Dec 10, 2006 16:30
Electronic dictionaries are getting heavily armed
Posted by mobileojisan
The ubiquity of electronic dictionary "Denshi Jisho" is a peculiar Japanese phenomenon. The market is very much crowded. There are quite a few Akiba stalls where only electronic dictonaries are sold. Ask any salaryman or student. Majority of them hide a tiny clamshell gear or two somewhere.
The competition is so severe that manufacturers have to add more and more functions and database in this hopelessly small body. Flash memory (so far no HD dictionary's comes to the market) keeps on getting ever fatter to accommodate this demand of space.
These days, the barrier between PDA and electric dictionary has all but vanished except for communication capability. If the trend goes on, Denshi Jisho will soon acquire this function, jump into Internet and fight head-on with K-tai terminals.
The top runner of this congested field, Sharp of Osaka, has released an electric dictionary with one more attracative (and useless?) feature. One-Seg viewer function, the terrestrial digital TV broadcasting for mobile equipments. Well, don't ask why an electronic dictionary needs a TV screen. If you were logical and rational, you never could buy a novel gear.
Sharp's Papyrus PW-TC900 contains some 40 dictionaries in its memory, starting from venerated Oxford English dictionary down to Dictionary of Etiquette and Good Social Manners. Some dictionary/database are outright silly and ridiculous. Need some more? Then, get some more third-party dictionaries in SD card (XDMF/TEXT format). They run perfectly OK on PW-TC900.
Color display of PW-TC900 is 4.3-inch size (480 x 272 dots). This is more than enough for One-Seg TV display. Besides, the screen swivels for easier viewing of TV. Media player function can handle MP3 files recorded in SD card. No video player except JPEG file, though. PW-TC900 will sell at around 50,000 yen (US$430). Pretty stiff!
Denshi Jisho folks are ruthless. Once somebody has started the One Seg, then other guys would immediately imitate it and the feature becomes the standard soon. So, Sharp has to bring in some more new features again to keep its position as the top runner. This is the endless battle of Japanese gedgeteers.
The competition is so severe that manufacturers have to add more and more functions and database in this hopelessly small body. Flash memory (so far no HD dictionary's comes to the market) keeps on getting ever fatter to accommodate this demand of space.
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| Sharp Papyrus PW-TC900. Sure, you can check the meaning of funny English word while listening to MP3 muzak. If you love much louder noise, built-in speaker kicks in. |
These days, the barrier between PDA and electric dictionary has all but vanished except for communication capability. If the trend goes on, Denshi Jisho will soon acquire this function, jump into Internet and fight head-on with K-tai terminals.
The top runner of this congested field, Sharp of Osaka, has released an electric dictionary with one more attracative (and useless?) feature. One-Seg viewer function, the terrestrial digital TV broadcasting for mobile equipments. Well, don't ask why an electronic dictionary needs a TV screen. If you were logical and rational, you never could buy a novel gear.
Sharp's Papyrus PW-TC900 contains some 40 dictionaries in its memory, starting from venerated Oxford English dictionary down to Dictionary of Etiquette and Good Social Manners. Some dictionary/database are outright silly and ridiculous. Need some more? Then, get some more third-party dictionaries in SD card (XDMF/TEXT format). They run perfectly OK on PW-TC900.
 |
| Screen of PW-TC900 can be swiveled for One-Seg TV watcher's convenience. |
Color display of PW-TC900 is 4.3-inch size (480 x 272 dots). This is more than enough for One-Seg TV display. Besides, the screen swivels for easier viewing of TV. Media player function can handle MP3 files recorded in SD card. No video player except JPEG file, though. PW-TC900 will sell at around 50,000 yen (US$430). Pretty stiff!
Denshi Jisho folks are ruthless. Once somebody has started the One Seg, then other guys would immediately imitate it and the feature becomes the standard soon. So, Sharp has to bring in some more new features again to keep its position as the top runner. This is the endless battle of Japanese gedgeteers.
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