Original Post: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/17/technology/personaltech/17smart.html?_r=1&ref=languageandlanguages
You can use a smartphone to save a few dollars on an airline ticket, buy a Starbucks latte or gain the inside edge on draft news in fantasy sports leagues.
Or you can use it to save your skin in a place where no one speaks your language.
Google introduced a free new iPhone app last week, Google Translate, which puts a more phone-friendly interface on its Web-based translation service, making it useful in situations where you’d need it most.
The app joins a surprisingly cluttered lineup of mobile software from established companies and newcomers. Some of the competition is good, and international travelers will need to consider titles like Odyssey Translator (for iPhone) and Lonely Planet Phrasebooks (for iPhone and Android). But for many, the new app on the block will be all they need.
Google’s iPhone app works much like the company’s Translate app for Android.
It’s fairly amazing stuff. Push a button, speak a query in one language and it displays a translation. Fifteen popular languages are covered by this feature.
You must speak carefully for the app to recognize your query, but if Translate misconstrues a word, you can edit the query with the phone’s keypad.
The app will also speak the results in 23 languages. You’ll have to listen carefully, though, because the translator’s computerized voice is occasionally hard to understand.
The quality of the translations is identical to what you will find on Google.com — good, but inconsistent.
Translate for Android recently added a useful feature for conversations between Spanish and English speakers, in which participants use their native tongue, and the app translates without anyone typing a word.
Google doesn’t disclose plans for future product rollouts, but those seeking this feature in other languages, or on iPhones, should stay tuned.
Whether on iPhone or Android, the app’s big drawback is that it relies on a network connection, so if you use it often while in another country you can incur huge data charges, and if you can’t find a network, you’ve just lost your digital translator.
Unless you plan ahead, that is. Google Translate lets you store and retrieve queries without a connection. But so much can happen on a foreign trip that you will have to store a lot of queries to cover all your possible needs.
Those who are willing to spend a little more can avoid such hassles.
Of the apps I tested in the low-price category, I liked the Odyssey Translator iPhone series features the most. There are seven foreign titles under the Travel Pro brand, for $5 each, and each title in the series has a limited, free version (through the Odyssey Translator Travel Free titles) for those who want to try before they buy. The app takes a different approach than competitors. Odyssey Translator starts you with more than a dozen major categories, like Emergency, Transport and Conversation, and within each category it offers more subcategories, like Directions, Taxi and Train.
Then, within each subcategory, the app displays three columns of oft-repeated phrases, in English, which you mix and match according to your needs.
Sometimes that approach complicates matters. Instead of getting a single translation for the phrase “What is the fare for a ride to the city center?” for instance, you must choose a button for the phrase “Can you” and another for the phrase “take me to.”
When pressed, the buttons display the foreign translation, and the app offers a spoken translation that is easily understandable.
Lonely Planet’s Phrasebook series ($6 each for dozens of languages, for iPhones and Android devices) also breaks down queries into major categories, and the app’s search box helps you quickly narrow the list of possible phrases. Like the Odyssey series, it works when you have no network connection.
The spoken translations are good, but the delivery is often so fast that a user would find it difficult to repeat the phrases. As a result, the app is less effective as a learning tool than Odyssey Translator.
For most people, a low-price app is all you’ll need. But spending a little more on an app may yield you features that will come in handy.
Some of the higher-price apps are meant less for quick lookups than for serious language students and translators who are looking for more precision.
Take Ultralingua. The company produces titles for nine different languages at from $10 to $25 apiece, each of which provides offline translations. The apps work on the iPhone, Windows and some Palm devices.
The apps mostly translate single words only, so if your query involves a longer phrase, it would take many minutes to complete the task. But if you want to know the Spanish word for “shoot,” in the cinematic or billiards context, the app gives you the answers.
It also offers a full range of conjugation options for verbs. And in a category where iTunes users complain about occasionally inaccurate translations, the Ultralingua series has attracted consistently good reviews.
That contrasts with one of Ultralingua’s competitors in the high-price category, Jibbigo, which is available for eight languages, at about $25 each. It functions like Google’s Translate, but without the need for a network connection. And the new bi-directional translation feature of the Google Android app is available on all of Jibbigo’s titles.
Jibbigo worked consistently well for me, but many iTunes critics complained that the app often failed to recognize their spoken queries.
Matthew Harbaugh, chief operating officer of Mobile Technologies, which publishes Jibbigo, said the company would soon issue updates based on the feedback from iTunes and Android customers. He added that Jibbigo was considering ways to let users test the apps before buying.
Until that happens, the app will require a leap of faith that may be too far for many iPhone users to make.
Quick Calls
IPad owners preparing for golf season can get an edge on the competition with the Golf Digest Hot List issue ($5). The app includes reviews of 94 clubs and video tutorials, among other features. … Picasso fans will appreciate the new iPhone app 3D Photo ($1), which turns snapshots into cubist photo portraits. … If you’d like a quick view of your income tax liabilities, try TaxCaster Mobile (free on Android and Apple devices), from Intuit.
