Nokia issued a press release today stating that the Nokia E7 was finally arriving in select markets. The Nokia USA site doesn’t have it up for pre-order yet and the only one I could find on Amazon shows a price of $849 with a due in stock date of 31 March. I personally am very happy with my N8 and can’t justify these high prices for a phone with overall less capability than the N8.

The E7 is definitely an attractive device with the large 4 inch ClearBlack display and full QWERTY keyboard. I am not a big fan of the non-expandable 16GB memory and 8 megapixel camera when I have the N8 with 16GB and a microSD card slot with 12 megapixel camera and Xenon flash. The E7 does have the USB on-the-go feature and HDMI out capability though.

The E7 is designed as a business-focused device with some of the Eseries features such as a full version of an Office application and VPN support. I do hope to get one for an evaluation period because I did enjoy using it at Nokia World last year. Any readers looking to pick up the Nokia E7?

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Image: Quest Visual

I’m not an iPhone app junky. I only download apps I’m sure I’ll use, and I promptly delete any that disappoint me. And I certainly never pay for full versions of apps without first checking the reviews. What can I say? I’m a picky user.

Then one day, a new language translation app exploded onto the scene with an unbelievable YouTube demo video. So unbelievable that I actually doubted its veracity. But because my Twitter-friends wouldn’t stop retweeting about it, I decided to investigate. I may be picky, but my friends rarely steer me wrong.

According to the official video demo, Word Lens uses the iPhone’s camera to visually translate words and phrases from one language to another. Just open the app, point your iPhone at a sign or a label, and the words change before your eyes.

[Read more of Kay Holt's review of Word Lens over at GeekMom!]

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Word Lens, a new app for the iPhone, looks at any printed text through the iPhone’s camera, reads it, translates between Spanish and English. It does it in real time – and also matches the color, font and perspective of the text, and remaps it onto the image. It’s as if the world itself has been translated, says Wired

Word Lens is free.

The Spanish-English and English-Spanish dictionaries are in-app purchases, for $5 each, and the app runs offline – perfect for when you’re traveling.

View full post on dailywireless.org

Photo: Oxford University Press

I wouldn’t say words are my passion, but they have always fascinated me, like something that I knew about but couldn’t fully understand. I am always open to the opportunity to learn more, to fill even one of the many holes in my knowledge of the world of words.

Not that long ago, I had the chance to read and review Damp Squid, which was an excellent study in the history of words and word origins, plus old and modern day usage. More recently, I’ve been able to spend some time with How to Read a Word by Elizabeth Knowles. This book is just as entertaining as it is useful. While both books have a common subject matter, How to Read a Word takes a more personal look at words. It does address the idea of the dictionary and the corpus, but it also helps with what questions to ask about words, where and how to look for answers and what to do with the answers you find.

If words fascinate you, along with the history of them and origins of new words, this book will appeal to you. From George W. Bush’s “strategery” to the “staycation,” from “Scouse” to “couth,” this book is filled with specific examples. The book is filled with quotes from writings, speeches, and more, that lend support to the points being made. In addition to these examples filling the paragraphs, there are a few spots in which the book takes on individual words and breaks them down in isolation, talking about their origins and importance.

Early on in How to Read a Word, the concept of the dictionary is discussed in more length than I had ever considered it. We say “the” dictionary as if there is just one ultimate authority in word legitimacy. In reality, there are many more gray areas. For example, what if the word you are looking for isn’t in your particular dictionary? That doesn’t mean it isn’t a word. How many words are in “the” dictionary? Does your particular dictionary chronicle the history of words, or current usage? Does the dictionary address words on a specific topic, defining vocabulary for a specialized subset of the English language (or other language)? The answers to these questions are important when you consider words.

The entirety of How to Read a Word encourages us to be thoughtful about words, to really dig and learn, and not take them for granted. It is filled with specific examples and anecdotes which serve to inform, entertain and explain many ways in which words form, are created, change and are adopted. Words and definitions are serious business. They evolve over time, passing in and out of fashion. There are also such words, like “redact,” that fell out of favor only to be brought back into more common usage. (This particular word is a favorite of some GeekDads.)

For anyone interested in words, How to Read a Word is a very exciting read. It is up to date as well, discussing such words as “Twitter” and “Avatar.” And it almost holds your hand, showing you plenty of places, ways and strategies for taking on your own word research, including both print and online resources.

