Google Voice Translator and Google Goggles

Text translation apps have been around for years: you type in a phrase and your phone, tablet or PC gives it back to you in the written language of your choice. For those of us with a less-than-perfect French, who often need to write (or read) emails and letters in French, Google Translator has been invaluable. Not perfect, of course, but much better in many cases, than we could do on our own. For a few years now, I've been waiting for Google to come out with something similar for voice and I just found out they have...turns out it's been around for more than a year. It's called Google Traduction (here in France) and Google Translate (elsewhere); it's free and it works beautifully. Now when you're struggling to find a word or a phrase, you can simply speak it in English (or one of many other languages) and the app translates and repeats it--in a sexy French voice, no less. When I tried it in reverse--French to English--that worked well too, with the response in a posh British accent. You can also see a text translation, view dictionary results for single words, access your translation history and more. To download the app from the iTunes app store globally, click here. And while we're on it, another great Google feature you may not know is Google Goggles, which lets you point your phone at something (a monument, a painting, a wine label, etc.), snap a photo and get an almost immediate identification (and search results). The Goggles feature (also called visual search) is incorporated into the Google Search app, where you'll also find voice-activated search as well. Seriously...how great is Google?