Ultralingua, one of the leading providers of language tools for educators, business travelers and others across various industries has just infused more quality into the already vast domain of multi-lingual/translation apps available at the App Store for the iPhone/iPod touch. Building on the success of their existing translation apps, Ultralingua has now teamed up with the touchstone of bi-lingual dictionary content, Collins, the subsidiary of the Harper Collins group.

The following versions are available under the Reference category: English Definitions, French-English Dictionary, German-English Dictionary, Spanish-English Dictionary, Italian-English Dictionary, and Portuguese-English Dictionary. Each title costs $24.95.

The advantage of these palmtop multilingual dictionaries is that the technology behind them is pretty advanced:

Ultralingua technology will automatically recognize inflected words (conjugated verbs, irregular plurals) and will even allow users to conjugate verbs in all their tenses. Each dictionary also includes a number-to-text converter, allowing users to type in a number and see how that number is expressed in words in a given language.

Source:1888 Press Release

Looks like translation has just gone to a different level. If you are a global traveler, you don’t necessarily need to have an interpreter any more. The iPhone is increasingly developing a global identity for itself and in that its polyglotic nature is emerging as a major feature.