Hasta La Gadget!

Although Google Drive has spread far and wide, its localization hasn’t always kept pace. The service just took a few needed strides forward, however, with the addition of 18 new languages. Asia gets the most recognition with support for Hong Kong Chinese, Khmer, Lao, Malaysian, Nepali, Persian, Sinhalese and Urdu. Not that Google is neglecting other corners of the world, mind you: Africa is well covered with the additions of Afrikaans, Amharic, Swahili and Zulu, while Europeans get some TLC through support for Basque, Estonian, Galician and Icelandic. French Canadians and Spanish-speaking Latin Americans get localizations, too. Google Drive still isn’t tuned for every language on Earth, but those with cloud storage in Cape Town or Kuala Lumpur should feel at home.

Filed under: Storage, Internet, Google

Comments

Source: Google Drive Blog

Though some may look down on Star Trek‘s fictional Klingon language and invoke the infamous phrase uttered by William Shatner — “Get a life!” — Microsoft’s Bing translation team doesn’t see it that way at all. As part of a marketing join-up with Paramount Pictures, the service will be offering translation of the fictional tongue to and from its other 41 languages to support the release of Star Trek Into Darkness. According to the LA Times, the translator was developed with the aid of Klingon-fluent Microsoft engineer Eric Andeen, who said that it’s as much about the passion for linguistics as for Star Trek. Originally developed by a language specialist based on a few words ad-libbed in Star Trek: The Motion Picture by ‘Scotty’ actor James Doohan, Klingon has taken on a life of its own thanks to fans and sites who developed full dictionaries and on-line translators. The Bing project will fire up later today, so why not check it out at the More Coverage link? After all, ghojmeH ta’vaD He tu’be’lu’!

Filed under: Software, Microsoft

Comments

Source: LA Times

Travelers face a dilemma: they’ll often leave a phone in airplane mode to avoid expensive roaming rates or a foreign SIM, but staying offline can break the translation services that might prove vital in a strange land. Google must have heard their plight, as a new version of Google Translate on Android adds the option to download offline packs for 50 different languages. They aren’t as full-featured as their cloud-based equivalents, although there’s good reason for the trimmed dictionaries — at least some packs are over 150MB each. Unless space is just too tight, however, anyone with at least Android 2.3 can ask dónde el baño es without risking some bill shock.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Google

Comments

Via: Android Official Blog

Source: Google Play

Babbel’s been doing a solid job of picking up users as it attempts to help people around the world learn new tongues over their lunch breaks, but evidently, it’s not picking up steam in the US as well as it would like. The remedy? Buy the market share one so desires. Today, the company has announced the acquisition of San Francisco’s own PlaySay — a language learning company that has been tearing up every app store it approaches since launching at TechCrunch Disrupt in September of 2011. With that, however, comes some pretty unfortunate news for users. PlaySay apps are going to be yanked 45 days from now, with website visitors funneled over to Babbel’s site. Moreover, we’ve confirmed that none of PlaySay’s technologies will be integrated into Babbel’s programs, and that only PlaySay’s founder (Ryan Meinzer) will remain on staff as an “adviser.”

We’ve got nothing but love for Babbel’s software, but what this means for consumers is simple: one less player in the space, and a dead-end for the technology that was developed in order to launch PlaySay. Of course, we aren’t going to pretend that this type of thing doesn’t happen all of the time, but alas….

Filed under: Software

Comments

Source: Babbel

We know you’ve got questions, and if you’re brave enough to ask the world for answers, then here’s the outlet to do so. This week’s Ask Engadget inquiry is from Nikunj, who wants to produce his own apps for both sides of the smartphone war. If you’re looking to ask one of your own, drop us a line at ask [at] engadget [dawt] com.

“I’m a C++ student and I was wondering what’s the best language to develop apps in both Android and iOS? Is C++ enough, and if not, could you all suggest some other languages? Thank you.”

Your humble narrator isn’t a developer, but has scratched out the knowledge that neither platform’s SDK is that germane to C++. iOS, for one, uses Objective-C or Cocoa, while Android at least does provide a C++ developers kit, it’s apparently not as nice to use as the Java equivalent. Beyond that? That’s where we’ll turn this question over to those developers who proudly call themselves members of the Engadget fraternity.

Filed under: Mobile

Comments