Google Translate Gets More Worldly, Adds Nine Languages

2010-01-06 Andy Wergedal 0 thoughts
Original Post Here



While Google Translate is certainly not perfect in many of its translations, the site is undoubtedly an incredibly useful tool when trying to interpret a word, phrase or entire site in a different language. Today, Google has added nine more languages to Google Translate: Afrikaans, Belarusian, Icelandic, Irish, Macedonian, Malay, Swahili, Welsh and Yiddish, bringing the number of languages that are supported up to 51.

Google says that with the latest addition, the site now supports all 23 of the official EU languages. And following the events in Iran during the elections, Google added Persian (Farsi) to Google Translate. Google warns users that quality of the translation for the new languages is still basic and may have some glitches.

Google has been integrating Google Translate into many of its other applications, most recently adding support for translation in Google Docs. You can also translate emails within Gmail, webpages using Google Toolbar, and RSS feeds in Google Reader. In June, Google launched the Google Translator Kit, which is a translation editor that lets translators make human edits within machine translations.

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PicTreat Provides One Stop Photo Retouching [Image Editing]

Andy Wergedal 0 thoughts
Original Post Here


Have a picture that almost works for a social network profile, but it needs a little pep? PicTreat is a one-stop, all-or-nothing photo-retouching service that can smooth over blemishes, red eye, and more.

If you're an accomplished Photoshop guru, you certainly won't need PicTreat. For everyone else who has ever needed a simple touchup on a photo and needed it fast, PicTreat is a speedy solution.
There are no variables to tweak or settings to refine in PicTreat. You upload a picture, it detects where the face and the prominent features of the face are, and it does its best to remove the red eye, smooth the skin tones, and, in the case of cellphone pictures, remove noise from the photo.

We hit Facebook and ran a bunch of profile pictures through it with a predominately positive effect. There are a couple notable cases where it doesn't work as expected. People with copious freckles will get nice even skin everywhere on their faces except their noses, which gives them a rather strange appearance. Also in cases where everything in the picture is already fairly good—no obvious blemishes, wrinkles, red eye, etc.—PicTreat will sometimes tweak the color oddly. Otherwise, PicTreat delivered as promised and smoothed away blemishes, evened skin tones, and color adjusted lighting.

PicTreat is free to use. You can sign in with MySpaceID, Facebook Connect, or sign up for a PicTreat account.

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Supercharge Google Reader with Send To Links

Andy Wergedal 0 thoughts
Original Post Here: "

Google Reader recently added custom 'Send To' controls to its feature list, and we've been looking for the most useful links to feed it. Here are 11 excellent send-to tools you can add to Reader, with more on the way.

'More on the way' because, despite trying to keep our eyes and feed readers in as many places as possible, we're guessing there are a lot of other great URL-friendly webapps that can be hooked into Reader, as these crowd-sourced examples have already proven.

To install one of these Send To items in your own Reader, head to your Settings link from Reader's main page, click the 'Send to' tab, then hit the 'Create a custom link' button at the bottom. You'll be prompted for a Name, URL, and Icon URL, which you can simply copy and paste from these entries.
Know of a web service, a bookmarklet, or any other webapp that can accept text or items through its URL? You can easily set up a Send To item to feed items from Reader to that webapp. Reader lets you automatically include URL-friendly variables from feed items:
LifehackerThe source of the item
Supercharge Google Reader with Send To Links [Feeds]The title of the item
http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/ISY-As4gu-E/supercharge-google-reader-with-send-to-linksThe URL of the item
A shortened URL that redirects to the item
So if you knew, for example, that MyAwesomeLolcatApp can re-write the text on any web page with deliberate-but-cute misspellings, you could create a Send To item that has http://myawesomelolcatapp.com/url=http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/ISY-As4gu-E/supercharge-google-reader-with-send-to-links, and it'd work just gangbusters.
If you make your own Send To discoveries, by all means, drop them in the comments, or send them to tips at lifehacker.com with 'Google Reader' and 'Send To' somewhere in the text or subject. Now, onto the neat hacks to make all your RSS items easier to print, save, share, calendar, and even translate:

  • Name: Printer Friendly
  • URL: http://www.printfriendly.com/print?url=http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/ISY-As4gu-E/supercharge-google-reader-with-send-to-links
  • Icon URL: http://cdn.printfriendly.com/pf-icon.gif
  • What it does: Formats web pages for printing through PrintFriendly, with an eye for less ink usage. (via Zsolt)

