dictionaries

Review: English Tagalog Dictionary provides a quick, accurate translation tool

The English Tagalog Dictionary provides a quick and easy-to-use dictionary experience on your iPhone, but has some serious issues in the setup phase, combined with a messy interface. The dictionary, itself, works as advertised and is extremely responsive, but you'll need to wade through a handful of issues to get to that point.

When you first open the dictionary, you'll need to download the actual definitions. This takes quite a bit of time, and because of the small size of the files and clear lag between device and servers, we wonder why they were not included with the … Read more

The 404 1,273: Where overall we think it's necessary (podcast)

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- All of CNET's coverage of yesterday's Xbox One event.

- Here's what we know about Xbox One games.

- Microsoft talks Xbox One naming, privacy and more (Q&A).

- Sharon Vaknin and CNET Reviews' John Falcone at last night's Webby Awards.

- Courts turning to UrbanDictionary as an authoritative source on slang. And here's The 404's contribution to UrbanDictionary.… Read more

Portos Dictionary Free 1.2 Review

The iPad is a great device for translations and multilanguage dictionaries. Because it is frequently "in your pocket" and because the device is connected to the Internet for regular updates, it works extremely well for trips out of the country. Unfortunately, not every app provides the same high level of translation quality that you might hope for when away from home. Portos Dictionary is one such app -- offering an uneven, poorly executed experience in serious need of an upgrade.

The Portos Dictionary is labeled as free and so should be expected in some ways to lack a … Read more

Look up words from more than a dozen dictionaries while on the go

The iPhone has become a popular reading device for many of its millions of users. So, a good dictionary app is a must, especially if you also have installed newspaper, eBook, and blog reading apps. While there are paid as well as some free versions of many well-known dictionaries available in the app store, Dictionary Offline Free provides a number of options that are more than enough for most users. Easy to use and with clear instructions for how to download more dictionaries, save entries, and share them, Dictionary Offline Free is a great tool for anyone that needs to … Read more

The 404 1,216: Where we 3D print our way out of the friendzone (podcast)

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- "Friendzone" added to Oxford dictionary.

- Makerlove is an online community of 3D-printed adult toys.

- New app turns your iPhone into a mobile urine lab.

- It was bound to happen: Dongiverse lets you print 3D sex toys.

- Boston frat starts Indiegogo campaign for transsexual brother.

- Oleg Berg's YouTube and Soundcloud pages rework the keys of classic songs, for better or worse. Exhibit the creepiness of "Hey Jude" in minor.… Read more

Bing rolls out five apps for Office 365 and Office 2013

Microsoft launched five new free Bing apps for Office 365 and Office 2013 today. These apps are geared toward integrating work templates with search functions. The apps include Bing Finance for Excel, Bing Maps for Excel, Bing Image Search for Word, Bing News Search for Word, and Bing Dictionary for Excel and Word.

The software giant released its 2013 version of Office and its subscription-centric version of Office -- Office 365 Home Premium -- just this week. The latter of these two products is downloadable and can be locally installed on versions of Office 2013. Users are charged annual or monthly fees … Read more

Look up words with English Hindi Dictionary Free

The Web's preferred translation app, Google Translate, doesn't seem to be the best fit for smartphones. It can push you over your phone's data cap if you use it too regularly. English Hindi Dictionary Free isn't as powerful or accurate as Google's service, but it does everything offline. That makes it easier to turn your smartphone into a pocket translator.

English Hindi Dictionary Free stores its entire dictionary on your gadget, so downloading the whole thing takes a little while. You have the choice of stashing words on your SD card or your phone's … Read more

Sinhala Tamil English Dictionary is an essential Android app for travelers

Once upon a time, printed reference works kept useful knowledge trapped in libraries, but computers and the Internet changed all that. Now smartphones are doing to desktop PCs what they did to paper books by making that information even more useful by making it even more accessible. One example is Sachith Dassanayake's Sinhala Tamil English Dictionary. This free Android app not only offers an excellent English-to-Sinhala/Sinhala-to English Dictionary and Thesaurus, but it also now supports English-to-Tamil and Tamil-to-English translations. Sinhala (sometimes spelled Sinhalese or Singhalese) is one of Sri Lanka's official languages; Tamil is another. For travelers, … Read more

English to Tamil Dictionary is a helpful supplemental tool

For those of you not in the know (and we're including ourselves in this), Tamil is a language spoken in South India and Northeast Sri-Lanka. English to Tamil Dictionary, as one might expect, aims to bridge the language divide by translating English words into their appropriate Tamil word or phrase. While we can't speak to its accuracy from the Tamil side, from an English-speaking standpoint, we found it to be a mixed bag in terms of its helpfulness.

English to Tamil Dictionary offers a pretty simple interface. It opens with a search bar and a list of "… Read more

GIF wins Oxford's 'Word of the Year'

To GIF or not to GIF. That is the question for many Internet denizens these days, especially if they frequent Tumblr or Reddit. At the moment, it's the easiest way to share a quick animation, thanks in part to its compatibility with nearly every Internet browser ever made.

As the GIF (graphic interchange format) turns 25 this year, what better way to celebrate -- aside from GIFing it -- than Oxford American Dictionaries announcing that the acronym has been named 2012's "Word of the Year. … Read more