XtremeMac on Tuesday introduced two new products for Mac and iPod users: Talking Panda iLingo and Freefall. Talking Panda iLingo, available for Mac and windows users alike, turns the iPod into a language translator, while Freefall is a satellite simulator and screensaver application.
Talking Panda iLingo leverages the iPod’s Notes feature to provide more than 450 “essential words and phrases” in foreign languages. Each translation is displayed on the iPod’s screen. Pushing the “play” button makes the word or phrase to be spoken aloud. The collection is set up into categories like Getting Directions, Dining, Making Friends and Emergency, and has been tailored to suit the country or region the user is visiting. It’s initially available in three versions: The English-Euro Pack, which translates English to Spanish, Italian, German and French; the French-Euro Pack, which translates French to English, Spanish, Italian and German; and the English-Asia Pack, which translates English to Mandarin Chinese, Korean and Japanese. Each iLingo Pack costs US$39.95. Individual language translators are available for $14.95.
Freefall, available exclusively for Mac OS X, displays the flight path of more than 650 real-world satellites as they traverse Earth orbit. The software uses political and coastline data culled from the United Nations and earth imagery courtesy of NASA. A 3D viewer allows the user to control dozens of preference and perspectives. It also sports eight built-in simulations, detailed information about each satellite, and data on more than 28,000 cities. Freefall costs US$29.95 and requires a G4/500MHz or better, 32MB VRAM, 128MB RAM, and Mac OS X v10.2 or later.