The idea of doing my own research into words and their use never occurred to me, but the idea of building up my own word files was instantly appealing. Keeping a record of words I love, words that intrigue or confound me, words that have particular meaning, is enticing. The chapter on building your own word files steps you through the example of researching the phrase “blue moon.” Whether you keep your records in a notebook, on index cards, in a spreadsheet or keep them by some other method, it is easy to keep your word study all together. In addition to word origins and definitions, you can also include quotations, usage and history. How to Read a Word encourages you to take your own approach in word study. And if one chapter’s lesson isn’t enough, it is followed by another chapter that takes you on a journey to learn as much as possible about the word “satsuma.”

The book’s end matter includes information about the origins of some of our words from today, the history of dictionaries, plenty of online resources, a glossary and a subject and word index.

How to Read a Word is a very fun read, whether you know nothing technical about words, or if you are more of an expert. I highly recommend this book.

How to Read a Word retails for $18.95. It’s a great gift idea for any reader or writer on your list.

Note: I received a copy of this book for review purposes.

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Image: John Booth

Growing up, while I was never quite the Rubik’s Cube Jedi that I wanted to be, I always had a thing for that puzzle and the sorts it inspired. I was also raised in a house where the day I could finally hold my own against mom and dad in Scrabble felt almost as monumental as getting my learner’s driving permit.

So you can imagine the chords of memory struck when I saw the Scruble Cube, released this month by RSV Productions.

It’s pretty much just what it looks like: Scrabble, if it were scattered across the surface of a Rubik’s Revenge. The goal is to build words from those 7.4 x 10⁴⁵ possible cube permutations, with scoring based on the letters used and the effective use of “premium peg” multipliers. (Here’s a short demo video.) You can build a word from scratch with each turn, branch a new word from an existing one for additional points, or earn bonuses for words consisting of six letters or more or for touching three sides of the cube.

There’s also a 90-second timer included to really keep things moving if you want.

Upon receiving Scruble for review – it retails for $24.95 – I got a lot of solo enjoyment out of the game for awhile, keeping it on my computer desk for regular quick-fixes of word building and setting my sights on higher scores and longer words. If my wife and daughter wanted to watch something on TV that I wasn’t particularly interested in, I grabbed Scruble and puzzled over it in the family room. And I could easily see myself taking this along for a vacation or travel distraction.

It was tougher for me to find someone to play against, though: While my wife and I like playing Scrabble and our daughter is generally open to trying new family games, Scruble’s mechanical puzzle aspect really turned both of them off: Even with all those letters and possible combinations, the cube can present an intimidating jumble if you’re not a fan of this sort of thing and don’t have a bit of rudimentary cube mechanical knowledge.

Fortunately, my brother – always up for some good sibling competition – volunteered for head-to-head playtesting.

We put the timer into play, and also decided on Scruble’s play option #2, in which all the premium peg multipliers can be used as “wild cards,” so long as you don’t use more than two in a word or use them next to each other.

We learned quickly that in the all-premiums-wild game, the multipliers made for some high scoring with even the shortest allowable words: In our ten-turn contest, I managed to spell “YES” for an eighth-round 117-pointer which utterly buried my brother’s hard-fought seven-point lead. Even “IVY” – spelled easily with no wilds, since there’s a side piece with I and V on it – can net a quick 66 points, bracketed by a quadruple letter score and a triple word score.

Point being that especially if you’re using option #2, the game’s recommended 100-point goal can be eclipsed pretty easily within just a few turns, so you’d be better served by a predetermined number of rounds.

We also discovered that it’s very easy to spend far too many of your precious 90 seconds on a word only to realize that you’re never going to be able to get that last letter in place simply because it’s not possible.

Unlike Scrabble, if you branch a new word off an existing word, you get the score from the first in addition to your own, though any multipliers affecting the first word aren’t calculated again. Honestly, we didn’t even try the branching approach a single time, only because with the power of the multipliers, it was hardly worth trying for the handful of extra points, given the short window of time and the trouble of trying to keep one word intact while shifting another into place.

These high-scoring short words, while keeping Scruble competitive, of course, also perfectly illustrate the question of the cube’s long-term group playability.

