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BlackBerry)
Thanks to Dictionary.com, I won a contest this weekend. The challenge: who could find synonyms for a word fastest (it was "fancy," as in "stop being so fancy about everything.") I had Dictionary.com loaded on an iPhone; my colleague, the BlackBerry Storm browser. Had he had the free Dictionary.com for BlackBerry, my challenger might have beaten me to the word bank.
At 250KB, Dictionary.com 1.0 is almost identical to the iPhone version. It, too, packs in a dictionary, a thesaurus, a list of recent search terms, and the opportunity to sign up for the Word A Day service in English and Spanish.
However, this build isn't without its few BlackBerry-only touches. The best one is a context menu option that launches a search for the definition or synonym of a word that you've highlighted in your e-mail--that's an incoming message or an e-mail you're in the process of composing. You can similarly e-mail or text a definition from the app.
Dictionary.com is available now for free in BlackBerry App World. Version 1.0 weighs in at 250KB and is compatible with the BlackBerry Bold, Tour, Curve, and 8800 series, and the Pearl.
When people ask me if it's hard to be a writer, I tell them the challenge is not just thinking up the words, but putting them in the right order. Then they roll their eyes and walk away, reminding me I need to work on both my material and my delivery.
Anyway, like any professional, a writer relies on tools. Here are five that make a great addition to any iPhone or iPod Touch:
The Dictionary.com app is perfect for writers, and not just because it's free.
- Dictionary.com Duh. Every writer needs a good dictionary and thesaurus. This one, a freebie, serves up 275,000 definitions, 80,000 synonyms, and even spoken pronunciations. And despite the dot-com moniker, there's no Internet connection required to use it.
- iTalk Recorder Whether for recording a brilliant idea for your next novel or just preserving the inspiration that struck in the night, a voice-recording app is essential. This one's free, and it lets you append text notes to your voice notes.
- NameShake Need help coming up with a name for your child-prodigy dentist who moonlights as a screenwriting bounty hunter? Give NameShake a shake. It contains more than 19,000 names, complete with definitions, etymology, history, and even a pronunciation guide.
- SAT Vocabulary Builder Word power alone doesn't guarantee your success as a writer, but it certainly doesn't hurt. Though designed with students in mind, Vocabulary Builder has tools that can help anyone learn big, fancy words. More than 1,200 of them in fact.
- Stanza Good writers are good readers. Stanza is my favorite e-book app by far, as it can pull purchases from my Fictionwise account and download both free and commercial titles from a variety of sources. Of course, there's much to like about the Kindle app, too.
(Credit:
MobileWhack)
It's often been unclear to us why anyone would want a standalone dictionary device, which seems like a lot of hardware to carry around just for text. Apparently Maxian agrees, because it recently released an upgraded version of its E900 media player with 60GB of storage to accommodate a built-in pocket dictionary.
The device also has a 4.3-inch display, USB ports, and Windows CE 5.0, according to MobileWhack, as well as support for audio and video. The dictionary combination makes particularly good sense for the Korean manufacturer, because it has already shown a penchant for cramming in as many functions as possible to create its steroidal players.
The inventor of the increasingly ubiquitous Pleco Chinese-English dictionary software for Palm and Windows Mobile devices said the company is "very seriously considering developing" an iPhone version.
In an interview in April's China International Business (not yet online), Michael Love tells of developing the 6-year-old product and how it's getting popular enough that many foreigners in China are buying PDAs or PDA phones just to use Pleco.
I, for one, would not have bought my Windows Mobile-running HTC Touch if not for this program, and untold dozens of my Beijing friends and acquaintances are carrying around Treos for the same reason. (Love said he switches between a Treo 680 and an HTC Touch, himself.)
Here's what Love had to say about the iPhone prospects:
We're not thrilled about Apple locking down distribution and charging developers a 30 percent commission to sell iPhone software, but we really like the platform and think it has enough potential to be worth the hefty fees.
The iPod Touch is actually more exciting to us, in some respects, than the iPhone, since it doesn't force you to change your cell phone carrier and can be found almost anywhere.
It's next to impossible to buy a cell phone-less Palm or Windows Mobile handheld in many parts of the world nowadays, but the iPod Touch is all over the place, so for those people who are willing to buy a handheld just to run Pleco, it would be a better option than they've had in quite a while.
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Electronista)
As so many electronics manufacturers try to cram as many technologies as possible in a single product, it's not surprising that the "convergence" bug has spread to such boring devices as electronic dictionaries. To wit: South Korea's Atree is combining a 100,000-word English-Korean dictionary with a video and MP3 player, according to Electronista.
Perhaps even more important, the combo gadget can also tune in digital TV broadcasts, which is a must for the many viewers who are hooked on Korean soap operas. For that reason alone, it wouldn't be a bad idea to expand distribution to the United States and other countries, where those shows enjoy an addicted following as well, but there are no know plans for that yet.
At the same time, we don't imagine the trend being as popular for American TV: For some reason, we can't quite see fans of All My Children in dire need of an electronic dictionary. A TV-bar combo, on the other hand, would be an entirely different matter.
(Credit:
TechEBlog)
We came across Merriam-Webster's MWD-480 as part of TechEBlog's feature on must-have gadgets for college kids. It's an electronic dictionary that doubles as an MP3 player. Just think: now you can look up antidisestablishmentarianism while listening to Slayer.
The MWD-480 has 274,000 definitions in its database. A phonetic spell correction feature allows you to enter words the way they sound and get alternatives for misspellings--type in "nolige," for example, and see "knowledge." Another function, called Confusables, alerts you when one word might be mistaken for another (their vs. there)--thus letting you escape the wrath of the copy editors in your life.
The gadget--which sells for $50 at Franklin-- also has five games and a crossword puzzle solver to keep you entertained while you're procrastinating on that term paper. The dictionary features an SD card slot, 119MB of internal memory, USB 2.0 connectivity and a full QWERTY keypad.
(Credit:
Engadget)
We apparently weren't the only ones who mistook this e-dictionary for one of the "SideShow" laptops that have been shown off recently. Although both have external screens that appear similar at first glance, as Engadget points out, Sharp's digital dictionary is strictly for serious wordsmiths "with something like 67 volumes of assorted dictionaries and their associated language learning tools, an e-Book reader, audio-book capabilities, an FM radio, and of course a voice recorder." That little display on the lid lets you control the audio and conserve power without using the main 5-inch screen inside. At $272, it's certain to give an inferiority complex to the Oxford USB key.
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Tech Digest)
Now this is a USB drive that comes preloaded with something we might actually use, as opposed to others we've seen recently. Tech Digest says Disgo is offering a 2GB storage key that carries the "Concise Oxford English Dictionary" so you'll never have an excuse for any typos. This could be invaluable for those of us who have become dependent on Web dictionaries but occasionally find ourselves without a Wi-Fi connection. (We don't trust automated spell checkers either.) It even has games designed to improve spelling skills, but we wouldn't recommend this as a selling point for your kids.
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I4U News)
Crave is tempted to issue a challenge to tech manufacturers: Take 5 minutes and actually name your product, rather than spit out a serial number like some convict from A Clockwork Orange. It's Marketing 101 (which we never even took).
Sharp is at least one company that has figured this out, as evidenced by its "Papyrus" line of electronic dictionaries. And its latest model seems as creative as its name, at least on paper (sorry), though it's apparently available only in China. It has two screens--the main display and a smaller touch screen in the touchpad area, where a stylus can be used to write characters for the dictionary to translate, according to I4U News. We might have to sign up for some language classes just to try it out.
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