Word of the day.

30% off Sale for Cyber Monday (and Tuesday)

2016-11-28T06:45:00.001-06:00

30% off all Ultralingua iOS dictionaries for

Cyber Monday (and Tuesday)

It's time once again for our annual Cyber Monday Sale: 30% off all our iOS dictionaries! This is your best chance of the year to get great Ultralingua dictionaries for yourself or any of the other language lovers in your life.

The sale runs for two days only - November 28 and 29 - so don’t miss your chance to get great prices on all our Ultralingua products during our biggest sale of the year.

30% off all our Ultralingua for iOS products. That includes 30% off all in-app purchases in the Ultralingua Bookshelf app. The Bookshelf app also contains the free Ultralingua English dictionary and thesaurus!

Choose from any of the Ultralingua, Collins, and Vox dictionaries we offer. The iOS sale prices are available automatically. Just go to the iTunes App Store on Monday or Tuesday and you'll get the sale price.

Ultralingua 2.7 for iOS: new features and 25% off!

2016-06-16T07:37:00.002-05:00

We're excited to announce a new version of Ultralingua's iOS dictionaries that's loaded with updated features.

To celebrate this free update, we're having a 25%-off sale on all of our iOS dictionaries. The sale runs from Thursday, June 16 through Saturday, June 19. The prices in the iTunes App Store are reduced by 25%, as are the in-app purchase prices in the Ultralingua Bookshelf app.

(Don't forget: if you already own one or more of our stand-alone iOS apps, you can download the Ultralingua Bookshelf and transfer your dictionaries via iCloud into the Bookshelf app. This gives you the power of Search-in-All, the convenience of having all your dictionaries in one app, and our free English dictionary and thesaurus.)

So what are these new features?

Ultralingua now works with iPad Slide Over and Split View. Look up words in Ultralingua while browsing the web or reading a book. No more switching between screens; you can do it all at the same time on the same screen.

Our new verb conjugation screen lets you search for any verb in a language, even verbs not found in the dictionary. Easily swipe between conjugations and dictionary results. Bonus: Tap and hold any conjugation to hear its text-to-speech audio.

A new screen design for iPad makes viewing even easier. Tap the screen mode button in the upper right corner to switch between views. Choose single pane mode showing either the dictionary or conjugation screens, or choose the dual pane mode showing both dictionary results and conjugations on the same screen.

We've also enhanced the Favorites list with some great new features. You can share your Favorites in both .txt and .csv format. Now you can import your Favorites into documents, spreadsheets, and any app or program that can handle these kinds of files. Plus, you can share your Favorites between any iOS devices using AirDrop.

Sorting is also available for your Favorites list. Sort alphabetically, reverse alphabetically, and by language. You can even do a random sort of your Favorites.

In addition, we've simplified the app's navigation. It takes fewer taps to see conjugations, and it's easier to get to menu items and switch between dictionaries.

You can see all of these changes by trying the free Ultralingua Bookshelf app or by purchasing one of our many stand-alone dictionaries, including titles from Collins and Vox.

Ultralingua 2.7 for iOS requires iOS 8.0 or higher. If you have questions please contact us at support@ultralingua.com.

50% off all iOS dictionaries

2015-11-30T07:30:00.000-06:00

50% off all Ultralingua iOS dictionaries for

Cyber Monday (and Tuesday)

It's time once again for our annual Cyber Monday Sale: 50% off all our iOS dictionaries! This is your best chance of the year to get great Ultralingua, Collins, and Vox dictionaries for yourself or any of the other language lovers in your life.

The sale runs from now through December 1 - so don’t miss your chance to get great prices on all our Ultralingua products during our biggest sale of the year.

The sale prices are available automatically. Just go to the iTunes App Store and you'll get the sale price.

Plus, the next free update to the Ultralingua iOS apps is coming soon! This update will include iOS 9 compatibility, interface improvements, bug fixes, and some new features we think you're going to like.

Ultralingua 2.6 for iOS: now with speech!

2015-06-25T09:00:00.000-05:00

Text-to-Speech! • 30%-off Sale

We'll keep this short. All of the new Ultralingua 2.6 dictionaries for iOS can pronounce words and phrases for you!

Just tap-and-hold a word to get the popup menu, use the selection handles to select the words you want to have spoken, and then choose Speak from the menu.

We're really excited about this new feature, so we're having a big sale through Saturday, June 27: 30% off all Ultralingua dictionaries for iOS. Go get all the dictionaries you need right now!

Ultralingua Bookshelf for iOS8: English Dictionary Now Free!

2015-02-05T11:01:00.001-06:00

We're delighted to announce Ultralingua Dictionary Bookshelf 2.5 for iOS 8. This streamlined version of our best-selling language tool is free to download, and now comes with our English Dictionary and Thesaurus at no extra charge.

To celebrate, we're having a 50% OFF SALE on all Ultralingua for iOS products through the weekend, February 5-8.

What's new in Ultralingua Bookshelf 2.5?

It now comes with our English Dictionary and Thesaurus for free.

Updated for iOS 8, and available on both iOS 7 and 8

A streamlined interface makes it easier to organize your dictionaries, and to learn about and purchase new titles.

Remember those scrolling Ultralingua ads on the dictionary selection screen? The ones that most of you hated? Those ads are gone for good.

Lots of miscellaneous improvements to data and bug fixes.

Download the Ultralingua Bookshelf now, and get access to all our great features:

World-class dictionaries from Collins, Le Robert, Vox, and Ultralingua, all in one app.

Thousands of example phrases, idioms, and other usage notes.

Automatic verb conjugations in twelve languages, integrated right into the dictionary.

