Words and phrases can be input via photograph, typed text, handwritten text or spoken via microphone allowing for real time transcription. Google Translate is a useful reference and communication tool that translates words and phrases between English and over 100 other languages. Available on Android, iOS, Windows, macOS Since 2016 Google Translate has been using neural machine translation to accommodate full sentences rather than individual words. Released 2006 using statistical machine translation. Given the price, it has to get my recommendation.Details: Developed by Google. Overall the free Google Translate app has a cleaner, smoother interface and seems to work with fewer problems. It's not that it’s more useful, it's just that it’s free and I can't see paying for a service with limited utility. Given the above I recommend Google Translate on general terms. Not the end of the world, but when the free app doesn't have these problems. I had to restart the app several times to get past hangs. It doesn't play nice with fast app switching especially if there are internet connection problems. The final nail in SpeechTrans' coffin for me was that it seems buggy. One fewer time to remove my glove in cold Berlin. I like the fact Google does not require you to press anything to indicate you've finished speaking - one fewer key-press. You can pull up old translations on SpeechTrans but it takes additional key presses. Google also defaults to showing you your last search that means you can do some pre-work on a phrase and have it ready to run. In contrast Google Translate remembers what your last language set was. There does not appear to be any way to save a default language set so you always start off with English-to-English and have to adjust the settings. Then it defaults to asking you which languages you want to translate from and to. SpeechTrans opens up with a splash screen which takes a while to get past. The Google Translate app has a superior interface and functionality in my view. Again what I really want is text recognition and translation. I doubt I'd get anywhere near as good a response with Portuguese which I cannot pronounce, or with Chinese with I can't even begin to read aloud. But this works well partly because I know how to pronounce the German words, even if I don't know their meanings. Being able to talk to the services means I don't have to deal with the iPhone's fiddly keyboard and I don't have any issues about how to type in the appropriate accents, etc. I've got some time and I'm only translating a few words. Translating the menu at lunch is a better experience. What I really want, what would be completely useful, would be the ability to point the camera at a sign and get a translation. My German is OK, but when I read the signs into the systems I get very mixed responses. Yet, even here there's a practical issue. And without that, its utility in a real-time conversation is extremely limited.īoth services are more useful when translating some of the signs in the Museum. You see this is no Babel fish from Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy with instantaneous translation. I have an issue with a surly waiter in the cafe but there's no way I'm going to ask him to talk into my iPhone so I can understand what he's saying to me. When buying a ticket to the science museum? When ordering lunch in the cafe? In both cases I can point to what I want and make myself understood much more quickly than I can talk to the iPhone and get a translation. My next real issue is when to use the services in any really practical fashion.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |