Trippo is a small Java application that yet again proves you can replace a lot of books, guides and maps with just your smartphone when you go abroad on holiday or on a business trip.

I was initially surprised by the very small size of the application - only 197K - which seems rather small for a translation application. Have they discovered some mysterious compression technology? No it's simpler than that. Trippo is a client-server based system. When you enter the text you want parsed, Trippo will connect to a central server (I'm assuming with a very big database and far more  computational power) and return the translated phrase on-screen for you.

>

As well as reading the phrase on screen, Trippo also offers the option of speaking the phrase for you, again with the power of the back-end server creating the AI voice. This is a nice touch, because you get the phrase in native/fluent form, not phonetic. It's very much welcome - adding a thick Scottish brogue over some delicate French and the intonation can get rather... interesting.

So here's the gotcha that I can see. Most of the time you're going to be using Trippo when you're abroad, perhaps on holiday, or more likely on business. And that means your mobile phone is going to be roaming. And, in early 2008, data roaming brings a new definition to ‘costing an arm and a leg'. While the initial cost of the application can be quite small (parent company Cellectica offers 3, 21 and 265 day long licences), when you start using this in the field the data rates are going to be crippling.

Yes you can use a Wi-fi hotspot, but public Wi-fi is few and far between in my experience, especially so when you're stranded in a strange town and need help fast. When you need to communicate with a native at that crucial second in time, you'll have to use the mobile/data signal.

The trial comes with a one day limit, more than enough to decide if you need the application on your next trip, which seems perfectly fair to me; this isn't a massive test to see if you need a particular tool - you already know if you need translation, what you're testing is if Trippo is the tool for you. I just wish there was a setting for "English <-> American". [Don't you mean Scottish <> American? ! - Ed]

>

One thing about the language packs to note. You have to buy in each direction. So English to Spanish is one pack, Spanish to English is another pack. Surely, when you're out and about you're going to want to translate in both directions? You need to both find a restaurant and work out what the soup of the day is?

Technically, Trippo works very well, and has a clean interface. But when you take into account the costs of mobile data roaming and not having bi-directional language packs, the costs start to add up. I like to know how much something is going to cost when I'm using it, and Trippo just doesn't give me the confidence to use it in the field. Which is a shame, because it's one of the best solutions I've seen to translation on a mobile device.

I look forward to the next version, perhaps with some caching of data on my 8GB microSD card?

-- Ewan Spence, March 2008