Several decades ago, the language barrier significantly limited communication between people from different countries among themselves, but today, in the era of globalization and technology development, cultural differences can be partially leveled using software methods.
In contact with
A little history
Machine translation is one of the first large-scale tasks that was set before engineers immediately after the creation of computers. It is noteworthy that the most popular direction of translation was initially Russian-English, which allowed Americans to quickly process textual information (including, of course, intelligence information) coming from the USSR in the late 40s and early 50s. Work was also carried out in the opposite direction.
Why Google Translate is the best today
Just like 70 years ago, today the quality of translation depends mainly not on the skill of the programmers working on the application, but on the array of data on which it is trained. Naturally, no company in the world can compare with Google in terms of the volume of processed text information, and therefore the quality of translation. In rare cases, highly specialized applications and services can compete with Google Translator, but for the average user we can safely recommend it Google Translate.
What the free Google Translate app for iPhone and iPad can do
Offline translation into 59 languages (online translation into 103 languages)
These are all the common languages and dialects of our planet, not counting the exotic ones spoken by two and a half African villages. That is, it will be very difficult for you to find a person on the Internet with whom it will be impossible to communicate through Google Translate. At the same time, 59 languages are available for offline downloading (separately) and use without an Internet connection.
You can download language packs at Settings programs in the section Offline translation.
You can enter a word (phrase) either manually or by voice.
If necessary, the translated phrase can be read out by clicking on the speaker icon.
In addition, the translation can be enlarged to full screen by pressing this button.
Conversation mode (instant automatic voice translation) in 32 languages
If you go to a foreign language country and try to communicate with people on the street, then instead of text input it will be much more convenient to use voice input. You say a phrase in native language into the microphone of your smartphone or tablet, and Google Translator instantly responds through the speakers in the language of the local aboriginal.
This translation into this moment available for 32 directions, including Russian, English, German, French and other languages.
Translation from camera or photo into 37 languages
Another problem that Google's interpreter can solve is the translation of inscriptions, signs, and signs without text input. For example, when traveling around Asia, you don’t have to install all the necessary keyboards with hieroglyphs on your iPhone; you just need to point the camera at a sign with a Chinese or Japanese inscription, and the application will independently recognize and translate the text from or into 37 languages. You can also recognize text on an uploaded image in the same way, or even draw symbols you saw the day before from memory (Google Translate recognizes handwritten text in 93 languages).
Phrasebook - your own list of necessary words and phrases
It would be a good idea to take advantage of the opportunity to create your own phrasebook. The application allows you to mark and save translations of words and expressions for later use. All languages are supported. To save, click the star. All saved translations will be automatically placed in the tab of the same name.
Handwriting
Simply write the text by hand and translate it into any of the 93 available languages.
You can translate text online (without the Internet) on your iPhone using free applications, available for download in the AppStore.
Travel and absorb the energy of yet unexplored countries without communicating with local residents It’s almost impossible - you won’t be able to understand the culture, feel the emotions of those who have never seen the harsh Russian winter and still believe in bears wandering the frozen streets of Siberian cities.
And sometimes, without knowing the language, you can’t buy a token in the subway or order sparkling wine in a restaurant. There are two ways to solve the communication problem - immediately jump into English courses and believe that international language familiar to everyone in Europe and China, or download an offline translator on your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch and instantly turn into someone who is able to put together sentences on the fly, without putting in any effort.
Google Translate
An advanced, multifunctional and truly technological tool for iPhone, capable of any feat related to translations and finding the right words. Developers from Google offer to understand handwritten sentences and words drawn on signs and stops, help you understand pronunciation and foreign speech, and at the same time remind you how basic language structures are built, with which you can easily order coffee or a taxi.
Yes, not all of the listed functions are available without access to the network (or more precisely, not all languages have such a function!), but even the initial capabilities are already enough for understanding. However, the main thing Google advantage not even in the number of translations, not in a special training section where every beginner will find answers to emerging questions, but in omnivorousness.
Currently, the database contains 59 languages available without the Internet. It is not possible to find an application at least somewhat similar in scale. Neither on iPhone nor on Android with Windows.
If you really want to go abroad and understand other people’s lives, then Google must be located not only on the iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch, but also at a low start, like a revolver in the hands of a cowboy crossing a gloomy saloon, where it is not known from whom to expect a dirty trick.
Translate.Ru
Developers from PROMT are back on horseback. Previous errors associated with strange translations, which occurred 5-7 years ago, have been eliminated. The interface, which suffered from a bunch of unnecessary buttons, has now been brought to perfection. And the number of those supported without Internet access has grown to 16.
