Ultimate Talking Dictionary

Just as you'd guess from its name, this program is a dictionary that talks to you. The application offers a basic interface that's easy to use, if not particularly handsome. You type in a word, hit enter, and the definition pulls up immediately. Ultimate Talking Dictionary works well as a digital reference by giving multiple definitions and offering synonyms and antonyms. The one performance glitch came when we checked the box to have the definitions automatically read to us--for some reason, we had to hit the Read button anyway. The program gives you the option of listening to male or female voices, and lets you adjust their speed, but all of them are based on the rather clunky Microsoft Speech Engine. Ultimate Talking Dictionary also exerts quite a toll on your PC, consuming nearly 75MB of memory. In the end, the program makes a nice reference tool, though we'd like it just as much without its powers of speech.