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Audio Translator and Secure File PDA Backup
July 14, 2004
Audio Translator
The Audio Translator is just that: an SD expansion card that turns your Palm OS, Pocket PC, or Series 60 smartphone into a talking tanslation device. This review covers the Palm OS version, though I’m told the card offers similar functionality across all three platforms. The application is based on the popular Mobipocket reader and offers 40,000 words and 5,000 phrases in your choice of English, French, Italian, German, and Spanish. One thing to note is that the Audio Translator is very fast— it loads quickly, and navigation from page to page is almost instantaneous on a palmOne Tungsten T2.
Simply choose a language and let the program know wheter you want to browse all words and phrases, search by category, or search by keyword. The categories are well organized, with selections including energencies, travel, hotel, shopping, dining, food shopping, health, pleasure, business, time. Enter a word, and a list of phrases that contain that word pops up almost instantaneously. If you’re a good sport, you can of course try to sound out the results for yourself- your accent will probably be awful, but the native will likely understand what you have to say. You also have the option of showing them the screen and pointing to the appropriate phrase, but it’s much cooller to tap on the word or phrase and have your device pronounce it for you. It’s a rather electronic sounding voice, of course, but it works very well. Another nice touch is that Audio Translator is integrated with the five way navigator on Tungsten devices, so that you can quickly select phrases without using the stylus.
Audio Translator is a great idea for frequent travelers of course, as well as anyone trying to learn a foreign language. Searching is fast and efficient, and if you have a Palm OS 5 or other supported device, Audio Translator will speak words and phrases for you. You can get the card for $39.95 from the MDM Software web site.
PocketGoddess Rating for Audio Translator: 
Secure File PDA Backup
Also known as the Mobile Backup Card, this is one example of something that simply works exactly as you would expect. Insert the card into your Palm OS or Windows Mobile device, and the backup application launches automatically. It features a very nice tabbed layout, with tabs for Basic, PIM, or Selective backup operations. Compression and encryption options are also available, a nice plus. Backing up 78 files on my device with compression took less than two minutes, while a backup of just the PIM files (Address, Datebook, To Do, and Memo) took only four secounds. A reminder to “remove the Backup Card and keep it in a safe place” is a nice touch, so that you don’t use it and then forget to switch it out for a memory expansion card.
The only small negative, and it’s really more of a nitpick, is the fact that it is not possible to keep more than one backup set on the card at a time. That is nice for non-power users though, since fewer options means less chance of mistakes. Each time you back up, the card prompts you to say that previous backups will be removed and asks if that’s OK, which is certainly good enough to prevent accidental overwriting.
If you want a more feature-packed backup program, there are some other options out there, most notably Right Back Up and BackupBuddyVFS. But if you want the easiest solution possible, you truly can’t do much better than Secure File PDA Backup from MDM Software, which provides the application you need on an SD card that holds 64MB of data. You can get one for yourself at the MDM web site for $49.99. Do it now and you’ll never have to worry about losing valuable handheld data again.
PocketGoddess Rating for Secure File PDA Backup: 
