Google is adding a couple of new tools to Play Books to make the platform more friendly for kids and anyone else who may be a "beginning reader" or have limited reading skills. Following a new update, Google Play Books can now read stories to kids. The app is also getting a kid-friendly dictionary to help make reading more fun for young readers.
When you open a kids title in Google Play Books, you will notice four large navigation touch buttons on the screen. There's a "back" button at the top left corner and three more buttons within a tray at the bottom-center. The first one is to for the "read & listen" feature. If you hit play, the app will read out the book aloud, highlighting each word as it is read. You can also set the app to turn the pages automatically.
The second button lets you zoom out and scroll through all the pages in an ebook. The scroll bar at the bottom will show the total number of pages as well as the page you are currently seeing. The bar will also highlight the page you last read. The last button is for bookmarking a page so you can return to it whenever you wish.
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The "tap to read" feature lets you tap on a word to listen to its pronunciation again. Certain words also come with kid-friendly definitions, often with illustrations to support comprehension and learning. If you tap on a word and see a "question mark" above it, you can tap on it to learn more about the word.
Google Play Books gets kid-friendly tools to help young readers
As Google says, Play Books was primarily designed for proficient readers. However, since last year, the company has been trying to make the app more friendly for younger people who may not have the skills necessary to read a book, or perhaps are not very interested in reading due to the lack of illustrations in books.
In April 2020, Google started adding a "Teacher approved" badge to apps that have been rated by teachers and meet the company's quality standards. It was followed by the introduction of Kids Space on Android tablets in August.
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Now, Google Play Books is getting additional tools for beginner readers. Google says the vast majority of kids' titles, which are books designated for ages 0-8, have reading tools enabled. You can download a free sample of any book to confirm if it supports reading tools before purchasing the book. Google promises to continue adding new tools to Play Books to make reading more accessible and fun for everyone.
Maggie Zeller and Gail Williams hold up some dictionaries.
The Rotary Club of Wellington recently delivered 1,200 dictionaries to third-grade students attending elementary schools in Wellington, plus nearby Benoist Farms Elementary School, the club’s adopted school.
For the past 20-plus years, Rotarians have gone to each third-grade classroom and presented the students with their own dictionary, talking about the Rotary Club and its mission of “Service Above Self.”
Unfortunately, this year the club was only able to deliver the dictionaries to the schools, and the teachers will make sure that each student receives theirs. Rotarian David Salley created a video for the teachers to show in the classroom to describe the dictionary project and introduce the students to Rotary’s mission.
Reviews have been mixed since Apple unveiled the Translate app for the latest iPhone operating system, iOS 14, last summer. The app’s September 2020 release featured text and voice translation between any combination of 11 languages: English, Mandarin Chinese, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Portuguese, and Russian.
Starting with a more limited scope instead of the already-supported 30 languages, invited lots of criticism. One tweet described the Apple Translate app as “a big disappointment. The world speaks a lot more than just a dozen languages.”
Dealing in fewer languages puts Apple Translate at a particular disadvantage given Google Translate’s dominance in the Apple app store. Google Translate offers text translation between 108 languages, instant camera translation in 94 languages, voice translation in 71 languages, and offline translation in 59 languages.
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As for the translation quality for those languages the Apple Translate app does offer, that’s still up for debate. Observers alternately praise it as “pretty accurate even for Arabic” or dismiss it as “still need[ing] some more work,” with examples of overly literal French mistranslations.
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Other suggested improvements from the Twitterverse: One user tweeted, “Okay Apple, how does your Translate app not have an easier way to copy the translated text? At least replace the Shortcuts actions so I can use it there.” Another pointed out that Apple could also “add the feature of translating any word that can be highlighted on a website within the given option.”
To be fair, the Translate app does work with Safari on the iPhone, providing translation of text on websites. And other than text in images such as banner ads, it does a pretty good job of capturing a site’s content (even when pulled from different web plug-ins) and translating it.
However, the function operates somewhat selectively (sometimes not working or not even offered) for websites in certain languages with no explanation given. As pointed out in a number of tweets, it also produces hilarious mistranslations, such as rendering the French term for “candlelighting” as “spark plug ignition” in English.
Ironically, Google Translate is available for both iPhone and iPad, while Apple Translate is currently available only for the iPhone. One user tweeted, “If Apple’s translate app had a web component or a Mac app, I’d try to use it more.” Others also criticized the lack of integration into iMessage (texts sent to other iPhone users).
Clearly, Apple’s Translate app has a ways to go before posing any significant threat to Google’s. And who knows which company will step in to offer the next big thing before then? Some users are already itching for alternatives, as one request to DeepL suggests.
