As we’re coming up to holiday time with many of us going abroad I felt it right to review this handy little app from the makers of WorldCard Mobile. The idea is simple – point your phone at some text and it translates it for you. Use it for street signs, hotel brochures, restaurant menu’s – basically anything hat needs translating. Now, I’m actually very sceptical with things like this, it just sounds too good to be true. I am pleased, however, to report that it does actually work very well.

There are some caveats though; It doesn’t work well when moving (which rules out the street sign example in their AppStore images) although you can use it to scan text from a saved photo. It also only translates one word at a time so translating a full sentence not only takes a while, the grammar may be slightly inaccurate. You can, however, get a good idea of what you are reading.

To get a translation from what is in front of you simply line up the cross-hairs above the word you want to translate. A confirmation will show on screen as to what the app has read and also the translated version. Using a saved photo you simply tap each word, it highlights the word if thinks you selected, and then offers the translation. You can choose from 24 different languages in the app and these are being increased gradually. The latest update added 4 or 5 new languages too. If either of these methods ail for some reason you can also search for a translation by typing in the word manually.

It could be a useful app, it certainly works very well at detecting an translating words and is priced at a reasonable £2.99 ($4.99). There is one major flaw though – the translations need a data connection. Most people, myself included, turn off roaming data when abroad as the costs are simply extortionate. If you do decide to use the app abroad then expect to pay quite a bit for data usage or pray for a WiFi hotspot!