Speaking of Spain
  • Home
  • Civil War & Volunteers
  • Anarchism in the Spanish Civil War
  • Forgotten Stories From Spain
  • Radical Recipes
  • Library

Abbeyy Text Grabber: Apps that make life easier

6/6/2012

1 Comment

 
Picture
Today I'm starting a new series of posts about Phone apps that make life easier for people living or travelling abroad. As someone who is obsessional about mobile technology and driven to find ways of making life more simple, I thought I'd highlight a few of the most useful apps  I use in the pursuit of elegance and efficiency in the 21st Century. 


So today Im looking at Abbey Text Grabber.
This app is one of my favourites for the simple reason that its always on me and always available for those moments when I need to either record down some info, translate some info or OCR (Optical Character Recognition) some info. 

Imagine for an example: 
Im in a bar, browsing the daily edition of El Pais Newspaper  and  - for example -  I come across an interesting small article on the Gazpachomonk. Well, with text Grabber I can take a photo of the text and then choose to do a number of very useful things: OCR the text and store it on my phone as a digital record (no longer a photo but editable text). Or, is this is where the travel and living abroad bit comes in,  I can OCR, then translate it into another language in seconds, and store, email, post to FB, Twitter etc from within the App. 

Imagine you are in a restaurant and boasting to your family, friends and visiting dignitaries how good your Spanish is, when someone asks you to translate a menu item that you have never seen before. You mumble a few words about not carrying your glasses, but no-one appears convinced as they know you wear contact lens. What to do?
Well, hold upo the menu high so no-one can see what you are doing, take out your phone and quickly OCR the word and translate it. Before you know it your street credibility and self image will have been restored.

Finally, you recive a worrying letter from Hacienda (Inland revenue) asking for details of your financial affairs from 7 years ago. Do you spend the next 3 hours flipping though the dictionary translating every impossible legal term or do you simply OCR the text and translate it into a language more familiar?

All this ease of living and peace of mind can be yours for just a euro or two. 

Finally, I'll tell you how I use it. When reading a book and I come across a great quote, I used to have to type it into my phone or laptop to remember it or use it in an article or tweet. Now, I just OCR it. Wonderful.

Check out the great little video below to see the ease of use. You can find out more by visiting their web site here.





1 Comment
go to this site link
8/5/2013 04:27:35 am

The application is very useful and thanks you for writing about it. Language problem is common when we travel abroad and it is difficult to depend on translation books. This mobile application is very useful to solve this problem.

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    BOOKS

    1984 and Spanish Civil War
    Available Now
     Why Orwell is essential to understanding Spain today. More here - Forgotten Stories From Spain
    Follow @GazpachoMonk

    Norman Bethune and the Spanish Civil war
    The Ambulance Man and the Spanish Civil War (2nd Ed)
    Find out More about the ebook and audio
    Forgotten Stories From Spain Book HERE
    AND WATCH THE TORTILLA VIDEO HERE
    Inside the tortilla book cover
    Listen to an audio sample here

    POSTS

    CNT newspaper
    Spain 1936: The Silenced Revolution
    Did Laurie Lee Lie - a 2 part investigation
    Did Laurie Lee Lie? Listen to the two part investigation.


    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2019
    June 2016
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012

Store

Books
Videos
Audio

Free PDFs to Download

Anarchist Car Designs from Civil War
​Anarchism & the Death of an Idea


Free Stories

The Bullfight
The early Morning Hours
​Laurie Lee

Contact

Contact

The gazpachomonk
© COPYRIGHT 2020. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
  • Home
  • Civil War & Volunteers
  • Anarchism in the Spanish Civil War
  • Forgotten Stories From Spain
  • Radical Recipes
  • Library