While many mobile phones, PDAs, and iPods now have some rudimentary translation abilities, sometimes these devices aren’t quite up to the task of providing more comprehensive translation help.
It’s in these situations — whether you’re on an extended business trip or just a long vacation — that it may be prudent to spring for a dedicated translation device.
Since these gadgets are generally designed exclusively as translators, they often have features that modified iPods or PDAs don’t. So if you’re looking for some more advanced translation, consider one of the following.
ECTACO
A company you probably haven’t heard of, Ectaco Electronic Translators, offers one of the widest ranges of portable translation devices on the market. Some consider Ectaco’s electronic pocket translators to be a bit pricey, but most of them do come loaded with extra features and a superior translation interface compared to most PDA and iPod-based translation services. To take a look at their complete line of products, visit www.ectaco.com
Ectaco’s most prominent entry in the translation market is a “Multilingual Universal Translator ML320,” with millions of words and about 700 phrases from many of Europe’s most widely-spoken languages: Czech, English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Turkish. So in reality, it’s more of a Universal “European” Translator. However, it should have enough linguistic computing power to allow you to communicate in a basic — if perhaps slightly broken — way with almost anyone in Europe, Latin America, North America, and significant slices of the world’s population in other parts of the world. For more on this device, visit Ectaco where it’s priced at $99.95.
The Ectaco Partner E15C800 Multilingual Talking Electronic Dictionary and Audio Phrasebook is one of Ectaco’s most comprehensive (and expensive) devices designed for frequent global travelers. With Arabic, Czech, English, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Russian, Spanish, Ukrainian, and crystal-clear, professionally narrated native-speaker voice output in Arabic, Bulgarian, Czech, English, Farsi, French, German, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Ukrainian. Available with over 10,000,000 words, this device weighs just 11 oz. The E15C800 has a high-resolution touch screen and the latest in text-to-speech (TTS) technology, as well as state-of-the-art voice capabilities. The Ectaco E15C800 retails for $699.95. For more information on this product, click here.
At the least expensive end of the scale is their Global 29 Pocket Language Translator, which also offers metric, currency, and clothing and shoe size conversions along with global time in 200 cities worldwide. With 29 languages, 58,000 phrases and 580,000 words, this translator is actually a bit more global than Ectaco’s “Universal Translator.” While many companies and websites (including Ectaco for $98 at ectaco.com) do offer this product, Amazon seemed to be the cheapest source, offering them for $68.95 here.
SHARPER IMAGE
The 12-language Talking Translator from Sharper Image translates, displays and pronounces words and phrases for the following languages: Spanish, German, Russian, Dutch, Swedish, Italian, French, Portuguese, Turkish, Japanese and Mandarin Chinese. With about 8,400 total phrases available, this device might make it possible to “get by” in the included languages, but it probably isn’t comprehensive enough to help you actually learn the language as easily as some other devices might. But at $29.95, this pocket-sized device offers a cheaper alternative to many pricier translators. One nice feature is the quick-access folder where you can store up to 50 common phrases for, well… quick access. For more, please see www.sharperimage.com
HAMMACHER-SCHLEMMER
Hammacher-Schlemmer’s pocket translator has 11 foreign languages: French, German, Spanish, Italian, Hebrew, Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Russian, and Greek, and is preprogrammed with 27,000 phrases and 240,000 words. This talking dictionary shows both phonetic pronunciations and displays the selected phrase in the local language, which can be helpful if you’re not a sharp-tongued linguist. Among the other features are currency conversion for eight types of money, metric conversions, a calculator, and earphones. With so many words and phrases, this pocket translator is a more substantial offering that Sharper Image’s Talking Translator. But the price reflects it.
Their device retails for $199.95 online at: www.Hammacher.com
GARMIN
GPS giant Garmin is pushing further into the travel game, with an entry called “Nuvi 360 Personal Travel Assistant.” This GPS-equipped, Bluetooth-enabled, call-ready, feature-packed machine has optional language and travel packs. It’s a serious piece of hardware, and has a serious price: about $749.95. And if you want the language pack that pronounces phrases, it’s an additional $75. The “Travel Guide for Europe,” which includes information on hotels, restaurants, shopping, nightlife and attractions adds another $160 to the price, but it will also offer turn-by-turn directions to get you there. So the Nuvi 360 can be a mobile phone, GPS with full street coverage (North America or Europe included — additional cities available at an additional cost), translator, and real-time traffic advisor. It’s not an inexpensive device, but for tech-savvy travelers who want copious amounts of info at their fingertips, it’s worth a look. For more information, go to: www.Garmin.com
OTHERS
Dedicated pocket translators seem to be proliferating by the day, so it’s very possible for the next “best” device to be on the market at any time. So when investing in a pocket translator, it’s usually best to opt for a company you know and trust, or one that’s had at least a few versions of its products and software. This way, you can find out some feedback about the newest versions. Plus, there are usually more Better Business Bureau and consumer reports available. With that in mind, an overall site for exploring translator options is: www.easytranslators.com
Learn more about the pitfalls of online translation with Lost in Online Translation.
You don’t need gadgets to translate for you. Web sites can, too. Check it out in Online Translators.
For more travel gadget fun, see High and Low-Tech Travel.