Automatic number translation: just type a number and see it spelled out.

Mark favorites, and revisit previous searches via the history.

Search in all of your dictionaries at once.

If you own one or more of our stand-alone dictionaries for iOS, you can combine them all into the Ultralingua Bookshelf by activating iCloud and downloading the bookshelf app.

If you like the stand-alone dictionaries and don't want to combine them, don't worry. Version 2.5 updates of those apps are in testing right now, and will be ready in the next couple weeks.

Ultralingua and Collins Dictionaries for Android!

2014-09-12T10:10:00.003-05:00

We’re thrilled to announce the launch of our best-selling Ultralingua Dictionaries app, totally redesigned and rebuilt for Android.

We took everything we’ve learned about language tools, immersed ourselves in Android for many months, and took time to rethink the dictionary experience within Android’s look and feel. The result is an app that provides the instant smart search, automatic verb conjugation, and number translation that you’ve come to love, giving you the tools you need to express yourself in French, English, Spanish, German, Italian, and many more — with no internet connection needed to search each dictionary's hundreds of thousands of entries.
Best of all, the app now includes our English dictionary and thesaurus, completely free of charge to all Android users.

Ultralingua Dictionaries gives you access (via in-app purchase) to 8 Collins dictionaries, combining world-class content from HarperCollins with Ultralingua’s best-in-class natural language technology. You can also choose any of 27 Ultralingua-branded dictionaries, including rare pairings like French-Portuguese and Italian-French. Ultralingua's user interface is localized in six languages, making it a truly multi-lingual experience.

To celebrate this big event, we have launched our Android dictionaries at our lowest prices ever: 9,99 € for the Collins-Robert Concise French Dictionary, $7.99 for the other Collins titles, and $4.99 for the Ultralingua dictionaries.
Get Ultralingua Dictionaries for Android as a free download on the Google Play Store. Enjoy using our English dictionary and thesaurus for free, and add any of the Collins and Ultralingua dictionaries via in-app purchase.

Stay tuned through the coming months--we're already hard at work on our next updates to Ultralingua for Android and iOS, with some new projects in the works!

The Android robot is reproduced or modified from work created and shared by Google and used according to terms described in the Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution License.

33% price cut on Collins-Robert Concise French Dictionary

2013-12-20T08:19:00.002-06:00

Our top-selling product, the Collins-Robert Concise French Dictionary, is on sale for 33% off from now until January 3. World-class data in our great user interface.

The sale price is valid whether you buy it as a standalone product or as an in-app purchase in the Ultralingua Bookshelf.

Cyber Monday (and Tuesday) at Ultralingua

2013-12-01T13:30:00.000-06:00

It's time once again for our annual Cyber Monday Sale: 25% off all our iOS, Mac, and Windows dictionaries! This is your best chance of the year to get great Ultralingua dictionaries for yourself or any of the other language lovers in your life.

. . .

The sale runs for two days only - December 2 and 3 - so don’t miss your chance to get great prices on all our Ultralingua products during our biggest sale of the year.

25% off all our Ultralingua for iOS products. That includes 25% off all in-app purchases in the Ultralingua Bookshelf app.

25% off Ultralingua for Mac and Windows, our desktop dictionaries that combine our usual great dictionaries with flashcards and grammatical references for serious language learners.

25% off a Pro Account for the Ultralingua Online Dictionary, which gives you a year of unlimited lookups in all 20 of our dictionaries, ad-free.

The iOS sale prices are available automatically. Just go to the iTunes App Store on Monday or Tuesday and you'll get the sale price.

For Mac, Windows, and the Ultralingua Online Dictionary, just add the products you want to your shopping cart at http://ultralingua.com/ and then enter the coupon code "CYBER13" during checkout, like this:

Exciting New Ways to Use a Dictionary App for Language Learning

2013-08-16T13:18:00.001-05:00

Many people using Ultralingua's dictionary apps are students learning a second, third, or even fourth language. With language learners in mind, today's post is by Lynn McBride, blogger at Southern Fried French and author of How to Learn a New Language with a Used Brain.

Lynn offers a number of good ideas for making a bilingual dictionary app a vital part of your language learning experience. Take it away, Lynn!

For foreign language learners, bilingual dictionary apps have been a revolution of sorts. Suddenly it’s lightning fast to look up a word or check a verb conjugation, even on the run, without lugging around a heavy book. I’m an enthusiastic language student myself, but I was dictionary-averse before the fun digital versions came along. Now I’ve gone over to the obsessive side.

Apart from the obvious uses for a bilingual dictionary–for word translations, pronunciation, and spellings of words–there are new ways to use these digital marvels, and to incorporate them into language study. Here are some ideas for taking advantage of the technology, and for using a dictionary app as an integral part of your language study.

TIPS ON USING A DICTIONARY APP

Make it easy: Ease and portability are really what it’s all about, so put a dictionary app on every device you own: your computer, your phone, your iPad if you have one. Warning: you’ll then be completely out of excuses to avoid looking up a new word!

Check out the bells and whistles: If you’re still using your dictionary app like a dead paper one, you’re missing the fun. Flashcards, word games, “favorites” lists, verb conjugations with just a click...it’s not just a dictionary anymore.

Double-check: Translations can trick you. If you’re not sure of a word, do a cross check by switching the language and then looking up the definition you’ve just found. Or do a back translation by using a monolingual dictionary.

MAXIMIZING YOUR STUDY WITH A DICTIONARY APP

When you read in a foreign language: Instead of looking up every new word as you go along, use a highlighter (or the highlighter function on your reader). That way you won’t interrupt the flow of your reading. After you finish a few pages or a chapter, go back and deal with your questions all at once. And if you don’t always get back to to studying your highlights, that’s okay too, you’ve learned something just by reading.