“Please release a DeepL Translate App with photo translation, voice translation for Google Android and Apple iOS,” one February 28, 2021 tweet reads. “I don’t want use anymore for this Google Translate or others [sic].”
This is for the aspiring leaders out there; the ones who have not yet had their idealism crushed into oblivion.
One of the most daunting challenges these folks face is deciphering their senior counterparts. Apparently they don’t teach you how to be enigmatic and indirect in school.
So I thought a little translation guide might be helpful.
An experienced leader says, “I’ll put that on my list.”
Translation: “Check back with me when the temperature in hell drops below 32 degrees Fahrenheit.”
An experienced leader says, “Think outside the box.”
Translation: “But make sure you stay well within mine.”
An experienced leader says, “Don’t bring me problems, bring me solutions.”
Translation: “I don’t have the faintest idea what to do or I would provide the leadership needed.”
An experienced leader asks, “What are our benchmarks doing?”
Translation: “We’re obviously too stupid to be on the cutting edge, so let’s just copy what someone else is doing.”
An experienced leader responds to an email you sent with, “Thanks for sharing.”
Translation: “I couldn’t care less about what you just sent me. Now get back to work.”
An experienced leader says, “We need to build this into our strategic plan.”
Translation: “Let’s just keep talking and maybe we won’t have to actually do anything.”
An experienced leader says, “I know.”
Translation: “I don’t have a clue, but I don’t want to be bothered about this now … or ever.”
Finally, an experienced leader says during an interview, “We are looking for innovative, imaginative free-thinkers to come in and shake things up."
Translation: “We think things are pretty good just the way they are, so when you get here, keep your new ideas to yourself.”
Be honest. How many of these phrases have you heard — and naively assumed you understood what they really meant?
Cisco on Tuesday announced free-real, time translation for Webex, its fast-growing videoconferencing platform. The feature, available in preview this month and generally available in May, will translate spoken English into captions in any one of more than 100 languages.
Real-time translation in so many languages will help create "a level playing field for users regardless of factors like language or geography," Jeetu Patel, SVP and GM Security and Applications for Cisco, said in a statement. "Enabling global Real Time Translations is another step toward powering an Inclusive Future, and an important component of driving better communication and collaboration across teams."
Cisco previously said it would offer real-time translation from English to more than 10 languages -- now, Webex says its language library has dramatically expanded. Translations are available in commonly-used languages, such as Arabic, Dutch, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Russian and Spanish, as well as more localized languages like Danish, Hindi, Malay, Turkish and Vietnamese.
Cisco noted that the feature could be a clear money-saver for organizations, citing a recent report from Metrigy on intelligent virtual assistants that found that nearly 24 percent of participants have meetings that include non-English native speakers. Of those participants, more than half have been using third-party services to translate meetings into other languages, incurring an average cost of $172 per meeting.
Webex, like other video conferencing and cloud collaboration tools, has reported major jumps in usage since the Covid-19 pandemic started, driving remote work. Earlier this month, when it released its second quarter financial results, Cisco reported that Webex saw double-digit revenue growth in the quarter. The platform has nearly 600 million quarterly average users and connects more than 6 billion calls every month globally.
"We are bringing incredible innovation to the collaboration market at an unprecedented pace," CEO Chuck Robbins during a Q2 earnings conference call.
Back in December, Cisco debuted a revamped Webex experience that combines calling, meetings and messaging into one app via Webex Teams. The revamped platform also added capabilities on the meetings side like automatic noise cancellation, searchable transcriptions and closed captioning. All told, Cisco debuted more than 50 Webex product updates and teased upcoming features like gesture recognition.
Translate website content from one language to another, or learn how to use the Translate app in iOS 14 to communicate more effectively between two non-native speakers while on the go.
Image: Cory Bohon/TechRepublic
Apple is taking on Google Translate and other translation services and utilities by creating its own translation integration in iOS 14. There's a new app in iOS 14 on iPhone that lets you easily translate blocks of text or speech directly into one the supported languages, or use Safari on iOS 14 on iPhone or iPad to easily translate websites into another supported language.
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More about Apple
The best part about Apple's translation app and service is that it's not really a service—rather, the translation is done on-device, which makes it easy to download specific languages and translate voice, text, or conversations when in a cellular-limited area (often when traveling abroad).
I'll go over how to use both of these tools to allow for easier communication between two non-native speakers (or website content). Plus, it's all built right into your device without any extra steps needed.
