Earlier this morning I took a look at Help 2 Speak, a free application that provides some basic language translation features. It’s not feature-rich, but I could see where this could come in handy and since it works on so many devices, it’s worth the mention. Help 2 Speak is supported natively on Windows Mobile and Symbian devices, plus there’s a Java client, which opens up compatibility to a vast amount of handsets. There’s info on a version for the iPhone and iPod Touch as well, but I’m unsure if that’s for jailbroken phones or will be a web app. I opted to install the Java version on my Dash and it runs quite snappily.You first choose your own language and then select the language you want to translate. You’ve got six to choose from: English, German, French, Italian, Spanish and Danish. Once you’ve made those choices, there are nine context categories to choose from ranging from Shopping, Culture, Hotel, Business, Dining and more. The app has pre-set, common phrases for each context so you can’t type in a phrase for translation, but there’s a good starting set of choices. I wish the app would actually speak the phrase as it would be more useful in my opinion, but you can easily show someone the phrase on your handset if you don’t feel confident in your oral foreign language skills.
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