MobiLearn Talking Phrasebooks Win Pocket PC Magazine's 2004 Best Software Award; Mobile Language-Learning Tools for Travelers and Students

Business Wire, Jan 6, 2005

BOSTON -- Pocket PC Magazine has named MobiLearn(R) Talking Phrasebooks the winner of its 2004 Best Software Award, selecting this series from among many competing language-learning products. MobiLearn's (www.mobilearn.net) portable Pocket PC phrasebooks enable English speakers to express themselves easily in French, German, Italian, and Spanish. Likewise, speakers of these European languages can use the talking phrasebooks to converse in English or any of the other four languages. The products are designed as just-in-time mobile tools for business travelers, tourists, and students, regardless of their prior fluency. In seconds, you can choose an expression in one language, then see, hear, and repeat it in another language. The translated word or phrase is spoken out loud through the Pocket PC speaker or earphone in a clear professional native voice, recorded in high fidelity.

MobiLearn also won Pocket PC Magazine's 2002 Best Software Award and was a finalist for the 2004 Handango Champion Award as Best Education Application. Receiving the latest award, Arthur Granville, MobiLearn's president, said "Our aim is to harness all the power of mobile computing technology so you can personalize the way you learn and virtually carry a tutor in your pocket."

Advanced Learning Features: Search, Sort, Bookmarking, Quiz, Programmable Audio

With each release, MobiLearn has built on ideas from its customers, adding new features tailored to the practical needs of travelers and students. In the latest version you can display phrases alphabetically or by topic. A search function quickly finds all the entries that contain specified words or characters. Translations are displayed instantly and can be played aloud with a tap. You can choose to play all selected phrases in one continuous flow, and can set the voice to repeat each phrase up to nine times, to aid practice and memorization. A Bookmark feature lets you flag selected items and save them in a personal category for easy review. In Quiz mode, a colorful knowledge game lets you compete against the clock and your own past record. You can choose to be quizzed within or across categories, and to draw on all items in the database or just the items you haven't yet mastered, focusing where you need the practice most. The program provides visual and auditory feedback on right and wrong answers and graphically displays your score and elapsed time over the last 50 trials. The historical profile allows you to track your improvement and target your learning.

Five Core Phrasebooks, Five Add-on Modules, 2,000-Plus Expressions

MobiLearn offers five core phrasebooks: English to French, German, Italian, and Spanish plus a version that combines all five languages. All the phrasebooks are bidirectional. Each one includes more than 400 essential phrases and terms for travelers and students. There are also five available add-on modules that focus on specific conversational themes: Cuisine ("Which wine do you recommend with this?"), Dating ("Do you come here often?"), Driving ("One-way traffic"), 500 Nouns, and 500 More Nouns. Altogether, each core phrasebook with the full suite of add-ons contains more than 2,000 items, representing a solid foundation of words and phrases basic to language mastery. In addition to the core phrasebooks there's a special phrasebook for health care professionals, MobiLearn(R) Talking English-Spanish Health Care Phrases from Taber's Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary.

The innovative software that animates MobiLearn's language products was developed by GrapeCity Inc. (formerly Bunka Orient Corp.) of Kirkland, Washington, an award-winning Japan-based software solutions company. MobiLearn also works in partnership with TransPerfect Translations of Boston, Massachusetts. TransPerfect's project teams of native translators and editors ensure that the written and spoken expressions contained in MobiLearn's language products are authoritative and up to date.

Purchases and Inquiries

MobiLearn's phrasebooks are priced from $34.99. The add-on modules are priced from $19.99. For more information or to download a free trial version, visit MobiLearn's Web site, www.mobilearn.net or e-mail info@mobilearn.net.