By Carissa Bluestone
Voice-recognition software, crowdsourcing and the power of Google Translate are radically changing how we ask for the washroom around the world. There’s no way to tell how people will respond to having a yammering iPhone shoved in their faces, but when you have to tell your new francophone companion, “I am sorry that Air Canada does not respect your beautiful language”, you’ll be glad to have at least one of these apps.
- 33797
- Powered by Bing, <a title="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/itranslate-pro-global-language/id460373431?mt=8" href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/itranslate-pro-global-language/id460373431?mt=8">iTranslate Pro</a> did well even when I started feeding it some surreal stanzas from poet <a title="http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1990/paz-bio.html" href="http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1990/paz-bio.html">Octavio Paz</a>. The phrasebook menu is a real time-saver for slow typists, and a pop-out turns the screen into a flashcard, aiding those who have to read off of your phone. The voices are a little robotic, but speak at a clip that would sound natural to a native speaker. Unfortunately, there is no transliteration or audio for languages that could really use both.<br /> <strong>Stats:</strong> 33 languages, audio for 11; Favorites lists; sharing via email.<br /> <strong>Bottom Line:</strong> Excellent usability and accuracy for $0.99? This is “Egy igazán jó üzlet,” which may or may not be Hungarian for, “a really good deal".<br /> <strong>Rating: <span style="color: #ff0000;">4</span></strong>
- iTranslate Pro
- https://where.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/iTranslate-88x88.png
- https://where.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/iTranslate.png
- https://where.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/iTranslate.png
- 320
- 480
- https://where.ca/blog/plugged-in/5-translation-app-review/slide/itranslate/
- itranslate
- 0
- 0
- 33800
- The free version of <a title="http://www.mylanguage.me/applications/mylanguage-translator/" href="http://www.mylanguage.me/applications/mylanguage-translator/">MyLanguage</a> is full of drawbacks—no audio, banner ads—and the full version costs $4.99, which is expensive for this category. Furthermore, the Octavio Paz test revealed the app couldn’t translate the word “lightning”. That’s what happens when you crowdsource. Ponying up unlocks audio and transliteration features, both unimpressive. That said, any of the latter is a boon and both versions have a large selection of dialects—the most of any app here.<br /> <strong>Stats:</strong> 59 languages, audio for 20 (paid only); translation history; sharing via Facebook, Twitter, SMS and email.<br /> <strong>Bottom Line:</strong> A good choice only if the languages you need are underrepresented by other apps.<br /> <strong>Rating: <span style="color: #ff0000;">2</span></strong>
- MyLanguage
- https://where.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/MyLanguage-88x88.png
- https://where.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/MyLanguage.png
- https://where.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/MyLanguage.png
- 320
- 480
- https://where.ca/blog/plugged-in/5-translation-app-review/slide/mylanguage/
- mylanguage
- 0
- 0
- 33809
- The Rolling Stones–esque, map-covered tongue motif is cool for about five seconds. Unfortunately it’s <a title="http://sparklingapps.com/transalator.php" href="http://sparklingapps.com/transalator.php">Translator</a>’s permanent wallpaper. This is the ugliest of these apps, with the mouth, banner ads (free version) and conversation bubbles. Not to say it’s clunky, though—even in the full version ($1.99) has no other features than simple text-entry translation and decent audio playback.<br /> <strong>Stats: </strong> 54 languages, audio for 32; translation history. No sharing. <br /> <strong>Bottom Line: </strong> Not as user-friendly as iTranslate, but the larger catalogue might make up for that.<br /> <strong>Rating: <span style="color: #ff0000;">3</span></strong>
- Translator With Speech
- https://where.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/TranslatewithSpeech-88x88.png
- https://where.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/TranslatewithSpeech.png
- https://where.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/TranslatewithSpeech.png
- 320
- 480
- https://where.ca/blog/plugged-in/5-translation-app-review/slide/translatewithspeech/
- translatewithspeech
- 0
- 0
- 33810
- <a title="http://www.vocre.com/" href="http://www.vocre.com/">Vocre</a> is a different beast: It’s a speech-based translator. Choose the language and gender of the speaker, flip the phone upside down and record your soliloquy after the beep. You can review, and edit, the text before playing it. The accuracy is impressive. Some place names will fool Vocre—“Oaxaca” was mangled no matter how much I over-annunciated—but it can handle mumbled multipart questions of the type a concierge dreads. The voices are very natural sounding, with appropriate inflections.<br /> <strong>Stats:</strong> 7 languages, all audio. No saving; no sharing.<br /> <strong>Bottom Line:</strong>You’ll want to double up with a text-based app, but this is an invaluable tool when you need to make conversation, not read from a phrasebook.<br /> <strong>Rating: <span style="color: #ff0000;">4</span></strong>
- Vocre
- https://where.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Vocre-88x88.png
- https://where.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Vocre.png
- https://where.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Vocre.png
- 320
- 480
- https://where.ca/blog/plugged-in/5-translation-app-review/slide/vocre/
- vocre
- 0
- 0
- 34046
- So many translation apps are “powered by Google”, I had to find out how <a title="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/google-translate/id414706506?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D2" href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/google-translate/id414706506?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D2">Google’s namesake app</a> stacks up. Google does here what it tends to do: cull seemingly every useful feature touted by the competition in an interface à la Mies van der Rohe. You get the simple text translations; the clearest, most natural-sounding voices next to Vocre; the handy flashcard-like pop-outs of iTranslate; an easy-on-the-eyes and offline-accessible translation history; text transliterations (and some audio) for many non-Roman alphabets; and voice recognition for 15 languages. An English speaker can even choose the correct accent, lest Canadian “ous" or Oxford vowels confuse the US-made app.<br /><br /> <strong>Stats:</strong> 57 languages, audio for 25; translation history; Favorites lists. No sharing.<br /><br /> <strong>Bottom Line:</strong> A bit-of-everything approach and free price tag are hard to beat, but there's always room for improvement: based on the Octavio Paz test, I won't be wooing any Latin American poets with this one.<br /><br /> <strong>Rating: <span style="color: #ff0000;">4</span></strong>
- Google Translate
- https://where.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Google_image-88x88.jpg
- https://where.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Google_image.jpg
- https://where.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Google_image.jpg
- 600
- 400
- https://where.ca/blog/plugged-in/5-translation-app-review/slide/google_image/
- google_image
- 0
- 0
Stay, Dine, Do