If the preeminent lexicographer were around today, I’m sure he’d be an iPod user. The inestimable Dr. J—as he was known amongst his dearest friends— was once heard to remark “Of all noises, I think music is the least disagreeable.” And now that Merriam-Webster has made their dictionary available for the diminutive music player, well, I think Sammy would find himself eyeing a 30GB iPod with video with considerable interest (no mere nano for this man; he loves his Desperate Housewives).
I love the dictionary; one of what I consider the few essential books that everyone should own. And while nothing quite matches the grandiose stature of the Oxford English Dictionary, give me a pocket-size American Heritage, and I’ll be absorbed for hours, delving into obscure etymologies. The addition of the dictionary application to OS X was one of the most convincing reasons for me to upgrade to Tiger, and its widget has earned a permanent and well-deserved spot in my limited cadre of Dashboard residents.
I owned a PDA for a few years, a Handpsring Visor Pro that was usually more trouble than it was worth, but its most indispensable application was a dictionary that I could carry everywhere. Can Merriam-Webster’s iPod dictionary fill that void? I have only one question: can it shuffle?
