languages

WordBanker English-Portuguese allows users to practice their Portuguese vocabulary using several different formats. Although the program is not the most intuitive we've ever seen, it's fairly easy to use and is a great way to improve your Portuguese vocabulary.

The program's interface is not particularly attractive and can sometimes be hard to navigate. Each function opens a separate window within the program, and it's hard to know at first if closing the window is going to take you back to the main menu or close the program completely. Continued use of the program helps with this. … Read more

Flash Card Factory provides users with a simple way of improving their foreign language vocabulary. Though it features a pair of excellent tools for the job, the program doesn't provide all it promises.

The program's interface will take some experimenting in order to get used to it. For the most part, navigating and utilizing its functions is simple, but the smaller tools are unlabeled, and it might take a visit to the Help file to fully understand them. The program's flash card function was the highlight of the program. A cartoon image of a hand holding a … Read more

Learn Spanish with this simple program aimed at helping users develop speaking skills from the ground up. With easy controls and a few surprises, this is a great tutor for those getting into this beautiful language.

The program's interface will be a blessing to computer users of all skill levels. With simple icons that do a good job of describing their function, users need only hold the cursor over each for a more in-depth description to pop up. A Help file is also available, which focuses on program functions and not Spanish language. Users begin by choosing what level … Read more

GoNaomi aims to provide a multilanguage dictionary with which users can look up words in different languages and compare them side-by-side within the program's interface. Unfortunately, its slow performance and lack of translation options left little to be desired.

From the get-go, GoNaomi functioned slowly. The program indicated that there was a "fatal SQL" error, which led us to believe that there could be a problem with the program's database. Since the program is essentially a database, this is a very large problem indeed. We tried the program by selecting English as the language to which … Read more

Multilingual Speaking Clock offers users an opportunity to hear the time in practically any language. This simple-to-operate program will not disappoint users looking for a basic timepiece in their native tongue.

This freeware download could not be more straightforward. It is seen as a simple digital clock with black numbers on a gray background that winds up every second of the day. Users find five buttons at the bottom of the clock for Alarm, Settings, Options, Help, and Spoken Time. The clock comes with four options of voices: American English spoken by a male, American English spoken by a female, … Read more

Keyman Desktop Professional Edition allows users to change keyboard configurations to accommodate multiple languages. During our tests, we were able to type and edit our text in English, but we were unable to access the On Screen Keyboard and view our text in any other language.

During the initial setup, you're expected to install a keyboard based on a language of your choosing. We selected the BU keyboard, which was compatible with both English and French, among other languages. The main user interface resembles most text editing programs, so you'll feel right at home. The interface can be … Read more

Watch what you say. Scientists in England have developed a computer that can not only read lips, but can tell the difference between languages.

Researchers at the University of East Anglia's School of Computing Sciences developed the technology by statistically modeling the lip motions of 23 bilingual and trilingual speakers. The resulting system is able to identify the language spoken by an individual with "very high accuracy," according to the university. Identifiable languages included English, French, German, Arabic, Mandarin, Cantonese, Italian, Polish, and Russian.

What gives you away? The movement of your articulators--when you wag your tongue, … Read more

Identify is a small, experimental Firefox extension that quickly analyzes a contact's user name to pull up biographical information, and grab links to their profiles on other social services. For instance, if I were to use it on Rafe Needleman's Twitter profile it would be able to tell me what other services he's using, like FriendFeed, Facebook, Last.fm, and more. The same thing would happen if I checked from his profile on one of those other sites, too.

At least that's how it's supposed to work. It did better on some of my friends … Read more

Leave it to Zend to kick Java-loving Sun Microsystems when it's down.

PHP has become one of the hottest programming languages in technology, and the engine behind the little scripting language that could is Zend Technologies. Back in 2000 Zend released its Zend Framework to facilitate PHP development, and it's now taking this Java-bashing crusade a step further with the release of its new Zend Server, as The Register reports.

As Dave Rosenberg notes over on CNET's Software Interrupted blog, Zend Technologies is making available its Zend Server on Tuesday as both a commercial product and one … Read more