Mobile Magazine » translation

Google Translate App Comes To iPad

Andrew Grush — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 19:13:42 +0000

Earlier today Google updated its official Google Translate iOS app to include an interface for the iPad. Previously, the app was only for the iPhone (and iPod Touch).

The update heavily resembles the iPhone version although the interface elements proted to the iPad’s screen are much larger. Overall there is nothing new or special about the iPad version versus the iPhone , still one really can’t complain as it is a welcome feature.

Now iPad users everywhere have access to easy text translation between 63 languages, voice-to-text translation in 17 languages, and text-to-voice translation in 24 languages.

The app can be downloaded for free right now from the iTunes App Store.

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Vocre: The instant translation app for iPhone conversationalists

Michael Kwan — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 23:33:01 +0000

Imagine that you decided to take a trip over to Germany, but you don’t speak a word of German. You could whip out one of those phrasebooks, but there’s a good chance you’re going to butcher the pronunciation, not to mention that you won’t understand what the other person is saying either. That’s where Vocre comes in.

Presented at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference, the Vocre app instantly translates your spoken word into another language. Just say what you want to say, and your smartphone will translate it on the spot and speak it out in the target language. You can then hold your phone in front of the local and have them do the same back to you.

This is quite the fascinating app. It’s not quite instant and you need to wait for the prompts, but it sure beats trying to communicate with charades and broken German. The speech to text part is handled by Nuance, but the translation is said to go beyond Google Translate, using crowd-sourced learning technology. The idea is to mak e the conversation a little more natural.

Right now, it looks like Vocre is being targeted for iOS only. You get your first 10 translations free and then additional packs of 10 more translations are 99 cents. Language support includes English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Japanese and Chinese. More languages are on the way.

Although we interviewed Vocre and got a demo, the background noise was less than ideal and did not give accurate translations. It seems Vocre works quite well in quite situations, but if in a noisy restaurant or busy street corner it may not be as accurate as shown in the video.

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Ortsbo to Real Time Translate Your Mobile Chats Too

Michael Kwan — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 21:14:21 +0000

In case you haven’t figured it out already, we live in an international world and, believe it or not, not everyone speaks English. Ortsbo by Interntainment is meant to break down some of those language barriers.

They already have a desktop application that integrates with a series of IM platforms like MSN and Facebook chat, translating your conversations in real-time so you can communicate with people around the world, but now they’re ready to tackle the road. Intertainment is launching applications for iOS, BlackBerry, Android, and Windows Phone 7. Other mobile devices can go through the mobile web browser interface.

Since I make my living as a freelance writer, I can see the value of such a service. This way, I can more easily work with clients whose first language isn’t English. I don’t have to pop back and forth, copying and pasting into Google Translate… though I don’t work with too many clients who don’t have some proficiency in English.

Expect the mobile apps to roll out in Q2.

[via Ortsbo]

Intertainment’s Ortsbo Real Time Translator Continues to Accelerate as it Prepares to Launch Mobile Platform

NEW YORK, NEW YORK and SAN MATEO, CALIFORNIA and TORONTO, CANADA–(Marketwire – March 7, 2011) - Intertainment Media Inc. (“Intertainment” or the “Company”) (TSX VENTURE:INT)(OTCBB:ITMTF)(FRANKFURT:I4T) announces that its social media, real time, language translation platform, Ortsbo.com (www.ortsbo.com), continues to accelerate with over 1.7 Million unique users and 8 Million minutes of user engagement in the past week. The Company is now preparing to launch its mobile platform, allowing users around the world who are not connected to computer desktops the ability to use Ortsbo on their mobile phones, smartphones and portable computing devices.

To increase penetration of Ortsbo for social media applications and better enable mobile and portable computer offerings, Ortsbo will be delivering a second platform in HTML, the core language of the Internet, providing easier access for corporate environments and Apple i series products to use Ortsbo without having to download the Silverlight plug-in. This new platform will also enable the vast majority of mobile phones in developing countries to use Ortsbo.

Expected to begin commercial rollout by end of calendar Q2, Ortsbo for mobile and portable devices will offer users the ability to translate chat and text conversations through customized applications for Apple’s iPhone, BlackBerry, Android and Windows 7 smartphones. Other mobile phones and portable devices will be able to access Ortsbo through Internet browser interfaces.

“The continued market response to Ortsbo’s real time translation experience is transforming the global chat arena. Ortsbo empowers users around the world to chat in over 50 languages regardless of their preferred social network, providing a fully enabled real time translation experience,” said David Lucatch, CEO Intertainment Media Inc. / President Ortsbo Inc. “To continue the experience beyond the desktop and make Ortsbo available to billions of mobile phone users, the Company is readying to deliver the next phase of development with Ortsbo for mobile, smartphones and portable computing devices.”

