Google Translate for iPhone released

Google has released a version of its translation service that is specifically tailored to Apple's iPhone.

The Google Translate mobile service, launched late Thursday, came about as the result of the company's "20 percent" time policy, which sets aside a day of each employee's week for work on any new project or idea they may wish to pursue. Google has not yet made any announcements about future versions of the service that could work on other handsets, but a company representative told ZDNet UK on Friday that such versions were intended.

The Google Translate website via the iPhone was always possible, but according to a recent post from the Official Google Mobile Blog, it "didn't work that well" on the touchscreen device. Thus, two of Google's developers have joined forces and came up with Google Translate for iPhone.

The service works using the Apple handset's Safari browser, a data connection is needed most of the time--previously searched phrases and words are, however, stored on the phone itself for future access. The service can translate text between 24 languages, including Mandarin, French, and Japanese.

"Our basic mobile strategy is making sure all of our products work on mobile devices, so it's a step in that direction," said Google's representative. "(The service) builds on the Google Languages (application programming interface), which we made public around a year ago, so the only bit we built specially was the iPhone interface. It's a tool anyone could build, but we built it to integrate with the other Google products for the iPhone."

Built on the AJAX Language API, the Google Translate Web page for iPhone supports all the languages that are available via the regular online translation page. Even more, it automatically stores your translations on the iPhone, allowing you to access them every time you want, even without being connected to the Internet.

The service was developed by a software engineer from Google UK's advertising business, Allen Hutchison. According to the representative, Hutchison built it "in a matter of weeks." Other Google products that have come out of the "20 percent time" policy have included Gmail and Google News.

Google Translate is not at all the perfect translation machine, but it can definitely provide a lot of help when trying, for example, to decipher a Web page written in a language that you are not familiar with.

Google Translate at this address – and it's all free of charge, just like in the case of the desktop version of the website. Still, you should note that, since it relies on a Web connection when translating texts, the new iPhone optimized service might cost a few bucks for those who do not have an unlimited data plan with their mobile carrier. According to the Google Blog, in 1MB of data, you will get about 200 – 400 translations, which means that even if you translate a lot of text, it's unlikely that you have to pay too much.