In daily life: Keep a running list of words/phrases you don’t know. If your dictionary app is handy, look them up or load them quickly onto the flash card function, for further study. But for those moments when a device is not at hand, get a special notebook for questions, or put a sticky-note pad in every room of your house to record questions. Better yet, put put up a blackboard just for this purpose (I’m often in the shower when I think of words I want to look up, but I haven’t yet figured out how to record them there.) Be systematic about this!

Now, that you’ve got your list, pick a time each day or week to look up and study the words. You’ll really pump up your vocabulary with this method.

In your language class: I’m in an informal French conversation group. Even with a excellent French leader, most of us have our dictionaries in our hands during the class. It’s helpful to clarify words or to get a precise translation when it’s needed, and it often launches us into discussions of word origins or related phrases.

If you’ve got a few minutes to kill while waiting in line or at sitting in the dentist’s office, try this trick, if you keep an app on your phone. Look up a word that you think might have multiple meanings or usages, or just browse the dictionary at random. You’ll soon find an instant language lesson! I tried it just now: In French I looked up the verb parler (to speak) and found 17 usages, in addition to the definition. Did you know that parler français comme une vache espagnole (literally, to speak French like a Spanish cow) means to “butcher the language”?

Being language students, we’re all going to speak like that Spanish cow sometimes. Using a dictionary app wisely and often is one of the best ways I know to move beyond it.

================

Lynn McBride blogs at Southern Fried French (http://www.southernfriedfrench.com/), about her life as a South Carolinian living in a medieval château in southern Burgundy. Her new book, How to Learn a New Language with a Used Brain, is available at Amazon.com and all international Amazon sites in both paperback and eBook formats.

Focus on the Collins-Robert Concise French Dictionary

2013-06-01T12:00:00.000-05:00

A big upgrade to our dictionary products for iPhone and iPad went live this week. There's lots of great stuff in this upgrade, and you can read about many of the highlights here and here.

One of the most exciting new developments is our dramatically improved French-English dictionary from Collins and Le Robert. The newly retitled Collins-Robert Concise French Dictionary uses the Collins Robert Concise Dictionary 8th Edition © HarperCollins Publishers and Dictionnaires Le Robert 2011, combined with Ultralingua's beautiful and powerful user interface and search engine. We love the result, and are confident it's the best French-English dictionary available for iOS.

The Collins-Robert dataset is exceptionally rich with usage notes, example phrases, grammatical details, notes on regionalisms, etc., along with great coverage of English and French vocabularies. It also includes hundreds of special cultural notes, like the "Journaux" entry shown here.

The app also comes with helpful introductory material in both French and English:

Combine Collins and Le Robert's world-class data with Ultralingua's sophisticated linguistic software, and you get the most powerful French-English reference available, in an app that's a genuine pleasure to use.

The upgrade to Ultralingua 2.3 also applies to our other Collins dictionaries: Spanish-English, Italian-English, German-English, Portuguese-English, Russian-English, Mandarin-English, and English monolingual.

Questions or suggestions? Use the comments section below, or contact us at support@ultralingua.com.

Free Ultralingua iOS Upgrades to Version 2.3

2013-05-29T22:00:00.000-05:00

We are delighted to announce a major upgrade to our dictionary products for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This upgrade will be accompanied by a 50% off sale for all our iOS dictionary apps.

Owners of any of our version 1.5.4 dictionaries will receive a free upgrade to version 2.3. In addition, if you have one or more of our standalone dictionaries, you can activate iCloud, download the Ultralingua Dictionary Bookshelf for free, and your standalone dictionaries will be together in the single Bookshelf app--again, with no additional fee.

As an additional big thank you to those of you who have already upgraded to Ultralingua 2, we have some special freebies. See our FAQ for details.

Collins-Robert Concise French Dictionary and more from Collins

We're particularly excited about our collaboration with Collins and Le Robert. Together, we have adapted the world-class Collins Robert Concise Dictionary 8th Edition © HarperCollins Publishers and Dictionnaires Le Robert 2011 to work beautifully in Ultralingua's app.

This will be a free upgrade for those of you who have already purchased the Collins French-English Translation Dictionary and Verbs, now retitled the Collins-Robert Concise French Dictionary. We have had a great time working on this project with the people at Collins and Le Robert, and we're thrilled with the results.

The upgrade to version 2.3 also applies to our other Collins dictionaries: Spanish-English, Italian-English, German-English, Portuguese-English, Russian-English, Mandarin-English, and English monolingual.

More new titles: Dutch and Latin

You may also notice four new Dutch bilingual dictionaries (Dutch-English, Dutch-French, Dutch-German, and Dutch-Spanish), all of which come with our brand new Dutch conjugator and the usual collection of great Ultralingua features. The Dutch dictionaries are available only through the Ultralingua Dictionary Bookshelf.

We've also made big changes in our Latin-English dictionary, which is now based on the 1879 classic A Latin Dictionary by Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short, digitized and made available in the public domain by the Perseus Digital Library, and edited for Ultralingua by classicist Rob Hardy, Ph.D.

New features

Besides improvements in the data, what's new in Ultralingua 2.3? So much! You can see this illustrated guide to the new features for plenty of detail. In brief:

• Streamlined navigation, for fast consultation. All searching, conjugation, number translation, etc. happens from a single search box, with all results on a single screen.

• Smart search searches both languages simultaneously, finds root words and accent-insensitive matches, adjusts for articles and prepositions (e.g. "l'homme" finds "homme"), etc.

• Mark words and conjugations as favorites, and share them using Twitter and Facebook.

