iPhone Gets Google Translate

By DT Staff Published October 25, 2009

iPhone Gets Google Translate — Image used with permission by copyright holder

On the road abroad and need something translated? Your iPhone will be able to help. On Friday Google released a mobile version of its Google Translate app, designed specifically for the Apple iPhone.

The app, which can translate between 24 languages, uses the Safari browser, so it needs a data connection, although previously searched phrases are stored on the phone, ZDNet reports.

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It was developed by Allen Hutchinson, a software engineer from Google UK, using the company’s 20 per cent time policy, which allows employees to give one day a week to new projects.

A Google spokesperson said that the service builds on the Google languages app, which was made public last year “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."

Google plans mobile versions to work on other handsets.

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