JapanesePod101.com Blog

Brandon Fogerty, a talented young programmer from Georgia and a long time community member of JapanesePod101.com has just finished coding a beta version of an Installer application for our iLearning Center. This incredible application, which is currently in beta and available only for Windows users, simplifies the installation process of the lesson notes and sound zip files on the iPod by automating the entire process and removing the need to unzip, drag, and drop the the files manually.

Premium subscribers who currently use the iLearning Center and are interested in beta testing this fantastic installer can get started by following these 3 simple steps:

Step 1: Read the PDF Installation Guide, which outlines the requirements and provides installation instructions for the application

Step 2: Download and install the correct version of the application according to the steps described in the Installation Guide from Step 1

–> Download Installer with .NET Framework - 23.4 MB (Recommended)

–> Download Installer without .NET Framework - 1.0 MB

Step 3: Read the User Guide, which provides detailed step-by-step directions for using the installer.

Please directly email Brandon at blackdragon7373@yahoo.com with all technical questions, issues, and feedback (kindly copy us at support@japanesepod101.com).

On behalf of everyone here at JapanesePod101.com, we would like to thank Brandon for all his hard work in putting together this extraordinary installer.

Yoroshiku onegai shimasu.
JapanesePod101.com

Dimitri-san has done it again! This time he emerged from his secret programming laboratory with a JapanesePod101.com Widget (see image below)! This incredible widget allows you to listen to any lesson on the feed; furthermore, it even allows you to see lesson specific notes for each lesson by clicking the italic i in lower right corner! Dimitri’s diabolic creation has been added to Mac’s Dashboard Widgets and can also be downloaded from Dimitri’s website.

Please direct all technical questions, issues, and feedback to Dimitri at dimitri008@mac.com (please indicate [Widget] in the subject line of your email). We too at JapanesePod101.com would love to hear your feedback about the widget.On behalf of eveyone here at JapanesePod101.com, we would like to thank Dimitri for all his hard work in putting together this extraordinary widget.

Yoroshiku onegai shimasu.

Dimitri-san, a young and talented programmer from Los Angeles, has just launched Version 1.0 of his incredible JapanesePod101.com application (see screenshot below). Using our RSS feed, his incredible application enables end users to quickly browse, search, sort, listen, and watch our daily podcasts and videocasts using one convenient tool. You can even see the romaji and transcripts as you hear each lesson!
Version 1.0 includes the following upgrades and improvements:

• powerful control over managing all the episodes, as they can be filtered by name, date time — you name it!
• instant search built in
• easy to use controller for playing episodes
• plays video episodes, along with audio ones
• next button goes up the list, selecting the newer episode, unlike iTunes
• integrated built in JapanesePod101.com web site support for instant access to the learning center, episode comments, and PDFs
• ability to print out your own customised Kana practice sheets
• Kanji/Kana Close-Up available when you click a Japanese Character in the episode’s transcript
• easily viewable episode transcripts
• saves episodes to your disk for those rainy days without internet
• allows you to play episodes before they downloaded for those slow internet connections
• short typing tutorial for those wanting to practice typing Japanese

Thank you Dimitri-san!

Please direct all technical questions, issues, bugs, and feedback to Dimitri at dimitri008@mac.com (please indicate [Version 1.0] in the subject line of your email). We too at JapanesePod101.com would love to hear your feedback about the application.
On behalf of eveyone here at JapanesePod101.com, I would like to thank Dimitri for all his hard work in putting together this extraordinary application.

Dimitri-san also provides a newsletter for the application and a FAQ section.
Yoroshiku onegai shimasu.

Are you a Mac user? Do you listen to JapanesePod101.com? If you answered ‘yes’ to both questions then you are in for a real special treat! Our young friend and talented programmer, Dimitri from Los Angeles, has just launched beta version 1.2 of his JapanesePod101.com super-duper application (see screenshot below). Using our RSS feed, his incredible application enables end users to quickly browse, search, sort, listen, and watch our daily podcasts and videocasts using one convenient tool. You can even see the romaji as you hear each lesson!

Anyone interested in beta-testing the application can get started on Dimitri’s website where they can download it, see screenshots, and read frequently asked questions.

Please direct all technical questions, issues, bugs, and feedback to Dimitri at dimitri008@mac.com (please indicate [JP101 Beta Testing] in the subject line of your email). We too at JapanesePod101.com would love to hear your feedback about the application.
On behalf of eveyone here at JapanesePod101.com, I would like to thank Dimitri for all his hard work in putting together this extraodinary application.