• The dictionaries feature a beautifully rendered, completely redesigned dictionary display.

• The powerful and convenient in-line verb conjugator includes translations and many new tenses.

• iCloud enables you to combine your separate Ultralingua dictionaries into the convenient all-in-one Ultralingua Dictionary Bookshelf app.

• Change fonts and font sizes.

Learn more

• A video demonstration of some of the new features

• A how-to video for combining separate dictionaries into the Ultralingua Dictionary Bookshelf

• Our FAQ for the upgrade

• Our illustrated guide to the new features

Let us know if you have questions. Thanks for all your support!

"Springtime" at Ultralingua: App Store features and a French-English sale

2013-04-19T08:26:00.000-05:00

On this lovely, warm spring day beside the Mississippi,

we're excited to see Ultralingua products keep getting attention on the iTunes App Store. This morning we woke to find our French-English Dictionary featured front and center on the iTunes App Store's Reference page. To celebrate, we have lowered the price of our iOS French-English Translation Dictionary and Verbs to $9.99.

Our word game Psychobabble has been featured, too, spending the past month on the iTunes Education page. (We didn't originally conceive it as an educational game, but we have heard from school teachers who use Psychobabble to stretch their students' brains between lessons, and that their students love it. We're not going to argue with that!)

Thanks for your support, which helps make Apple notice us. Keep sending your friends our way, and we'll keep building the best products we can!

Coming Soon: Free iOS Upgrades

2013-04-05T17:27:00.001-05:00

In a few weeks, we’re making some big changes to Ultralingua’s apps. In this post, we want to tell you about our plans and ask for your suggestions.

But first, we want to apologize for a mistake we made last summer. We know we let some of you down when we released Ultralingua Dictionary 2.0 without an upgrade path. We screwed up, and we are sorry. We want to do better.

We also want to say a big thank you to those of you who paid to upgrade to Ultralingua Dictionary 2.0 despite the cost. When we roll out the upgrades described below, we’ll include some special freebies for those of you who have already moved.

So what’s the plan? Since last summer, we’ve been trying to figure out how to give users of the version 1.5 Collins, Vox, and Ultralingua products an upgrade to the new app. After a lot of experimenting, we finally found a way to do it - for free.

If you have more than one dictionary, you will be able to choose whether to keep them separate (like the 1.5 versions now) or put them together in a single app (like Ultralingua Dictionary 2.0). Either choice will be free.

To make sure this upgrade is as useful to you as possible, we want to hear from you.

Which features do you use the most in your 1.5 app?
What would you like to work better or differently in your 1.5 app?
Have you tried Ultralingua Dictionary 2.0-2.2? What did you like and dislike about it?
Any other suggestions?

Leave us your replies in the comments below, or send them to us here.

We’ll update our FAQ regularly with new details about the upcoming changes. We’ll have more information for you in the next few weeks, so stay tuned. In the meantime, we are eager to hear your ideas, and to work with you to give you the best language tools we can.

Free iOS Upgrades FAQ

2013-04-05T13:26:00.000-05:00

What’s in this update/upgrade?

We are giving users of the version 1.5 Collins, Vox, and Ultralingua products a free upgrade to version 2.3 (and most recently 2.4) of the Ultralingua Dictionary Bookshelf app. You can read about the improvements and reasons for this free upgrade in our blog post.
We've added some great new features to version 2.3. Check out our illustrated guide to all the features of the new Bookshelf app.

How do I download the update?

When we release the update, a red and white badge will appear in the corner of your App Store icon on your iOS device. Here are the steps to update your app:

Open the App Store app and select “Updates” in the lower-right corner of the menu bar across the bottom.
Select your Ultralingua app for an individual update, or tap “Update All” at the top of your screen to download all available updates for the apps on your device at once.

How do I move my current Ultralingua, Collins, or Vox dictionaries to the Bookshelf app?

Update your apps to the current version on the App Store.
Turn on iCloud and make sure iCloud - "Documents & Data" is turned on.
Open each updated dictionary at least once so it can sync with iCloud.
Download the free Ultralingua Dictionary Bookshelf app from the App Store.
Open the Bookshelf app. iCloud will make your previous dictionaries available for download under the "Downloads and Updates" section of the in-app store.
Tap each dictionary in this section to download it.
Please note: This could take several minutes based on your internet connection speed, number of dictionaries, and iCloud's responsiveness.

What can I do if my German-English dictionary is crashing?

We're sorry about this bug! We've identified the problem and released a fix in the Ultralingua Bookshelf app, version 2.4. We will have a release available sometime in October, if not sooner, for the individual dictionary apps.
There are several things you can try before contacting us:

Delete the app and reinstall it for free via the App Store app.

Open the App Store app, tap Updates, then tap Purchased. At the top, tap Not on this iPhone/iPad and search for Ultralingua or Collins. Once you find it you can re-download it for free by tapping on the cloud icon.
Make sure you use the same Apple ID that you used when you purchased Ultralingua or Collins.

You can try moving your dictionary into the Ultralingua Dictionary Bookshelf.

Download the free Ultralingua Dictionary Bookshelf app to your iPhone/iPad/iPod touch.
Follow the steps above which describe how to use iCloud to move your dictionary.

If these steps don't work for you, please contact us and we'll help you.

Can I change the font back to the one used in the previous version?

Yes, just tap the "aA" button and choose Helvetica, the same font used in the older version of the apps.
You can also increase and decrease the size of the font by tapping the smaller or larger "A" buttons until the text is the size you like.

Where did the verb conjugations go?

