Wow, so it did really happen, we can download the new app: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/skritter-chinese/id520277126?ls=1&mt=8

A challenge, how many downloads will they have of it in the first 24 hours? If they had 15.000 people waiting on the list i think at least 5000 will download it today. I surely will.

My finance told me she wants to buy me an iPad just for this!

I think this app will be great. I know she is awesome!

It looks fantastic. I am still trying to find my way around - I found 'do the demo again', but not yet how to do it. I hope it tells me how to move on from one card to the next! But the app seems to have more features than the online version - not that I'm a power user, but like the option to change the definition.

So jealous my Android! Congrats you guys, it looks fantastic.

Congratulations!

Zeppa. To move to the next card you just tap on the right side of the screen and to go back on the left side of the screen.

When Nick told me it was launching today all I could do was smile. Best birthday present ever!

Hope you guys love it as much as we do!

Thanks, Mandarinboy. Ah, I see now that the pictures on the 'iPhone trailer' lead to information - didn't realize I had to move my cursor over them.

Hmm, that seems to lead to stuff like a ten-minute video on how to write characters, spoken very slowly.
Have to do something else now, I will have to look for the details later. There is surely some text help. I had already seen the video showing people skrittering, but that doesn't tell you how it works.

Congratulations on the app and all the marriages, of course!

Thanks guys! Sorry it took so long; hope you'll find it worth the wait.

The app actually has less features than the site. You can edit the definitions on the web version by clicking on them on the study screen. Zeppa, if the demo is confusing you, try also the "Guide" tab in the app after you log in (not in the demo).

If you do download and like the app, please write a review in the App Store. It really helps us get noticed.

It looks wonderful! I just drove home just to get the ipad, because I wanted to be amongst the first "official" users ;o)

What I've seen in my 30 mins while driving back to the office was: Yes, effectively I can fiiinally make use of the time I'd otherwise lose in public transport! ;-))

And the app looks really nice, I am so happy.

Trying my first steps right now and getting used to the new feeling :)

Congratulations and thanks a lot to the whole team! Now it's up to us to use the app :-))

It doesn't support Japanese?

Looks really good !
Can't wait to get started again tonight.

Do I understand correctly a single list can't be selected for study when using the app? If so, can I manage to do that by changing some settings on the site to make it work in the app ?

Buskila, see the blog :o)
http://blog.skritter.com/2012/06/skritter-chinese-ios-app-launched.html
it says:
"start preparing the almost-finished Skritter Japanese iOS app for its own launch."

Thanks, nick, My iPod says 'Sync: Assembling' 0/400.

I wanted to delete all my lists but perhaps should have done it online first. I get a worrying warning that I am deleting words but if I do them again later, my progress will be recorded so I won't be starting from scratch. I thought it would be better to start from scratch. I don't know whether the Web version and the app sync repeatedly or just on setup.

Then I get a red warning not to leave a page, and eventually 'Done!>' appears underneath it so I leave the page, although I admit the warning was still there, but 'Done!' seemed to suggest I could leave.

Demo is definitely confusing because it seems to lead to a blank screen.

Perhaps I can delete and reload the app. It seems to be stuck. (I did find the guide, but it told me to repeat the demo, which seemed to lead to a dead end).

Obviously I am not clever enough for this.

Congrats Nick and team!
Happy birthday to Jake.
Will download the app on Iphone and Ipad, test it and decide which one of those I finally need to buy to just pretty much use this App.

Hope this App takes Skritter to an orbit like that of Instagram's!

Godspeed.

The app just seems to be stuck on "Sync: Assembling" - any ideas on how to fix this?

Zeppa, it looks like there is a bug with a demo that leads to a black screen--we'll work on this. I gotta roll out for a couple hours, but Scott is on it.

Scott has just fixed an issue making the syncing get gummed up with so many people downloading at the same time, so that should go at a faster rate now.

Skritter Japanese will come a little while later. It's almost done, but needs a few more things and some marketing.

Single-list study will also come later. There's not much you could do site-side to make the app emulate that except deleting all but one list...

@Johnfatz, I had that problem a few times in Alpha test. I had to uninstall the app and then install it again to fix that up. Maybe there are better ways to fix it.

@Mandarinboy - cheers, trying that now.

