Sharp's MIDtastic RD-PM10 electronic dictionary
By Paul Miller 
posted May 21st 2009 10:46AM
posted May 21st 2009 10:46AM
[Via SlashGear]
posted May 21st 2009 10:46AM
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sharp device with korean interface and chinese on the screen?
It doesn't necessarily mean Chinese. The characters there can be read "success" in both Japanese and Chinese.
Why can't they make these sexy-looking devices into something more useful than a dictionary?
My friend uses a Chinese > English dictionary and it's just a tiny thing with a monochrome screen, they don't need all that screen space and processing power, so at least drop the pretence and sell it as a UMPC (obviously without a full OS) that can sync with Windows and a Mac with a good calender and all those other features and browse the Internet.
If it can already do that stuff, then stop calling it a dictionary.
MID's are Dead, I wish these companies would realize this. They are too expensive for the majority of people to consider buying one with their lack of power. A netbook totally kicks ass compared to these things. If they made them available for a $100-$150 then they would come out on top, otherwise an epic fail waiting to happen. just my 2cents worth.
I agree, while this looks extremely sharp, next month, Smartphones will have chips like Tegra, with HD playback capabilities, multitasking, full desktop browser perks, and an OS built for portability.
MIDs were good like a year or two ago, but that's it.
Netbooks are fine for people who can bring around a Bag or Purse or Backpack, etc. But for a lot of people, especially guys, you carry around what you have in your pockets. MIDs target this demographic, and while I agree that they are too expensive, they are not dead. They just have too much competition with things like smartphones and NITs, which are frankly are more condusive to the portability idea.
If they put GPS in this and made it "hackable" so you could load any WinCE capable GPS software (iGo, Navigon, TomTom, etc) it'd be a pretty good little unit.
So, do you think it would be possible to put Android on the device?
It may be possible, but whats the point if it doesn't even have wifi?
But does it do instant on ? One of the benefits of say a Psion Teklogic Netbook or an HP Jornada was its ability to boot up instantly. An Asus eee take what 25 seconds to boot up. So long live the PDA.
Who is the market for this again? Rich travelers?
The millions of east Asian students learning English?
Why not just get an iPod touch and put a free Dictionary app?
Physical keyboard, handwriting.
Well, thats true. However, I am not so sure if students would like to carry an extra device of this size especially just to find out meanings of a certain word (along with "light" media capabilities). Device such as an iPod Touch would provide the target market of this device (Students) ability to find words through a free dictionary app, plus other free apps to store quick notes, manage their University Schedule, assignments etc etc.
Basically saying that $288US price is way too high when they target audience (Students) can find something else that can do a lot more.
Physical keyboard, 4.3 inch screen, dual internal speakers, physical keyboard.
The iPod touch doesn't come with dictionaries. Those Korean electronic dictionaries have, on average, twelve to fifteen dictionaries loaded into the device. To buy one full-featured dictionary on the Apple App Store costs around $20.
Buying twelve~fifteen dictionaries plus the iPod touch would cost double the amount of purchasing the electronic dictionary.
Why not just get an iPod touch and put a free Dictionary app? The same reason as you do not use the iPod touch as a cell phone.
The primary purpose of this device as an translation and language learning tool. Thus they have several dictionaries, thesauruses, phrase books, and other items in electronic form. This product is an electronic dictionary with media playback features. The media playback is an extension of the feature used to give language learners correct pronunciation of various words. Also, the media playback is an attempt to leverage those features over competitors.
It is understandable that many people like the form factor, but they also forget what the product was designed for. The product is designed to replace several products. Also, it allows users to search for words and phrases quicker. The handwriting technology is to assist the user to look up words that they are unsure how to write or pronounce correctly.
I know that people who have never used one of these would automatically assume that an iPod touch or a regular computer would work just the same.
>> However, I am not so sure if students would like to carry an extra device [...]
See this is where you're going wrong. You're assuming every one already has your beloved iPod.
I know it's hard to believe, but not every one likes the iPod.
AoMoe,
You can't get a lot of KoreanEnglish, JapaneseEnglish, KoreanKorean, EnglishEnglish, ChineseEnglish, KoreanJapanese, KoreanChinese dictionaries with all those features (phrase book, idiom list, vocab revision, etc) on the app store for free.
why not just release a game for the DS...
looks sexy
Have any of you actually used an electronic dictionary for a reasonable amount of time? I know this is a Korean version, but Sharp releases the Zaurus dictionaries in Japan and they're pretty sweet. The single coolest thing about this is the fact that the screen one writes on is no longer a teeny tiny monochrome LCD displace. I have an iPhone (here in Japan) and use it as a basic dictionary with several apps, but it can't stand up to the handwriting capabilities of dedicated dictionaries. That and the fact that the iPhone/Touch don't support Japanese input via writing (It recognizes Chinese characters, but a looooot of them are different, so I often can't find what I need) makes them kinda gimp. I'm hoping more companies start releasing electronic dictionaries with screens like this. It's gonna make finding hard to read characters a whole lot easier and faster. For studying, a dedicated dictionary is still the way to go. And I'd rather carry this in my bag than a stupid netbook.
Whoops. My bad. I forgot the Zaurus was their PDA. The ones here are called either Papyrus or Brain. Either way, they're still pretty badass.