Sharp's new PW-TC930 e-dictionary, now with insect noises

Sharp sure likes to milk this e-dictionary form factor, but this latest trip around the block might be too much. The new PW-TC930 includes a 4.3-inch 480 x 272 screen, media playback of the MP3 and JPEG varieties off of SD cards, and all that usual translation tomfoolery. The big upgrade this time around? Bird and insect noises. Yeah, apparently Sharp is beefing up the Britannica-based encyclopedia functionality with audio samples, boring nature ones included. Lucky for us, Sharp stuffed in a 1seg TV tuner as well so we can avoid this whole "learning things" paradigm The Man is trying to box us into.

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 15th 2007 12:24PM]

Sounds REAL cool *cricket**cricket*

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 15th 2007 1:07PM]

Sharp made this gadget to help people learn stuff.
so why all the sarcasm?

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 15th 2007 3:13PM]

I like the form factor, for a PDA.

* Remove all of the buttons from the "palm rest" areas (or what would be the palm rests on a full size device). Not sure what to do with/about the "trackpad" (which also looks like it's a second LCD screen as well), but moving the keypad slight away from the hinge would probably be a good idea, for usability.

* Put a 4 buttons on each side of the screen (software pref. for one to be a dpad and the other to be special buttons).

* Put a microSD card slot in it.

* Put a Wifi radio in it.

* Put a GSM or WiMAX radio in it.

* Improve the screen resolution a little.

* Run Android or Maemo on it.

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 15th 2007 5:04PM]

actually..i think this may be a result of a recent study in japan confirming that the best pattern/sound/music to listen to is the natural sound of waves, chirps, wind, etc. apparently, our ability to concentrate is vastly superior to classical music (which is widely believed to be the best), when listening to the sounds of nature. i suppose it's a remnant trait of our more barbaric/natural days. since the dictionary is probably targeted at university students who will pay any premium to obtain a slight edge over their counterparts, more than a few people will be enticed by the additional feature.

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 16th 2007 5:04AM]

Does anyone know whether these units are configured to be used by native English speakers learning another language? I could use something like this for my Italian and Japanese studies.