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Ectaco Electronic Pocket Dictionaries Reviews
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Below is a review from an Amazon customer as well as my
review of an Ectaco product. The one shown here is the P800 series which has much more to offer...
I found the review interesting and informative, because it points out some of the shortcomings of their handheld translators; yet, the customer still found it a useful tool, and called it the “best translator available”.
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Other Useful Dictionaries:
New Electronic Russian Dictionary
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Click to manufacturer of ECTACO products... |
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Some reviews and recommendations
to consider: |
I have an ER300T handheld dictionary, which I also find useful.
Some of the shortcomings are:
1. An audible tone when a key is depressed, which can be distracting during meetings,
etc.
2. No indication of where the accent is in the Russian word.
3. It pronounces the English word, but not the Russian translation.
Therefore, when selecting a product, make sure it has all the features that you
want. Even if you need to buy a more expensive model, it could mean the difference
between a product that sits on the shelf, and one that you use and benefit from
regularly.
Dan Bauer
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Below is a very detailed review from Amazon.com:
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
41 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
ER800 A useful tool, but not what you might expect., March 7, 2006
By
Melvin Hawes - Before vacationing in Russia, I wanted to purchase the best electronic
translator available. Reading the product description for the Partner ER800, it
sounded perfect. The company makes some impressive claims in the product description.
After having purchased the ER-800, I believe the product marketers and the electronic
engineers who designed this device are themselves suffering a language barrier.
Before I get into the point-by-point, claim-versus-reality portion of the review
I'll tell you some of my first impressions of my ER-800 experience. I opened the
box and removed the product. The physical dimensions are small, sleek and the construction
looks sturdy.
I opened the device and touched the power switch. The monitor lit up and it started
a "software loading" procedure. At one point and "error screen" popped up and then
disappeared. I was then presented with a choice. Two choices, both written in Russian.
I don't speak Russian, that's why I ordered a translator. I've since learned that
this is the "language selection screen". If your language skill is such that you
can recognize the word "English" written in Russian, than this probably won't hinder
you. But I couldn't so I made choice (50/50 chance- right?) and scored a win.
Referring to the User Manual, I noticed it was in Russian. I flipped through it
looking for an English section. No English section. I tore through the rest of the
box looking for the English version of the User Manual. It does not come with an
English User Manual. I found an English "Quick Start" leaflet in the box but it's
not a like a User Manual.
I was able to locate an English User Manual for the ER-800 on the Ectaco website.
But it is built in HTML, and not something you can easily print out and use.
A few other general problems I've experienced is with the touch screen and the keyboard
buttons. The ER-800 comes with a handy stylus to use with the touch screen. When
selecting text with the stylus, the text becomes unselected when the stylus tip
leaves the touchscreen. This will drive you insane. I've tried different techniques
to try to avoid the text from becoming unselected. But there is no way around it.
You just have to keep trying until it works. Selecting individual words is easy,
but selecting a large paragraph is almost impossible.
Several of the rubber keyboard buttons, when depressed, will get stuck under the
metal and remain depressed until you can pry them out with your fingernail. This
is not a huge problem, but still annoying.
Now we get to the actual functions of the ER-800:
The product description says:
"Coherent full-text translation into English
and Russian, instant reverse translation."
Reality: Instant
reverse translation only works with the dictionary. There is no "instant" way to
reverse the translation of full text.
The product description says:
"It employs the latest language learning technologies that use foreign language
Speech Recognition modules...Test your pronunciation by trying to speak out a phrase
in the foreign language and see if the Partner understands you."
Reality: So far
as I have found, the voice recognition function only works as part of the pre-recorded
phrasebook. The voice-recognition to locate the phrase you want. Using the phrasebook
to test your pronunciation is a ridiculous notion. It only works about a third of
the time, even when you pronounce the word perfectly. The other catch with the phrase
book is that you must select a small section of phrases such as "At the restaurant:
drinks" before you can use the voice-recognition function.
Honestly I had the mistaken notion that the you could speak (English or Russian)into
the machine; it would recognize and record the words as text, and then you would
be able to translate this into (English or Russian) - which you could then playback
aloud using the voice synthesizer. Now that would be impressive! It doesn't do that,
and sadly I don't believe there is any electronic translator available that can.
As far as fine-tuning the ER-800 to recognize your voice, you specify if you are
male or female. That is the true extent of the calibration.
The Product Description says:
"Type any text you want and it will translate and speak the translation out loud
using its built-in Text-To-Speech processor."
Reality: No. It
really won't do this in an automated way. It will translate into text, but will
only speak the source text - not the translation. There is a round-about way to
trick the machine into speaking the translation, but it is not easy because you
have to highlight (see stylus problem) the translation, then click the "Dictionaries"
button, then select Ectaco Text Translation software icon, to reopen the program
with your translation in the source window. This is the only way I've found to get
a reverse translation using the Text Translation program. Not what I would call
"instant" or even easy.
The games: I thought
the games and exercises would be useful. We all know "flashcards." There is aa question
on one side and an answer on the back. A useful set of flashcards for learning a
new language would have an (English or Russian) word on the front and it's translation
on the back. The "flashcards" that you get with the ER-800 have a word on the front.
When you "flip" the card you get to see a synonym of the word in the same language. How is this useful? I guess it might help you broaden your vocabulary (in your own
language). Or use it as a random thesaurus. The other games are simply disappointing
variations of this "game."
The SAT 200 and SAT 5000 are for Russians only, or English speakers who want to
broaden their vocabularies.
Media Player? Don't know about this feature. I haven't tried to use it.
I almost returned the ER-800 to the manufacturer. But when researching alternatives,
I discovered that even with it's flaws and glaring weaknesses, the ER-800 is, in
fact, the best translator available. The fact that it can translate sentences is
unique. When I took it to Russia, I used it several hundred times a day. It was
useful. Persons who can speak both Russian and English will notice that the full-text
translations are generally far from accurate. You cannot rely on these translations
or use them to carry on a meaningful conversation. But they are useful as clues
or hints as to what you are trying to say. The individuals I talked to found it
most useful just to see the English spelled out on the display, and only refer to
the translation if there was a certain word that was unknown to them.
Support is available through Ectaco via email. I was able to contact an employee
through the website, but did not get useful information from him. His knowledge
was limited to information found in the User Manual. I called once to get an RMA
number so I could return the ER-800. I got a message machine (during working hours).
They did not return my call. My trip to Russia was closing in, so I decided to keep
it. It was useful. I only hope that they offer a software upgrade in the future
to fix some of the issues I've described.
Click to manufacturer of ECTACO products... |
This is a very serious group of tools and I hope these reviews give you
a point of reference as to why you should give these electronic pocket dictionaries your consideration.
My experience with this tool and using many of the other
Russian-English
electronic tools has proven to me that this is a most useful
comprehensive and serious
set of tools that could well be the best ones you could acquire!
Dan Bauer
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