There's a (Really Bad) App for That

I got a new cell phone yesterday. I don't want to tell you the brand and model because I don't want to disparage the product, but I do want to make a comment about it...

...The phone came with a dictionary application built into it. Cool, I thought to myself, here's something on a phone I can actually USE. I wondered, though, how detailed each entry would be. Would it give a very short definition only, or would it contain multiple definitions and information such as pronunciation and word origins? I typed in "egregious" (which was fresh on my mind as I'd used it in a blog entry the other day) and I hit the Go button. Immediately the dictionary came back with a message "Not in Database." I stared at it for a minute but decided that maybe I didn't really know how to spell "egregious," so I chose a word that I knew I knew how to spell: obfuscate. Again, "Not in Database." This bothered me, so I decided to try a word that was a little more commonly used: circumspect. Again, not in the database.

At this point I was really frustrated so I typed d-o-g into the phone. The phone came back with this: "dog (n) a carnivorous, domesticated mammal descended from wolves. A canine. Click here for other definitions." I clicked the link and immediately received a few other definitions, including "a person of unattractive appearance," and a number of example sentences.

I typed in "cat" and "cattle" and also got definitions. I thought for a moment and then typed "iridescent." The phone immediately came back "Not in Database."

So here was the absolute worst dictionary EVER! It was filled with seemingly every word that a common English speaker would already know, but didn't have ANY of the words that someone might actually need help with. It's a complete waste.

I think tomorrow I'm going to figure out how to uninstall it.