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Pocket-sized PowerThis powerful electronic duo is short on size and long on functionalityBy Patricia KutzaDelayed flights cause me more problems than skewering my travel schedule. Once I run out of reading material, I scour terminals for all magazines and newspapers left abandoned by other travelers. Just one interesting article gives me reason to save an entire magazine, adding bulk to my already stuffed luggage.
Avid readers never stray too far from a good dictionary. And given the ability to find almost any book in audio format, they are increasingly carrying MP3 players to listen to their books and favorite music. Kudos to Franklin, then, for combining an electronic Merriam-Webster dictionary with a MP3 player. The dictionary boasts 274,000 definitions. It’s also got such nifty features as a function that intuits alternatives for misspelled words, games, a crossword puzzle solver to determine mixing puzzle letters, a local/world clock, a calculator and a metric currency converter. Music, audio books and podcasts can be downloaded to the internal memory. Additional memory can be added by purchasing a SD expansion card.. For more information: Franklin Electronic Publishers |
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The folks at Franklin Electronic Publishers have come to my
rescue with the Super Pen translator, a lightweight handheld device that scans
text as well as small images for later upload to a PC or PDA’s Windows-based
application. It’s great for capturing those small pieces of data, like business
cards and email/web addresses that too often get lost in the bottomless pit of
my purse. With a capacity to store up to 2,000 pages of information, there’s no
need for me to schleppe bulky magazines and newspapers around. anymore. I
just scan what I want to retain and leave the media where I found it.
Like so many products offered by Franklin, this tool is
multi-talented. It also translates text in over 30 languages. Its’
Text-to-Speech technology enables users to hear a full line of text or a single
word spoken in English. It’s given me confidence to explore even the most
foreign of restaurant menus without asking for translation help. And saved me
precious time interpreting information on maps and travel brochures.