While in Paris 10 years ago, I had to randomly choose items off the menu because my traveling companions — which included fellow Biz Hacker Rick — sadistically refused to translate anything for me. If I’d only had my iPhone back then, it would not have been a problem.
PicTranslator is an iPhone app that translates certain sorts of text from any one of 16 different languages. Just take a picture of the text, crop the frame to the text you want translated, and then, after a short wait, you get the English equivalent. A small number of the languages (including French, German, and Spanish) will even pronounce the text for you in the original language, so you can sound like a tourist who is making some small attempt to respect the local culture.
I tried this out in a snooty restaurant that prints its menu in French, and the results were almost supernaturally impressive. You get one language for the app’s $1 initial cost, and additional languages are likewise $1 each. Want to see PicTranslator in action? Check out the video.
