Sony has recently released its Talkman Euro language translation tool which supports French, Dutch, German, Spanish, Italian and English. This release followed what Sony called "the smashing success" of its Asian version of Talkman which supports Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese and English. But is the Talkman a serious tool for the traveler, or yet another one of those gadgets which we buy and then later find we can do without?
There is no doubt that the technology behind Talkman - Nuance's VoCon SDK - is serious. But anyone who has used speech recognition products knows that the technology is still not reliable enough for use in crowded, noisy places. Also worth mentioning is that the PSP platform is intended for gaming purposes and not for business use. Will people (that do not have a PSP) go out and spend US$299 for the PSP and another US$80 for Talkman just to get a multi-language, interactive phrasebook with 3,000 phrases? Perhaps not.
Sony has made efforts to augment the usefulness of the PSP as a travel tool by incorporating other features such as a converter for units and currencies, and a world calendar.
But the answer to our question (game or serious tool?) can probably be best summed up by reading what bloggers are writing about the Talkman and how even Sony is billing its product: as a way to pick up foreign women and order drinks at the bar. And while these are lofty and important objectives, we recommend that the international traveler not expect too much from Talkman and rely on more conventional communication methods.
12:23:09 PM 
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