana, Katakana or Kanji Character, it will appear in big on top of the JP.
If you want to visit the website, be it for the Learning Center, or an episode's comments, I have built in a mini Web Browser to do just that. So far, this feature is still in the beta stage so there is no PDF support or downloads, but most part, things work fine.
I think that adequately covers the features on the basic level — after all, we need to leave some for next week. Also, please look forward to a sneak-peak of beta 1.5!
Please tell me what you think of this newsletter, and if you need to contact me, or unsubscribe, my email is dimitri008@mac.com
