Does it come with the Nuance voices or do you have to purchase the separately?
On Jun 9, 2010, at 5:36 PM, Esther wrote: > Hi All, > > There's a new translation app just released in the U.S. iTunes Store named > "Trippo VoiceMagix" by Cellictica that just went on sale for a promotional > price of $6.99 (regular price is $24.99). I don't know how long this price > will last, but many current reductions are timed to the WWDC 2010 this week. > The link to the app is: > Trippo VoiceMagix by Cellictica ($6.99, regularly $24.99): > <http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/trippo-voicemagix/id372332910?mt=8> > > I'll paste in the list of features from the app store description, and then > go on to give a detailed description of its usage with VoiceOver: > <begin excerpt> > FEATURES > > - Voice input in US English > > - 27 languages supported (Arabic, Bulgarian, Chinese Simplified, Chinese > Traditional, Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, Hausa, Hebrew, > Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, > Pashto, Romanian, Russian, Somali, Spanish, Serbian, Thai, Urdu) > > - Accurate speech recognition by Nuance > > - Natural sounding voice output for Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Greek, > Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Thai > > - Adjustable speed for voice output > > - Mode selection: Speech-to-speech, Speech-to-translated text only or > Speech-to-recognized text only > > - Send the translation by email > > - Full license includes upgrades to new features, like additional languages, > sharing features etc. > <end excerpt> > > The app is accessible and has some really interesting features for people who > are interested in using their iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad with different > languages, and some unique features that extend use (with spoken translation > and text) to languages that are not even currently supported on these > devices. First, it's powered by the Nuance engine that is used by Dragon > Dictation and Dragon Search, so one input mode is to speak rather than type > in the text you want translated, and let the app transcribe it by voice > recognition. Because the engine is set to recognize U.S. English, this app > appears to only be available in the U.S. iTunes Store at present; I checked > the Canadian store, and couldn't find the app. Second, you can have the app > speak the text that you entered. (This only works now if you either typed or > spoke your input entry with English selected with the "Translate from:" > button. You can translate to and from a very large number of language > combinations, if you're just working with text, and don't use the app to > speak the entries.) Third, for thirteen of the twenty-five languages > selectable with the "Translate to" button, you can have the app speak the > translated results. The spoken translations work for a number of languages > with non-Roman scripts, including Chinese (both simplified and traditional > characters), Greek, Hindi, Japanese, Russian, and Thai. Languages like Hindi > are not even supported otherwise on the iPhone. Nor are (in just text mode) > Urdu, Hausa, Persian, and Pushtu (which are some of the other "Translate to" > options). > > Voice recognition mode is pretty good, and fairly fast, since it's powered by > the Nuance engine. The app has a simple layout with a labeled "Translate > from" button, a "Translate to" button, a text box area for input text to be > typed in, and just beside it to the right, a Microphone button labeled "BTN > underscore Mic" for voice input. There is similarly a translation text box > for the results, and buttons for "Translate" and "Listen". > > There are a few VoiceOver specific notes that may be useful. Although layout > is slightly different between portrait and landscape orientation (with > portrait mode having the text entry input above the translation output, while > in landscape mode the text box for the input language is on the left, and the > output translation on the right), both screens have a button at the bottom > center of the screen: "BTN underscore arrow underscore show". Tapping this > button reveals three buttons at the bottom of the screen: "Help", "About", > and "Settings". "Help" brings up a screen with a tutorial on how to use the > app. The "Settings" button lets you select the rate of the speech returned > from translation, and also to select the mode of operation. By default, it is > set for speech to speech, which means that you speak your text (in English) > and get spoken results (for languages that support it). However, you can > also just type in your text (in any language), and use the buttons to run a > translation to another language and/or press the button to have the text > spoken. (You can even paste in text to the translation field and press the > button to have it spoken, although working with these fields without having > the keyboard get in the way is a bit buggy in the initial release.) > > The other major issue for VoiceOver users is that the language picker wheels > do not indicate which output languages support speech. You should refer to > the pasted description, or the developer's web page for the list of > translated languages with spoken output options: Chinese, Dutch, French, > German, Greek, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, > Spanish, Thai. > > In terms of output text usage, iPad users may find, in addition to the app's > support of languages that are not even supported on the iPhone, that they get > text output for languages whose keyboard input is not currently supported on > the iPad: Bulgarian, Traditional Chinese, Greek, Arabic, Hebrew, Serbian, > Thai, Portuguese, Danish, Romanian, Norwegian, and Polish. You can copy and > paste the text into your favorite notes app (e.g. Simplenotes for additional > synched access through your computer, or even the default Notes