dictionary

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

Bengali: English translation and dictionary

Language dictionaries and language aids are a great use for mobile devices, and Bengali Dictionary is a good example. It provides both a lookup and reverse translation of Bengali words to English, as well as a vocabulary game that helps you learn a few words and phrases. The free app is a teaser for the larger app with upgraded dictionary.

Bengali Dictionary contains about 10,000 words and their translations, as well as a pronunciation guide. The interface consists of a pane where you type your English word, and Bengali Dictionary then displays the Bengali equivalents. You can start typing … Read more

Can we please stop crowdsourcing the English language?

According to the Collins Dictionary, every word of the following paragraph qualifies as legitimate English:

"That oojamaflip zhooshing up the bang tidy K-pop on the banjolele is amazeballs! It's totally fandabidozi, but I'm just a fanboy who can't play squadoosh myself."

Nine of the words and phrases in the above two sentences come from the list of 86 new words, phrases, and senses (sort of like an additional definition for an existing word) that Collins added to its online dictionary as a result of an exhaustive crowdsourcing effort.

Now here's the mind-blowing part: those 86 new English words were chosen from a massive digital pile of more than 4,000 submissions sent in from the public.… Read more