Noah Pro 3.0

I updated my big dictionary round-up a while back on PDABuyersGuide. The explicit criteria for evaluation included that the dictionary databases not be purely Princeton WordNet based, although I did look at two enhanced WordNet offerings. That review contains a discussion of why I took that approach. Consequently, some products that I included in my review a year ago were not included in the update. Since then, ArsLexis updated their flagship product--Noah Pro 3.0. Although based on a pure WordNet database, it had a number of nice changes worth noting. I tested Noah Pro 3.0 on my Palm Tungsten|T3 with a 256MB PNY (Toshiba) SD card.

The major difference concerns how Noah Pro operates at its core. Previous versions kept about a 1MB cache in RAM even when the dictionary database resided on the card. Version 3.0 runs about a 1K cache in RAM, making it much friendlier to 8MB RAM devices. Access to the database on the card proved snappy, so there's no reason not to keep it there.

The opening screen hasn't changed much, except the version number. Tap on the magnifying glass in the lower left to start a search. Tapping on the down arrow brings up the history list of past words.

The word list screen provides a progressive search, so works well for verifying spellings. The colors above result from the T3's color preference, not Noah Pro.

The definition screen has been upgraded and reformatted, and there are three different screen designs from which to choose. In my favorite, the headword appears at the top in color. Definitions appear under their parts of speach, which are also highlighted with color as well. Example usages appear under most definitions in yet a different color. Lastly, synonyms appear in bold. The synonyms tend to be weak, though, and will require a real thesaurus. Double-tapping on any word in the definition screen brings up that word's definition if it is in the dictionary.

The Display Prefs offer three choices of screen layout with the ability to specify many of the display colors. Layout 1 above works best for me. Layout 2 looks about the same but combines some lines. Layout 3 uses the old, monochrome format. Fonts may also be changed. These set it apart from some other WordNet offerings as well as others.

As you can see from the illustrations, Noah Pro 3 fully supports the new Palm Dynamic Input Area (DIA) on the T3, and does so in both portrait and landscape. Under Preferences, the user can set the startup database, startup action, and behavior of the up/down buttons and 5-Way up/down buttons. It supports bookmarks as well. Databases will be found automatically anywhere on the card when first activated, and you can manually search the device for databases later--a very nice touch. Noah Pro also now has a new resident mode through the command stroke, but unfortunately, I couldn't find a way to turn that off. Words can be cut/pasted to/from the clipboard, and Noah Pro has the ability to startup with the word in the clipboard. All these features put Noah Pro 3 up with better-known products.

Noah Pro 3 comes with a full dictionary that boasts 122,000 headwords and a medium dictionary with about 37,000 words. The former occupies about 5 MB of memory, the latter about 1.6 MB. The app itself takes just 87K.

Like most dictionaries, Noah Pro 3 has a companion thesaurus--Thesaurus 1.2--which sells for $10. Unfortunately, it hasn't seen the display updates yet that improved Noah Pro. It doesn't support the Palm DIA which limits it to 320x320, and uses a simple, monochrome display without frills. It does, however, a pretty good job with its 48,000 synonyms. It has benefited from improved memory use and compression. Searching off the card proved very fast.

As I've written elsewhere, I'm not a fan of using WordNet's database as a dictionary. That said, ArsLexis has produced a very nice update for Noah Pro. They endowed it with most of the features of the top-line dictionary apps. In fact, some of the big-name dictionary apps don't have all of Noah Pro 3.0's useful features. In my opinion, all ArsLexis needs to be a power player in the dictionary field is a non- or enhanced WordNet database and an upgrade to their thesaurus. With Noah Pro 3.0 selling at $19.95, it is already more than competitive.