See, every time you pick up Scruble, you’ve got the very same batch of letters on the cube, and while yes, there are many, many combinations, the construct of the cube and letter arrangement is a constant: The corner pieces, the side pieces, and the quartet in each cube face’s center will never be moved from those roles. So in much the same way that you could pick up a Rubik’s Cube and “solve” a particular color side, a Scruble player with a memory can pick up the game and immediately go for that easily-reconstructed “IVY,” for instance. Or you could save that blistering “YES” for a late-game knockout. Sure, there’s the option of increasing the minimum word length to four letters, which would make it harder to find those quick-build scores, but it doesn’t change the fact that once you’ve created a 40-point “GEEK,” you know you’ll be able to do it again.

I’m sure that with a few house rules – maybe limiting words to one use per game, for instance – we’ll get some more competitive play out of Scruble. My gut feeling, though, is that in the long run, Scruble is probably better suited for solo play – and that’s not necessarily a bad thing – or even one-on-one competitive matches where each player has their own cube and they try for high scores against a common clock.

Wired: Great for solo mental exercise. Mess with it long enough, and you’ll see the cube twisting and words forming when you shut your eyes, just like you used to get with Tetris.

Tired: Possibility for memorizing high-scoring words gives experienced players a huge advantage.

Disclosure: RSV Productions provided GeekDad with a Scruble Cube for this review.

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The wordoid! (word game) Android App by Sean Wilson puts your linguistic skills to the test with this game for the Android platform. The object of the game is to link adjacent tiles on the letter grid to spell words. Each word needs to be a dictionary word and needs to be at least 3 letters or more. Long words will get you more points. Try to score the required number of points within the time limit to earn more time.

There are a few different tiles other than the word tiles that you can use to your advantage. The question mark tile acts as any letter so you can use it to substitute for a letter that you may need but do not currently have. Orange tiles can be used to add one tile to a word to make it longer for bonus points. The graphics are pretty cool and simple. The controls are easy to use and are responsive.

Overall, this is a great word game for the Android platform. At the time of this review the wordoid! (word game) Android App is free. Thumbs Up.

Download wordoid! (word game)

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The Mobile Word Search Android App by 100 Woodlawn is a word search puzzle game with over 60,000 words. The game controls are simple, when you find a word simply put your finger on either the first or last letter of the word and then drag your finger until you get to the first or last letter of the word (depending on which one you started with). When you have the entire word highlighted simply take your finger off of the touch screen and if you have found a word from the list the word will be crossed off of the list.

The graphics are very basic and the letters are clear and easy to read. The list of words is located on the bottom of the screen and is easy to read as well. You can access the main menu by pressing the menu button on your Android device. From here you can look up stats, choose a speed game and show the timer.

Overall, this is a great cross word puzzle game for the Android platform. At the time of this review the Mobile Word Search Android App is $0.99. Thumbs Up.

Download Mobile Word Search

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A trio of updates released on Tuesday fix vulnerabilities in the 2004 and 2008 versions of Microsoft Word and Excel that could have let an attacker execute code remotely. The Office 2008 update also features stability and reliability improvements for Excel and Entourage.

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People sure like tossing around the word “fail.” This week, the Macalope takes a look at f-word targets beginning with ‘a’: Apple, Adobe, and Asus.

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Ford showcased some of its improvements on Sync this week with improved voice recognition and user friendliness. The newest version uses voice-recognition technology from Nuance that can now recognize up to 10,000 voice commands and enables drivers to talk in more complete sentences. The goal is to make nearly every function in the car voice-activated. The voice upgrades will be available on the next generation of SYNC, launching this year on the new 2011 Ford Edge.

The first generation of Sync was introduced on the Focus in 2007, but the company plans to offer its new MyFord Touch interface installed on at least 80% of all of its vehicles by 2015.

The system may understand 10 times as many words as it did before, but it still has trouble understanding female voices, says USA Today.

MyFord Touch boasts an 8-inch LCD touchscreen and replaces traditional knobs with touch sensors. Sync is the software that runs at the heart of the system. It allows your cellphone to be part of the network. Say a simple command and SYNC will use your connected phone to make the call hands-free.

