This new translation app isn’t overly comprehensive, but rather is designed to offer language assistance in a variety of applicable situations.  Talking Phrasebook functions exactly as advertised, meaning it’s worth a look for those in the market for a program such as this.

It didn’t leave the best first impression however.  I began with a presentation of six national flags, which represented the languages on offer.  Would it not be simpler (and more practical) to just list the included languages?   Considering four of the six flags have an identical three stripe layout with just slight color variances … I was more disappointed to find that Japanese wasn’t an option! Nonetheless you are covered with English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Dutch.

Things improve once you dig into the application.  The touch screen lists over a dozen categories, and many have further sub ones leading to dozens more.  The layout is easy, and touch control is responsive.  There’s a folder with a star which I discovered (after reading the manual) is used to save favorite expressions.  No internet connection is required.  There’s even the simple visual touch of the top screen displaying attractive still photos of various tourist spots.

The audio quality isn’t especially strong, but neither is it bad.  I feel it would be adequate in situations with less background noise.  I can’t say how practical it would be, but I did test it out on my wife who studied French for three years; she seemed quite pleased with the content, modulations, etc.  With well over 700 voiced (and written) expressions, you may learn some new words.

I rarely assign scores to apps, but I do feel that Talking Phrasebook is a reasonably slick program.  In truth, I’ve no real experience to compare this with comparable ones, so I’m not sure how much value my opinions hold.  This won’t allow you to carry on fluent conversations in different tongues, but as a simple translation tool it sufficiently accomplishes its tasks.  If you’re in the market for an application like this, Talking Phrasebook – 7 languages is currently just $4.99.

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