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iPhone apps round-up: Future Apps rolls out speech-based translators

iOS Central
By Philip Michaels, Macworld FEB 6, 2009 8:14 am PST

When you’re trying to pick up the nuances of a different language, it’s one thing to see how a phrase translates from English to another tongue, but it’s quite another to hear how to pronounce something properly. That’s the idea behind Future Apps’ newly released line of iSpeak translation-language learning tools for the iPhone and iPod touch.

iSpeak Polish
The apps, built in conjunction with speech specialists Acapela Group, feature a text translator to convert English phrases into other languages. But there’s also a text-to-speech feature, which pronounces the translated phrase in the targeted language.

The iSpeak apps come in eight languages: Dutch, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, and Swedish. Each app costs $2. Future Apps says it plans to offer other languages soon.

Because of the text-to-speech feature, each iSpeak app is a pretty large download for an iPhone offering. Apps range in size from 80.5MB for iSpeak French to 182MB for iSpeak Swedish.

Other apps of interest that were recently updated or added to the App Store include:

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  • Kaplan GRE Exam Vocabulary Flashcards, from gWhiz: The $5 GRE preparation app features more than 500 flashcards covering GRE vocabulary words.
  • Wide Email, from LizzardWerks: The 3.0 version of the $1 landscape e-mail app adds Twitter integration.
  • im slang, from Web 2 Mobile Design: The $1 app features translations of common instant messaging abbreviations and slang terms.
  • Print & Share, from EuroSmartz: In addition to the photo, Web page, and contact printing capabilites of EuroSmartz’s earlier Print app, this $10 version can also print e-mail and attachments and drag-and-drop files to folders.

Got an app you’ve just released to the App Store? Drop us a line.