I have to say pinyin practice looks pretty well ready to go for an alpha. Only problem I see is that the pinyin almost invariably comes immediately before definition practice, which totally ruins the value of the definition practice since not only did you just see the definition -- but it was actually in a similar location to where it would be on the flashcard.

I presume this will be fixed before it's final, but I wanted to bring it up.

I also noticed that. So count bug confirmed from my side. ;)

There is another issue here. I think that typing tones should not be there for two reasons:
1. It makes original tone practice redundant.
2. The whole point of pinyin practice, as I see it, is to learn type in Chinese. However, the modern typing schemes like Google Pinyin do not require you to write tones. Also getting used to choose tone by pressing numbers is a bad idea since this is how we normally select variants of chars when typing pinyin.

"1. It makes original tone practice redundant. "

Or it mutually reinforces it!

Still, I'm not personally using the new pinyin practice, but I can see why people like it. Especially helpful when starting.

@Shisoik A number of other tools, such as Anki, use the numbers for typing tones, so I'm quite happy that that's what the Skritter guys did. I also use the Windows Chinese IME which requires you to type pinyin followed by a number to select the character, and it hasn't been a problem at all.

I don't think that the whole point of pinyin practice is to learn to type in Chinese, although maybe the Skritter developers can enlighten us on their original intentions. Pinyin practice in Anki has helped me to SPEAK Chinese.

James

Like the pinyin (with tone) practice. However, I agree with Byzanti - it's driving me nuts that I have the pinyin immediately followed by the definition cue. Help!

The previous concern I mentioned about having to switch back and forth between tablet and keyboard is also a bit annoying... I wonder if there's a way to have it delayed when I'm working with my tablet and then do it all at once when I'm ready to keyboard...?

Count me into the driven nuts group :)

Duly noted! I've changed it so that readings and definitions are not paired together. Will upload soon.

I haven't figured out how to set it up to do pinyin practice. How do I do that?

You can do that here:

http://www.skritter.com/account/settings-language

Or on the practice page. Just click the upper right corner where it says settings to choose what parts you want to study.