Yes, compared to Google, the figure is small, but there are free phrasebooks with frequently used phrases and sentences, and a special learning platform that can even teach those who skipped school or never contacted the chosen language even during an airplane flight basically.
Working with Translate.ru is easy - you can enter or speak text, and then receive a response with the ability to select additional translations for some words.
Yandex translate
The application is an iPhone service that has not yet reached its final development, but is diligently moving along the beaten paths that Google prudently laid out. Yes, offline language support is still weak, it’s not possible to record information by voice the first time, and the built-in translation from the camera only works in ideal lighting from a certain angle. It’s worth taking a closer look at Yandex now. And the main reason for this is the developers.
No one will leave a domestic translator without support for more than a couple of weeks. Therefore, you can expect updates, unexpected innovations and technical fixes.
Voice assistants are increasingly becoming part of our lives. They are available both in the App Store and in the built-in functionality of the iPhone, like Siri. Today's review is unusual - we will compare voice translators: iTranslate Voice, Google Translate and SayHi Translate. How convenient are they to use and how do they get the job done?
iTranslate Voice
So, the trick of this program for iPhone is that you just need to say a word in Russian and the application will answer you in the same way, only in a different, pre-selected language.
The app's interface is incredibly similar to Siri's. Even the sound when you click on the “Speak Text” icon is very similar to that in the assistant. Between the language buttons there is a volume adjustment button, and in the menu that opens when you click on it, you can select the speaker - male or female and the speed of pronunciation of the translated text. By the way, a useful option is the ability to clear dialogs. Simply drag the page down and an action similar to updating Twitter or mail in iOS 6 will occur.
A very useful feature of the application is the ability to recognize the end of a sentence and “shake to speak.” The former will detect the intended point in your speech, and the latter will tell you the result of the translation again.
In order to carry out the experiment, we will take this tricky phrase: “You can’t just take and translate something from English into Russian and back”
The application did not cope with the task very well, displaying something tricky. But, however, neither better nor worse than the others, look further.
However, there are a huge number of languages available in the app. Starting from English with German and ending with Korean and Norwegian. A huge range of languages will allow you to easily communicate with foreigners. All you need is normal pronunciation of words, not porridge in your mouth, and the Internet.
If you need to talk, for example, with a resident of China or India, and you do not have a translator, then this is definitely the way out. Buy a local SIM card and chat as much as you like.
So, looking back at all the above pros and cons, we can safely say that there are more pros. But don’t forget about traffic abroad, which is very expensive these days.
For free
Google Translate
The text translation speed of this iPhone application is quite high. It produces results very quickly. Even if you speak a whole sentence, the program will produce translation results almost immediately. Everything is fast and beautiful. Minimalistic interface, neat buttons, icons, etc.
Perhaps the two most important features of the application that will make you run to the App Store and download the application are its price - free, and support for the Russian language.
Naturally, the application works with Google API. And this is his huge advantage. But alas, the application does not support dialogue translation. That is, one speaks “into the microphone” and the application translates his speech, then the other does the same, and so on, as is implemented in iTranslate Voice.
The application coped with the same intricate phrase that I cited above in exactly the same way as everyone else.
For free
SayHi Translate
It's hard to believe that this app can intelligently translate speech from one language to another. This is clear at least from the screenshots provided by the developer on the application page in the App Store. And the big red button with the inscription “Done” on the very first screen just makes me sick. In addition, the developers didn’t even bother to translate the settings menu, leaving it on English language. True, at least the interface is more or less pleasant. However, this does not make the application any better than its primary rival iTranslate Voice, which was described above.
As for translation, the app did the same job as iTranslate Voice and Google Translate. Everything is exactly the same. Only to complete the speech, unlike all other programs in this review, here you have to press a button with the disgusting text “Done”. Yes, the feature can be enabled in the settings, but it is disabled by default. The interface is terrible. It is inconvenient to interact with incorrectly recognized sections of the test, that is, to edit the “unrecognized” one, you need to click on the field, then click on the arrow in the context menu, since the number of fields on the screen simply does not fit, and then on the untranslated “Edit” field.
I was very upset by the menu that appears when you click on the question mark at the top. “Russian help” and “English help”. The application recognized Russian speech from the fifth time, all other above programs - from the first or second. And question marks when there is an error in translation from English (!) are absolutely fire.
For free
Conclusion
If we test all voice translation programs for iPhone with the same phrase, we will get... the same result, right down to the comma. And this is not surprising, because all similar applications use the Google service in one way or another.
