App of the Week – Google Translate

I remember when I was a kid watching Star Trek. The Enterprise computer could do it all. Captain Kirk could see and talk to his crew on the surface of some alien planet instantly and in real time. And the ships computer could translate  any alien language into perfect english.

We have that technology today. At any given moment you can speak to anyone anywhere in the world. At any given moment you can see the person you are talking to even if they are an ocean or continent away. And if you don’t speak their language you can still communicate with them. That is why Google Translate is the App of the Week

Google Translate is an app that is available for your smartphone, or communicator, that translates text in one language to text in another language in an instant. Google has released a major update to the Translate app making it much faster and easier to use for translating person-to-person conversations and printed text.

The update includes two new features. One is called Word Lens. Google purchased the company that makes Word Lens last spring. Word Lens lets the user point their smartphone’s camera at a sign in a foreign language and have it translated automatically into another language. The translation appears live on the screen. This update will be indispensable to people who travel overseas but don’t speak the native language. Reading road signs, menus or finding the right bathroom is no longer a problem.

The other big update to Translate is a real-time conversation feature. This feature is closer to being ready for prime time. If you have used Translate before you know you had to select the two languages you wanted to translate between and then tap a button inside the app every time you wanted to start speaking. Now the miracle of technology has made that much simpler. Now after the two languages have been selected, Translate just needs to introduce it to one of the people speaking. From that point on it will automatically detect what language is spoken and begin to translate it. This is the first time that this mode will be available on iOS.

This technology is going mainstream in a hurry.  One of the most popular video chat products is Skype, owned by Microsoft. Microsoft unveiled a similar real-time translation tool for Skype. However the two companies are going after different markets. Microsoft is targeting schools with its product, while Google Translate looks like it’s more for personal use. Either way, it is now easier than ever to avoid a language barrier. In this world that is going to be a big help.

The new Translate app is available now for both iOS and Android.