CNNMoney - January 6, 2005
Pocket PC Magazine has named MobiLearn(R) Talking Phrasebooks the winner of its 2004 Best Software Award, selecting this series from among many competing language-learning products. MobiLearn's (www.mobilearn.net) portable Pocket PC phrasebooks enable English speakers to express themselves easily in French, German, Italian, and Spanish. Likewise, speakers of these European languages can use the talking phrasebooks to converse in English or any of the other four languages. The products are designed as just-in-time mobile tools for business travelers, tourists, and students, regardless of their prior fluency. In seconds, you can choose an expression in one language, then see, hear, and repeat it in another language. The translated word or phrase is spoken out loud through the Pocket PC speaker or earphone in a clear professional native voice, recorded in high fidelity.
MobiLearn also won Pocket PC Magazine's 2002 Best Software Award and was a finalist for the 2004 Handango Champion Award as Best Education Application. Receiving the latest award, Arthur Granville, MobiLearn's president, said "Our aim is to harness all the power of mobile computing technology so you can personalize the way you learn and virtually carry a tutor in your pocket."
Advanced Learning Features: Search, Sort, Bookmarking, Quiz, Programmable Audio
With each release, MobiLearn has built on ideas from its customers, adding new features tailored to the practical needs of travelers and students. In the latest version you can display phrases alphabetically or by topic. A search function quickly finds all the entries that contain specified words or characters. Translations are displayed instantly and can be played aloud with a tap. You can choose to play all selected phrases in one continuous flow, and can set the voice to repeat each phrase up to nine times, to aid practice and memorization. A Bookmark feature lets you flag selected items and save them in a personal category for easy review. In Quiz mode, a colorful knowledge game lets you compete against the clock and your own past record. You can choose to be quizzed within or across categories, and to draw on all items in the database or just the items you haven't yet mastered, focusing where you need the practice most. The program provides visual and auditory feedback on right and wrong answers and graphically displays your score and elapsed time over the last 50 trials. The historical profile allows you to track your improvement and target your learning.
Five Core Phrasebooks, Five Add-on Modules, 2,000-Plus Expressions
MobiLearn offers five core phrasebooks: English to French, German, Italian, and Spanish plus a version that combines all five languages. All the phrasebooks are bidirectional. Each one includes more than 400 essential phrases and terms for travelers and students. There are also five available add-on modules that focus on specific conversational themes: Cuisine ("Which wine do you recommend with this?"), Dating ("Do you come here often?"), Driving ("One-way traffic"), 500 Nouns, and 500 More Nouns. Altogether, each core phrasebook with the full suite of add-ons contains more than 2,000 items, representing a solid foundation of words and phrases basic to language mastery. In addition to the core phrasebooks there's a special phrasebook for health care professionals, MobiLearn(R) Talking English-Spanish Health Care Phrases from Taber's Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary.
The innovative software that animates MobiLearn's language products was developed by GrapeCity Inc. (formerly Bunka Orient Corp.) of Kirkland, Washington, an award-winning Japan-based software solutions company. MobiLearn also works in partnership with TransPerfect Translations of Boston, Massachusetts. TransPerfect's project teams of native translators and editors ensure that the written and spoken expressions contained in MobiLearn's language products are authoritative and up to date.
Purchases and Inquiries
MobiLearn's phrasebooks are priced from $34.99. The add-on modules are priced from $19.99. For more information or to download a free trial version, visit MobiLearn's Web site, www.mobilearn.net or e-mail info@mobilearn.net.
About TransPerfect
With revenue of over $250 million, TransPerfect is the largest privately held language services provider in the world. From offices in 66 cities on 5 continents, TransPerfect offers a full range of services in over 100 languages to multinationals worldwide. With a global network of over 4,000 linguists and subject-area specialists, TransPerfect is the largest translation company to be fully ISO 9001:2008 and EN 15038:2006 certified. TransPerfect is headquartered in New York and has regional headquarters in London and Hong Kong. For more information, please visit our website at www.transperfect.com.