Don't worry, they're still there. When you search for a verb you'll see an entry for the verb itself with its translations. Directly above that is another entry for the verb with the word Conjugations in it. Tap that cell to expand it and you'll see the present tense conjugation.
You can change the tense by tapping the button with the word Present in it, or tap the right-pointing arrow next to it to see all of the tenses on one screen.

What iOS version do I need to run the updated app?

The Ultralingua Dictionaries require iOS 6.0 or later. This means that older iOS devices will not be able to receive the update. Here’s the list of compatible devices:

iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, 5C, 5S.
iPod touch 3rd, 4th, and 5th generation.
iPad mini and iPad 2 and later generations.

Can I preview the dictionaries?

Yes! You may download the Ultralingua Dictionary Bookshelf app and try a sample dictionary. You’ll be able to see the letter “m” entries for any of our currently available dictionaries, and use all of the features.

What if I don’t want to download the update?

Once you update your app, the older 1.5 version will be gone for good. If you wish to keep your old app exactly as it is even after we release the update, do not select “Update All” - even if you have other updates available for apps on your device. You will need to select other apps’ updates individually to preserve your Ultralingua 1.5 apps.
The same is true if you update your apps via iTunes on your computer. Do not select “Download all free updates” or you will automatically receive this update. You will need to update your other apps individually to preserve your Ultralingua 1.5 apps

I already bought the version 2 upgrade - what’s in it for me?

We’ll start by saying thank you for your support, and for continuing to use Ultralingua!
We’re happy to offer you some complimentary products in appreciation for already making this transition. Contact us at support@ultralingua.com and let us know what you’d like from the list below:

One free dictionary for each dictionary you’ve already purchased.
Free PRO subscription to the Ultralingua Online Dictionary.
Free Mac or Windows versions of Ultralingua.
Free puzzle credits for our new word association game, Psychobabble.

I am a current Ultralingua Dictionary 2.0 user - how will this affect me?

You’ll receive the latest features and improvements with this free update, including the addition of the Collins, Vox, Latin, and Dutch dictionaries to the in-app store.
Your dictionaries, favorites, and history will remain the same.
You will continue to receive free updates with improved features and new dictionaries going forward.

New Algorithm Reconstructs Extinct Languages

2013-03-25T17:09:00.000-05:00

There’s a new scoop on a recently developed computer program that seems like a promising solution to the intense and slow-going task of reconstructing lost languages. Intended to locate the long-forgotten root words of younger, inter-related languages, the algorithm could help us learn more about what extinct languages sounded like and how people once communicated.

Developed by researchers in California and Canada, the new algorithm is more flexible than previous automated systems, allowing it to more accurately search out root words from larger and more complex language trees.

The usual process for reconstructing extinct languages involves assessing word from modern languages that have grown out of the old ones, and inferring what the earlier root words may have been, based on how the sounds of languages change over time. Though remarkably accurate in the hands of professional researchers, the process is slow. As one of the developers, Alexandre Bouchard-Côté, describes in Nature, researchers expect not only that this program will help to reconstruct languages, but also to test hypotheses about how they evolve and change over time.

Tested on over 600 languages primarily spoken in Southeast Asia and the Pacific, the algorithm’s results matched those of linguists working out the same process “manually” 85% of the time. But the program doesn’t take into account everything that a linguist would look for when examining the same problems, suggesting that its accuracy may be improved upon, but also that there are some things that researchers still can’t leave up to machines.

And even as they move forward, researchers are cautious - developers of the program and other linguists advise against relying too heavily on this kind of technology. University of Pennsylvania linguist Don Ringe says that the current 85% success rate of the new program “will never be good enough,” and that researchers can’t allow themselves to become dependent on approximations - the business of language can be hard work!

However, programs like this may be increasingly useful in the coming years, as languages are becoming endangered and going extinct faster than ever before. As a smaller and smaller group of dominant world languages become more widely spoken, indigenous languages and other local languages are fading out of use - some estimates suggest that up to 90% of languages currently spoken in the world will become extinct by 2050.

A world with more multilingual people who can communicate together sounds pretty cool, but we don't want it to be at other languages' expense! What do you think we can do to preserve - and to research - languages in our rapidly changing world? And what role should technology play in the process?

Psychobabble: great game with a new name

2013-03-22T12:52:00.000-05:00

We're delighted to announce the launch of Psychobabble, our word association game for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad.

This game is a ton of fun to play for all ages. We love playing it with family and friends huddled around an iPad shouting out ideas, and it's also great on your own.

Late last year we launched this game for iPad under the name Word for Word. We heard from lots of customers, who gave us four clear messages:

They loved the game, and wanted more
They wanted more free puzzles up front, and a way to earn free puzzles
They were confused because if you search the App Store for "word for word", our game was nowhere to be seen
And, of course, "when is it coming out for iPhone?"

We went back to our design boards and put together Psychobabble. It's the same great game, plus:

you get more free puzzles up front
every time you reveal ten reward words, you get a free puzzle
you can use your puzzles and puzzle credits on multiple devices using iCloud
Psychobabble runs on iPhone and iPod Touch
there are several new puzzles, with more coming very soon

If you already have Word for Word, just let the App Store app update it, and you'll get all the new features. The name will change, but your puzzles and credits will stick around.

To learn more about Psychobabble, check out our original post about the game and this video:

Also, if you're interested in why we changed the game's name, see our owner Jeff's blog post.

Happy babbling!

Ultralingua: Featured Reference App!

2013-02-28T16:20:00.001-06:00

Wow! We're so excited that we're being featured on the iTunes App Store's Reference page. Our Spanish-English Dictionary app is one of the reference apps currently being showcased - and our nice banner is the first one that comes up.

Thanks for the boost, iTunes!

