|
|
Article: H2.0 On The Road: TECH FOR THE TRAVELING LIFE.(How 2.0/Your Life On Tech: Hacks, Upgrades, Projects, Gripes, Tips & Tricks/Integrate)(Review)
- Article from:
- Popular Science
- Article date:
- May 1, 2004
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 Bonnier Corporation. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
Byline: Scott Mowbray
DESTINATION: CUBA. Spanish spoken by me: zilch. So on a recent trip to Havana and the tobacco provinces, I took along an Ectaco Partner ES-X5 translator with voice recognition.
The X5 is a not quite pocket-size clamshell with a touchscreen that's a bit hard to read on a sunny street in Pinar del Rio. It has all the standard PDA functions, but voice rec is the killer app. And it works. Sort of.
If you clearly speak a phrase into the thing, it will speak the translation back to you in a natural, easy-to-understand voice. Problem is, you need to speak a phrase it knows, after selecting a category. So if you say, "Do you have ...