How to get the Apple Translate app
By default, the Apple translate app is installed on your iPhone when you upgrade to iOS 14; however, if you've deleted the app, then you can easily reinstall it from the App Store by searching "Apple Translate" in the search field and re-installing it by tapping the download button, or by going to this App Store link.
How to translate text with the Apple Translate app
Text, words, and small paragraphs are most often the things that need quick translations while reading or quickly conversing with someone. The Apple Translate app can easily handle this task.
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Opening the Translate app will present you with an "Enter Text" prompt. Two buttons at the top let you swap between the entered language text and the language that the text should be translated into (Figure A).
Figure A
Type text into the field, then select "Go" to translate the text from the entered language into the selected translation language.
Select from languages by tapping on the left button and select a language (you can select from Arabic, Chinese Mandarin, Chinese Simplified, English UK, English U.S., French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish).
By default, the app will automatically detect the language you've entered, but you can disable this feature by tapping on the language button at the top, then scroll to the bottom and disable the toggle for "Automatic Detection."
SEE: Apple Watch Series 6: A cheat sheet (free PDF) (TechRepublic)
Whenever you enter text and perform a translation (Figure A), you will be presented with a card that displays the translation at the top of the screen, and you have the ability to favorite a translation for later by tapping the star icon; tapping the book icon will present a dictionary view that lets you tap on individual words to get their definition—handy when the translation leads you to a word that you're not familiar with; finally, tapping the Play button will have Siri recite the translated text back to you.
Any text that is favorited will appear in the "Favorites" tab available from the bottom of the screen; this view also displays any recent translations that have been performed in the app as well.
How to translate conversations with the Apple Translate app
One of the more advanced abilities of the Translate app is the ability for your device to be used to facilitate in-person communication, letting two non-native speakers carry on a conversation in real time.
Enter this mode by turning your device into landscape. Two large blocks of text will appear, one for you (on the left), and one for the other speaker (on the right). Tap the microphone icon to begin the conversation process (Figure B).
Figure B
Conversation translation easily lets two non-native speakers communicate with one another through dual translations.
As you speak, the text is automatically translated into the second language so that the non-native speaker can read what you've said in their own language. They can then tap the microphone icon and speak in their native language, and their text will be transcribed in your language for you to read and respond. During the translation process, the other speaker can tap on the play button to have the translation spoken in their language. You can continue this process and carry on a near real-time communication in person.
SEE: iPhone 12: A cheat sheet (free PDF) (TechRepublic)
You can also use this feature to get someone's attention easily (for instance, ordering in a non-native speaking restaurant). Rotate your device into landscape, tap the microphone icon to speak, then tap on the expand icon in the bottom left. The translated text will be presented full screen for easier visibility (Figure C).
Figure C
Attention mode lets you easily grab someone's attention through a full-screen translation that's easier to read.
How to download languages for offline translation
The Apple Translate app works well for communication, but what if you wish to take the app into a country or location where you don't have cellular service to perform the translation? Fortunately, Apple thought about this and has a solution: You can download the supported languages and take them on the go with you in offline mode.
In order to download the supported languages to your device and use them in offline mode, simply tap on the language selection at the top of the screen, then scroll to the bottom section labeled "Available Offline Languages" (some languages may not be available in offline mode, but the supported ones are listed here) (Figure D).
Figure D
Downloading languages for offline translation is as easy as tapping the ones you want.
Tap on the download button beside the languages you wish to download, and when the process is complete, the translation can be handled when no cellular or Wi-Fi connection is available to your iOS device. If you wish to delete the downloaded language, simply swipe left on the name, then select "Delete."
How to translate websites with Safari on iOS and iPadOS 14
As you browse the web, you may encounter websites that are written in a different language. When this happens, you may copy and paste the text between the website and the Translate app, or get frustrated and just move along to another website. There's a better way, however, as Apple has built-in translation into iOS and iPadOS 14's Safari web browser.
Whenever you encounter a website that is written in a different language than your own, you can easily translate the entire website into your own language for easier reading by doing the following:
Select the text button inside the left of the address / search bar
Select "Translate to X" (where X is the language your device is set to) (Figure E)
Figure E
Translating a website from the original language into your device language is easy in Safari for iOS and iPadOS 14.
Image: Cory Bohon/TechRepublic
After doing this, the website will reload and be translated on the fly into your device's language. This feature is currently in Beta, so if you encounter an issue with the translation process, you can report issues directly to Apple by tapping the text button again and selecting "Report Translation Issue." The URL will be transmitted to Apple, and it will use the report to make this feature more robust in the future.
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