infundibulum

If you’re interested in (machine) translation, check out Jeremy Faludi’s post on the Phraselator, a handheld real-time translation device.

It got its start, as many technologies do, in military use, but aparently the things are beginning to become available to the public. The actual data is stored in flash cards. I think there’s a niche for these devices, but one has to wonder how long they’ll survive in the face of the increasing ubiquity and processing power of cell phones.