Approximately 3 years ago I was interested in purchasing a Sharp Zaurus SL-C760 from Japan. It was a miniature PC running Linux with 128 mg or so of on board memory and a memory slot. Over time I forgot all about this Zaurus and my prior love affair with the Zaurus ZR-5700, 5000 and 5800 all until today.
What is really the point in spending $400 on an gadget that only serves as an Arabic translator? For the moment I have let go of the dream of having a portable Arabic translator with voice pronouciation in my pocket or PC. There are portable Arabic translators with voice but their dictionaries are so small that they wouldn't serve much practical use and as far as I'm aware there's no PC Arabic/English dictionary with Arabic voice. So basically the functionality of an electronic translator can be matched by a PC with dictionary software.
So that's where the Zaurus comes in. As a PC running linux it would be possible to type in Arabic, even run an Arabic based operating system, use the Pauker flash card learning system, run PC based language learning programs like Rosetta Stone, play re-encoded DVDs (Al-Kitaab) and carry around a full sized dictionary. The open programming environment even makes an open Arabic dictionary with a voice synthesizer a future possibility.
All of this costs $624US including a WiFi card, 6GB HD, plus postage, plus the cost of a PC dictionary, say $100, and it's about double or thrice the price of an electronic translator with far more than double the functionality built-in.
But will all of this just be a big distraction from my language learning... hmmm
Here's more info on the Sharp SL-C3200
http://www.engadget.com/2005/06/07/sharps-sl-c3100/
http://www.conics.net/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=153&osCsid=f7c685983d71189067aa062e31e944bf
http://www.dynamism.com/
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