Those of us with serious bouts of the travel bug tend to hit the road with a light load, which means leaving the phrase book at home and foregoing any possibility of real communication overseas. Fortunately, Trippo VoiceMagix is a language translation app that can help you overcome the language barrier without the extra weight in your carry-on.
Unlike a paperback phrase book, VoiceMagix has the ability to register your voice input and translate your English into any of the 27 languages available in the app, including French, Hindi, Traditional Chinese, and lesser-known languages like Romanian and Hausa. All you have to do is dictate your phrase clearly into the microphone of your device, and the app will translate it into the language you choose.
You'd be better off piecing together words from a Romanian phrase book.
VoiceMagix can also translate text that you copy and paste from your mobile browser, and send messages in other languages via SMS, email, or various social networks. There’s also a selection of 14 languages that can be dictated to you, so you can hear exactly how words are pronounced. You’ll need to rely heavily on this feature for languages that use non-Western characters, for example.
Despite the app’s potentially useful features, we still wouldn’t trust it as our primary translator on an excursion around the world. For starters, it doesn’t work without cell service or a Wi-Fi connection. Worse, VoiceMagix occasionally couldn’t figure out what we were saying, especially in a noisier setting. Translation from English was usually way too literal, and grammar and conjugation were not always up to par, which could cause some communication issues if you’re trying to converse with non-English-speaking natives.
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As a utility, Trippo VoiceMagix proved itself extremely essential. However, for your trip around the world we’d suggest the added weight of a paperback phrase book.
Trippo VoiceMagix
COMPANY: Cellictica Ltd.
CONTACT: www.cellictica.com
PRICE: $24.99
REQUIREMENTS: iPhone or iPod touch
27 available languages, 14 of which can be dictated back to you to help learn pronounciation.
Occasionally unable to figure out what we were saying, especially in noisy settings.
