Memorex Portable CD Player (MPD8857) (MPD8857)

Memorex Portable CD Player (MPD8857) (MPD8857)
Manufacturer: Memcorp
Product Type: CE

Editorial Review:
Product Description
Memorex is a manufacturer and distributor of brand name consumer electronics worldwide. Memorex is keeping abreast of the latest trends in consumer electronics, so that it can provide the most innovative, quality products to you. reflecting the company's philosophy to provide innovative concepts on fast-growing market sectors.

Average customer rating: 2.5

disappointing
Checked out this and the voyager
Dutch for Henry
High hopes dashed
Very disappointed

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Franklin TG-490 Speaking Translator

Manufacturer: Franklin Electronics
Product Group: CE
Binding: Electronics
ASIN: B000IYY9JQ
2006-08-01

Related Categories:

Foreign Language Translators

| Electronic Dictionaries, Thesauri & Translators | Office Electronics | Categories | Electronics

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| Franklin Electronics | Brands | Electronics Features | Electronics

Electronics Available for International Shipping

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Product Description

Almost as essential as your passport, the Speaking Global Translator contains over 450,000 words and 12,000 phrases, and speaks 115,000 words in recorded human voice. Ideal for communicating on almost any continent with 12 languages and translations to and from Chinese (Mandarin), Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. Enter a word in your native language and this indispensable travel tool will speak and show the translation in your language and the language you seek. A voice recording feature allows you to record custom words and phrases appropriate to travel or business needs. Spell correction feature finds even misspelled words. 7-line screen aids visibility in this lightweight unit. 1 rechargeable battery included

Customer Reviews:

disappointing.......2007-05-12

The product didn't live up to what I expected from the marketing materials. It serves as a list of common phrases (difficult to navigate to) or a dictionary of single words. As a practical matter it doesn't function as a "translator" at all; you can't type in a phrase and get an equivalent phrase in the target language. If you need a common phrase for immediate use -- for example "Take me to the Hotel Hilton" for a cab driver, you would have to navigate to the most similar phrase in the "travel" list (there isn't a phrase for this sentence, actually). What is needed is something like the Macintosh "translate" widget, that permits you to type short phrases or sentences and provides reasonably understandable equivalents in the target language. I returned the product.

Checked out this and the voyager.......2007-04-11

Its not bad but its heavy. lots of words and phrases. IT DOESNT TRANSLATE ANYTHING YOU TYPE IN. JUST INDIVIDUAL WORDS and you may have trouble with conjugated verbs. I found its competitor a bit clearer in sound prounounciation. The franklin is also a bit clumsy. The slide in and out keyboard is a bit off balance to use when its out.

Its permanent rechargable battery (i couldnt find how to remove it) may be good, but if it loses charge (they should last a very long time), you cant replace it with regular AAA bateries and you may not be in a country that has 120V current. And if you have to carry a converter, whats the point. I liked the voyager better. Its lighter, at least as easy to use, a bit quicker and speaks more clearly. Of course, all I did was check out the italian.

Dutch for Henry.......2007-04-10

My son and family will be in the Netherlands for two years. We will correspond via email and I purchased the translator so that I could throw in a word or two in Dutch when I'm writing to Henry who is 8. I know some German and notice the big difference is the D and V's in words. I'm trying to sound out words, but truthfully I haven't had a lot of time to work with it yet. I'm hoping that when they come for a visit in July, I'll at least be at the child level for conversation. I like that aspect also..sentences for conversation. All in all I think it is really great. I didn't try the music or other aspects yet either, but I'm looking forward to trying them out also.

High hopes dashed.......2007-04-05

I first learned about this new product from a review in NY Times few weeks ago. The review indicates although it's a flawed product, it worked pretty well for what it's supposed to do. I took the plunge when Amazon had this on sale for a bit over $170. My main usage for it is to learn Russian and would like to pick up some short phrases in French/Spainish as well for overseas traveling. I also speak Chinese so was curious as to the Asian language capabilities. Quite disappointed when I got it and after testing it for a week or so decided to return it to Amazon.

Pros:
- 12 languages and a decent amount of phrases. It's a talking translator and although the sound is a bit muffled, it still helps.
- Rechargeable battery and charges through mini-USB cables which I carry a couple for PDA/cell phones, so a huge plus
- Battery life seems to be decent
- Large screen, and with backlight on, quite readable.
- Russian alphabet printed on the keyboard so very easy to input
- Some other utilities like World clock, calculator, etc. No use to me since every gadget has these but in a pinch, I guess you can use those.

Cons:
- Here's a big one, limited vocabulary. The number might sound quite impressive, but when you actually use it, you realize how small the database is. When I type in some basic Russian words, I can't find the translation. Going from English to Russian yielded slightly better results but I had to settle for listening for a single word in a long sentence when the word is only available in a phrase. I still can't find about 20% of the Russian words in the first few lessons and that's quite frustrating! Not useful if you are learning a language and want pronunciation of every word in the dictionary
- At least for Chinese, no native input method, so you can only go by the sound, which is quite useless as there are many words with the same phonetic sound in Chinese. So Chinese-English is almost non-usable. I suspect it's the same for Japanese and Korean but needs verification.
- You can't type phrases, only single word, and then hope the word search can pull up phrases you are looking for. Limited success with it.
- Sound is a bit muffled as mentioned above.
- Screen is a bit dim without the backlight. This is not a biggie for me but might bother some people with poor eye-sight
- Awkward design in language switching. I found it a common function to swap base/target languages. Say I'm looking for the pronunciation of a Russian word. If I'm in the Russian-English mode, I type the Russian word, realize it's not available, so I want to switch to English-Russian mode and type the English word. Instead of having a quick "Swap" button, you will have to pull down a menu for the base language, switch, and then pull down another similar menu for the target language and switch. Also, since it's not a touch screen or mouse-controled device, you have to literally pressing the up/down button 8-9 times before you can go from English to Russian and vice versa. (even further for any of the Asian languages) Definitely a usability flaw.
- No case included, and thus no protection for the screen, as there's no build-in cover for it. I had to use a non-fitting pouch to hold it and that's just asking for trouble. So easy to crack the screen.
- The slide-out keyboard is a good idea, but the actual construction isn't very solid. Sometimes when I slide it out, the two sides of the keyboard are not even and I suspect it could be a longer term headache when it refuse to close properly.

Based on the above analysis, I can only give it a 1 or 2 star. The search continues...

Very disappointed.......2007-03-26

I bought this device because I am starting to travel internationally. I received the product a few days ago. I am not 100% happy with it. To start, the screen is very hard to read. The contrast setting really does not do anything to help read the screen. Have to strain my eyes and keep tilting the unit to avoid reflection to read. The backlight is useless too!! Very disappointing!!!

There is no capability to enter more than one word at a time. It does have a selection of phrases based on category that can be selected.

It does function fine as a translator, just not too easy to read, or move back and forth through options.

I would give this a 2.5 out of 5.0. I feel that Franklin could have done much better with this product. Why make a translator device that is very difficult to read?

If I was able to return it, I would. Definitely not worth the retail price of $230. Going to check out the Voyager III.

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