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You don't need a tongue like Gene Simmons to master multiple languages.
A free Apple app called Ortsbo 2Golets you engage in real-time instant messaging with family, friends andcolleagues around the world regardless of your mother tongue. Whateveryou type is immediately translated into another language, and viceversa.
Specifically, Ortsbo 2Go for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch lets youcommunicate in more than 50 languages via Facebook Chat. For example,while Canadian English might be your preferred language, you might havefamily in Germany, friends in Hong Kong or colleagues in Dubai. Whateveryou type in English is instantly translated for the other person toread in their preferred language, and ditto for you.
"This is a life changer, as it can be a profoundly emotionalexperience," says Gene Simmons, co-founder of the legendary rock groupKISS, star of A&E's Family Jewels, and business partner andspokesperson for the Toronto-based Ortsbo. "Language is no longer a barrier," adds Simmons, in a telephone interview.
While the Ortsbo Web service supports more than a dozen social-mediaplatforms, Ortsbo 2Go only works with Facebook Chat at this point. Thefirst step is to log into your Facebook account from within the app andinput your Facebook username.
If you don't know what that is, go to Facebook on a computer andclick account settings. Then, wait for the app to load your friendslist, and you can initiate a conversation. A small drop-down box letsyou select your language and what language you'd like it translated to.
Unlike other translation services like the popular Google Translate,Ortsbo -- which means "local" in Swedish -- eliminates the need to copyand paste the text from one app to another. The app also has a sectioncalled Transl8tr, which translates your words and lets you email thetext, and another section, transcripts, to see your translation history.
Born in Israel, Simmons speaks five languages: English, Hebrew,Hungarian, German and some Japanese. Simmons shared a story aboutreceiving anonymous love notes on his iPhone -- in Hungarian -- only tofind out they were from his wife, Shannon, [Tweed], who doesn't speakHungarian.
"Let's face it, technology is very unsexy," Simmons says. "But thistool is very emotional, as it's more about people and less abouttechnology." "When I drive my truck, open the window and enjoy myfreedom, I'm not thinking about the carburetor doing this and the enginedoing that."
Translations between the following languages are currently supportedin this app: Afrikaans, Albanian, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Arabic, Basque,Belarusian, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese (simplified), Chinese(traditional), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian,Filipino, Finnish, French, Galician, Georgian, German, Greek, HaitianCreole, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Irish,Japanese, Korean, Latin, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Malay,Maltese, Norwegian, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian,Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Thai, Turkish,Ukrainian, Urdu, Vietnamese, Welsh and Yiddish.
Ortsbo says its real-time language conversion works via in-housealgorithms as well as licensed technology. Accuracy is between 85% and95%, the company says.
While the app worked very well in our week-long testing --translating from English and French to Hebrew and Japanese -- it's not aperfect 10. Along with only support for Facebook at this time, anotherissue is the inability to search for Facebook friends. I was only ableto scroll up and down to see the names of people open to chat viaFacebook, but I could not search for a particular name. And while theapp works on iPad, it's not optimized for the bigger screen. So be sureto tap the 2x button to make it easier to see what you're typing andreading on the tablet's 9.7-inch display. The Web version of Ortsbosupports multiple and simultaneous chat sessions, but the mobile versiondoes not.
Despite its shortcomings, Ortsbo 2Go is a free, powerful andeasy-to-use tool for people who want to communicate with those inanother language, in real time.
An encrypted business version, which includes an Outlook plug-in, is also available for $29.95.