In celebration of being online for three years bab.la has today launched Swedish as the 16th language. This puts the number of dictionaries at 26 with the Swedish-English dictionary and 27 with the Swedish-German dictionary.

Of course, all the cool bab.la features are available in Swedish like looking up Swedish translations from a mobile phone or the free English-Swedish dictionary App for iPhone users. Also, Twitter users can send their translation requests to @babladict - the bab.la Twitter dictionary interface.

Check out, word for word, what you can look up!

Enjoy the new dictionaries!

bab.la firar idag sitt tredje år online genom att lansera den svenska versionen av hemsidan. Detta gör svenska till det 16:e språket som språkportalen finns tillgänglig på. Det svensk-engelska lexikonet är således det 26:e och det svensk-tyska lexikonet är det 27:e nätlexikonet i utbudet.

Självklart kan man även komma åt alla funktioner även på svenska som exempelvis översättningar med mobilen eller så kan man ladda ner en iPhone App för svensk-engelska översättningar. Den som har ett konto på Twitter kan snabbt översätta genom att skicka ett meddelande till @babladict - bab.la's Twitter lexikon.
Kolla in, ord för ord, allt vad man kan slå upp!

Ha så kul med den nya sidan!

The reasons why Apple could not sell iPhones in Japan became a controversial topic in America. In fact, I don’t know how many times I heard business people say that breaking into the Japanese market is like a labyrinth. GAP, Footlocker and Facebook were some of the symbolic failures and now the iPhone is facing the same destiny. Why is the iPhone having such a hard time in Japan?

Listed below are some of the key factors:

1. Too bulky: Japanese love small and slim gadgets!
2. Japanese cell-phone technology is about 5 years more advanced, meaning iPhone is nothing special. For example, the iPhone lacks a video camera feature.
3. Monthly rate is too high because the iPhone uses a different communication standard. (Attention: Feb. 2009 iPhone decided to reduce monthly price.)
4. Very hard to type Japanese characters on touch-screen because of their original transformation writing system.
5. Not efficient at all that you need both-hands to use it. According to a survey, Japanese use cell-phones the most in trains so they need to use only one-hand as the trains are so crowded.
6. Japanese love American culture but do not trust American products. They trust only Japanese products or German products.
7. iPhones do not look fashionable especially for Japanese women. They love more kawaii (cute) and feminine goods.

In summary: iPhone is cool, but not practical for Japanese!

But let’s get back to the main topic. Here are the applications that Japanese would like to have in their iPhones.

1. Stop Karoshi (death from overwork) by iPhone sensor!
   Japanese are well known to work until midnight. But it’s time to slow down the pace and enjoy their lives. Bosses would check the degree of tiredness of each employee by iPhone sensor! As soon as the alert goes off, they must let employees take off right away.
2. Stop suicides by iPhone detection!
   Unfortunately, Japan has one of the highest suicide rates in the world. More than 30,000 people commit suicide every year and the number dramatically increased right after the start of the economic crisis. This would detect early warning signs.
3. Finding capsule and love hotels!
   Japan has a variety of hotels with different purposes from capsule hotels to love hotels with different prices, features and services. Love hotels are used mainly by couples looking for some extra privacy, so in a small cramped country like Japan, this type of business will never go away. If you just touch i-phone then, you would see all suitable hotels including availability and pricing in your vicinity!
4. Checking Japanese real “yes” meaning!
   If a Japanese answers back “yes” to you, it may mean “yes”, but it sometimes means “no”! If you need to know the real truth, iPhone detection would help to easily understand what they want!

なぜiPhoneは日本で売れないのか？がアメリカで議論を呼びました。実際、日本のマーケットに進出するのは迷路の中に迷い込んでいるみたいだとビジネスマンたちが嘆いているのを何度も耳にしました。GAP、Footlocker 、 Facebookなどはその失敗例の代表ともいえましょう。iPhoneも残念ながら同じ運命をたどっています。なぜそんなに日本のマーケット進出は難しいのでしょうか？

考えられる理由は以下の通りです:

