The Babel Fish Comes to Phones
Douglas Adams famously envisaged a fish that you stuck in your ear, which then miraculously allowed you to understand all languages simultaneously, including truly awful Vogon poetry. Cool Gorilla’s new mobile app doesn’t go quite so far, but it is a sign of things to come.
Talking Phrase Books are a downloadable application for mobiles and provide spoken French, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese and Greek - and I’m sure a Vogon version is in the planning stage. Once you’ve downloaded, installed and opened the app, you simply click on the phrase you want to say and the phone says it out loud. In my case (Nokia E61) it uses the loudspeaker setting, so you don’t even have to try to repeat it yourself.
A deal with LastMinute.com means that it’s offered as a free download, so visit www.coolgorilla.com from your PC or Mac (for sideloading) or www.mobilephrasebooks.com directly from your mobile.
One day, I’m sure that the phone will be able to provide the full Babel Fish service, so give this a try and let your imagination do the rest.