You can use a smartphone to save a few dollars on an airline ticket, buy a Starbucks latte or gain the inside edge on draft news in fantasy sports leagues.
Or you can use it to save your skin in a place where no one speaks your language.
Google introduced a free new iPhone app last week, Google Translate, which puts a more phone-friendly interface on its Web-based translation service, making it useful in situations where you’d need it most.
The app joins a surprisingly cluttered lineup of mobile software from established companies and newcomers. Some of the competition is good, and international travelers will need to consider titles like Odyssey Translator (for iPhone) and Lonely Planet Phrasebooks (for iPhone and Android). But for many, the new app on the block will be all they need.
Google’s iPhone app works much like the company’s Translate app for Android.
It’s fairly amazing stuff. Push a button, speak a query in one language and it displays a translation. Fifteen popular languages are covered by this feature.
You must speak carefully for the app to recognize your query, but if Translate misconstrues a word, you can edit the query with the phone’s keypad.
The app will also speak the results in 23 languages. You’ll have to listen carefully, though, because the translator’s computerized voice is occasionally hard to understand.
The quality of the translations is identical to what you will find on Google.com — good, but inconsistent.
Translate for Android recently added a useful feature for conversations between Spanish and English speakers, in which participants use their native tongue, and the app translates without anyone typing a word.
Google doesn’t disclose plans for future product rollouts, but those seeking this feature in other languages, or on iPhones, should stay tuned.
Whether on iPhone or Android, the app’s big drawback is that it relies on a network connection, so if you use it often while in another country you can incur huge data charges, and if you can’t find a network, you’ve just lost your digital translator.
Unless you plan ahead, that is. Google Translate lets you store and retrieve queries without a connection. But so much can happen on a foreign trip that you will have to store a lot of queries to cover all your possible needs.
Those who are willing to spend a little more can avoid such hassles.
Of the apps I tested in the low-price category, I liked the Odyssey Translator iPhone series features the most. There are seven foreign titles under the Travel Pro brand, for $5 each, and each title in the series has a limited, free version (through the Odyssey Translator Travel Free titles) for those who want to try before they buy. The app takes a different approach than competitors. Odyssey Translator starts you with more than a dozen major categories, like Emergency, Transport and Conversation, and within each category it offers more subcategories, like Directions, Taxi and Train.
Then, within each subcategory, the app displays three columns of oft-repeated phrases, in English, which you mix and match according to your needs.
Sometimes that approach complicates matters. Instead of getting a single translation for the phrase “What is the fare for a ride to the city center?” for instance, you must choose a button for the phrase “Can you” and another for the phrase “take me to.”
When pressed, the buttons display the foreign translation, and the app offers a spoken translation that is easily understandable.
Lonely Planet’s Phrasebook series ($6 each for dozens of languages, for iPhones and Android devices) also breaks down queries into major categories, and the app’s search box helps you quickly narrow the list of possible phrases. Like the Odyssey series, it works when you have no network connection.
The spoken translations are good, but the delivery is often so fast that a user would find it difficult to repeat the phrases. As a result, the app is less effective as a learning tool than Odyssey Translator.
For most people, a low-price app is all you’ll need. But spending a little more on an app may yield you features that will come in handy.
Some of the higher-price apps are meant less for quick lookups than for serious language students and translators who are looking for more precision.
Take Ultralingua. The company produces titles for nine different languages at from $10 to $25 apiece, each of which provides offline translations. The apps work on the iPhone, Windows and some Palm devices.
The apps mostly translate single words only, so if your query involves a longer phrase, it would take many minutes to complete the task. But if you want to know the Spanish word for “shoot,” in the cinematic or billiards context, the app gives you the answers.
It also offers a full range of conjugation options for verbs. And in a category where iTunes users complain about occasionally inaccurate translations, the Ultralingua series has attracted consistently good reviews.
That contrasts with one of Ultralingua’s competitors in the high-price category, Jibbigo, which is available for eight languages, at about $25 each. It functions like Google’s Translate, but without the need for a network connection. And the new bi-directional translation feature of the Google Android app is available on all of Jibbigo’s titles.
Jibbigo worked consistently well for me, but many iTunes critics complained that the app often failed to recognize their spoken queries.
Matthew Harbaugh, chief operating officer of Mobile Technologies, which publishes Jibbigo, said the company would soon issue updates based on the feedback from iTunes and Android customers. He added that Jibbigo was considering ways to let users test the apps before buying.
Until that happens, the app will require a leap of faith that may be too far for many iPhone users to make.
Quick Calls
IPad owners preparing for golf season can get an edge on the competition with the Golf Digest Hot List issue ($5). The app includes reviews of 94 clubs and video tutorials, among other features. … Picasso fans will appreciate the new iPhone app 3D Photo ($1), which turns snapshots into cubist photo portraits. … If you’d like a quick view of your income tax liabilities, try TaxCaster Mobile (free on Android and Apple devices), from Intuit.
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