app). Also, > according to the Multilingual Mac web pages, apps like Pages on the iPad will > correctly support these languages when pasted in, even though the keyboard > text input for the iPad doesn't currently support these languages. A recent > post on the Multilingual Mac pages indicates that some of this language > support (e.g, for Hindi, which you can get both spoken and written text > output with this app), will still not be in the iOS 4 release. > > Let me try to summarize the features of this app in the context of what else > is available in the app store. If you're looking to use a dictionary, > translation app, or voices in a standard supported language, such as French, > Spanish, German, or Italian, you have access to many more apps and some > really good voices. The Acapela voices (sold as Infovox on the Mac) are > available via in-app purchase for apps such as Voxtrek (GPS navigation) and > Speak It! (general text to speech). If you're looking for voices, text, or > simple translation with a well-supported language, then you can probably use > other apps. Even for languages with non-Roman text entry, like Russian, I > can find translation apps that use the high quality Loquendo voices that will > do a better job (even though the app is mostly inaccessible to VoiceOver and > requires requires fiddling to navigate to the one part of the app that is > usable). However, many other languages, particularly languages that do not > use Roman alphabets to input text, are not similarly supported in the app > store and are especially not well-supported through VoiceOver. And these > apps do not support speech recognition for translation entry. What is unique > about this app is its support for both spoken and text translation output for > a wide variety of languages, including several which do not use Roman > alphabet characters for input and/or do not have full or even any support on > the iPhone/iPad. The developers, a Finnish company named "Cellictica", are > distributing versions for multiple platforms, including the Android, hence > the reason the languages are not limited to the iPhone or iPad complement. > > I am aware of Mark Taylor's coverage of Jibbigo's translation apps in his > Candleshore Blog (January 2010 entry, "Bring the Star Trek Universal > Translator to your iPhone 3GS or iPod Touch"; February podcast episode 46, "A > Real-Time Bi-Directional Spoken Language Translator for your iPhone 3GS" demo > of the Spanish-English translation using VoiceOver). Jibbigo tailors its > bi-directional translation apps for specific language combinations > (originally, English-Spanish and Japanese-English; just recently released, > Chinese-English and Iraqi-English). The Jibbigo app is priced between $25 > and $30 per language pair and runs entirely on your device. This has the > advantage of allowing you to use the app locally on your device, but also > puts the processing load there, while additionally running VoiceOver. Given > the price, and current operating system/processor limitations, I probably > wouldn't try the Jibbigo app out myself yet. It's a more interesting > possibility for the iPhone 4G release. Trippo VoiceMagix relies on a server > connection (just as with Dragon Dictation), and you're currently limited to > short spoken phrases (but longer text). However, the transcription accuracy > appears to be high, at least for U.S. English voice input. Trippo's voices > for translated text are OK, but not spectacular. I don't recognize the > source of these voices, but they're different from what the iPhone uses (and > would certainly have to be for the languages the iPhone doesn't support). > I'd be curious to learn the accuracy of the Jibbigo bi-directional > translation for different spoken voice inputs and accents (for Chinese, for > example), but not enough to buy the app <smile>. I note that they don't > describe whether the output text uses Simplified or Traditional Chinese > characters (a selection option of Trippo VoiceMagix), but that this also adds > PinYin. > > In conclusion, the Trippo VoiceMagix app will appeal to a specific minority > of VoiceOver users who are interested in language translation, and who also > (at present) have access to the U.S. App Store. This is obviously a first > generation release, with some awkward features (such as having input text not > remain in the window when you return to the app, or having to fiddle the way > you dismiss the keyboard if you just want to paste in text to the translation > window and have it spoken). However, I think this is a very promising app, > and well worth the $6.99 (or even the $9.99 at which I purchased it). Note > that the default list price really is $24.99, and the $6.99 that appeared > yesterday is not likely to last very long. > > Finally, in order to give list viewers an alternative take on the app, here's > a link to the AppShouter review that appeared when Trippo VoiceMagix was > first released: > <http://www.appshouter.com/trippo-voicemagix-iphone-app-review/> > They give a separate description of the interface and the way in which you > can mail translated text. Their summary: > <begin quote> > All things aside, this app is a great value for all of the features that it > contains. Especially if you are really planning on using more than one of the > 27 languages in this app is definitely worth it! If you’re still curious and > reading this review I’d encourage you to check out Trippo VliceMagix by > Cellictia. > <end quote> > > You can also check the Cellictica developer page for more information about > this app, and planned other app releases: > <http://www.cellictica.com/> > > HTH. Cheers, > > Esther > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "MacVisionaries" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. > carlene knight http://carleneknight.blogspot.com [email protected] -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en.
