1. Exporting of Wordbank
There was an encoding issue when exporting wordbank terms using a Mac. While exporting to a txt file is still buggy on a Mac, the export to an xml file should work. Many Mac users have requested integration with iFlash and we are working on that next.
2. Wordbank Update
We have added the ability to sort through your saved wordbank terms.
3. Add terms directly to Wordbank
In January, we added an intermediate step when adding terms to your wordbank. We did this as we plan to start adding more features linked to the term, such as audio playback. Many users have requested the option to be able to directly add to their wordbank without leaving the transcript pages, so in your account there is now a toggle that will enable this. If you want to add terms to your wordbank without leaving the transcript page just go to ‘Your Account’ and toggle ‘Add terms directly to Wordbank?’ to Yes and then press the ‘Update Details’ button.
4. Mac Javascript Rollover Effect
This has been updated and should be resolved now.
5. iTunes RSS 100 record limitation
iTunes only displays the most recent 100 records in podcast RSS feeds. To help enable iTunes consumption of all of the archived ChinesePod podcasts, every 100 podcasts we will add an archive feed on the RSS feeds page:
http://www.chinesepod.com/rss_feed.php
To use this, go the orange xml button next to the ChinesePod Archive Episodes 1-100. Firefox users can right-click and ‘Copy Link Location’. Then open iTunes, go to ‘Advanced’, then ‘Subscribe to Podcast”. Paste the copied feed URL and add the feed to your other subscriptions. Then you will be able to download all of the earlier episodes and listen to them in iTunes or on your iPod. We will not update this feed, but will update the main iTunes feed (www.chinesepod.com/podcast.php) and add a new archive feed every 100 podcasts.
As always, if you have any feedback or further ideas on these issues let us know.
Hank.
Excellent work.
Our tech team works at this level week-on-week. I asked them to do a weekly blog post to show our learners that we are responding to tech feedback. Most of the imnprovements on ChinesePod just get done without any fanfare, but I do want you to know that your requests/comments are followd up on. Each week the tech team will post a summary like this of the stuff they’v'e done.
The same goes for the content suggestions. I may not answer every suggestion personally, but believe me, we take every suggestion seriously and follow up on every one we can.
Just to let you know! So, keep those ideas coming.
Epod: the tags database links do not work there right now
Cpod:
Podcast Archive Tab-Description for your snazzy term-link-builder-database
Add some sort of description to that area “Dynamic Table of Contents: click on a term and get back lessons which review that term.
I didn’t click on any of those terms for like two months, I thought it was some sort of hit-generator.
Learning Center Tab
Dynamic Word Base-In the Learning Center above the List of Lessons. I would love a similar database tool for just the vocabulary used in the podcasts.
I tried to use the Flashcards on the site and I’m having problems. I have a Mac, and whenever I click on card that Chinese to see the English translation, I only see the word “null” on the other side. If I try to switch over to English or Pinyin, I also just get a “null” message. The Chinese characters show up, but nothing else. How do I fix this?
Diana,
I just tried out the (nicely revamped) flashcards on my Mac, in Safari 1.3.2, and they work just fine. What’s your OS and browser?
Brandy,
I am using OS X 10.4.5 with Safari 2.0 but I have also tried with Firefox, Same problem. This happens on my iBook, my boyfriend’s powerbook and misc. other computers. The only common item between the computers is that they are all macs running firefox 1.5, safari 2 and OSX 10.4
Maybe it is the particular words/characters? What words/characters did you try?
Hi Diana, re: flashcards on Safari
I just tried it on Safari 2.x. I noticed that after it ‘connects to database’, for the first word when you click on it to flip the card it returns ‘null’. But then I clicked on the Next arrow and it works fine from then on. Was this the ‘clitch’ you had?
Nice work guys. The Vocab Builder tab has a nice new home. I’m sure useage will increase. 好求！