For family members who share the same vehicle, up to 12 phones can easily be paired with the system. Should more than one paired phone be present in the vehicle at the same time, SYNC will attempt to contact the designated primary phone first. SYNC also has the ability to easily switch between phones.

Meanwhile, the ng Connect Program, co-founded by Alcatel-Lucent, today announced the expansion of the initiative to the Asia Pacific region with the launch of a new LTE Connected Car concept at the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai.

The Connected Car concept vehicle uses an LTE radio and antenna from Alcatel-Lucent, QNX Software for the operating system providing the touchscreen user interfaces and media players for YouTube and Pandora, Content partners from Atlantic Records, The Kids VoD Service from Kabillion, and more than 1,500 chumby applications.

Currently there are more than 69 million vehicles in China, and the company’s vehicle growth rate is almost 7.66 percent year over year. In addition a number of telecom carriers are planning to roll out next-generation 4G/LTE networks in the next year, all setting the stage for the LTE Connected Car concept launched today in China.

View full post on dailywireless.org

Word searches are all the more fun when you’re searching for the bizarre words rather than the mundane. Word Absurd by developer new-comer Trephination Proved Worthless LLC is a collection of word searches where the hidden words are slightly more unique than the standard fare.

Logically grouped according to categories, Word Absurd words aren’t in your average Sunday paper puzzle. Word Absurd features a broad array of categories from Down of the Farm (things on a farm) to Doggy Style (pets). The words aren’t displayed on the puzzle screen and hunting for words relevent to the category is half the fun. If you need a hint, tap on the word list and Word Absurd will let you know what you’re looking for.(…)
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Word Absurd is an Uncommonly Good Word Search | Best iPad Apps | Best Free Apps

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Image: Out of the Box Games

Finding word games that kids can play, grownups can play and families can play together is difficult. A game might work for one or two scenarios, but not all three. On game night, we always have a hard time finding games that we all are able to play and want to play. So we end up playing the same five games in rotation.

Recently, though, I found two new games that my entire family loves. They make great party games, but they also require you to think. Word on the Street was chosen as one of the Mensa Select winners this year, which was no surprise to me. At Mind Games, everyone had a great time playing it, and kept going back for a second or third round.

Image: Out of the Box Games

The same company also makes Word on the Street Junior, which is very similar to the regular version, except the board and pieces are slightly different, and the rules have been changed to allow kids a better chance of doing well. We mostly played Word on the Street Junior, teaming up one grownup and one kid on each team. Perhaps this wasn’t necessary, however, since my son usually came up with longer words than anyone else.

At first glance, there don’t seem to be many differences between the two games, but after playing both, they really are appreciably different. Some differences between Word on the Street and Word on the Street Junior include:

WotS: All the vowels and J, Q, X and Z are missing from the board.
WotSJ: Has all the letters, from A to Z.

WotS: Tiles seem to be actually made of tile and are heavy for their size.
WotSJ: Tiles are somewhat smaller, to accommodate more letters on the board, and are made of thick cardboard.

WotS: Confusing the other team with background chatter is encouraged.
WotSJ: Supportive atmosphere for the other team is encouraged.

WotS: Must spell words correctly or you are penalized.
WotSJ: Spelling is a cooperative effort among all players.

WotS: Must spell words and move tiles before timer runs out.
WotSJ: Spell words after the timer runs out, allowing for more thinking time.

WotS: You can concentrate on finding words with multiple rarely used letters.
WotSJ: Since vowels are easier to capture than most consonants, you have to keep an eye on them more closely.

WotS: Comes with more cards than WotSJ.

If you own both games, you can use either board with either set of rules, mixing up the difficulty. One nice thing about these games is that, if you play with at least four people, it is both cooperative and competitive. You’re working with your own team to outwit the other team.

Both games are from Out of the Box Games, which have brought us such excellent diversions as Apples to Apples, and the 10 Days In.. series of games. Also, GeekDad’s own John Kovalic worked the Word on the Street games. Both versions are supposed to last from 20-30 minutes. Word on the Street is designed for players age 12 and up and is for 2 to 10 players. Word on the Street Junior is designed for players age 8 and up and is for 2 to 8 players. If you have a child with a good vocabulary, however, the Junior game can be played by younger children. Our six year old son did very well.

Word on the Street is currently available at Amazon for $16.59 and Word on the Street Junior for $20.00.

