I tried the app yesterday and it is goddamn good when it comes to writing characters. I am curious how does this app teaches to learn tones? Does it uses mnemonics for tones as well ? Or is tone learning more of a rote process helped by the SRS?

On a side note I will want to ask the existing web users that doesn't the drive to write characters die down after say a few thousand times one have drawn on the screen ? Does one want to keep on doing it over and over? Does it becomes that good(bad) an addiction?

You can add your own mnemonics for the tones, if you want. I've got a few of my own. The SRS helps you review the tones so you won't forget them.

For me, it's definitely an addiction. I've been a user since Dec. 2008 and I haven't gotten tired of it yet - meanwhile I've learned tons.

One thing I know is that you'll get bored a thousand times quicker if having to learn all these characters by writing on paper. Skritter will save you time, of course you will still have to practice to write them down on paper if you have to do so in the future because it's a different feeling (maybe I should listen to my own advice sometime) but Skritter can definitely keep it more interesting.

I feel like learning tones is a more implicit process. You just gradually, through conversation, learn which words have which sounds.

Of course, this process isn't perfect, and I find myself having to bust out Pleco 10 times a day just to check if I'm right on a certain word's tone. That's where Skritter comes in, it fills in the gaps and makes sure you definitely know what the tones are for the words you already know.

Basically, the quizzing system for tones in skritter is exactly the same for the other types of prompts: it will provide the character(s) and (depending on your setting) pinyin for a word, and you must recall the tone for the word.

On the iOS you enter tones by drawing their marks, and on the web app you can either draw them or enter 1-5 on your keyboard.

Keep in mind that skritter keeps track of tones separately from writing, reading, and pronunciation. So if you correctly write the word 干部 many times but always forget that the first character is tone 4 (instead of tone 1, like it sometimes is) you may not be asked to write it for a long time but it will remember to continue to ask you what the tone is.