Microsoft’s (NASDAQ:MSFT) Windows Phone platform has just given itself an interesting linguistic edge in China by adding support for translating to/from Chinese in its Bing Translator app. This now works for text, voice, and even visual inputs using the OCR tech that allows written words to be scanned and converted in real-time (pictured above). And it’s free. Neither iOS nor Android has such a tool in a single app for free, and it bests the capabilities of Apple’s Siri and Google’s Voice Actions if you ignore the app commands element.
The app 'reading' and translating a menu. Click to enlarge.
The Bing Translator app added much of these as new features earlier this week, and also incorporated downloadable language packs so that the whole app is still functional offline. That’s especially useful when traveling overseas so that you don’t rack up exorbitant data roaming charges.
Of course, this app’s new skill can be of use to tourists to China as well as to locals who want to translate something from Chinese to English, or to any other of the supported languages. The speak-and-translate function could also be useful to Chinese consumers, allowing you to try and have a flowing conversation in a foreign tongue with a bit of hi-tech help.
But the killer feature of such apps is the OCR point-and-scan, giving you an instant understanding of text when you’re not sure how to even read it. Folks using iOS or Android could get this for free with Tencent’s QQ Hui Yan app which we reviewed last year, or for a premium you could get the impressive and educational Pleco app. Though the Bing Translator app also supports a slew of other languages, such as Spanish, Dutch, Slovak, Thai, and many more. Note that where I did review those afore-mentioned apps, I’ve not tried Bing’s updated offering as I don’t have a Windows Phone to test it on.
If you’re on WP7, grab the free update to the app in the Marketplace, or check out this demo video made by the Bing team: