Japanese Portable Dictionary Recommendations?

[JackiJinx]

皆さん　こんにちは~

My name is Jacki and I'm an intermediate student that already owns a good ton of Japanese books, including (but not limited to) the first Heisig book (it's what I started on), The Kodansha Kanji Learner's Dictionary, particle dictionary, etc. What I don't possess is an adequate vocabulary dictionary other than a pocket one (Oxford Japanese-English dictionary). As the topic title implies, I'm looking for one.

As I have stated, I am a student, and although I'm currently under two jobs, I'm also saving money for an apartment, so I can not splurge on something super luxurious. However, if it is better in the long run, I am willing to save money on an electronic dictionary or other portable electronic device (currently, I possess just a regular cell phone, nothing fancy beyond that) that satisfies a larger vocabulary need.

In regards to electronic recommendations: I understand if people feel inclined to say get an iPhone/iPad/iTouch, and I must say that the only one of those three I'd be willing to buy is the iTouch. That said, if that's what you feel is best for my situation, please provide a list of dictionary apps/what-have-you that would be beneficial or at least a link to another source that would help me out in this specific instance. Please do not link to another thread that lists any and all Japanese apps as that is not what I'm looking for, even if the best intentions are there.

If I sound picky, I am, but I know what I need and I hope that someone here is able to help my picky arse out

[Belton]

I recommend electronic over paper. For size weight and ease of search.
Touch over dedicated electronics. For price (about half that of dedicated devices), size, and versatility.
Depending on just how portable you want to be a laptop is better than a Touch.

As Apple has just revamped its Touch line you might get the previous version at a bargain price. Get the 16MB device as a minimum.

You have a few options for dictionaries on the Touch.

1. The Edict dataset
which will come free (eg Kotoba) or paid (eg Japanese)
The differences between apps will be how good the interface is mostly.

2. ports of printed dictionaries.
(eg Wisdom, Longman, Progressive )
These you will pay for and most will be aimed at Japanese users wanting Japanese to English. Some of these eg. those from Shogakukun are the same as you might find on some electronic devices. The Progressive is used on the Mac as the built in dictionary and is very good. The price for the app on the touch will probably be cheaper than a paper copy. These dictionaries are usually better edited than Edict.

I'd avoid Eijiro on the touch I haven't seen a decent implementation.

There are threads about Touchs on the forum, as you don't want the links I'll let you search them out.
If you go to Apples site you can search the app store for Japanese dictionaries 辞典、辞書 and see screenshots, blurbs and reviews.

I get by perfectly well with an ipod and Kotoba, and KKLD (better than the print version but unfortunately unavailable at the moment and the developer can't say when it will be back) A Flashcard app, Safari and a notetaking app. If I have a connection jisho.org is very useful.
And there's other goodies like Manga, Podcasts, etc.
Japanese sensei is also worth a look. Mainly it's a sort of flashcard program but it can work as a dictionary with examples and audio for everything.

If I'm at my laptop I use the mac's built in Japanese dictionaries, JEDict with Eijiro dictionaries (from a CD ROM edition), and chuta.jp. The last takes a lot of the work out of looking up words if a lot of your target texts are digital. (I've written a solution to take advantage of this, storing the search results and extracting flashcard sets from them)
If you don't need ultra mobility a laptop might be all you really need.

The one print dictionary I still use is a Japanese Childrens kanji dictionary
下村式-小学漢字学習辞典
Interesting for having to work completely in Japanese but not as intense as one aimed at adults. I just browse the entries rather than use it to look up specific words. But it's bloody thick so not exactly portable. Excellent value though at 2600 yen.

[j_bertoni2279]

If you want an electronic dictionary, I have a Casio XD-A10000 and like it a lot. I haven't tried the iPod software yet, but their dictionaries seem a lot smaller. The Casio is pricey, though. I wouldn't bother with a portable paper dictionary, in all honesty. The electronic choices are a lot more powerful and faster.

[Nebarik]

im gonna be that guy who says get a apple handheld.

theres a app called kotoba, which is unbelievably useful. from a fully searchable dictionary, example sentences, how to write kanji, and several different ways to look up kanji (SKIP, multi radical, by year level or N1-4 level, and actual handwriting into it). also is free

screenies:
http://animeaffairs.files.wordpress.com ... =320&h=480
http://images.macworld.com/appguide/ima ... 25/ss1.jpg

hopefully this will convince u to get a itouch

[Javizy]

I'd get an iTouch if you haven't already. As Belton was saying, you can get a lot of useful Japanese related stuff in addition to dictionaries. You won't be able to just look up words, you'll be able to learn/memorise them with something like Anki too. If you're already into flashcards, doing them wherever you want really helps to take the burden off. Then you have apps for JLPT practice tests/questions, games like Kanji Pop, 共同ニュース, manga, podcasts and whatever else you can find on iTunes.

Don't forget that it's not just limited to Japanese either. I just installed a bunch of stuff for learning French, got some useful apps when I visited Spain and Germany, and have a good English dictionary as well. There are some great apps for reading PDFs (I recommend GoodReader), so you can study just about anything you want. And when you get bored of that, you can listen to music, watch videos, play games and (assuming you have WiFi) use Facebook, Skype (the call quality is great), cache the news, stream videos from your computer, and about a million other things.

[Cress]

Definitely get an iTouch. Aside from Kotoba and Japanese dictionaries, which are basically EDict, there is an EPWING dictionary which means you can use anything from Kodansha to Daijirin and NHK Hatsuon dictionaries. I think the same is true for Android devices.