Techy Textbooks: iPads in Northfield Schools

2013-02-22T13:17:00.000-06:00

Earlier this week, the Northfield school board here in Minnesota passed a program to provide iPads for every student in the district. Students from sixth grade to senior year in high school will receive individual iPads that they can use anytime, anywhere. Classrooms of younger students will be provided with several iPad minis each for children to share during scheduled time with the devices.

Under the banner of its Transformational Technology program, the Northfield school district has developed several new initiatives that introduce smart technology and devices into public school classrooms since January last year. After approving a plan to provide iPads for teachers and staff over the summer, Northfield has now moved to get the devices to students. Supporters of the plan suggest that leasing the iPads and iPad minis to classrooms will be easier and perhaps cheaper to update than paper textbooks, which quickly become outdated and expensive to buy new. Corey Butler Jr. writes on the Northfield Patch website, “The tablet would replace most items in a traditional classroom—textbooks, notebooks, quizzes, DVDs, handouts and just about anything else paper-based.”

On the school devices, students may be able to take notes, read along in course texts, watch class videos, email teachers and classmates about school related projects, and more. Younger children may play educational games or participate in other learning activities using the iPads. Some restrictions will be placed on the iPads to ensure that students do not access inappropriate content on school-owned devices. The iPads may also cater to a wider variety of student learning styles than traditional textbooks. Butler writes, "For a student who learns better from visuals, he or she could watch a short video about the anatomy of an insect. For someone who learns better by reading traditional text with a still photo, it’s there as well."

The decision, and the conversations leading up to it, have been controversial. Ultralingua’s own Latin specialist Rob Hardy took up the dissenting position during the final school board meeting, but he, too, was open to the idea of students using tablets and other tech devices in the classroom -- he just advocated a more gradual approach, allowing students to bring their own devices to school rather than have the district provide them. Companies like Apple seem to be doing more to reach out to schools and educators, too; Apple's site now has a special series of pages dedicated to iPads in education.

Northfield is actually where Ultralingua was born, and is home to several Ultralingua staff members and contributors, so we’re especially eager to see how the city’s bold combination of technology and education will work for students, teachers, and parents as the program develops. Do you think education and technology can work together in the classroom, or should iPads and class sessions be kept separate? What do you think is the best way for educators to adapt to more tech-savvy students and an increasingly tablet-filled world? Join the conversation in the comments or on Facebook, or check out the Northfield school district's site for more information.

Update! Ultralingua Dictionary 2.2 for iOS

2013-02-21T14:24:00.001-06:00

We've been dropping hints here and there, but now you don't have to wonder any longer: our update to our Ultralingua Dictionary app went live this morning! Say hello to Ultralingua Dictionary 2.2 for iOS.

When you go to the App Store on your iOS device and download the update, here's what you'll get:

Bug fix. We caught a bug that was slowing down the app over time. Now that it's all patched up, the app should perform speedier and better than ever.
Conjugator box. We heard from you that it was a hassle to have to move back and forth between verb conjugations and the actual dictionary entries, so we came up with a cool new solution: the conjugator box. All the power of our smart search bar, but now on verb conjugation pages. Just type in the next verb you'd like to conjugate to be sent right there, without having to go back a page to search the dictionary again.
New dictionary available. Now the French-English Medical dictionary is available for purchase in the Ultralingua Dictionary's in-app store.

Along with our recent 1.5.4 update, our apps should be running quickly, smoothly, and with easier-than-ever verb conjugating power. And stay in touch over the next few weeks, because we have more surprises on the way that will make our dictionaries better and more accessible for old and new users alike. For now, download the new version and let us know what you think!

Spotlight: Essentials Editions

2013-02-12T15:01:00.001-06:00

We told you about our new line of beginner dictionaries along with our Ultralingua Dictionary 2.1 update a while back, but we think that the Essentials editions deserve a closer look. Language teachers helped us to choose which entries were the most important to new language learners so that we could develop these affordable, streamlined dictionaries centered on the first two years of language study. The Ultralingua Essentials editions come with all the same features as our regular dictionaries - history, favorites, advanced search - but rather than overwhelm new learners by giving them everything, these dictionaries give you everything you need to know.

For instance, if you’re a first or second year French student and you want to know the word for “therapy” en français (surprise! - it’s “thérapie”), the entry is right between “theory” and “there” in the Essentials Edition. But in the standard edition, there are 29 other entries between “theory” and “there,” including words you’re unlikely to use in everyday speech or in a language class, like entries for electroconvulsive therapy, metric theory, and theosophy. And while the standard dictionary includes entries for “over there,” “down there,” “up there,” “in there,” “hey there!” and others, the Essentials edition gives you just the two simple words for “there” on its own - y, la - which can easily be used in place of one of those more colloquial phrases.

We also thought it might be more important for Essentials users to have words like “étudiant” and “études,” (students, studies) without having to worry about words like “étrille” - which can mean either a curry comb or a velvet swimming crab. We're sure there's situations in which no other word but the one for a particular kind of crab will do, but probably not in your first few years of learning a language.

And no need to worry that the Essentials will sell you short. When it comes to the most important stuff, like verbs, the entries themselves are just as rich as ever. For example, the French-English dictionary includes the same 8 definitions and translations of “think” in both the standard and the Essentials editions. Similarly, the entries for “ȇtre” are identical in both dictionaries, including the helpful usage note.

And since the Essentials editions are built as subsets of the standard Ultralingua dictionaries, not only are they cheaper, but once you’ve honed your skills with your Essentials edition, you are eligible for a discounted upgrade to the complete version of your dictionary.

