I am toying with the idea of buying an iPad for Lingq, but I’d like to hear first from people here to see if it justifies the purchase.
Is the iOS app really better than the Android one? Can you explain what the difference is between the two?
I currently use the Lingq app on my Galaxy Tab S6 and although it is perfectly usable, there are a few things I don’t like about it:
• frequent bugs
• adding tags is a tedious affair (you have to click on the word first to add the definition and then reopen the Lingq again to add tags)
• deleting tags in the app is impossible in the popup (no cross to delete like in the browser)
In my experience, no it’s not, but I kind of feel this is more a “form factor” thing between phone (android) and ipad mini (ios) for me.
I work almost exclusively in sentence mode, so having the extra real estate is more of a hindrance than anything in terms of weight and finger travel. Not to mention, if I have to enter my own meaning, typing on ipad vs phone is not fun.
In terms of the app, there are small differences, although I feel like the latest update to android has kind of pushed it to what the ios app is like based on the last time I used that. Not for the better I might add (more clicks to change level of unknown).
One other things that seems to work worse in ios on the ipad mini (not sure about other form factors) is the highlighting of phrases. Android, it works flawlessly. Hold down briefly to highlight a word and then drag the “pointers”. On ios for the android app when I’ve tried it, it really kind of stinks. Maybe it’s gotten better but in the past it feels like I have to get lucky to select a phrase. Or I have to click/hold a word and then I need to keep clicking additional words to add to the phrase. I’ve even done click/hold and slide to select the phrase but it seems clunky at best. It may be that I’m just not used to it.
Not sure about the differences because I don’t have an Android but on my iPad Pro, one thing that I used to use often is entering my own meanings using Apple Pencil or by dictating. The latter is definitely faster and more precise but if I want to be silent, the Apple Pencil is faster than writing using the digital keyboard.
not sure about tags as I don’t use them often.
True, highlighting is not fun, you need to understand the trick to do it well. I don’t know if it’s changed and improved either because I’ve been using the web app lately.
Thanks for the tip on dictating and apple pencil. I’ve often figured the latter would help a lot, although I’ve never used it before to verify.
Also, the highlighting…I assume it behaves in the “iOS way”. So if someone is used to that, then it may be quite easy. I’ve been an android guy forever…I only ended up getting the ipad mini after there seemed to be no interest in any Android based manufacturer to make a decent tablet in that form factor.
Soooo, I think it’s something one would get used to, especially if armed with the i-pencil and a lot more usage than I do with it.
I had an ipad mini in the past too and it was fun. Also a couple of regular iPads and a normal size iPad Pro. But I have to say that the bigger iPad Pro is really the most comfortable. It’s true, it is a little bit heavier but for reading and writing is the best in my opinion.
It’s also faster and probably there is a bit more room to highlight properly. Actually, highlighting on kindle or pdf is very fast and there is no problem with it, but with LingQ is a bit more on and off. I have a hard time to use the Apple Pencil for that purpose so I’m faster if I use the index finger. It’s not the best but you know, we are workaround masters.
With the web app, there is also the possibility to highlight more words than 9 and it opens the pop-up to use Google Translate. We cannot save that phrase but at least we can quickly translate it with Google, which is handy.
On iOS, however, there is not this possibility, so we can highlight only the minimum word required!
@SeoulMate What kind of problems do you have with tags?
I have just tried now and it was very easy to add tags to words or eliminate tags I had previously added. Yes, you have to open those windows because nothing is straightforward but they work.
Maybe to delete them on Android works in the same way, you long press the tag that you want to delete and it disappears. I have just tried this with the Apple Pencil and it works, there is no “x” either.
White words allow to add a tag even if you don’t have any definition.
Yellow words need to be clicked again to add a tag.
Blue words depends on I don’t know what. Some of them, probably if they have already definitions by users, allow to add a tag. So you can add the tag first, then search for the definition and add it to the word. Others don’t have the tag icon displayed, so you need to search for the definition, enter it and then reopen the word again.
But it is quite fast, the opening and closing. Yes, it is extra clicking in LingQ style but it is smooth and fast (and this can definitely make your experience better).
I have just tried it on iOS 14.
My old android tablet is slower to go to the next sentence on the web than an old ipad. The website allow shortcuts. It would be helpful if the transition was quicker, perhaps by removing the single word translations.
IOS is a pain on the website with a mouse since other screen items pop up often.
Shortcuts in the app seem an odd ommission @zoltan
I ended up buying a 9th generation (2021) Ipad on Ebay for £245. It was sold as “refurbished - excellent”, and it is absolutely perfect.
The storage space is not amazing at only 64GB, but I don’t care too much because I already own an Android tablet and phone with lots of storage.
Overall I don’t think the price was too bad. I didn’t want to spend a fortune since I am planning on using the ipad mainly for Lingq and general browsing.
