Dictionary.com for iPhone. Everyone should have it
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Freeware, iPhone, iPod touch
Every so often a free app comes along for the iPhone/ iPod touch that I think everyone should have. That certainly applies to Dictionary.com [App Store link]. It’s an iPhone version of the Dictionary.com web site which gives you definitions, a thesaurus, audio pronunciations, and my favorite, word origins. (I was interested to learn that the word ‘waver’ goes back to the 13th century German word for moving about. I love stuff like that.) The app also provides a word of the day, and examples of your specified word in sentences.
This app is every bit as good as the paid dictionary apps, and oh so more versatile. Happily, Dictionary.com does not need an internet connection for the dictionary and thesaurus, but does need it for the rest of the features. With all that information on board, the download is about 36 megabytes.
As you type a word, the dictionary auto-completes, saving you some time, and when you go back to your ‘recents’ list you have a choice of seeing the thesaurus or the dictionary. Nice. Pronunciations of the words are quite handy. Sometimes you get a female voice, other times a male.
One small nitpick. You should be able to click on words that the thesaurus finds and get a definition. You have to retype them.
Dictionary.com was released in late March, and I don’t think the word is out sufficiently so people know it is there. Consider this the ‘word’, and consider the occasion a propitious one. Look it up.
Screen shots:
Gallery: Dictionary.com screenshots
TUAWDictionary.com for iPhone. Everyone should have it originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Thu, 09 Apr 2009 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Teach your iPhone to swear, take two
Filed under: Odds and ends, iPhone, iPod touch
Erica Sadun has written an article over at Ars all about teaching your touchable pocket pal some nasty habits. If your language is generally more “explicit,” or you just have a need for the iPhone (or iPod Touch) to learn someone’s last name, then take heart, ye weary iPhone typists!
We previously covered TJ Luoma’s tip that involved adding a new contact whose name was a word that does not appear in the system dictionary; TJ has since updated the tip to note that you can include the target words outside the contact name and the approach still works. Erica has suggested a slightly different approach that does not require you to salt the address book with contact fluff. This is especially useful if you have young children or mothers who might happen to peruse your contacts.
The general assumption is that after correcting the auto-correct, the system will eventually add whatever it is you’re typing to the dictionary. As it turns out, not all apps are created equal in terms of updating the dictionary with new words. I won’t spoil the surprise, but I will tell you that the Notes app is not where you should conduct your keyboard-training session.
This excellent tip can also be used for teaching your tactile friend some less abrasive words that are not in the dictionary. Erica’s article walks through the procedure for updating the built-in dictionary on an iPhone or iPod Touch. If you happen to have jailbroken your device and installed SSH, she shows you how to directly access the dictionary. Hit the read link for the full scoop on how to update your dictionary with your off-color language or otherwise unique verbiage.
TUAWTeach your iPhone to swear, take two originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 21 Jan 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Your iPhone and salty language
Filed under: Tips and tricks, iPhone, iPod touch
Some of you may have noticed that your iPhone or iPod touch is a bit prudish. Type a salty word and you’ll likely be presented with a benign and completely inappropriate alternative (see screenshot at right). The problem (if you want to call it that) isn’t that one can’t swear, but that quickly-written sentences often have their meaning completely changed. Here’s how you can knock your iPhone off of its moral high horse.
While we haven’t found a way for end users to easily add a word to the iPhone’s dictionary, there’s a great & NSFW post at T’N'T Luoma (be warned, there are saltier words than “hell” over there) describing a clever trick using your contacts list.
Of course, you could either click the little “x” to dismiss the suggestion or disable auto-correction completely (under OS 2.2), but what’s the fun in that? We hope you find this trick handy. Just be careful when printing contact labels for your holiday cards.
Thanks TJ!
[via Daring Fireball]
TUAWYour iPhone and salty language originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 07 Dec 2008 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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5 Things You Never Knew About Spotlight
Many people use Quicksilver as a replacement for Spotlight, but if you’re happy with the native file search and app launcher in Mac OS X, then why change? You probably know that you can access Spotlight quickly with the Command-spacebar keyboard shortcut, but here are a few more tricks you might not know exist.
- Spotlight makes a great calculator and dictionary. Just open the search box, type an equation, and watch the answer appear as you type. It works on long equations with several steps (623+191*87-4), as well as mathematical terms like square root or power. Type a word in the search box and its meaning appears in the results — so you can search for the definition of pi or the numerical value of pi, your choice.
- By default, Spotlight shows the first 20 results of a search. While you can’t change the number of returns, you can eliminate some of the categories the app checks so the results you get are more pertinent. Select Spotlight in the System Preferences, and click on Search Results. If you typically use Spotlight to search documents and email then uncheck categories like Webpages and Music so they’re ignored in the future.
- Do you tag your pictures with keywords in iPhoto? Use Spotlight to snag images and drop them right into an email without even opening iPhoto. If your photos contain metadata on what type of camera was used, start your search with the keyword make to get a list of all pictures taken with that camera (for example, make:Nikon).
- Spotlight can search inside the public files of other Macs on your network, if they’re running Leopard. If they’re running an older version of OS X, or another operating system entirely, it can only search for specific file names.
- Many popular third-party apps, like OmniOutliner and Intaglio, have plugins for Spotlight to make their files searchable too. Check here for a full list of what’s available, and to find out if your favorite app has a plugin you didn’t know about.
What’s your favorite Spotlight trick? Let me know in the comments.
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How knswledgable are you about cartgriqdges?
Filed under: Odds and ends
Newer updates to Mac OS X Leopard seem to have an interesting problem with their spelling databases: they include words that are most certainly wrong. The problem first appeared in 10.5.2 (U.S. English), and has not yet been corrected.
Canspice.org points to an Ars Technica discussion from March highlighting the misspelling knswledgable. If you open TextEdit, for example, and intentionally misspell the word “knowledgeable” (say, by spelling it “knowledgable”), then control-click to show a spelling suggestion, you might see the erroneous option.
The word “cartgriqdge” also appears to be similarly affected. Both words do not appear in the Mac OS X Dictionary application.
Urban Dictionary seized upon the new word, defining knswledgable as having “inordinate amounts of knowledge about useless spelling trivia.”
How knswledgable are you about cartgriqdges? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Wed, 05 Nov 2008 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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iPhone Dictionary App Roundup
Recently, Merriam-Webster announced that the Collegiate Dictionary was available for the iPhone and iPod touch, and since then I’ve wanted to explore what kind of dictionary options were out there. After all, everyone needs a dictionary right?
The Collegiate Dictionary, although not glamorous in its function, boasts over 225,000 entries, a history of the last 15 searches, and links between entries. Since the app works offline with only a “minimal amount” of memory, I ran to the iTunes App Store to download it — only to have a small heart attack at the $24.99 price tag (ok, maybe just a heart murmur).
Merriam-Webster iPhone App
So if you’re a poor college student, struggling journalist, or a lost crossword puzzler, you may want to try a few other options out there for getting those precious definitions. I’ve brought a few of my favorites together for you.
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