Whether you’re settling into your new language class this semester, planning a trip for spring break, or just trying out something new, we think that the Essentials editions are a great introduction to languages and to our dictionaries. Once you fire up your Ultralingua Dictionary app, you can preview the letter “m” in the Essentials editions just like you can in the standard dictionaries, so you can see what kind of content you’re getting. Check them out, and let us know what you think!

A Tale of Two Bugs

2013-02-08T16:21:00.000-06:00

Ultralingua 1.5.4 for iOS is ready for download. If you have Ultralingua 1.5.3 or earlier, go to the App Store app on your iPhone or iPad and tap on Updates to get the latest version.

First things first: we want to apologize for the bugs in 1.5.3. We know they made Ultralingua unusable for many of you, and we are very sorry for that. Even though everybody makes mistakes, it's a serious matter when our mistakes influence so many people. (Also, we just hate making mistakes!)

We also want to thank you, our wonderful customers, for your good will, patience, and willingness to help us during the time it took to get these bugs diagnosed, repaired, tested, submitted to Apple, reviewed by Apple, and released. With your help, we have identified and corrected weaknesses in our testing procedures, and future versions of this app will be stronger as a result.

Here's the story. Last week, we released Ultralingua 1.5.3 for iPhone and iPad. The big news was that we had added iPhone 5 support and made some improvements to our search. At least that's what we hoped would be the big news. Instead, we started hearing immediately from customers with two problems:

Rotation between landscape and portrait modes on many iPads with iOS 6 was not working correctly.
On some iPhones, if you tapped in the dictionary search box, the app would freeze and eventually crash.

The rotation bug we figured out within minutes of its being reported. Our testing regimen includes instructions to test rotation for both iPhone and iPad on all major versions of the operating system, but we inadvertently skipped that step for iOS 6 iPads when testing Ultralingua 1.5.3.

The iPhone freezing bug was an unusually nasty one. For two full days after the bug was first reported, we tried and failed to make the problem happen on our many different iPhones. We used reports from customers to narrow our attention to a small portion of code. But that made the problem even more baffling, because that code had functioned properly without changing at all since early 2011.

Finally, we were lucky to hear from one of our customers who is also an iPhone/iPad software developer. Our new hero Joanna gave us detailed descriptions of the bug's behavior, tested a dozen experimental versions of the app, and demonstrated the bug to us via a screen-share from the UK to Minnesota. All those experiments helped us figure out the combination of phone settings required to replicate the bug, which made it possible for us to find and fix the problem. After that, of course, we took our time testing 1.5.4--we didn't want a repeat performance.

In the meantime, we did our best to help the many customers who wrote in to report the bugs and ask for help.

Thanks again for your patience and your assistance. We strive to create great products, but when we stumble, it helps to have such excellent customers.

Now, it's time to get back to making the apps even better!

Ultralingua in the News

2013-01-31T12:54:00.002-06:00

We came across a pleasant and welcome surprise earlier today: CBS Philadelphia posted this quick review of our Ultralingua Dictionary app yesterday. They say,

Translation dictionaries are pretty common in the app store, but you’ll be hard pressed to find one that’s more thorough than the Ultralingua Dictionary.

Thanks for the kind words, CBS Philly.

iOS Update: 6.1

2013-01-29T14:16:00.001-06:00

Heads up, iOS users! Yesterday, Apple released an update to iOS 6. The new 6.1 now includes expanded LTE support to over 30 more iPhone carriers and over 20 iPad carriers around the globe, so more people than ever can enjoy super fast web browsing, downloading, and streaming (and our iOS apps, of course). And now Siri, always trying to keep you on track, can help you buy movie tickets with Fandango. With a few bug fixes and more ease reporting problems with Maps, you have a nice update to start your week. Check out this little video from Gizmodo to see how iOS 6.1 is running.

Download the update from your device and start planning your next movie date -- or if you haven't picked up Word for Word yet, download it and start playing faster than ever!

Behind the Scenes: Word for Word with David Liben-Nowell

2013-01-15T13:22:00.000-06:00

We love exploring the ways people connect to each other through language. So while we always enjoy announcing new apps or games or updates, we also like introducing you to the people who help us make them.

In this case, David Liben-Nowell is a New York Times published puzzle-maker and word-bender extraordinaire who helped us create Word for Word, our new game app for iPhone and iPad. In addition to being a word puzzle savant, David has been friends with our founder, Jeff, for years. The two of them have plenty in common: both teach at Carleton College here in Minnesota, both are big language researchers, and both love word games.

Prior to coming to Carleton, David received a BA from Cornell, an MPhil from the University of Cambridge, and a PhD from MIT. In addition to his teaching at Carleton, David is doing impressive research in applied techniques from theoretical computer science. He says that his work features “a particular focus on large-scale information networks and their evolution.” Recently, David says that he has researched “problems in algorithmic game theory, and the propagation of information in social networks.”

As someone who regularly brings together language and computer science in his work, David was clearly just the guy we needed to help us develop Word for Word. After coming up with some of the game’s more challenging word webs, David filled us in on his process, and some of the challenges of coming up with good puzzles. For instance, David says that he writes his puzzles mostly without the help of outside sources. He usually has some help from tools online, he says, like “dictionaries, common phrase resources like OneLook, and semantic networks of word associations like the Edinburgh Associative Thesaurus.” “But,” David says, “lots of it is my brain.”

The start to building a Word for Word puzzle is similar to coming up with themed crossword puzzles, David says. First, he concentrates on “coming up with an interesting and compelling punchline” to use as the theme or center of the game. He says, “I tend to scribble down phrases that interest me, and then start to wonder about what I can do with them. Can I turn that into some kind of a picture? Maybe one word is the center of the entire puzzle, and everything builds out from there? Is that interesting enough?” After coming up with a word or phrase to focus on, David then starts to build in the other connections and associations.

