Customer Reviews

Palm Speaking Language Translator (P10936U)

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This card looked great, however, it didn't work right on my Palm Tungsten T. It was slow, and the speech didn't come out right. I'm sure if you had a newer Palm it would work great.

I tried to insert the card and my palm froze (Treo 650). I took out the card and tried again and the same thing happened. I took out the treo's battery and replaced it, reinserted the translator card, and it finally worked. When I finally found a phrase I could listen to, it sounded like a person was speaking through a tunnel. A far, far away tunnel. I was tired of listening to the product in a few minutes and wanted it off of my treo. When I returned to my applications page my Tom Tom navigation had disappeared. I had to reinstall Tom Tom. If you want a poor product that doesn't really help and gives you a headache, think about this product.

This is a very poor product. The audio sounds like the early 1980s computer/robot voice sound (you sure aren't going to learn how to pronounce a foreign word with this product!). I've found no volume control (it's very loud when you use ear buds). The program itself takes over ten seconds to load. Then there are further delays as it loads the data as you use it. There is plenty of screen space, they could have displayed the word in all five languages easily instead of having to switch languages and find the word again.

Palm Speaking Language Translator (P10936U)
I bought this product in december 2007 and till today didn'n succeed in making it to work on my Palm Tungsten T|X

I bought this for my Palm Lifedrive specifically for a trip to France. I wanted to be able to hear word pronunciations. The sound quality was the worst I ever heard from a computer generated voice system and completely unintelligible. Then to make matters worse PC Universe charged me a restocking fee for an item that did not work. Plus they did not process my refund until I called to inquire about it. This was my first and last purchase from PC Universe.

The Palm Speaking Translator crashes both of my Palms, but it crashes the Tungsten more often than my TX. It is when I attempt to make it speak that it crashes. If I just stick with the written translations, the software always works. I have been able to get all functions to work on my T/X, but it is not always smooth sailing.

The first screen asks me what language I want the prompts in, and then it asks which language I want to translate from and which language I want to translate to. There is a choice of English, Spanish, French, Dutch and Italian. The next screen asks me if I want "All words and phrases," "phrase categories," or "phrase keywords."

After choosing the word or phrase, the initial phrase and the written translation are displayed. The user is presented with a choice to listen to either phrase. The voices are mechanical in any language.

ALL WORDS AND PHRASES

Everything is listed in alphabetical order and there is a search function.

PHRASE CATEGORIES

Phrases are sorted into the following categories:
- emergencies
- travel
- hotel
- shopping
- dining
- food shopping
- health
- pleasure
- business
- time
- weather
- conversing
- general

The user chooses a category, for example "emergency," and a short list of phrases appears: "be careful," "call an ambulance," etc.

PHRASE KEYWORDS

The keywords are listed in alphabetical order with a search function.

PROS:
+ choice of five languages to translate to and from
+ audible and written translations
+ search function for phrases
+ phrases grouped in categories

CONS:
- crashes the Palms
- voices are mechanical

SUMMARY

It's great when it works; but because of the crashes, I would not buy this software again.