Despite sporting a training mode, smART writer is unforgiving, demanding large, neatly printed letters.

FORBES: Scratch pads

In training mode the program displays the dealer's odds, hit and stay tables, gives advice on splitting and keeps track of the card count.

FORBES: Playing to win

Lasting up to 5 hours in training mode and up to five weeks in power-save mode, the Forerunner 10 can be worn as a day- to-day timepiece, so you'll always be ready to hit the road, track or trail.

ENGADGET: Garmin Forerunner 10 is a GPS watch designed for outdoor fitness, we go hands-on

One drawback was that in the teach-me mode, we didn't see all of the examples of compound kanji words that the reference mode gave us. (A kanji can have different readings and, depending on the character or characters it is combined with, different meanings.) App creator Rory Prior says he is considering adding a vocabulary-training feature to the teach-me mode to address that.

WSJ: Mobile Apps for Foreign Languages

The autopilot version is best for people without any pilot experience, with the instructor periodically handing over one or two of the controls, but guests who do have some training as amateur pilots can take advantage of the manual mode.

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