Ectaco TL-2ASIAN5 iTRAVL Multilingual East-Asian 5-Language Translator

by Ectaco

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• ASIN: B000HHD0Y4
• Item model number: TL-2Asian5
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: August 8, 2006

Product Description

The ECTACO iTRAVL Multilingual TL-2Asian5 is the most remarkable talking dictionary available anywhere. An ultra-sophisticated translation handheld, it is the most spectacular new addition to our distinguished line of iTRAVL translators because it can understand and speak some of the most popular Asian languages. Complete with the widest range of voice capabilities contained in any portable translator, the iTRAVL TL-2Asian5 features speaker-independent speech recognition of spoken English, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Thai that lets the machine understand what is being said to it. Its professionally narrated, real human voice output then lets the device speak any of its more than 70,000 travel-oriented phrases in English, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai and Vietnamese. Absolutely indispensable for international travelers, this incredible Audio Travel PhraseBook has been designed to help anyone communicate efficiently no matter what the situation. Also providing users with bi-directional dictionaries containing a combined total of up to 5,000,000 words, the iTRAVL TL-2Asian5features advanced English, Chinese, Japanese and Korean TTS (text-to-speech) voice synthesis that lets it pronounce dictionary entries as well as easy-to-use sentence builder pronunciation for every word covering topics such as banking, sightseeing, shopping and dining - plus many more; in fact, everything the demanding traveler needs. It even includes useful everyday conversation topics allowing you to make new friends or business partners in an instant. Encased within a stylish, water-resistant and dustproof case this sturdy, pocket-sized and sophisticated handheld comes complete with a top-of-the-line loudspeaker that makes effective communication easier than ever.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The speech-to-speech feature is not useful, February 2, 2007

By 

Peter Kauffner (Chonburi, Thailand) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ectaco TL-2ASIAN5 iTRAVL Multilingual East-Asian 5-Language Translator (Electronics)

I laid out the big bucks for this device because of the speech-to-speech capability that's advertised. But as implemented, this capability is purely a novelty function. You have to pick a particular subcatagory like "Introductions" or "Apologies." A subcatagory has six to eight phrases and you can use the speech-to-speech capability to choose one. (It's simpler to pick one with the stylus.)

Aside from the speech-to-speech stuff, the device just your basic electronic dictionary. The best implimentation is for Japanese, with output in your choice of Kanji, Kana, Roman letters, or voice. The Thai implementation is weak with output only in Thai letters. I compared equivalent lists of word from the English-Chinese section to various other dictionaries and I conclude that that the device has about half as many English words as the Merriam Webster Collegiate Dictionary (50,000 to 60,000 words) and about three times as many English words as my pocket-sized English-Thai paper dictionary, which has nearly 11,000 English words. If every word is translated both ways in every language (a generous assumption), that works out to about 30,000 words for each language, each direction, and 420,000 words across all 14 language dictionaries. (The ad says 5 million words.) As for phrases, there the 15 catagories, each with about 5 subcatagories of about 7 phrases each, so roughly 525 English phrases, or about 7,350 phrases across all 14 language dictionaries (The ad says 70,000.)

Here's a few suggestions to improve the item: Make the keyboard alphabetical. QWERTY is for touch-typing and the keyboard on the screen is much too small for touch-typing. The dictionary should be implemented to allow you to translate more than one word at the same time. If, in addition, the thing had a USB port, I could attach a roll-up keyboard and touch-type in multiple words.

Finally, this is the 800-pound gorilla of electronic dictionaries. It's about the same size as the paper dictionary I have been using (mentioned above). The buttons are huge, so the picture fools you as to the actual size of the item.