1. iPhoneは重量があり過ぎです。日本人はスリムな小物を好みます。
2. よく日本の携帯電話の技術はすでにアメリカより５年発達していると言われています。なのでiPhoneは特に際立ったアイテムではなく、実際ビデオカメラなどの機能さえついていないのが現状です。
3. コミュニケーションネットワークが違う故に起こる月々の高額支払い。（2009年２月にソフトバンクは月々支払いを大幅に値下げしました。）
4. 日本語を入力するときのあの独特の変換機能はiPhoneのタッチスクリーンでは非常に使いにくいのです。
5. iPhoneは両手で持たなくてはいけないのですが、これはあまりに効率が悪すぎます。というのも日本人が一番携帯を使うのは電車の中でだという調査が出ています。なので日本の混雑した電車で携帯を使いこなすには片手で使える携帯が必要なのです。
6. 日本人はアメリカの文化が大好きですが、アメリカ製品に対しての信用を持っていません。日本人は日本製かドイツ製のものだけ信用している傾向があります。
7. iPhoneは日本人女性にとってファッショナブルではないのです。彼女たちはもっとフェミニンなかわいい携帯がすきなのです。

つまりiPhoneはかっこいいけど、日本人にとっては実用的ではない！ということですね。

ではメインのトピックにもどりましょう。日本人がもっていたいアプリケーションは以下の通りです。

1. 過労死を防ごう！
   日本人は夜中まで働く働き者で有名ですが、ペースを落として私生活を楽しんでいくことを学んでもいい頃合です。上司はiPhonesセンサーで従業員達の疲労度を判定し、アラームがなれば彼らに休暇を与えることができます。
2. 自殺を防ごう！
   残念ながら日本は自殺率のもっとも高い国の一つです。統計によると毎年３万人以上を自殺によって失っています。特にリーマンショック以降その数は大幅に増えています。iPhonesセンサーで自殺の早期兆候を発見できます。
3. 目的に応じたホテルを見つけよう！
   日本は目的に応じての多数のユニークなホテルが存在します。その幅はカプセルホテルからラブホテルまであり、料金やサービス形態も違ってきます。ラブホテルは日本でカップルのプライバシーを守るために使用されますが、それは日本がとても狭いからです。故にラブホテルビジネスは、けっしてなくなることはないでしょう。iPhonesを触るだけで、自分の指定距離内でのホテルとその空き状況、料金、サービス形態がひと目でわかる表が見れます。
4. 日本人のyesチェック！
   もし日本人があなたへyesと返答したのであれば、それは時に本当にyesであり、時にNoを意味します。iPhone探知機で簡単に彼らの本音を探知することができます。

Quali potrebbero essere le applicazioni migliori per l´iPhone di un Italiano?? Ecco alcuni esempi… Ti viene in mente qualcos´altro?

iCalcio
Controlla in tempo reale i risultati del campionato della serie A.

iTranslate
Di certo l´Apple Store offre già centinaia di traduttori ma con questo in particolare si può interpretare tutta la serie di gesti che noi Italiani amiamo tanto inserire nei nostri discorsi.

iBriscola & iScopa
Per la serie “giochi dal gusto retrò” ecco un connubio perfetto fra tradizione e tecnologia: Scopa e Briscola sull’iPhone!

iSunday-Reminder
Aggiungendo l’iSunday-Reminder arriverai sempre in tempo per il meraviglioso pranzo domenicale dalla nonna!

iPasta-Timer
Un´applicazione utilissima, soprattutto per tutti gli stranieri che stanno ancora cercando di cuocere un piatto di pasta senza farlo passare di cottura!

iMother-in-law-Radar
D´ora in poi sarà possible evitare il più antico conflitto familiare con il radar per suocere!

What springs to your mind if you are asked to think about iPhone Apps for Italians? These are some examples.... do you have any other suggestions?

iCalcio
You can check every single score of the Italian Series A football championship in real time.

iTranslate
Appstore already offers a wide range of Translation Apps for iPhones but with this particular one you will be able to interpret the Italian original gesture!

iBriscola & iScopa
Play the old-fashioned Italian trick-taking card games in a new modern way.

iSunday- Reminder
Add the iSunday-Reminder to wake up on time for the copious Sunday lunch at your Nonna’s place.

iPasta- Timer
A useful Italian iPhone app for foreign people that are still trying to cook pasta in a proper way!

iMother- in- law- Radar
Solve the oldest Italian family conflict. You will always be able to skip your mother-in-law with the new iRadar.

Let´s see then what would be interesting iPhone applications that would make the Swiss buy it right away.

