December 24, 2010

A Review of the Merriam Webster App for iPhone/iPodTouch

I discovered the Merriam Webster App after reading an article about the top-10 words of 2010.

A unique feature of the app is the voice search-- you can search for a word by speaking it, instead of typing. The voice-recognition has 80% accuracy; of the words I spoke, it did not recognize ebullient and effervescent but recognized: diplomat, dictionary, acknowledge, recognize, mimic, etymology, apple, diplomat.

The app remembers recent words looked-up, shows completions as the word is being typed and also has audio pronunciations for words. It also has synonyms and antonyms and example sentences. The Word of the Day feature, the audio search feature and audio pronunciations require network connectivity.

It is an iPhone/iPodTouch app only, so the text looks jagged on the iPad. The app also displays Google ads along the bottom of the definition. I would use the Dictionary.com app (see my review) first and use the Merriam Webster app as a supplement.

I rate the Merriam Webster Dictionary app 3 out of 4 stars. 
1. Usability: 1
2. Usefulness: 1 
3. Looks: .5 (not iPad ready)
4. Enjoyability: .5 (voice input is a nice feature but recognition failures were frustrating) 

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