nciku Mobile is the mobile version of nciku.com, and uses the same extensive database of words, idioms and examples as the main nciku website. It is optimized for devices with small screens and low-bandwidth internet connections, and focuses on presenting the most essential content in a streamlined and simplified format.
If your question is not covered by this FAQ, or if you have any other suggestions, please feel free to contact us.
To use nciku mobile, simply enter http://m.nciku.com into your mobile phone's web browser. Enter your search term - which can be English, Chinese or Pinyin - into the search box on that page, and press 'search'.
nciku mobile is designed to support almost any mobile phone released in the last 5 years or more - as long as your phone has an internet connection and supports XHTML Mobile Profile(also known as WAP 2.0), you should be able to use nciku mobile. You can also access nciku mobile on your desktop web browser if you want a simpler and more streamlined site - but remember, you'll be missing out on our advanced features such as handwriting recognition, audio pronunciation for all of our entries and examples, user vocab lists and more.
If you bought your phone outside China, your phone might not support Chinese characters. You might be able to install Chinese character support by downloading a patch from your manufacturer's website, or by visiting a service center and asking them to help you install Chinese language support. If you live in an area with a large Chinese population, you might also be able to find a shop in your local Chinatown that will install Chinese character support on your phone for a small fee.
Apart from Chinese character support, some phone models also do not support all the IPA pronunciation symbols for English words. Unfortunately we aren't aware of any way to install IPA support onto a mobile phone, but we think that mobile nciku will be useful even without full IPA support.
nciku mobile provides words, pronunciations, definitions and examples from the same database as the main nciku.com dictionary. We will work on providing more of nciku's advanced features, including user vocabulary lists and audio pronunciation of entries and examples, as we continue to develop nciku mobile in the future.
In addition to the site interface language, the Chinese version of nciku mobile does not provide pinyin for dictionary definitions or examples. If you want to see pinyin for definitions and examples, please use the English version.