Edit: Works perfect - thanks again!

It's beautiful! You guys have done a great job, it's better than I expected and I've had such high hopes already! This is the reason I bought an iPhone :)

Congratulations Skritter team and thanks for all the hard work! As a tester I already knew how awesome it is as a studying tool but still excited to see it launched.

I'm just trying out the demo in the app on the iPod touch, the screen stays black.. But when I click on 'skip' it does go to the next page to sign up.

Will check if it's the same on the iPad now.

Congrats from Sweden, greatly anticipated this.
The demo isn't working on my Iphone either. And neither does my vocab. A character shows up, but I can't do anything with it.. hmm.
What to do? :=

The same problem occurs on the iPad, the demo is not working. Do others see the same problem? Any list I choose doesn't seem to provide a demo.

Anyways, time to write a 5-star review:)

I take it the demo has problems but the full version works fine?! Am I right?

I am planning to by an ipod touch only for this app.

Btw, if your audio isn't working restart the app, t worked with me.

@jasche the full version is working fine!

Great, I'm still downloading, takes so long from my location - can't wait to see it.
At the same time, it seems, that now the characters with multi-reading are shown correctly with a line break between the different pronunciations.

The full version of the app works fine. If there are any problems with the "demo," I am guessing it is because all of the beta testers are registered users, so they mostly used their accounts.

The demo version probably didn't get as much testing, and there may be some hiccups. But register, sign in with your account, and it will be great.

@Roland yea downloading apps in China is unbelievably slow. When I use a Hong Kong VPN it's finished downloading in a minute, but with a Chinese server it would take 30-60 minutes. In Thailand it took maybe 30 seconds! They're deliberately slowing down foreign websites/servers, I wonder how many weeks in my life I will spend in total waiting for a download to be finished in China, or simply waiting for a foreign site to show up..:)

Even on top of the Mount Everest this app would be downloading faster than in Beijing, as long as you're on the Nepal side of course.

Yes, I deleted and reinstalled and the problem was resolved. I can now play around with it. Or I could if I didn't have work to do!

I had a problem with the demo too. When I first started studying, the app seemed to start giving me instructions on how to advance and what not. It got a bit jammed up on the first character, but after I restarted the iPad everything worked great.

Great job and congratulations!

Just downloaded the app and it looks great! Will certainly keep me a customer of yours.

I would just like to ask if the app just gives you random words to study or if it does it in the smart way that the desktop version does by starting with the ones that you dont know? This is important right now as I am studying for a test :)

I’ve been looking forward to this for some time. I hope in the future an iPad specific version might be considered as a part of your universal binary; having to use the app in 2x mode isn’t ideal.

iPhone app looks great.

Haha how nice that they decided to release it on my birthday.

Hi Josh,

Happy Birthday. It's mine too. Cheers fellow 雙子座!

@kelake, they are working on an Ipad version too.

@funchinese, it is the same as on the site, Same SRS. Words ready for review will be shown in the same way in the app as on the site. If you like to study a specific list you will have to stick with the site for the time being. It is said to be part of the app in future releases just as stars etc.

@Mandarinboy, thanks for replying!

@funchiense those are on there way, but not in the current version. We are working on lots of other features for the iOS app to be included in later updates.

We are working on submitting a bugfix update for the demo--the most recent update we submitted broke it for new installs only, and we didn't notice. Alas! Hopefully Apple will approve it quickly.

You can skip the demo for now and just log into your account--just pay attention to the info bubbles that first show up when you hit the study screen, since those will be the only instruction on how to use it, and they only show up once.

There also seems to be some sort of bug where the study screen isn't responsive after you log in the first time. I'm not sure if this only happens after you try a broken demo or what, but force quitting the app may fix it. We'll keep working on it.

From what I have experienced of App store is that it takes 1-2 weeks to get an update through, even if it is urgent ones. I hope you do get lucky getting it faster since this probably scare of many newcomers. As alpha tester I did try the demo many times and never had any problem.

By the way, I can't thank you enough for this app! It is absolutely amazing. I have learnt so much with it during those month and had so much fun. Killed many hours on planes and in boring board meetings. Once those small initial bugs are corrected I am sure that this app will bring you many new customers. The new 2 year deal is amazingly cheap. I just had to order that too since it a too good deal to not take. Via pay pal at least so you don't loose to much.

