Learning with an iPod full of lessons offers tremendous benefits; freedom, convenience, efficient use of dead time, etc. I’m sure we can all remember our personal ‘epiphany’ moments, when we realized how valuable learning by podcast can be. That said, the iPod’s lack of a network connection means it is still fairly limited as a learning tool.
Imagine if you could connect to the site through your iPod too. Access full lessons, including dialogues and expansion sentences. Manage your vocabulary and practice flashcards. Participate in all the community discussions and be connected to your studies all the time. I think this would be another ‘epiphany’ moment for many learners.
Many new mobile phones can already support exactly this type of experience, and for us delivering Learning on Your Terms means letting you access your studies through any device, anytime, anywhere. That’s why we are about to release a new and much improved mobile version of the site.
But not quite yet…
First we need to assemble a crack team of testers, who are willing to help us put the site through it’s paces on a range of the latest phones. If you have any of the following phones (plus a bit of free time and strong thumbs), give me an email at steve.williams at praxislanguage dot com.
The phones we are interested in are…
Motorola Phones with iTunes support (V3i, SLVR, ROKR)
Treo Smartphones running Palm OS (650, 680, 700p)
Nokia N series phones
SonyEricsson Walkman Phones (W950i, W810i)
Apple iPhone (if there are any Apple insiders out there!)
中文 Chinese
Henning Says:
June 11th, 2007 at 5:39 pm
You do not include Windows Mobile?
There seem to be quite a few here with Windows-based-3G-smartphones (theorically me also; de facto my *!!&”§$-smartphone doesn’t work).
ldfs Says:
June 11th, 2007 at 11:43 pm
What about handhelds that don’t have a phone but have wireless access (e.g. Palm TX)?
goulnik (郭力毅) Says:
June 12th, 2007 at 12:11 am
If you’d included WM smartphones I’d have volunteered, I guess there must be reasons why not.
Just in case, I have an HTC TyTN (very similar to the Cingular 8525 in the US) running WM5, with 3G (UMTS EDGE), WiFi. I use the browsers a lot (IE or Opera), accessing CPod directly or through my own custom search interface.
Henning, WM is not the most stable (and my company has decided to stay with BB for the time being) but it’s still amazing how much you can get done.
Henning Says:
June 12th, 2007 at 2:00 am
goulnik,
I had serious problems with stability and faced some challenges due to incomplete application design (i.e. the evil mobile IE expanded its local web cash until the system became virtually unusable - it took me forever to find out what ate my memory! All that regardless of a 2 GB SD card).
But right now it is the HW that is broken.
TaiPan Says:
June 12th, 2007 at 10:42 am
Ken,
Is this the big news you hinted toward in your last blog response? This is an awesome step for Chinesepod and a huge undertaking. But you’re still in beta…
What else do you have up your sleeve?
Ken Carroll Says:
June 12th, 2007 at 10:57 am
Taipan,
No. My reference was to a series of audio experiments, one of which you’ll hear this week.
Mobile is something we’ve been looking at for some time and now we’re ready to start testing. But don’t worry, the new developments won’t create any disruptions!
Ken Carroll
Steve@ChinesePod Says:
June 12th, 2007 at 1:19 pm
Henning / Goulnik - sorry for omitting Windows Mobile. We do want to run the test on the WM OS. kdfs - the site will also run on handhelds like the Palm. The main system requirement is that the device has an XHTML browser.
goulnik (郭力毅) Says:
June 12th, 2007 at 11:29 pm
thx Steve, will contact you - incidentally, I just had a demo of the Nokia N95, a big hit in the UK apparently, quite impressive. Any data on smartphone penetration and 12-months forecast?
Eileen Says:
June 13th, 2007 at 10:46 am
Hi Yves and Henning,
Will be contacting you in a couple of days about the mobile testing since I’m managing it now.
Hi Idfs,
So sorry, I don’t knwo your email. Can you please drop me an email if you have a chance so that I can put you on the list (if you’re interested in participating). Thanks!
Henning Says:
June 13th, 2007 at 2:08 pm
Eileen
so I better give my phone into repair…
AuntySue Says:
June 13th, 2007 at 7:07 pm
I’ve got quite an assortment of Palm PDAs that I use for my studies already, but none of them are phones.
Does the emphasis on phonese imply they need network connectivity? Over here we pay such outrageous prices per Kb (yes, per kilobyte!) that having a phone and using it that way are two different stories.
On the other hand, my Palm TX and my LifeDrive both connect to my home network via wireless, for free. It’s always much quicker, though, to put bulk data on by copying from PC to the Palm’s SDCard.
Bazza 白锐 Says:
June 14th, 2007 at 6:50 pm
I’d help out but I have a Nokia 6680.
mike san Says:
June 18th, 2007 at 2:17 am
i’ve a palm tx i’d like to test mandarin, though know no mandarin, just japanese french and thai
Bill Glover Says:
June 21st, 2007 at 2:21 am
I have a Nokia e61 and would be more than happy to help test a mobile version of ChinesePod.
I have to say that I am a little surprised that ChinesePod is going for a browser based mobile version. I think a mobile version would be considerably more valuable if it worked off-line and then synced when a connection was available. Mobile data tariffs (at least here in the UK) are still too expensive for most.
That said, if you’re looking for e61 testers, drop me an email.