You practically get a shell of a different kind from the free Google Translate. It's just a matter of taste. Perhaps the most convenient is iTranslate Voice. There is a neat interface and thoughtful functionality.
An update to Google's mobile translator with support for offline mode has been released in the App Store. Google Translate 5.0 can become an indispensable assistant for any traveler, who no longer needs to speak the language of an unfamiliar country in order to easily navigate the terrain.
In the fifth version of the Google translation application, translation from 52 languages and back without an Internet connection has appeared. To do this, after installing the update, you need to open the program and use the “Check and update” button. After this, in the Offline Translation section, you need to select the language for which you want to download the translation package and confirm loading the data into the device memory.
Google Translator supports instant translation of printed text, including using the camera. Recently, iPhone and iPad users can use the “Translate Now” feature. If earlier, using a camera, it was possible to photograph some text and then translate it, now the translation of a sign, menu or information about a museum exhibit is carried out instantly - it is displayed on the screen mobile device. To do this, just point the camera at the required text. The function can also be used without an Internet connection.
In addition, Google Translate has a conversation translation mode. When communicating with a native speaker of an unfamiliar language, the user needs to go to the voice translation mode in Google Translate, and then select the conversation translation mode. The application will automatically recognize which of the two dialogue languages the phrase is spoken in and will provide a voice translation. The function is available for 38 languages, including Russian.
Among the main features of Google Translate:
- Translate entered text into 103 languages and back.
- Offline translation. Translate into 52 languages and back without an Internet connection.
- Fast camera translation. Instant translation of any inscriptions from 28 languages.
- Camera mode. To translate text, just take a photo of it. 37 languages are supported.
- Talk mode. Automatic speech translation from 32 languages and back.
- Handwriting input. Write text by hand and translate it into any of 93 languages.
Transfer individual texts or words can be translated offline (without the Internet) using free translator apps for iPhone.
Navigating the world with a paper dictionary or phrasebook containing outdated phrases and unused constructions has become pointless with the advent of modern translators, easily launched on the iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch.
Why waste extra time searching for information, spending hours choosing words and, without understanding those around you, reading lips incomprehensibly dozens of times? Isn't it easier to turn to the professional tools available in the App Store for help?
Google Translate
The translator application for the iPhone easily outshines its competitors in terms of the number of supported languages (103 pieces, 59 are loaded into the memory of the iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch and used offline (without access to the Internet), and in terms of available technologies, and even because for technical implementation and freedom of access.
The developers do not offer to pay for camera translation, scanning of manually written information, or for working with web resources available in a foreign language. Every feature built into Google Translate is free and even ad-free!
Additionally, the service should stand out from the crowd, if only because of the interface and the logic of the actions taking place on the screen. Here you don’t have to look for extra buttons or spend hours sorting out the details; the main thing is to select language templates and fill in empty text fields. Google's development will handle the rest.
Yandex translate
Multifunctional assistant for domestically produced iPhone with integrated voice assistant, photo translation without the Internet, dictionary entries to help you understand foreign languages and remember important grammatical structures.
The Yandex application supports 90 languages, but only works with a third without access to the Internet and helps not to get lost, perhaps only in Europe, some Asian countries and the USA. And, although at first glance the listed capacities are small, the developers are not trying to dwell on the successes achieved and have already planned a number of significant changes that will affect further travel.
Lingvo
A dictionary for iPhone with a simple design, but an intuitive interface and a bunch of additional functions related to learning: the developers help you sort out those things from the phrasebook that are really useful, and also pass a series of tests and even a couple of exams.
The main disadvantage of the Lingvo application is the small number of supported languages - exactly 7. But you don’t need the Internet, and translation here happens at lightning speed.
Microsoft Translate
A freely distributed platform, not far behind Google. Yes, there are almost half as many languages here (instead of 103 there are only 60), but the approach to functional implementation is similar. Translation of web pages, phrase books and dictionaries without the Internet is also available here, and synchronous communication through a voice assistant is also provided, which instantly translates sentences to the interlocutor into the selected language.
Working with the Microsoft application is easy - there is a separate section for each function, and training with instructions is also provided for beginners. In a word, don't get lost.
iTranslate
A service for iPhone that is rapidly expanding with new offers and languages. The collection is already impressive - 100 pieces. A third works without access to the network. But it supports voice input, pronunciation assistance, and translation of text from the camera and photos. The downside is that the content is distributed for a fee. A monthly subscription will cost 349 rubles. While Google offers to travel and communicate for free.
