App Smart: Dictionary Apps for Smartphones and Tablets

But before your fingers close on that printed book and flick through its alphabetically indexed pages, consider this: There are many dictionary apps that could help you do the job more speedily. They may also have features that will teach you new words. And they might even be fun.

Dictionary.com Dictionary and Thesaurus is a free iOS and Android app that comes from one of the best-known dictionary Web sites. Unlike the Web site, the app has the advantage that many of its features work offline. This app’s home page is colorful with icons and is topped by a search bar where you enter words you want to look up. As soon as you begin to type in this bar, the app begins to suggest words that may match, so you don’t always have to type in the whole word. If you’re unsure of a word’s spelling, you can tap on the microphone icon and speak your word instead.

When you see the word you’re looking for in the search list, a single tap takes you to its main dictionary entry. Here you’ll find the usual definitions you’d get in a paper dictionary, including a guide to pronunciation, word origin description, various meanings and related word forms. You can hear the word spoken aloud by tapping on the loudspeaker icon, or add the word to a favorites list. The app also has a built-in thesaurus, which you can get to via a tab in the search bar. On the iPhone, the app can translate a word into several languages.

It’s functional as a dictionary, but the app also has entertaining extras. It can show you which words people are searching for most right now, for example, and even what people near you are searching for.

The app is visually cluttered, though, and some features, like voice recognition and pronunciation guides, work only online. I got the feeling I was being nagged to buy add-ons, like the ability to see example sentences. Also, the free version’s on-screen ads can get annoying if you don’t make a $2.99 in-app purchase to banish them.

The Android version has a slightly different interface of a simpler design than the iOS version. There is also an attractively designed free edition for Windows Phone, though it seems trickier to switch between the dictionary and the thesaurus in that one.

Merriam-Webster has released several dictionary apps with different functions to cater to certain users or devices. For example, some apps incorporate a thesaurus function alongside the main dictionary; others don’t. The basic Merriam-Webster app is free for iOS and Android devices and is supported by on-screen ads. Its design is simpler than the Dictionary.com app’s. The home page consists of a logo, a control bar at the bottom that provides access to the app’s various functions and a prominent search bar at the top.

Like the Dictionary.com app, Merriam-Webster’s version suggests word matches as you type in the search bar. It can also take voice input instead of typed text. When you tap on a word in the list of suggestions, the app shows the relevant dictionary entry, which is easy to read, with a clear layout and large text. The entry also uses the word in an example and offers a list of synonyms and antonyms. Tap on the red speaker icons to hear the word pronounced.

But the basic app’s database is limited and it knows only two of my favorite three words. It’s possible that the Collegiate edition would know all three: it costs a little less than $25 on iOS and Android to get more definitions as well as the ability to modify menus and a “pen reader” system for recognizing handwriting in many languages. A $3.99 Windows Phone edition of the Merriam-Webster app says it includes “all” the definitions from the Collegiate dictionary.

English Dictionary — Offline, free on Android, is the simplest of the apps mentioned here but is still powerful. Its interface is basic: a search box at the top and space below for word definitions to appear. Tap icons to share words to other apps, flag words as favorites or perform other actions like viewing your search history. Dictionary entries are based on the Wiktionary database, which the makers say includes about 159,000 words. You can click on individual words on an entry page to navigate to that word, and the app will speak the word aloud for you. It’s free and handy for looking up definitions. But it falls short if you’re curious about how a word came into use.

As for “philtrum,” it’s that little vertical groove in your upper lip beneath your nose.

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Microsoft has updated its Outlook.com e-mail app for Android, bringing the new design of the desktop Outlook software to the app and adding services like threaded conversations and the ability to mark messages as junk.

Some Companies Seek to Wean Employees From Their Smartphones

Atos, an international information technology company, plans to phase out all e-mails among employees by the end of 2013 and rely instead on other forms of communication. And starting in the new year, employees at Daimler, the German automaker, can have incoming e-mail automatically deleted during vacations so they do not return to a flooded in-box. An automatic message tells the sender which person is temporarily dealing with the employee’s e-mail.

No one is expected to be on call at all hours of the day and night, and “switching off” after work is important, “even if you are on a business trip,” said Sabrina Schrimpf, a Daimler spokeswoman, referring to the company’s recently released report, “Balanced! — Reconciling Employees’ Work and Private Lives.”

Disconnecting can be more challenging for business travelers who frequently work across time zones.

And there is a ripple effect, said Leslie A. Perlow, a professor of leadership at Harvard Business School and the author of “Sleeping With Your Smartphone.” “These guys fly in the middle of the night and send e-mails back to colleagues” who wait up, ready to respond.

A study conducted last spring by the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project found that while mobile phones were valued as a way to stay productive, there were downsides to being available at all times. The nationwide survey of 2,254 adults found that 44 percent of cellphone owners had slept with their phone next to their bed and that 67 percent had experienced “phantom rings,” checking their phone even when it was not ringing or vibrating. Still, the proportion of cellphone owners who said they “could live without it” has gone up, to 37 percent from 29 percent in 2006.

Sam Chapman, chief executive of Empower Public Relations in Chicago, said he used to feel phantom vibrations and frequently read and sent e-mail on his BlackBerry in the middle of the night. He slept poorly, did not feel refreshed in the morning and considered himself addicted. “I wanted to make sure that what happened to me didn’t happen to my employees,” he said.

So Mr. Chapman adopted what he called a BlackBerry blackout policy. He and his staff of about 20 turn off their BlackBerrys from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. on weekdays and completely on weekends for all work-related use, with rare exceptions. “When I’m well rested, I show up to work ready to go,” he said.

He maintains that regimen while traveling, and said the policy had increased company productivity.

Professor Perlow agreed that companies could improve their bottom line by encouraging employees to disconnect at times. “Being constantly on actually undermines productivity,” she said.

But it is not always easy. In early 2012, when Michelle Barry, Mark Jacobsen and a third partner created Centric Brand Anthropology, a Seattle-based company that advises clients on brand strategy, design and culture management, they gave serious thought to the issue.

“A huge priority for us was to have a good balance between work-life,” said Mr. Jacobsen, Centric’s vice president and creative director. “Yet we have found that very difficult to do while working with large multinational clients,” which often require international travel and constant availability.

Being a start-up compounded those challenges. “Just because you can e-mail at 2 a.m., doesn’t mean it’s a good thing,” he said.

Centric encourages employees to prepare a week before a trip, designating a colleague as backup, informing clients about their travel plans, and trying to avoid deadlines immediately after they return. Employees are also encouraged to take spouses or partners on longer assignments and to build in downtime, said Ms. Barry, the company’s president and chief executive. When traveling, she said, “I make a commitment to myself not to stay up all night answering e-mails.”

Experts say there is no firm data for how many companies have policies restricting the use of electronic devices outside the office. “The companies I know actively encourage workers to stay connected after hours and on weekends,” said Dennis J. Garritan, a managing partner of the private equity firm Palmer Hill Capital and an adjunct professor at Harvard Business School.