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Jibbigo iPhone app translates from English to Spanish and back again

by Laura June posted Oct 30th 2009 @ 10:37AM

Jibbigo is a recently released iPhone app which promises to help you out the next time you're desperately trying to make yourself understood by your Spanish-speaking compadres. The app is capable of recording a sentence and translating it -- essentially in real time -- back to you. As you can see in the screencap above, you can speak either Spanish or English, and the translator will do its work, displaying both your original and a translation into the other language. The dictionary contains about 40,000 words, and the app is aimed at travelers. Jibbigo also requires the iPhone 3GS to make use of the bi-directional translation tools, and the app also reportedly functions a heck of a lot slower on anything other than the 3G. The app is available now for $24.99.

[Via, iPodnn]

Welsh nab their first native-tongued phone and iPhone app in one month's time -- Cymru am byth!

by Laura June posted Aug 5th 2009 @ 4:04AM

Native speakers of Welsh, take heed! Orange has announced that a Welsh-language version of the Samsung S5600 will be made available in September. This would make it the first cellphone to handle the language, which has some 600,000 native speakers in Wales. The phone will contain 44,000 Welsh words, and was recently unveiled in Bala, Gwynedd. Also unveiled simultaneously was the first Welsh iPhone app, developed with English-speakers learning the language in mind, and will have a companion "Learn Welsh" phrasebook available in the iTunes store. Iechyd Da!

NEC develops real-time Japanese-to-English mobile translation software

by Darren Murph posted Nov 30th 2007 @ 11:32AM

We've already seen the idea of data-to-voice translation passed around, but NEC's latest software is far beyond the drawing board. Reportedly, the firm has developed a system that can understand around 50,000 Japanese words and translate them to English text on the mobile's display in just a second or two. The software was made compact enough to "operate on a small microchip mounted in a cellphone," and was designed especially to help users convert common travel phrases. Notably, it would be technically possible to make the English translation vocal, but according to NEC spokesman Mitsumasa Fukumoto, the firm isn't looking into that possibility at the moment. No word on when we'd see this technology hit the masses, nor if any other language combinations were in the works, but this would certainly make touring English-speaking locales a lot less strenuous for Japanese speakers.

[Via Physorg]

ZTE's Evolution handset sports dual alphabet support

by Darren Murph posted Jul 7th 2007 @ 11:24AM

Here's a bizarre one. ZTE's latest mobile not only sports a sleek, black enclosure and 3G connectivity, but also includes a "dual level, multilingual Fastap keypad based on Digit Wireless' Fastap Keypad Global Language Platform." As you'd expect, both English-speaking individuals and those proficient in Romanized Ukrainian and Russian should have no trouble entering text messages, as the keypad clearly sports both Cyrillic and Latin-based letters. Although the minutiae of this here device has yet to be unveiled, we do know that it'll be distributed by PEOPLEnet -- the first national provider of 3G communications in Ukraine -- and while nothing was written in stone, ZTE also suggested that the Evolution could be used by "international operators for authoritative certificates and assurances to overseas markets." Click on through for a more detailed shot of the bilingual mobile.

[Via Slashphone]

Continue reading ZTE's Evolution handset sports dual alphabet support

New Verizon services give you a babelphone

by Chris Ziegler posted Jun 5th 2006 @ 11:58AM

¿Puede traducirme esto, por favor? Verizon is looking to facilitate awkward, painfully slow conversations between you and the Spanish speaker of your choosing, launching a handful of language tools through its Get It Now service. First up is the Merriam-Webster Spanish-English Dictionary, offering over 100,000 translations for $3.49 per month. Next is AppAbove's Spanish Anywhere, a phrase translator with over 1,200 phrases and 5,500 words for $2.99 per month. Other languages are getting love, too -- VOCEL's Living Language learning program lets users practice and hear 600-odd words and phrases in over 20 languages for $3.99 per month. According to Verizon, "If you spot someone on the street speaking Japanese, German or one of 20 different foreign languages found on select Get It Now-enabled Verizon Wireless phones, don't interrupt their class – they're being tutored by VOCEL's Living Language program." Thanks for the heads-up, guys -- we typically stop folks speaking foreign languages on the phone in their tracks and sternly ask them to stop.

[Via textually.org]