  • Name: Save as PDF
  • URL: http://savepageaspdf.pdfonline.com/pdfonline/pdfonline.asp?cURL=http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/ISY-As4gu-E/supercharge-google-reader-with-send-to-links
  • Icon URL: http://www.adobe.com/lib/com.adobe/template/icon/pdf.gif
  • What it does: Sends the article to PDF Online, which preps it as a PDF for saving or printing. (via Digital Inspiration)

  • Name: Evernote
  • URL: http://s.evernote.com/grclip?url=http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/ISY-As4gu-E/supercharge-google-reader-with-send-to-links&title=Supercharge Google Reader with Send To Links [Feeds]
  • Icon URL: http://www.evernote.com/favicon.ico
  • What it does: Adds the URL and page text as an Evernote item, similar to Evernote's 'Web clipping' Firefox add-on or bookmarklet. (via Evernote Blog)

  • Name: Read It Later
  • URL: https://readitlaterlist.com/save?url=http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/ISY-As4gu-E/supercharge-google-reader-with-send-to-links&title=Supercharge Google Reader with Send To Links [Feeds]
  • Icon URL: http://readitlaterlist.com/favicon.ico
  • What it does: Moves feed items into your Read It Later list, viewable through the web, Firefox extensions, and iPhone apps. (via Read It Later and zmnatz)

  • Name: Email
  • URL: mailto:?subject=Supercharge Google Reader with Send To Links [Feeds]&body=%0A<http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/ISY-As4gu-E/supercharge-google-reader-with-send-to-links>
  • What it does: Activates whatever default mail client you have installed on your system, and auto-fills the subject with the title and the body with a link. (via Google Operating System and AmaraMetellus)

  • Name: Full Gmail
  • URL: http://mail.google.com/mail/?fs=1&tf=1&view=cm&su=Supercharge Google Reader with Send To Links [Feeds]&body=http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/ISY-As4gu-E/supercharge-google-reader-with-send-to-links%0A%0AShort link%3A
  • Icon URL: http://mail.google.com/favicon.ico
  • What it does: Emails a link using Gmail—but the full composition window, not Reader's stubbed email tool. Using Google Apps with your own domain name? As Dustin points out, you can replace mail.google.com with the address for your hosted Google apps, and the rest of the code should work. (via Google Operating System)

  • Name: Google Calendar
  • URL: http://www.google.com/calendar/event?action=TEMPLATE&text=Supercharge Google Reader with Send To Links [Feeds]&details=http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/ISY-As4gu-E/supercharge-google-reader-with-send-to-links
  • Icon URL: http://calendar.google.com/googlecalendar/images/favicon.ico
  • What it does: Primarily useful for feeds that deliver dates and times without a lot of added text. For those items, Google Calendar can pick up the information and create new events from them. (via Google Operating System)

  • Name: Add This
  • URL: http://addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&url=http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/ISY-As4gu-E/supercharge-google-reader-with-send-to-links&title=Supercharge Google Reader with Send To Links [Feeds]
  • Icon URL: http://addthis.com/favicon.ico
  • What it does: Pushes an item link to AddThis' site, where you can more easily share it across a bevy of social networks. (via Digital Inspiration)

  • Name: HootSuite
  • URL: http://hootsuite.com/twitter/bookmark-tool-v2?address=http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/ISY-As4gu-E/supercharge-google-reader-with-send-to-links&title=Supercharge Google Reader with Send To Links [Feeds]
  • Icon URL: http://static.hootsuite.com/5-49/images/favicon.ico
  • What it does: Pushes items over to the advanced Twitter client HootSuite for editing. (via Dustin)

  • Name: Identica
  • URL: http://identi.ca/?action=newnotice&status_textarea=%E2%80%9CSupercharge Google Reader with Send To Links [Feeds]%E2%80%9d%3a%20
  • Icon URL: http://identi.ca/favicon.ico
  • What it does: Shares links through open source Twitter alternative Identi.ca (via Remko Tronçon)

  • Name: Google Translate
  • URL: http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/ISY-As4gu-E/supercharge-google-reader-with-send-to-links
  • Icon URL: http://translate.google.com/favicon.ico
  • What it does: Sends blog articles and feed items to Google Translate for, well, translation. Reader can already translate entire feeds to another language automatically, but this allows for passing along the occasional item. (via Matt Cutts)


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