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Whenever you hear of something that will translate what you say into another language for free, you should always be wary of such a device. Although there are a few great free translation services, the Free Translator app for the iPhone is not one of them. However, I do think that this app has much potential, and if the developers would take the time to make their translations more accurate, they could garner in more users who would love such a free app.

Free apps are usually not going to be worthwhile. Unfortunately, many of the free things in life are not good, quality-wise, and they leave something to be desired. In the case of the Free Translator iPhone app, the developers need to somehow make their translations as accurate as possible. Those who are native speakers will immediately detect any errors. And, if people are using these to help them with their foreign language homework or if they are using the app to help them through their worldly travels, the inability to communicate well (even using a translator) may be embarrassing, to say the least.

However, I have to say that the app's interface is very good. The first page of the app, in which you type in your initial text for translating, looks clean and polished. The app is simple to use and this user-friendly interface is likely a favorite among many other Free Translator users, too. However, the second page which provides the translation is lacking. First of all, there is that bright blue half of the screen which is almost blinding. The developers could have easily left the bottom half white and everything would have been understandable anyway. I don't think that making the bottom half a different, brighter color would make the translated text more accurate or visible.

To make this review more complete, a comparison between this app and QTranslator should be made. In the latter, many if not most of the translations are correct. The interface is also more "eye-friendly." QTranslator does cost $1.99, but it also translates into many more languages than does Free Translator. Not only that, QTranslator is streamlined into Google. Whenever Google updates a new language, it will send that information to QTranslator.

Overall, I recommend Free Translator if you cannot afford any of the other non-free translators. However, be aware of the quality of the translations, since they can vary from very accurate to completely wrong.

Learn more about this author, Joan Inong.
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