~~ FRANKLY SPEAKING WITH THE FRANKLIN SCG-1870 ELECTRONIC DICTIONARY ~~

For all of you out there who know the power of a word....

This is my second electronic dictionary, my first one was broken, so I replaced it with the Franklin SCG-1870 Dictionary when I went back to school shopping back in the fall. Not only for my 13 year old son who likes to do his homework in his bedroom, instead of on his computer, but for me as well. Going back to school at my age is difficult enough, but to have a hand held friend like Franklin, is grades in the bank!!

If you have never had an electronic dictionary, it is awesome. Instead of leafing through a 20 pound, 1,000 page book with your eyes going buggy, you can simply type in a word, and there you are! This is the official Merriam-Webster's Collegiate version of more than 200,000 words to choose from! It has a grammar guide, and takes only seconds for it to pop up on screen. The screen is bright and large enough to read up to 12 lines at a time. If you are looking up synonyms, there are at least 500,000 of those to choose from. It is expensive, near $100, but if you have a lot of courses with English or literature, it is perfect and lightens the load!!

It looks very adult, and attractive. It has a back stand in case you need your hands free. It is easy to carry in your backpack or purse, and runs on 2 AAA batteries, which I may add, do not last long at all. Maybe 3 weeks at the most. But, that is if you use it all the time, and/or forget to shut it off. It turns on fast, and wastes no time getting you to where you need to go!!

It also has other features, which I think are nice, but not necessary. I would have preferred an inner-thesaurus as opposed to these: Word games - like Letris and many others that pick your brain with riddles and rhymes. It is fun, but useless when it comes to studying. It has a Grammar Guide - I have not used this feature, but it is an additional tool for reference.

One of the features that I appreciate is the rolodex database in which you can add over 100 names of your contacts, and post their numbers in case you don't have your cell phone handy. I have most of my contacts in my cell, and PDA, so this is good for someone who does not have those things. It serves as a good back up! And one of the things I LOVE is the "Bookman" expansion, that allows you to upload your favorite and saved electronic books if you have a bookman card! It has a slot for you to put in and it prompts you from there. I have uploaded three already. I am not sure how much room is allowed, but I will update as I upload more!

This is a must have for any student, in college, high school, middle school or for any writer who needs information at the drop of a hat! It takes hours of drudgery and work off of you, and is much faster than dictionary.com is when you are in a hurry!!