I am so happy to announce that the new version of the Windows Phone 7 Translator is now available on the marketplace! I’ve been working hard on this one for the last couple of months so it’s great to finally see it published.
Follow this link to download it:
Focus on this major update is in the introduction of several productivity features, full support for Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango) and bug fixes. Let me introduce the new features in this quick overview.
Translate Button Removed
Some screen space was saved by removing the Translate button. The translation is now triggered by using the Enter key, in the same way that you would navigate to a page by hitting Enter after typing a URL in Internet Explorer.
Bigger Translated Text
This has been requested for a while. You will now see big letters for your translations, which is quite useful for easy reading.
Copy the Translated Text
Also been requested for a while. The NoDo update added Copy/Paste support, but such support doesn’t work for TextBlocks, which is what the Translator was using for the translated text. I replaced the TextBlock with a styled TextBox and now you can not only copy the translated text but also do it with a single click.
Full-Screen Mode
This is very useful for sharing your translation with someone else. To go full-screen you can click the new Full-Screen button in the icon bar or you can just move your phone to a landscape position after translating your text.
Translation History
Sometimes you find yourself translating the same texts once and again and again. To avoid asking for these recurrent translations you can use the new translation history feature. The Translator will automatically store your last 1000 translations for easy access and you can access them right from the main screen. To see the translation history just clear the input textbox by clicking the Clear Text button in the icon bar. The translation history will even remember the translation engine you used when performing the translation.
Optimized for Windows Phone 7.5 (Mango)
I got quite impressed when I read about the huge list of new features introduced by the Mango update. But the one feature that really impacted the Translator was Fast Application Switching (FAS). Turns to be that a new ‘Dormant’ state has been introduced to Mango applications which will allow your app to remain in memory without been tombstoned. Without an appropriate handling of this new state your app will not take any advantage of FAS and might waste some precious performance savings.
The Translator is not only now fully supporting FAS but I also completely reviewed the application lifecycle, which was less than ideal and rewrote it to make sure all possible state transitions are handled appropriately.
Other features
I also worked on some other minor stuff:
- Introduced the appropriate branding for both Microsoft and Google translation engines.
- Added a ‘Write a Review’ menu option that I hope encourages customers to share their experiences when using the Translator.
- Fixed many reported and hidden bugs.
Have fun!
So that’s it! I really hope you all enjoy this update. And, as always, please contact me for any questions, issues and stuff you’d like to see in new versions. And have fun!
Julio
