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Partner EA B-3 English-Arabic Talking electronic dictionary and phrasebook | 
 enlarge | Brand: Ectaco
Category: CE
List Price: $199.95
Buy New: $164.95
You Save: $35.00 (18%)
New (6) from $164.95
Rating:  3 reviews
Media: Electronics
Operating System: EBookMan OS 1.0
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Warranty: 1 year warranty
MPN: EA B-3
Model: EA B-3
UPC: 789981504133
EAN: 0789981504133
ASIN: B0009NY2XO
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | Extensive 490000-word dictionary - Instant translation from English and Arabic and back - Pronunciation in both languages! |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Includes Ectaco EA B3 English-Arabic Talking Dictionary MMC card.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Not the best January 11, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
The woman that I purchased this for is from Lebanon and she informed me that the dialect of arabic that is used is very old and "formal" so it is quite difficult to use for her.
 Great Dictionary Overall, Does Drain Batteries... February 16, 2006
11 out of 11 found this review helpful
First, I would like to say that I am one of those people who agonizes over purchasing decisions on things like this (an electronic arabic dictionary in this case) because it will inevitably be a lot of money and I'm always afraid that I won't figure out if it sucks until after the refund period has passed. Therefore I decided it was my civic duty to write a review for all of you out there who may be cautious shoppers like myself.
Overall this dictionary is very good. The Arabic-English dictionary allows you to look up words beginning in either English or Arabic and allows for reverse translation once you've found a word (since usually more than one is available) so that you can make sure that the translation is the word you want. For instance say you look up "funny," and you see two words in Arabic come up in response. You can click on one of the Arabic words and hit the reverse translation button and it will pull up the equivalent in English. While this may seem obvious or maybe frivilous for me to mention, some words such as say, "point," may have more than one meaning so it's more useful than one would think. Also, you do not have to look up words by their roots, which makes life so much easier (I'm guessing most of you Arabic students out there know what I mean). Furthermore, the hangman game is pretty amusing and the phrasebook is amazing.
Not only does the phrasebook have hundreds of phrases (more than I've been able to go through), but it also says ALL of them out loud in Arabic. This means that you can listen to it and practice it on your own, or if you're desperate you can just point to the screen to whoever you need to understand your point. The flashcard feature is also pretty sweet beacause you can make your own lists, name them (in English or in Arabic) and add a lot of cards (I think from like 30-50, but I'm not exactly sure cause I've never added that many). Although not all of the words in Arabic can be vocalized, a large percentage of them can be and it's really a)better than nothing and b) very useful because so many of them are. There is also a nifty backlight feature so you can use it regardless of the hour.
There are only two downsides that I can think of: 1) It does drain batteries a little fast, I'd say you'll probably end up needing new batteries about once every month or month and a half 2) The lack of a keyboard interface. Although the stylus is cool and everything, it's not quite as efficient as a keyboard.
I got it directly from the ECTACO website as well and got a really good deal (about $154 on sale) and it also came with a bunch of extra software which I haven't downloaded yet (despite owning it for more than two months, yes, I'm a slacker) but will probably be really cool if this dictionary is any indicator.
I hope that someone finds this helpful and good luck shopping!
Finally it works January 12, 2006
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
After looking for a decent electronic dictionary for English-Arabic, I found out that I have no choice but trying this one, even though I had bad experience with its English-French language teacher before (I threw it in a trash). The positives on this unit is, it works well as a dictionary, the Arabic translations for an English word is quite complete. However, most of the programs in there like grammar or hangman are meant for Arabic language user attempting to learn English. The user interface is easy to navigate (but reading the manual before clicking around will help). You can either use a pen to write a word like in Palm or use the digital keyboad on the screen. The pronunciation is clearer than expected (when used with headphones) but it's useless through the speaker of the unit which is located in the back (what's the logic behind this???). The unit is sturdy enough and the programs are reliable. The downpoints are that they use up batteries (2 AAA) quickly...Ectaco should have given a choice of rechargable battery and A/C jack but unfortunately it's not part of this unit. Also, some words in arabic cannot be pronounced by dictionary. Other than that, the world clock is not accurate. But I don't see myself using it as an organizer even if the unit has some potential. Why clatter it with junks, if the reason you are buying it for its use as dictionary? I bought this unit from ectaco website itself and got a good deal on sale with free stuff so it's worth checking it out before you decide to buy.
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