Playbooks
An Apple Watch App to Trace a Quick Character?
An Apple Watch nudge to trace a character sounds handy, but the screen is tiny. Here is what a watch is good for in Chinese practice and what it is not.
Lawrence Arya··5 min
Playbooks
Can Boox Apps Track Your Stroke-Order Mistakes?
Boox e-ink tablets are lovely for writing, but their native note apps don't check stroke order. Here is what they can and can't do, and the workaround.
Lawrence Arya··5 min
Essays
Can a Kindle Scribe Grade Your Chinese Handwriting?
A Kindle Scribe is a lovely e-ink notebook, but it captures ink without grading it. It cannot check stroke order or score your characters. For that you need a dedicated practice app.
Lawrence Arya··5 min
Playbooks
Fixing Input Lag When Writing Chinese on a Mac Tablet
Getting input lag writing Mandarin characters on a Mac with a drawing board? The lag is real and fixable, but the device matters less than the method. Here is how.
Lawrence Arya··5 min
Playbooks
Drawing Hanzi on a MacBook Magic Trackpad?
Can you practice writing characters on a MacBook trackpad? You can, but it is a poor surface for handwriting. Here is what works and what is far better.
Lawrence Arya··5 min
Playbooks
Does E-Ink Refresh Rate Matter for Writing Practice?
E-ink's slow refresh causes lag and ghosting that hurt fast tracing animations, but it matters far less for from-memory writing, where the value is producing the character, not smooth playback.
Lawrence Arya··5 min
Essays
Apple Pencil Hover vs VR Finger Tracing for Hanzi
Is Apple Pencil hover better than VR finger tracing for learning characters? Both are recognition crutches. Here is why from-memory writing beats either gimmick.
Lawrence Arya··5 min
Essays
Smartpens for Learning Mandarin: the Honest State
Smartpens digitize your handwriting on real paper, but no Mandarin-learning app meaningfully integrates with them. Here is the reality and what actually helps.
Lawrence Arya··5 min
Playbooks
Installing a Hanzi Tracing App on a Steam Deck
Can you run Hanzi tracing software on a Steam Deck through Proton? Here is what actually works on the hardware, and the honest limits for handwriting practice.
Lawrence Arya··5 min
Essays
Can a VR Headset Teach You to Write Hanzi?
Tracing traditional characters in VR space sounds magical, but does it build real handwriting? Here is the honest case for and against, and what works today.
Lawrence Arya··5 min