• High German converter: No need to torture yourself trying to speak ‘High German’ (from Germany). You only have to put your iPhone close to your mouth and speak whatever you want in Swiss German, so that the iPhone will automatically convert it into High German. This way your professor, boss or even a guest from Germany will be impressed and even forget they are in a country where the dialect is the real language.
• Skiing advisor: Want to go skiing but can´t decide in which of the amazing Swiss mountains to go? iPhone is there for you! It tells you the weather conditions in any ski location in the country – and also if the places are crowded with tourists trying to learn how to ski (or if they are free for the skiing experts like you).
• Punctuality Relaxer: No need to be nervous if the bus/train/tram is more than 1 minute late! It is probably rare that a delay will happen in Switzerland, but in case it does the iPhone will help you keep you calm during these moments of extreme impatience by finding the exact tool that will keep you thinking of something else.
• Sore throat healer: If your throat still insists on hurting after a day of pronouncing Swiss words like "Chuchichäschtli" or "Chäschüechli", iPhone has the solution! With the new sore throat healer all you need is to put the iPhone close to your throat and it will do all the healing work for you. This way you will still be able to yodel on the mountains all day long.
• Swiss Army Knife version 2.0: Don´t want to carry your “Victorinox” wherever you go? The Swiss iPhone has the multi-function tool that contains everything you may need from the army knife – and even better: has a sensor to identify which tool is the right one to open/cut/saw/write/light/etc your needs!
• Cowbell locator: Did your cow lose its bell? No worries! The new Swiss iPhone comes with an application that identifies each cowbell and uses its GPS system to instantly locate the cowbell, within a radius of 850 meters. No longer will any of your cows have to remain bell-less! (Note: Please buy separately a GPS unit for each cowbell, available soon at a store near you.)

iDance

Poland has been in a dance craze recently. Honestly, almost everyone got absolutely crazy about dancing. After TV shows like ‘So you think you can dance’ or ‘Strictly come dancing (dancing with the stars)’ many viewers started to believe that they must have a hidden dancing talent too. Sometimes these talents are hidden so well that they will never really come out but a bit of dancing can’t do any harm, can it? People get fit and joyous, even if they can’t dance. To learn how to dance use the latest iPhone app – it gives detailed instructions you need to follow to learn the steps of samba, rumba, tango, foxtrot, jazz, hip-hop and many more. The iDance trainer is portable but when you plug it to your TV set it also analyzes your moves and tells you exactly what you should improve.

iMeat

Meet people by eating meat (“meating”) with them! As a nation of meat eaters we would highly appreciate a new chat application enabling us to find people with similar meat eating preferences as our own. Exchanging recipes, not counting calories, discussing the “hottest” meat dishes to finally meat in the “real” life and enjoy a huge ‘schabowy’ (a delicious Polish pork chop) together! Let’s meat!

iName

Ever wondered why the heck your Polish friend insists on being called Gosia even though her given name in documents is Małgorzata? Well, as complicated as we are, we have a short version of nearly every name and we use them a lot. For instance, my name’s Joanna but I’d probably hardly react if someone called me that, as all my family and friends use the short version of Joanna – Asia (don’t ask me where these short version come from, I guess it’s been like that for ages…). So an iName app would come in extremely handy when dealing with Polish people – just enter the full name to get the “familiar” version(s) or the other way round. To read more on the subject go to: So what did you say your name was.

iPope

It is common knowledge that the Poles are a very religious folk (admittedly less and less especially among young people but anyway) so the iPope application should be greeted with great interest in Poland. It provides you with famous quotes, fragments of sermons and most touching moments from the pontificate of our own Polish pope, John Paul II whether in form of a picture, an audio file or a video. But there’s much more to this application – it locates the nearest Catholic church wherever you are and warns you early enough by beeping loudly whenever you are about to commit a sin.

iPotato

We love potatoes. Boiled potatoes, fried potatoes, baked potatoes, mashed potatoes, jacket potatoes, chips… All of them! Unfortunately the quality of this vegetable has been worsening gradually in the last years. The latest iPhone app – iPotato – will help you buy potatoes that not only look good (judging potatoes by appearance may be very misleading) but also taste yummy by analyzing the inside of the potato by merely looking at it. As an addition it tells you what dish this kind of potatoes will be most suitable for.