Wired: It’s fast-paced word-making fun. It’s a fun challenge to think up obscure words that use rarely used letters. Great for the entire family to play together, or separately.

Tired: I wish the pieces in the Junior game were as nice as in the regular game.

Note: Review copies of both games were supplied by the publisher.

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Image: Out of the Box Games

Some people love word games. Some people really don’t. I’m somewhere in the middle. I really enjoy some word games very much, such as Boggle and Quiddler, but others aren’t as much fun, such as AmuseAmaze. So when I received a review copy of Letter Roll, I wasn’t sure on which side it would land.

Promoting itself to be “Everybody’s Word Game,” Letter Roll has many options that you can set depending on how difficult you want to make the game. It contains seven 20-sided dice. Two contain frequently used letters (white), three contain less frequently used letters (blue) and two use infrequently used letters (orange). The basic rules say to take turns rolling four of the seven dice and then choosing three of those on which to base your words. Each person writes down as many words as they can that use all of the shown letters. After time is up, you compare lists and cross out duplicates. Each remaining word scores one point. Because of this, unusual or extra long words may gain you points, while common words that everyone thinks up will probably get crossed off.

The rule sheet has some basic guidelines for play, such as how many rounds you play, and some variations for easier or more difficult games. But the beauty of this game is that you can make it as easy or hard, or as short or long as you want it to be. By giving you excellent game materials, you can even make up your own games.

You could make the game easier by rolling and choosing fewer dice, or make it much more difficult, by using more. Or you could restrict yourself to the more frequently or infrequently used letter dice. This game is incredibly adaptable for playing with mixed age groups, such as families. In addition to the different dice, there are two sand timers. One is a two minute timer, for a standard game, and the other is a one minute timer, for a fast game. Or you can use the timers as we did, using the two minute timer for the kids and the one minute timer for the adults. That way the kids have a built in advantage to have more time to write and think of words.

I like that the scoring is much simpler than Boggle, with just one point per word. Also, since misspellings are allowed (as long as the required letters are still present and aren’t incorrectly included), kids feel more free to write down difficult words. This definitely helps them learn spelling by taking a chance on words they wouldn’t ordinarily try to write.

After playing it a few times, I’ve decided that I do enjoy Letter Roll and I strongly recommend it to others who enjoy word games. I have played with just grownups, and also with a mix of kids and grownups. It works equally well both ways, especially when it is established that you’re playing to have fun, not necessarily to win. But it is easy to give the kids an advantage over the adults by changing the rules around a bit.

Letter Roll from Out of the Box Games is currently available on Amazon for about $17.

Wired: High quality dice, easy to learn, extremely easy to customize, enjoyable game play.

Tired: The sand timers aren’t as high quality as the other pieces, but they do their job.

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Even though there’s no iPad version of Word, you can read and edit Word documents on your iPad if you’re willing to accept a few compromises. Joe Kissell shows you how.

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Don’t worry, it’s not in your eye, it’s with an I and an E, O, U and sometimes Y. Word Droppings is a word building game played by tapping letters to form words, which as expected, scores you points. You can compete against yourself to advance through 75 different levels or play online against other players or Facebook and Twitter friends. While by no means my favorite word formation game ever, Word Droppings has some unique features that keep the game interesting, fun and is by no means “crappy.”

Falling like pigeon poop in the city, Word Droppings features random letters that scroll from top to bottom. Simply tap the letters in a sequence that forms a three or more letter word. Letters don’t have to be next to one another to use, so all letters on the screen are fair game. There are two bonus tiles that appear – a bomb and a snake. The golden snake is worth bonus points just for tapping, but the bomb will subtract points if it reaches the bottom of the screen. To avoid losing points, simply detonate the bomb by spelling a word before it hits bottom.

One of the more intuitive features of Word Droppings is the ability to control the scrolling speed of the letters by tilting your iPhone. Tilt it up to make the letters fall faster, tilt it back to slow them down. This is an apt strategy if you are looking for a particular letter to complete a word. (…)
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Word Droppings – Funny Name, Fun Game | Best iPad Apps | Best Free Apps

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CrackBerry.com‘s feed sponsored by ShopCrackBerry.com. Announcing Word Shuffle 2 From Epic Applications

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