Nouman Khan

iTranslate Voice is a brand new app that has just launched in the Apple iStore, at an introductory price of $0.99. it requires the iOS 4.3 operating system or later, and is compatible with the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. The app is a combination of voice recognition software and a translator; you simply select your “home” language, the language you want to translate into, and start speaking. Once you have finished, there is a short pause while the app translates what you have said, before it repeats the sentence back to you in your chosen language. If the software has made a mistake when picking up your voice, you can simply use the keyboard for any corrections. The app also allows you to use the dictionary feature to look up definitions, and you can share these by text, email or Twitter. The iTranslate Voice app can currently translate thirty-one different languages, both as text and voice. More are planned; text translation is available for Arabic, Greek and Hindi, but the voice recognition is still being developed. An internet connection is required, either through Wi-Fi or 3G, in order for the app to work, but there is no need for the extensive calibration procedures that are generally necessary for voice recognition software. An unusual feature of this app is its ability to include punctuation in your translations, simply by saying the punctuation mark you require. So, “question mark” translates as “?”, while “dot” gives you a full stop. iTranslate Voice has had extremely mixed reviews since its initial release. Some users have found that the voice recognition is almost spot on and the translations are extremely accurate, while others have found it extremely difficult to get acceptable voice recognition. There are a few things you can try help overcome this problem. Firstly, you need to ensure that you speak extremely clearly. Mumbling into the phone’s microphone will lead to the wrong words being displayed. Second, you may need to speak more slowly than you are used to doing. This will give the app a better change of understanding you. While iTranslate Voice is certainly no substitute for a professional translator (and the development company Sonico GmbH freely admit this on their website), for the casual traveller who needs to ask a few easy questions, it certainly has a purpose. This is an app that will become more useful over time, as an increasing selection of languages is added to the library.