Languages
I finally downloaded and installed it. Looks really great!
But there is a bug during set-up. After initial set-up, all definitions were in English only. I looked around for the language setting, my account was properly set to German, but still all definitions in English. Then I tapped on the German again (as if I was choosing a new language), then it started to download again the whole db. After downloading, I had still the English definitions, only after I restarted my Iphone, the German definitions came up. I suggest to change this, as it is very confusing to the user.

How much is it for a lifetime subscription? :)

Amazing work, guys! This is a happy day for us iOS users.

I'd recommend buying an iOS device just for this app, if you are serious about Chinese or Japanese.

The app is true awesomeness

Mandarinboy, we greatly appreciate all your help with the endless bugs which you so patiently reported again and again! Couldn't have done it without you and the other valiant testers.

Roland, I'll get that bug into the issue tracker. We probably should have tested the onboarding for other source languages better--oops!

Very thankful for the iOS app release, as a hardware issue with my laptop made it impossible to skritter since last Friday. I lost 4 days, went off the deep end in Beeminder and was greeted with almost 800 pending reviews in the iOS app this afternoon.
I ordered a stylus. :-)

It's great to finally be able to have Skritter in my pocket. I did not like the sound effects or automatic transitions but luckily these could be disabled in the Settings menu. I do not like the textured interface or font - in either mode. I would like to suggest to create a theme that preserves the basic simplicity of the web site. IMHO, eye candy only detracts from the learning experience. Perhaps it would be a good idea to create a plug-in architecture for themes? That way, users would be able to create their own themes and select whatever they want. There are two missing features that seem easy enough to implement: the ability to go back and forth between characters you have already seen and the ability to write characters again when you wish to do so. Currently, when you click on the back button in the app, you go all the way back to the main screen. When you click on the back button in the web site, you return to the last character.

A great first effort, with lots of room for improvement. Now, where do I sign up for those 2 extra years?

@范博涵, If you click on the left side of the screen you will be able to go back. Same as you click on the right side to go forward. If you like to write again. swipe upwards with your finger in the box and it will erase so you can rewrite again. I do that all the time due to my extremely weak memory.

Edit. To get the 1 or 2 year super deals: You can PayPal those sale prices to scott@skritter.com, including your Skritter username in the note.

There are many things that I think could be tweaked or improved here and there, but I'm not complaining too much. The app is out and I've skrittered for the first time in a month :D as far as I can tell, it appears to be exactly as functional as the website. I like the send to pleco button especially. The new aesthetic was a bit of a surprise, but I like it. I'm really pleased and you guys deserve a lot of credit for all the hard work you've put into the app!

Congratulations!
It is working well for me. Oh no, what will we whine about now that the app is out? I know; waiting for the iPad optimized version. I need this to give me an excuse to buy an iPad. It's a great day to have any iOS device though. Great job, guys.

So my plan now is to kidnap my friends' idevices and try the app for myself :) Wrote a jealousy blog about it: http://mouseneb.livejournal.com/42909.html

I will buy a secondhand ipod touch 4 for only app!

@podster: we can whine about missing features and the lack of screen real estate. If they can make a nice layout for the iPad that has the same features as the web version (definition, example sentences and component decomposition on-screen) I will likely sell the iPhone and buy one of those. I have noticed that without all of these mnemonics on-screen I am forgetting a lot more than usual. However, perhaps I just need to get used to the app.

@Mandarinboy: thanks for those pointers. Did not realize that the "missing" features were already present.

mnemonics are in the app as well. between the writing portion and the prompt portion, there is a line with a small arrow button in the middle.

tap on that arrow. it's a little finicky, but if you do it right, the button will flash blue, and the line will drop down, revealing the mnemonic.

I love the app, you guys did a great job! Sure, I'd love an iPad format version (please, please, please) but I was amazed how well I liked using the iPhone for my reviews. It really works.

Now, no more excuses for avoiding my studies.

have been fiddeling around with it and I am overwhelmed, lets see if I will be able to break the 1500 Hanzi barrir by end of the year.

What I have been missing though is the tone colour feature available on the flash version?!

Anyway great work ... You are geniuses!

