WWWJDIC for Android 1.8.7 Released

The latest version is now available in the Android Market and soon in the Amazon Appstore.

Example search has been largely improved by using a feature recently added to WWWJDIC's API. While clicking on the 'Ex.' button next to a dictionary entry would only show you sentences containing the exact word before, searching for examples is a lot 'smarter' now. It now matches inflected words, alternative spellings and more. For example, searching for 飲む will match 飲んだ, as well as のまない; searching for 綺麗 will match きれい, キレイな, as well as the original 綺麗, of course. Up to 100 sentences matching the query will be returned by default. For common words, you might want to turn the 'Random examples' option in Settings on. If you do, you will get 10 random examples containing the target word each time you search, giving you a much broader view of the word's usage.

Another new feature in this release is support for optical character recognition (OCR) of gallery images. In all previous versions, you needed to take a picture to start OCR, now you can use pictures you took previously too. Cropping and processing the image might be memory intensive, so it works best with lower resolution images (up to 2MB on a Nexus One). Your mileage might vary depending on the device you are using, but you might want to reduce your camera's resolution if you intend to use the images for OCR. Here's how the new OCR screen looks like. Notice the 'Gallery' button on the left:


That's it for now. Don't forget to rate if you like the app and stay tuned for version 2.0, featuring a revamped UI and full support for tablets.

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