Posts Tagged ‘app’

When I first saw Shel Israel’s (@shelisrael) tweet and the iTunes store description off of his link, I was skeptical, as was Shel. Visual translations via an iPhone app?

Word Lens is the real thing.

I just conducted a quick test on the iPhone app.

On-screen text message:

iPhone screenshot of the Word Lens translation:

The application has a “Pause” button which takes a still of the translation. In still mode, the translated words become hyperlinks which allows the user to click through to see the translation of the specific word.

How much is this app?

The actual Word Lens application is free and it comes with a Word Reverse and Word Erase tools.

The English-to-Spanish and the Spanish-to-English translation engines are $4.99 each. To access those libraries, you click on the white oval at the top of the screen (it will read “Demo:Reverse Words”) and you are taken to a Languages screen which shows the installed items and the “Available to Download” items.

VIDEO: Word Lens in action – Santa Paula, CA

I photographed the “Smile at the camera” sign at the La Unica bakery then showed the owner how it worked. She was amazed by the translations.

Notes

* I’d rate the translation accuracy around 70-80%.

* The app doesn’t work very well with full pages of text but it will parse through and try to translate what it can.

* The app doesn’t have Spanish regional settings so it won’t know whether to translate “potatoes” to “papas” or to “patatas.” There are hundreds of such words that vary in usage from country to country.

* According to the iTunes listing, the requirements are:
– Compatible with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, and iPod touch (4th generation). Requires iOS 4.0 or later.

Is the Word Lens application a game changer in the translation world or is this just another app?

Twitter recently rolled out its new iPad mobile application.  Go to the App Store to get the latest version.  Here’s a review of 5 cool features.

1. The application is made for the iPad. The previous application was just the iPhone version.

2. See multiple “views” on one screen. The new app allows you to see snippets of more than one view at a time.  This is basically a visual “breadcrumb.”  Unfortunately, there are a couple of instances when things get “stuck” and it is difficult to close the active panel.

3. Article/image previews on tweets. Click on an item in your timeline and see the tweet with the article preview below.  This saves a click and gives you a good idea if you want to continue and read the  article.

With the release of Flipboard, there has been a movement towards visual browsing of  tweets.  This is a great next step for Twitter.

4. “Faux” attachments on tweets. Twitter still doesn’t allow for attachments but this “Attachments” screen simulates that action.  On a new tweet, click on the paper clip and you get access to your iPad photo album.  The Twitter app ties in third-party image hosting companies to accomplish the faux attachments.

5. Integration with services.  The app also allows users to connect to third-party services like Posterous for image and video posting.  Video posting?  Apparently the Twitter app is ahead of the iPad development curve and is already listing different video services.

I was surprised by the way the app “knew” how to select my Posterous account since  I never use Posterous on the iPad.

Review

The new Twitter for iPad app is a great step in the right direction – it uses the iPad’s space intelligently and it incorporates preview features like rich desktop apps.  I tested some of the “gestures” mentioned in the Twitter blog post but they weren’t intuitive so they’ve got some work to do there.  All in all, it’s a must download.

Did you see any other great features?  Overall, do you like what Twitter has done?

Animoto, the video creation company, has an iPhone application that allows you to create a video out of pictures on your iPhone. The iPhone version requires at least five images and an audio selection from the Animoto library then you are all ready to create the new video.

The iPhone application gives you the option of creating a 30-second or a Full-Length video. The 30-second video is free but does not allow you to include video snippets or post it to YouTube. I didn’t try the Full-Length video so I’m not sure if those features do show up there.

Unfortunately, the video you create on the iPhone does not show up on the regular Animoto.com web site under your account. They have a message saying that developers are hard at work on that.

Besides these minor limitations, the free Animoto iPhone app is easy to use and makes a great dynamic video.

Some great uses:

1) Great for photographers who want another way of presenting their photos

2) Realtors could snap a few pictures, add music, and create a great video for a home listing -ON LOCATION

3) Great for sharing pics from any event. You’ll be able to share something much sooner than by uploading and tagging pictures via Flickr

4) Mix in pictures of a loved one and a message then send it to them for their birthday. A nice surprise!

5) Great quick way to share the happenings at a political rally to keep people engaged.

The following video was created using the iPhone application and pictures I took on my trip to Denver. I used the “share” feature, emailed the resulting link to my email address, ran the video then used the embed code to place it on this post. Enjoy!

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