This seems like a pretty straightforward process, but it might be harder than it sounds. David says,

One of the hard things about this type of puzzle, oddly, is that it's so unconstrained. The presence of constraints in a puzzle is often what makes it interesting to write -- the writing is a puzzle too. In a crossword, the hard part is dealing with the fact that the answers have to work both across and down (and that the entire puzzle has to be symmetric). In puzzles for Word for Word, there's no such structural constraint from the puzzle (aside from not having too many crossing lines or too giant a puzzle), so you have to impose constraints on yourself.

And even when he’s figured out the puzzle’s structure, David says, “There's always a challenge in making interesting little corners of a puzzle, too, where three words connect to each other in three distinct ways.”
The attention to detail in the big picture as well as the smaller clues is part of what makes the game so fun to play.

To see what else David has come up with, download the app for free and play for yourself! We have a lot of exciting plans in store for Word for Word, so check back soon for the latest news.

Looking Back: Our Highlights of 2012

2013-01-10T15:34:00.002-06:00

It’s been a fun, fulfilling, and fast-paced year for us here at Ultralingua. We want to celebrate the start of a new one by looking back and sharing twelve of our favorite things from the twelve months of 2012.

The new Ultralingua Dictionary App. Apple asked us to streamline our offerings in the App Store, so we took it as an opportunity to build our best dictionary app yet. The new Ultralingua Dictionary brings together 19 of our expertly developed and designed dictionaries and thesauri, so you can keep your purchases and make new ones all in the same place. With conjugations, super search, history, favorites, forward and back buttons, customizable font settings, in-app tips and support and more, we think it’s something pretty special. Now we’re working on new ways to make our app and dictionaries more flexible and easier to use, with updates and changes planned early in the new year. Keep an eye on the blog to find out what we’re cooking up!
Word For Word. Our new word association game for iPad has had the office buzzing over the last few months as we’ve tested each puzzle and each more refined build. We’re glad we finally got to share Word for Word with you just before the end of the year (and that we got to play games for work). If you’ve one of the lucky folks who got a new iPad or iPad mini for the holidays, try it out and tell us what you think. And keep an eye out for future updates and improvements headed your way.
Ultralingua Dictionary Essentials. The newest addition to our series of dictionaries and thesauri in the Ultralingua Dictionary app, our Essentials editions offer newer language learners and students affordable, streamlined dictionaries centered on the first two years of language study. All the same features as our regular dictionaries, but with more focused and navigable content, so you can get the words and tools you need most, wherever and whenever you want them.
Versions 1.5.1 and 1.5.2. In 2012, we shipped versions 1.5.1 and 1.5.2 of our original iOS app series, bringing us to a total of 19 free updates since the App Store opened in 2008. We wanted to take care of our original apps even while working on new stuff, so we fixed bugs, cleaned up the interface, and added new options for copying and pasting words and entries. Update number 20 might be coming soon!
Updating the Online Dictionary. We revamped our Online Dictionary over the summer to make it a better and more accessible way to translate, conjugate, and play with language. Breaking out the champagne to celebrate the site going live made for an exciting first day for some of our new interns.
Starting the blog. Since we got it up and running in March, the blog has become a great place for us to share stories and science about learning languages. Even better, it allows us to stay in touch, so that when we have a sale, release a new product, or feature another great company, you know about it.
The big move. After about eight years of shifting from room to room in an old school building, in June we happily moved into our new offices right on the Mississippi River. We love our new neighborhood, and our views of the water and the city.
Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference. We had such a blast getting together with other developers, learning about the newest products and features Apple is working on, and thinking about how to make our own products better. Oh, and California was nice, too.
Partnering with Physicians for Haiti. In May, we teamed up with the translators at Physicians for Haiti through our Apps for Aid program, providing them with our French-English Medical, Spanish-English, and Haitian Creole-English products to help them carry out their mission to “to inspire, empower, and support the development of leaders among Haiti's next generation of health professionals” in the wake of the 2010 earthquake. They gave us some great feedback, and we’re looking forward to hearing more about their work and how they use Ultralingua this year.
The Ultralingua Team. A lot has been going on with the Ultralingua staff in 2012. Developer Adrian graduated from college, former marketing communications manager Ashleigh got married and traveled all around Europe, company founder and chief technology officer Jeff is on sabbatical (so he gets to hang out with us in the office more than ever), autumn interns Daley and Kevin have stuck around to help out after the end of their session, developer Jenn made a lot of delicious gluten-free treats, project manager Bill wore a lot of great socks, and developer Shaun and his wife Tawny welcomed baby Hazel into the family. Let's see if 2013 can top all that!
Partnering with TechSoup. We were happy to get our apps to organizations and nonprofits who could put them to good and productive use through the help of TechSoup. We’ve gotten some great feedback about our dictionaries and some interesting stories from Ultralingua users through the program, and we’re eager to share our apps with more people through TechSoup this year.
Continuing our work with Assistiveware’s Proloquo2Go. Our work with AssistiveWare and Proloquo2Go has been so rewarding. We’re glad that our language technology helps Proloquo2Go users to experience the power and pleasure of using language to communicate with others. AssistiveWare’s updates to Proloquo2Go this year have made the app better than ever -- thanks for letting us help!

We’re looking forward to another exciting year of bringing you smart language learning tools, and are eager to see what we’ll look back on in this year’s list. In fact, we have a few big updates and surprises coming up very soon, so check back often to see how we’re kicking off the new year. What experiences with language, travel, and technology did you have in 2012? What do you have planned for 2013?