Ortsbo provides users with the ability to break down language and cultural barriers through its easy to use, language centric interface. Over the past month, user demographics have continued to favor the BRIC countries with China remaining the number 1 usage country for Ortsbo with Brazil moving into the number 2 spot followed by the US, South Korea, Canada, Taiwan, Germany, Argentina, Russia and India. Ortsbo’s Top 10 user countries have a combined population of over 3.4 Billion people.

Over the past week, as part of our ongoing commitment to improving the translation experience and to keep pace with accelerating demand, Ortsbo has begun to deploy additional infrastructure to handle the service loads placed on it by global users. The initial improvements have resulted in reduced load times and increased overall user experience.

Since its launch on July 22, 2010 Ortsbo has achieved the following performance:

90.3 Million Minutes of User Engagement

61.6 Million Page Views

27.1 Million Online Sessions

18.1 Million Unique Visitors From Over 170 Countries / Territories 49,000 Facebook Fans

6,400 Twitter Followers

Ortsbo – In the News:

Full details of news coverage can be found at the Intertainment web site –www.intertainmentmedia.com

Ortsbo’s real time multi-session, multi-platform and multi-lingual application connects to PC and Mac computers, mobile device browsers as well as all major search engine chat platforms including Microsoft, Google and Yahoo! along with Facebook, iChat, AIM, ICQ, Gadu-Gadu, Ovi, Lotus Sametime, LiveJournal and Tencent QQ and QQ International, China’s largest chat platforms and Twitter. Ortsbo instantly provides real time translation capabilities to well over 1 billion active chat accounts in over 170 Countries / Territories.

Ortsbo is finalizing its commercial release schedule for its translation module for email applications. Ortsbo for Microsoft Outlook provides instant translation of both sent and received emails, with original language attachments, making it easy to communicate via email in multiple languages. The email plug-in module will retail for $29.95 US. Ortsbo also offers a secure, multi-user, multilingual chat module for the commercial market.

To become a Facebook Fan of Ortsbo, sign up at www.facebook.com/ortsbo

Follow Ortsbo on Twitter

To review Ortsbo’s weekly performance metrics and the Company’s corporate blog, please visitwww.intertainmentmedia.com/blog

About Ortsbo: www.ortsbo.com

Ortsbo (www.ortsbo.com) enables real-time conversational translation in over 50 languages and seamlessly integrates with today’s most popular social media platforms.

Ortsbo Inc. is a division of Intertainment Media Inc., a Rich Media Applications leader, focused on delivering leading edge technology and marketing solutions enabling clients to power enhanced branding, loyalty initiatives and consumer engagement. Selected as a Microsoft Global Agency Initiative partner, Intertainment has joined an elite group of interactive agencies worldwide that Microsoft recommends to its Partners and Customers.

Intertainment Media owns and operates a number of key properties including Ad Taffy, itiBiti, Ortsbo and Magnum. For more information on the Company and its properties, please visitwww.intertainmentmedia.com

Headquartered in the Toronto, Canada region, with offices in New York, Los Angeles and San Mateo, CA, Intertainment Media Inc. is listed on the Toronto Venture Exchange under the symbol “INT” (TSX VENTURE:INT) and in the US under the symbol “ITMTF”. Intertainment is also traded in Europe, on the Frankfurt Exchange under the symbol “I4T”.

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Word Lens lets you see in another language

Jeremy Pedro — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 01:02:22 +0000

Your jaw may hit the floor after watching the demo video for the latest and greatest app for the iPhone. It’s called Word Lens, and it utilizes the camera on your iPhone alongside Optical Character Recognition technology to translate written words from one language to another. It can translate road signs, restaurant menus, and pretty much anything you would find useful to read in a foreign language during your travels.

As of right now there is only support for English and Spanish languages, you are able to translate from one to the other at an instant. Co-Creator Otavio Good has said that they will most likely be adding French next, followed by Italian and Portuguese. He also went on to say, “The translation isn’t perfect, but it gets the point across.” If you want to have a hands-on demo of the app, it is available for download now, and comes free with a demo program that spells words backwards, the full translation app will cost you $4.99.

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Coming Soon – Language interpreter right in your cellphone

Colleen McColl — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 13:30:37 +0000

Finally, the language barrier fix all travelers have been waiting for. Toshiba is apparently working on and is soon to offer Instant Voice Translation of basic sentences using your cell phone.

Toshiba has optimized existing PC software to use in cell phones. Toshiba says that the database, used on their TG01 “smartphone” (pictured above), has a database of 30,000 words in three languages. Their translation software, in its current version, allows cell phones to interpret between English, Chinese and Japanese

Users speak into the phone, let the handset analyze what you’ve said, then it translates the sentence and repeats it, out loud, in the language requested speaking with inflections of that language. It doesn’t require you to be online, which is ideal for tourists traveling in foreign countries.

Toshiba is claiming it covers around 70% of the basic travel-related conversations. The company’s aim is to offer a practical version of the software within the year.

Source mobilecrunch.com

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