Google's Google Translate app was today updated to version 5.0.0, adding a new feature that allows users to translate words and phrases even when offline in 52 of the 103 languages available in the app. With the offline update, the app remains useful when no cellular or Wi-Fi connection is available, making it ideal for traveling.
Today's update also adds instant camera translation between English and Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), which is useful for reading signs and other content without needing to type words into the app. Instant camera translation is now available in a total of 29 languages and camera mode, which allows users to take pictures of text for higher-quality translations, is available in 37 languages.
What's New
- Offline translation in 52 languages
- Instant camera translation: English to/from Chinese (Simplified and Traditional)
- 13 new languages
Google Translate can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]
Top Rated Comments
You know what you call languages when they don't change anymore? Dead.
What's the word for car in Latin? They don't have one, because the language died before cars were invented.
How about cellphone? YOLO? Emoji?
New things are created all the time, and so we have to create new words so that we can talk about the new things. This is why newer dictionaries exist and we don't all just use an English dictionary from hundreds of years ago.
Although on this note, you're going to want to update the translator a lot more often than once every 600 years. I think once a decade might be safe... but annual or even more often is probably better.
I'm not sure you'd even want an app that requires an interview or a language lesson when you just want to know how to say "I'm down with that" in Hawaiian.
Here's another example:
Bee's Knees = Works fine in a lot of countries, but doesn't translate well into other languages or requires far more words to express itself correctly.
Here's something that's fairly old and mainly UK based:
Easy peasy lemon squeezy.
Say that in the US and you'll get strange looks. Say it in German and you may find yourself institutionalized.