Sogou Chinese pinyin input IME for the Android G1 (G1 搜狗拼音输入法)

UPDATE: I also posted a brief comparison of Sogou Pinyin IME and Google Pinyin IME.

I'm in Hong Kong right now.

For quite a while, I have been wanting a Chinese IME for my G1. I woke up early because of jet lag and having nothing better to do, decided to see if there was anything in the app store to allow Chinese language input. I found the Sogou IME app and downloaded and installed. So far it seems to work very nicely. I just send some test emails. I haven't explored all of the capabilities yet but I like what I see, and may install the Sogou IME on my PC as well.

The reason I am posting is that I wanted to share what I finally figured out about how to activate it after downloading and installing. I spent a while after downloading and installing wondering why nothing happened, and I was still seeing the old Android keyboard. The help section on the website didn't offer any guidance. Finally after poking around I found that I had to go to the Android Settings 'Locale & Text', then under 'Text Settings' turn off Android keyboard, and turn on '搜狗输入法'. Once I did that, everything was hunky dory, and next time I composed an email, the rather neat Sogou virtual keyboard was up there. Once I turned on the Sogou keyboard, I did get a warning that everything I typed, including credit card numbers and so forth, would be visible to the app. That didn't bother me, I guess I am naively optimistic that Sogou wouldn't do something mean like program the app to transmit everything I type to the 国家安全局.

If you are looking for a Chinese IME for your G1, go into the Android Market and search for Sogou Input and you should find it.

The settings menus for the app are all in Chinese, so they may be a bit hard to navigate for someone who is just learning Chinese. So far it seems to work fine without any fiddling with the settings.

Here are my attempts at translations of the menu contents...

搜狗输入法设置　－　Sougou Input Method Settings
键盘设置　- Keyboard settings

按键时振动 - Vibrate when key pressed
按键反馈音 - Feedback tone on key press

竖屏虚拟键盘模式 - Vertical screen virtual keyboard style

数字键盘 - Numeric keypad (like for T9 input)

全键盘 - Full keyboard

横屏虚拟键盘模式 - Horizontal screen virtual keyboard style

数字键盘 - Numeric keypad (like for T9 input)

全键盘 - Full keyboard

输入设置 - Input Settings

中文输入 - Chinese input

模糊音设置 - Settings for unclear sounds

中文联想 - Chinese linking/association

英文输入 - English input

自动添加空格 - Automatically add spaces

自动句首大写 - Automatically capitalize the beginnings of sentences

符号输入 - Punctuation input

自动符号成对 - Automatically pair punctuation

中文状态下自定义符号 - Chinese custom symbols

英文状态下自定义符号 - English custom symbols

数字状态下自定义符号 - Numeric custom symbols

更新升级 - Update/upgrade
词库更新 - Instantly update dictionary

软件升级 - Upgrade the software over the internet

更新设置 - Update settings

开户自动更新 - Turn on automatic updates

更新提示 - Update reminders

每天 - Every day

每3天 - Every three days

etc.

词库管理 - Dictionary management

词库备份 - Dictionary backup

网络备份用户词库 - Back up user's dictionary on the internet

词库恢复 - Dictionary restore

网络恢复用户词库 - Restore user's dictionary from internet

通行证管理 - Pass management

搜狗通行证注册， 登录和注销 - Sogou Pass registration, login, logout

帮助 - Help

与好友分享 - Share with friends

搜狗输入法帮助 - Sogou input help

用户反馈 - User feedback

关于搜狗输入法 - About Sogou input

After using it for a few weeks, I am generally pretty pleased. The English auto-completion/correction doesn't seem quite as good as the native Android system, but it is passable. And having Chinese language input is REALLY handy.

Here is the URL for the Sogou input for mobiles page:
http://shouji.sogou.com/

It is all in Chinese, but you may be able to get some sense of what is going on with Google translate. For more information about Sogou for Android, click on the tab at the top navbar that says 帮助说明. That will take you to a help page. If you look at the navbar on the left, you will see "Android 1.5 平台，使用帮助", click on that to get to a help page for the Android Sogou that you might try running through Google Translate or some other translator. The way the site is configured I can't link to the site directly.