iPad Apps for Chinese or Vietnamese Adults

June 18, 2011 9:25 PM

What apps would a 50-year old Chinese or Vietnamese person have on their iPad? I'm thinking of getting my parents iPads, since I've really enjoyed mine, think that it'd be simple enough for them to use, and easy enough to do technical support for. They aren't that technically savvy and don't speak English well so I'd like to get them started first on some easy to use apps where they could get content such as foreign news, music, and television shows.

I'm not sure of the names of Vietnamese or Chinese newspapers, but if there was a Vietnamese/Chinese paper similar to the New York Times for example that had an app, that would be worth looking at. Or a Chinese/Vietnamese centric Youtube-style or VEVO-style app, or any Chinese/Vietnamese games such as Chinese Chess or Phom.

posted by ajackson to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

Not what your asking for, but Zen Brush is fun for doing calligraphy with.
posted by zachawry at 9:27 PM on June 18, 2011

Also not what you're asking for, but I think Insect Cage is pretty nice, even if it is more Japanese than Chinese/Vietnamese. Maybe it would be a fun starter app - they can very simply adjust the volume of the three (?) types of crickets represented.
posted by amtho at 9:55 PM on June 18, 2011

My kids have a bunch of Vietnamese and Cambodian radio apps and some dictionary apps, and some kind of gossip magazine that comes in iPad format. Otherwise, I'd just put the usual Angry Birds and photo apps etc.
posted by viggorlijah at 7:06 AM on June 19, 2011

set up a bookmark on the desktop for google translate - to translate from English to Chinese or Vietnamese. I have one on my iPhone for Norwegian -> English that I use a lot.
posted by seawallrunner at 9:28 AM on June 19, 2011

Videos/TV/Dramas: Try Tudou, Youku, Crunchyroll, MiTV, CCTV, etc..
Books: Try Shubook, My Reader...I think Stanza can handle multiple languages including Chinese

There are quite a lot of Chinese chess / Chinese checker game apps; not sure if any particular brand stands out above the rest...

News/search/email/etc: Try Baidu, Sina, Sohu...

(Not sure whether they would find this useful, but QQ (the Chinese version of Facebook) also has an iPhone app... )
posted by aielen at 11:09 AM on June 19, 2011