Yoroshiku onegai shimasu.

- Eran

Update 10/21/06: Thank you for everyone who participated in the iTunes Podcast Artwork Contest! We were absolutely blown away by the number of entries and by the creative talents of our community. I would like to congratulate the winner, Rioo-san from South Korea, whose submission can be seen below. Click here to see all the entries.

We’re looking for you, our community members, to put your creative and artistic skills to work in designing a new, original artwork for our podcast. The winning design will become the new official artwork for our podcast page on iTunes, seen by thousands of users every day.
Your artwork entry must…

• be an attractive and original image that represents JapanesePod101.com
• fit nicely with our website and brand identity
• include the text “JapanesePod101.com”
• be your own original artwork that does not contain any copyrighted material without written approval from the owner
• either be JPEG or PNG formats (original PSD or EPS required as well)
• be square and 300 x 300 pixels
• look good on iTunes pages where is is much smaller in size (e.g. search results and feature placement pages)

General contest rules…

• The contest is open to ALL members of the JapanesePod101.com community
• You are welcome to submit more than one entry if you wish
• The winning design will become the property of JapanesePod101.com, but your authorship recognition will be retained
• You must give your full permission for JapanesePod101.com to use your logo design
• The contest deadline for entries is midnight (GMT/UTC) on Thursday, October 19th, 2006
• The winner will be announced on News podcast on Saturday, October 21, 2006 as well as our on our website

Prizes…

• Winner will receive a 3-Month Premium Subscription to JapanesePod101.com, recognition on our podcast, and the opportunity to work with JapanesePod101.com on future design projects
• Runner-up will receive a 1-Month Premium Subscription to JapanesePod101.com

Where to send your entries…

Please email all entries along with your name, contact information, and a short blurb about yourself to:

contactus@japanesepod101.com

You can also direct any further contest questions to this email address.

Thanks for your participation and good luck!

The JapanesePod101.com Team

Learn Japanese with JapanesePod101.com! The JapanesePod101.com community does it again! Justin Silvestre, a just-turned-fifteen U.S. based listener, used his remarkable artistic skills to breathe life into a JapanesePod101.com story. Justin-san created an audio anime learning tool based on our Brothers, Brothers series to enhance the community’s learning experience and turn his anime creation into a unique learning experience! This amazing tool allows the listener to play the line-by-line audio over and over while viewing Justin’s amazing and detailed artwork.

To study with this amazing piece of art, stop by JapanesePod101.com and click here!
Or, cut and paste the following link into your browser:
http://www.japanesepod101.com/comics/brothersbrothers.htm

Justin-san, nante sugoi!

As we mentioned in today’s news, we recently received a very interesting email from Jimmy-san in Virginia. Imagine driving down the road, listening to the latest JapanesePod101.com podcast (what else would you be listening to), when all of the sudden you notice something familiar on the license plate in front of you. You squint trying to make it out, and then it hits you - JPOD101.

If this were to actually happen, you would be looking at Jimmy-san’s car. That’s right, he actually got JPOD101 on his license plate! As promised, here is the picture of the license plate! Yoroshiku onegai shimasu!

Mina-san, hontou ni arigatou gozaimasu!本当にありがとうございます！

We just wanted to take the time to thank all our listeners. Thanks to you, JapanesePod101.com was mentioned in the Japan Times.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/ek20060228a1.html

Thanks to YOU the listeners, our Japanese community will be exposed to a larger audience as a result of this coverage. JapanesePod101.com would like to thank YOU for the role you played in this and for increasing exposure of the language we all love! Thank you! Arigatou Gozaimasu!ありがとうございます！！

Hello Everyone, back for some email reveiws. First up is イギリスのクリスさん, Kris-san from the� United Kingdom. He sent us a great email with of story about using Japanese. Thanks Kris-san that is just the type of stuff we feed off of! ありがとうございます！！Please keep them coming.

マービンさん、東京から今晩は、というとこんにちは、ですね。リンクの件でありがとうございました！助かりました。 Thank you so much for our first German review! We loved it! That line is classics about getting it translated at Erklaren. どうもありがとうございました。

Alexander-san, thank you for the email and the kind words! It is great to know that you are picking up words, we do try to include a lot of what regular Japanese tend to say, as opposed to what is in textbooks. Interesting question about what’s next! We have to see what develops, but could be something in the works, sooner than you think!
As for Natsuko and our Alpha-male, they’ll be back! Last few weeks were really hectic, but we’ll get Kazu and Natsuko back down to the show.

Peter

Japanesepod101.com
http://www.japanesepod101.com/