iPhone + Google Translate = Awesome

Just came across an article mentioning that an app for Google Translate just came out for the iphone. For free, of course. And to make it even more interesting, the app lets you speak the words you want translated. Already loaded with tons of languages, it was an OBVIOUS immediate download. It's not perfect, but still already pretty damn impressive.

And at least so far, with my limited tests, seems to work like a charm.

Examples here.
First tests:
I wanted to see if it could understand my "Americanized" German accent. Started out with an easy one. I said "Ich habe schon gegessen." And it got it.






















Second test didn't go as well. I wanted to check and see if it would get my umlauts...so said "Was denkst du darüber?" The app heard:






















So I tested it without the last word: "Was denkst du?" And there it had no problem:






















Thought maybe if I try again a really CLEARLY say the umlaut....and indeed, second time it was ok:






















Finally, decided to test out a bit of chinese. But this time english to chinese. So said: "I have eaten." Yup, looks good. And what's awesome is that the app will also read you the results if you also press the little speaker icon.






















And then I got curious - would the app be able to tell if I asked a question? So I said: "Have you eaten?" And results show...no, app can't tell...because there should have been the word "ma" at the end of the results below...Hey, Christian - please download and test it out - tell me what else you discover on the Chinese language translation. :-)

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Next day...

Oh my - just read another article about the Android equivalent...

"The iPhone app, however, lacks a few features that the Android version boasts: namely SMS translation and the experimental Conversation Mode, which is supposed to allow you to talk with a nearby person in another language."

HEY GOOGLE - PLEASE ADD!
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And later this evening:
I belatedly wondered how it would translate "curse" words...
So told the app "**** you!" in English. :-)
It translated it into "German" too: Funny that it bothers to use "Sie" rather than "Du" when cursing at me...