Using an iPhone & iPad in Thailand Tips, App Reviews and News for the iPhone and iPad by Richard Barrow

Thai for Beginners for the iPhone

Paiboon Publishing’s new iPhone app makes it easy to study your Thai lessons wherever you go with your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad.

The Thai for Beginners app for the iPhone is aimed at people who are using the popular book of the same name written by Benjawan Poomsan Becker  (buy book online here).  Benjawan has a series of three books for people learning Thai as well as a wide range of resources such as dictionary, CDs and DVDs. I reviewed her excellent Talking Dictionary for the iPhone a few weeks back. Like the talking dictionary, this new iPhone app is based on computer software that has already been released (buy online here). Really, it is aimed at people that have already bought Thai for Beginners as the app gives additional exercises based on this book.

When you first enter the app you are given a list of lessons which refer to lessons in the book of the same name. The introduction gives you a lesson about words with different tones. I think it is good that you get a chance to listen to words with certain tones as that helps to train your ear. You get the choice to first review the words then you get to do the exercises. Here you have a choice to hear and read the words or just read the words. This is the same format for all the exercises. For lesson 1 there are three topics: vocabulary, numbers and sentences. Click on the word or sentence and you get to hear a native speaker. Both female and male speakers are used. The speed is just right. Once you are ready then it is time to try the exercises. Overall, I think this is a useful app to buy if you are already using the Thai for Beginners book and are working alone.

Download Thai for Beginners on iTunes. Present price is $24.99 >>>

UPDATE: You can now use this on your iPad.

HEdictionary English Thai

HEdictionary English Thai HD for iPad

The HEdictionary English Thai has separate versions for the iPhone and the iPad. It can be used by people learning Thai or for those learning English. I think really it is more set up for Thai people learning English. You won't find any transliteration of Thai words (so no good for people who cannot read Thai) and the sound clips are only for the English words. The apps have four built-in dictionaries as well as access to online google translations. According to their press release, the English Thai has 52,000 entries, Thai English 35,000 entries, WordNet 3.0 has 200,000 entries and a Thesaurus with 20,000 entries. If you have already started to learn Thai then it might be useful as you will get sample sentences. It also has Word of the Day. For Thais learning English, they might like the crossword game.  You can also do wildcard and anagram searches in the dictionaries.  You can buy each version of this app on iTunes for the present price of $2.99 by clicking here for iPhone and here for iPad.

HEdictionary English Thai for the iPhone

The developers of these apps kindly sent me some promo codes to give away on my blog. I have already distributed some on my Twitter account @RichardBarrow and the rest you can grab from below.  To use these promo codes, log into iTunes. Then in the top rightand corner you should spot two links for "redeem". Click on either of these and then enter one of the following promo codes. These codes can only be used once so it is first come first served.

1) Promo codes for HEdictionary English Thai for iPhone & iPod touch, Version 1.1:
   1. TY39AET6YXJH
   2. YMNXL6ANMENN
   3. LRTTT7RPY74A
   4. MXP9XPJ7APFF
   5. EWE3TWRHHPWX
   6. 9WR96PWYJ4XJ
   7. EX6EWH7EPAP6
   8. YJ6F9F9KPWW7
   9. 4LWRHL93RJT7
  10. W774MM7HYA47

2) Promo codes for HEdictionary English Thai for iPad, Version 1.5:
   1. 9FPFN36LPTE3
   2. EN363HLK9AAA
   3. 3J9LLW69N9TJ
   4. XTXKWKA7WMRT
   5. 74A3797PXW7J
   6. WPMRLJ6AAHYA
   7. PWPWRFT349MR
   8. 6JMP7WPTL9NW
   9. KYH9A6WE4X3X
  10. 7KR6XWX6JKTW

Good luck! More competitions soon here and on Twitter.