Computer Times
May 2006

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Inglés en su Bolsillo - English in Your Pocket

Review by Terrance Kibiloski

Inglés en su Bolsillo - English in Your Pocket (Retail $249.95), from Franklin, is an interactive handheld language tutor that provides everything a Spanish speaking person needs to read, write and speak correctly in English. The

Inglés en su Bolsillo® handheld provides a convenient way to teach yourself English. This feature rich handheld device includes everything from robust dictionaries to the ability to listen to powerful audio books and music, which are sold separately.

As we do with all of our review products, we did a thorough field test on this product. We placed it in the hands of a Spanish speaking person who works with a surveyor in Nashville, TN. We are happy to report that our Spanish friend was overjoyed with this product and only reluctantly gave it back to us for further office testing. His only criticism was that the unit is outside his price range. Other than that he loved it, finding it convenient to carry with him and easy to use. The best feature is the audio playback.

Inglés en su Bolsillo® handheld lets you hear words and phrases pronounced over its built-in speaker, plus you can record your own voice and compare to it to the built-in expert pronunciation. This device can readily teach you to speak American English, with comprehensive translations and conjugations plus essential tips from grammar guides and interactive quizzes. It includes e-Book and audio book capabilities for learning while reading or listening to books. Fourteen books are included to give you everything you need to read, write, and speak correctly in English. More e-books are available from top publishers.

• Practice and improve your pronunciations by recording your own voice and comparing it to the built-in pronunciations
• Learn English by reading e-Books and by listening to audio books and music. Just download content from the internet onto MMC/SD cards and you're ready to go (content and cards sold separately). eBook content can be downloaded from www.franklin.com or www.mobipocket.com. Audio content is compatible with Audible.com content.

• Access, read and use content from Ingles en su Bolsillo® handheld on a personal computer with the PC View™ feature. Simply connect your device to a USB-enabled PC and you can use the e-Book features of Ingles en su Bolsillo® on a PC screen.
• Strengthen your English grammar skills with the interactive Grammar guides and 90 quizzes to test your understanding of grammar concepts
• Improve your English vocabulary and spelling skills with learning games and the phonetic spell correction feature
• Annotate your own comments and save a list of words and phrases that will help you speak English in everyday situations that happen in your life

• Speaks words and phrases in high-quality speech
• Listen, Record & Playback feature lets you compare your pronunciation to the device
• Includes 5,000 everyday phrases at your fingertips
• Phonetic Spell Correction - enter a word phonetically and the correction feature will do the rest.
• Audio & Music Player lets you listen to audio books or music.
• AudibleReady® - add audio books or e-Books by downloading them from the internet onto MMC/SD cards. (content and MMC/SD cards sold separately.)
• Supports Mobipocket e-Book format which lets you download e-News or thousands of e-Book titles. Compatible with Windows XP.
• PC View™ lets you use and access the content from your device on a PC screen.
• Large 14-line Display
• Expandable dictionary with 14 essential reference books, featuring:
• Larousse® Spanish-English / English-Spanish Gran Diccionario
• Vox® Spanish Dictionary
• Merriam-Webster® English Dictionary + Thesaurus
• 4 Essential Grammar Guides + 90 Interactive Quizzes
• TOEFL® Word List and SAT* Spanish Subject Test Word List
• A Guide to US Naturalization and more

The Inglés en su Bolsillo - English in Your Pocket runs on two AA batteries, will easily fit in your purse or large pocket (146 x 96.7 x 17.5 mm), and weighs only 7.6 ounces. This is a very exciting product that is coming to market at the time we need it most in the U.S. with our ever increasing Spanish speaking population. Kudos to everyone at Franklin who helped bring this to market.

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