Blog: Tools and Technology

The lure of free machine translations can be strong when working to a tight budget or deadline. The obvious drawback of a poor-quality translation is often overlooked when all you need is to understand the gist of a document, however most users do not consider the technical side of what happens to the data that you put into translation machines.

Innovative new train crash simulation software has been launched at the CTRS show in Shanghai to help evaluate options for various energy absorption methods used in bolt on devices, including couplers, buffers, anti-climbers and other crush elements. Oleo 1D Rail, the ground-breaking new software has been developed by crash energy management (CEM) experts Oleo International and is being localised for overseas markets with the help of Midlands-based language expert Comtec Translations.

State-of-the-art translation software recently helped leading UK company Geotech not only boost their business but consolidate their working relationship with a top client.

With the increasing number of mobile apps on the market, the world is getting smaller. That is to say, more and more people are turning to their handheld devices such as smartphones, PDAs and portable tablets as a way to communicate, instead of via their PCs and desktop computers. Read more to see how this ties in with translation…

Anyone who travels for business knows that time is money. And it always seems that no matter how much planning we do before we set off on our overseas trips, there is always something else to sort out while we’re there!

When you’re in a hurry it is tempting to use one of the online machine translation tools now freely available. We’ve all done it – and they are great when what you need is the gist of the text. But that’s all you get – a gist. You don’t necessarily get accuracy or context. And forget nuances and/or localisation. Savvy business people understand this.

You might not expect a translation agency to recommend using the Google Translate App, but there is a time and place for this free tool. Find out when here.