Innovative visual translation app Word Lens has been bought out by Google — and is going fully free in the process for iOS and Android users.
It’s true that I’ve written about the limitations of mechanical translation in the past, but Word Lens’ approach, which involves character recognition and offline translation works in a different way, simply because it uses written language and translates it for you.
It’s immediately apparent when it gets translations wrong, but can be good for simply getting the gist of a road sign, menu item or any other written text. You’re also not going to insult anyone with it, which is rather important.
Google will undoubtedly wrap it into its own translation engine in time, but right now the app and all of its translation packs are gratis, so you’re risking nothing at all grabbing it.
You can grab Word Lens for iOS from the app store here.
You can grab Word Lens for Android from Google Play here.
I’ll take three highlights products that are not only discounted, but which I reckon are good value as well. Cheap isn’t always the same thing as great.
Image: Dwayne Madden