"mnemonics are in the app as well. between the writing portion and the prompt portion, there is a line with a small arrow button in the middle.

tap on that arrow. it's a little finicky, but if you do it right, the button will flash blue, and the line will drop down, revealing the mnemonic."

Tapping on the definition also works.

@atdlouis: what I meant was that actually having everything on screen at once (definitions, mnemonics, example sentences) greatly facilitates the learning process. As this is not possible with the iPod/iPhone version I think it is only really useful (to a lesser degree when compared to the web version) to review those characters you already know.

@Mandarinboy: I tried tapping left but you can only go back one character in a word, rather than being able to return to previous words. Sometimes you want to have a look at the mnemonics for a previous character again because it is related to the current character but there is no way to do this in the iOS app. Sucks.

It would also be nice to be able to tap on the individual characters and to at least see a character decomposition overlay.

Happy that the app is here as it will mean no more Skritter-less holidays, time lost at airports, etc. but at least at this point I can only see myself use it when no Windows client is available. Besides the lack of features when compared to the web version there is also a severely limited interface due to a lack of screen real estate and the annoyance of having to sync every time. The latter does not seem to work properly. Even though I was down to 215 reviews in the web version the iOS version still showed 654. I had to shut down and start the application to initiate the sync process again. This would preferably be done by an incremental polling/change management mechanism in the app.

@范博涵

You can get the character breakdowns. Go to the information screen (the "i") at top right. If it's a single character, the radicals are immediately displayed. If multiple characters, just touch each character individually (found near the bottom of the information screen).

I believe that you can go back multiple words, but I think there are some restrictions (can't go back to previous session if stopping and starting and in general can't go back unlimited number).

范博涵, the syncing should work as you want it to--perhaps there was a bug. If you keep seeing this, let's debug it. It syncs every couple minutes while you are studying, and also initiates a sync whenever you return to the home screen from the study screen.

You can only go back up to one word (no matter how many characters are in it), and only until that word is saved, which happens after two minutes or whenever you multitask.

While I can't take any credit for working toward the iOS release, and in fact I'm not convinced I actually wrote the definition used in the video (~1:31), I just wanted to add my congratulations!

While I haven't skrittered in a long time, I like getting the updates and wish you all continued success, not least because I want Skritter to still be around if/when I get back to Chinese :)

Hobbes828, your glorious mnemonic lives on! Helped me learn that pesky 循.

I was in a bar, when I randomly browsed the app store for Skritter and lo and behold the little Skritter icon was staring it me. I downloaded it instantly and and began Skrittering. I haven't been on the website in a while and I've managed to bring my reviews from around 2,500 items down to just 200 in the first day.

In the elevator, in a taxi, eating lunch, I'm now Skrittering. Hoping to make some real progress this year and I havn't made any at all the the past few months.

One question, can you view example sentances on the app?

Fantastic. I love it already.
The Pleco button was a nice surprise!

This app will no doubt keep me up to speed again. No more tablet hassle from work to home etc. Just skritter everywhere!

2300 reviews in one day--crushing it! Nice.

We are planning to build a much better example sentence system soon, so we didn't put the one we have now for Chinese into the app. Instead, we'll build this better one and then put that into the app.

Great. Most words I add on Skritter I encounter then through daily life, however some I just learn through Skritter. I find example sentences are necessary to learn (roughly) how to use the words.

Looking forward to the new system!

Ps: Reviews down to 0 and now progressing!

Where is the Pleco button?

If you hit the info button in the top right of the study screen, the pleco button will appear along the top of that page.

The button marked i which leads to a screen saying Ban - Star - Close? Does the word Pleco appear anywhere? I get a definition but it doesn't look like Pleco.

On mine it says "Pleco, Ban, Star, Close"....

Edit: I presume you have Pleco installed and up to date?

I have all Pleco installed. It reports that it is up to date.
So should I be reinstalling the App? That would be for the third installation!
Or does the Pleco button not appear for all lists? I am just using the Read and Write Chinese list at the moment, for test purposes.

The Pleco button only appears if you have a new-enough version of Pleco. What version are you on? You need 2.2.11.

Thanks, Nick. I had 2.2.9. I didn't even know it was out of date. I was just about to post that here so other people know. I get the button now.