This is a new page, created to share news, changes to the system, little improvements and hints that don't merit an update email, etc. Every time I make a change to the system or documentation or simply find something some of you may find useful, I'll post it here. It's mainly intended for JLT's existing customers, but of course anyone's welcome. I also invite my customers to contribute any helpful hints or new uses they've found for the system (just send 'em to me). When I have time, I'll replace this page with a regular forum to which folks can contribute directly. In the meantime, this page is worth a look from time to time.
May 1, 2011: Documentation update: Just completed a big overhaul on the Entering Text page, bringing it up to date with current systems, adding info on the Euro Keyboard and Chinese and Korean input methods.
The amazon.com Magnum case deal mentioned before: As feared, a bust. I ordered 6 magnesium cases for the Axim, and Proporta instead sent me six pink leather cases for the iPhone (plus a receipt showing 6 pink leather cases for a Nokia phone). I'm returning them for a refund. Sometimes if it looks too good to be true, it is.
April 28, 2011: For Mac users: I just discovered that Ishida-san, the genius who makes the EBPocket apps used in the JLT Complete System and that I recommend for iOS and the EBWin program I recommend for Windows, has recently come out with a Mac version, EBMac. No user manual yet, and as it's new there'll be frequent updates, so you'll want to keep checking back at his site, but it looks like by far the best EPWING dictionary program for Macs. It's got the complex search features that make his other dictionary programs so powerful (especially when used with the huge Eijiro/Waeijiro combo); it works with the .ebz compressed EPWING format the JLT dictionaries uses (it better! Ishida makes the program that does the compression!); it's optimized for EPWING, so it should be faster than anything else when searching huge dictionaries like Eijiro (the other Mac programs seem to add EPWING compatibility as an afterthought), and it's free.
April 22, 2011: For iOS users (iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad), there's a way to add Japanese handwriting recognition (along with several other languages). It's a bit awkward and it doesn't work all that well, but if you're already using JLT dictionaries on iOS, this may be slightly useful, and it's cheap. Add the Handwriting Notes app, follow the directions here to set up an automatic lookup in EBPocket (Japanese only; I can't seem to figure it out but it's more a matter of the instructions having left out step 1 than a linguistic problem--if you figure it out, let me know), and you can then write in kanji in the Handwriting Notes app, then select the word, pull up the menu shown, and automatically look the word up in EBPocket (and if you haven't figured out how to set up the link, you'll have to enter the word in Handwriting Notes then copy it, switch to EBPocket, then paste it into the search--which is a pain but if you're desperate it's better than nothing). Sounds like a great way to add handwriting recognition to EBPocket, but the problem is that Handwriting Notes just isn't that good at recognizing handwriting. First, even though it takes up half the screen, the handwriting area is too small to write complex kanji with your fingertip--it's hard to precisely write a stroke where it should be in relation to other strokes when your fingertip covers them all up. You'd need half an iPad screen for kanji handwriting to be easy. But even when you do write the character correctly, the program often can't find it--it found 曜 only about once for every time I tried to write, but it found some other characters the first or second time. The bottom line: at only 230 yen, it's worth getting and setting up if you already have an iOS device, but it doesn't work well enough to make an iOS device a great dictionary--it'll help you enter and look up kanji and kanji compounds sometimes, but it'll let you down too often to be considered reliable. I'm going to try the same scheme with some other programs that feature kanji handwriting recognition, but it looks like most are based on the same software engine (they look quite similar), so I don't have a lot of hope.
Innopocket/Proporta Magnum magnesium cases--the best cases made for X51V and X50V Axims--MAY be available for US $21 including worldwide shipping and some good-quality accessories though amazon.com (US site only, although it ships from the UK--the same bundle from amazon.uk is £53, which equals US$87). No guarantees--I'm waiting for an email telling me they made a mistake and my order has been cancelled, and I won't be sure it's an honest deal until it's in my hands. Update: It's in my hands, and while it may not be a dishonest deal it's certainly a cock-up (as they say where these cases were ordered from). Instead of blue-black magnesium cases for the Axim, they sent me pink leather cases for the iPhone. I'm quickly coming to realize that Amazon marketplace (stuff sold through amazon but by other companies) is pretty much the least reliable way to buy anything. eBay is far more trustworthy.
Keyboards (real, physical keyboards):
March 23, 2011: Useful accessory (first post).
I picked this up on eBay for US $36.50. It's simply a big rechargeable battery you can use to recharge your Axim (claims to be 5000 mAh, which seems plausible given the results I've been getting). Plug the Axim's USB sync-charge cable into the Axim and into one of the two USB ports on this, press the button (the only button) on the charger, and it'll charge your Axim (you should still recharge it from the Dell charger when you get home). I found that the first time I charged the charger, I could then recharge an Axim four times from it; after a couple of cycles, that got up to five (Li-Ion batteries don't reach full capacity until they've been completely charged and discharged a few times; while the X50V/X51V have larger batteries than the X30, they go to sleep around 20% to protect the battery and memory, while the X30 will let you drain the battery all the way to zero--so you get five full X30 charges or five 80% X51V charges). You could also just keep it plugged in to run the Axim continuously. So, assuming you start off with a full charge on the Axim's battery, too, this will extend your battery life away from the charger to 6 times normal--that's 18-20 hours of average use on an X50V or X51V, and 20-24 hours on an X30 (much longer if you're just listening to music on your Axim). That's great for those 15 hour trans-Pacific or trans-Siberian flights or for travel when you may be away from wall sockets for days at a time. It'll charge anything that charges from a USB port--phone, iPod, camera, etc. This was described as "External Battery Charger 5000mah for Ipod iPhone 2 USB "--there are usually a bunch of people selling the same thing for items like this, so anything with a similar description that looks just like this should be the same device.
March 23, 2011: Dictionary system news.
A couple of weeks ago I added an English-OS version of the X30 system. It costs more than the Japanese-OS version because the best way to add Japanese capability to the X30's English OS is with the ATOK software package, which ain't cheap. The result, though, is pretty nice: an X30 that's much easier to use for other things because the OS is in English, with Japanese input and display systems that work almost exactly like and just as well as the systems on the Japanese version. As soon as I finish writing the documentation for it, I'll send an email to previous X30 customers offering to change the OS to English and install ATOK for only the cost of the ATOK software and return postage (I'll even include a couple of freebies to bring their systems into line with the X30s I'm currently selling: a better screen protector and a much better, solid metal stylus). Previous X30 customers, you'll be hearing from me soon.