iPhone translation app will add Afghan languages.

• Author: Beidel, Eric
• Position: Defense Technology Newswire

* A New Jersey-based company that has developed speech translator applications for the iPhone is turning its attention to languages that would be useful to the military.

SpeechTrans Inc.'s applications already translate between common languages such as English, Spanish, French, German and Italian. Now the company is working with Massachusetts-based firm Nuance to add Pashtu, Dari and other languages widely spoken in Afghanistan. SpeechTrans recently showed its technology to military leaders at a Pentagon language convention.

"It would be a great match for our military" said CEO John Frei, who compared it to the universal translator used on...