A gdyby tak popuścić wodze fantazji...

iTaniec

Nikomu, kto mieszka lub był ostatnio w Polsce nie trzeba chyba przybliżać szaleństwa, które panuje tam teraz na punkcie tańca i ogarnęła już prawie wszystkich. Tańce z gwiazdami, You can dance, filmy i seriale o tańcu... to wszystko sprawia, że wielu widzów zaczyna wierzyć, że i w nich drzemie ukryty talent taneczny. Czasami ten talent faktycznie pozostaje głęboko ukryty, ale odrobina ruchu nikomu jeszcze nie zaszkodziła. Taniec sprawia, że ludzie są w dobrej formie i ogólnie tak weselsi, nawet jeśli tak naprawdę nie potrafią tańczyć. Aby nauczyć się tańczyć, wystarczy skorzystać z najnowszej aplikacji iPhone, która udziela szczegółowych instrukcji, za którymi trzeb podążać by nauczyć się kroków samby, rumby, tanga, fokstrota, jazzu, hip-hopu i wielu innych. Trener iTaniec jest przenośny, ale po podłączeniu do odbiornika TV analizuje również ruchy użytkownika i podpowiada, co jeszcze trzeba zmienić i poprawić.

iMięso

Poznaj ludzi, jedząc z nimi mięso! Podobno jesteśmy narodem mięsożerców, więc czat iMięso powinien spotkać się w Polsce z dużym zainteresowaniem. Za jego pomocą możemy znaleźć ludzi o podobnych ubodobaniach kulinarnych, wymieniać przepisy, nie liczyć kalorii, dyskutować o najlepszych mięsnych daniach, a w końcu może spotkać się w „realu” i zjeść razem sporego schabowego!

iImię

Ta aplikacja okaże się szczególnie przydatna dla cudzoziemców, którzy mają polskich znajomych. Z pewnością spotkaliście się już z sytuacją, w której po raz setny musieliście tłumaczyć, dlaczego u nas każdy Jerzy to Jurek, a Katarzyna – Kasia. Aplikacja iImię to swego rodzaju „konwerter” imion – wystarczy wpisać pełne imię by otrzymać zdrobnienie i na odwrót.

iPapież

Aplikacja dla pokolenia JP2. Zapewnia dostęp do słynnych cytatów, fragmentów kazań i najbardziej wzruszających momentów z pontyfikatu Papieża Polaka w formie zdjęć, plików dźwiękowych i filmów. Aplikacja ta oferuje jednak jeszcze dużo więcej – lokalizator kościołów pomoże nam trafić do najbliższego kościoła katolickiego, gdziekolwiek się znajdujemy, a specjalny sygnalizator ostrzeże wystarczająco wcześnie głośnym piszczącym sygnałem za każdym razem, gdy przejdzie nam przez myśl popełnienie jakiegoś grzechu.

iZiemniak

Mmm... z wody, w mundurkach, smażone, pieczone, tłuczone, frytki. Smakują nam w każdej formie! Niestety, jakość ziemniaków w polskich sklepach uległa w ostatnich latach znacznemu pogorszeniu. iZiemniak pomoże w zakupie ziemniaków, które nie tylko wyglądają dobrze (wygląd ziemniaka może być bardzo mylący), lecz także wyśmienicie smakują, analizując ich wnętrze. Wystarczy tylko jedno krótkie „spojrzenie” i nasz iPhone wie wszystko o danym ziemniaku, oprócz kontroli jakości, doradzi nam też jakie potrawy najlepiej z danego gatunku ziemniaka przyrządzić.

IKEA locator

If you are outside of Sweden and running low on Sill, Kalles Kaviar, Knäckebröd, Köttbullar or just feeling homesick this App will guide you to the nearest IKEA.

Fair bill-splitter

Don’t you hate when the last person to put money in for the bill just puts down what’s left. Or when someone has two beers more than everyone else and then wants to split the bill ‘equally’. No problem. Input any and all data and the App will tell you exactly what each person has to pay. To keep it fair.

Age calculator

Swedes have an odd way of telling you how old they are. Normally one would expect someone to say, “Hi. My name is Carl and I am 25 years old”. A Swedish person would say, “Hi. My name is ‘Kalle’ and I’m an 84”. It doesn’t take that long to figure out how old someone is from their year of birth (84 would be 24 or 25), but if you live in Sweden, this App is a must.

Owe-age ticker

No need to try keeping track of how many en-kronor coins you’ve borrowed, who paid for the last coffee, how expensive that last birthday gift was or who you gave a cigarette to at the party. This App keeps count and lets you know whose coffee you should pay for so that the world stays ‘fair’.

Swedenish localizer

This App is pre-programmed to ping you if you are in the vicinity of anything even remotely Swedish, like H&M, so you can point it out and say loudly. “Look, ower there is a “Hennes och Mauritz”. That is a Svedish kompani”.

Aladdin identifier

There is nothing worse than biting down on what you thought was nougat and it turns out to be rum-raisin. Take a picture of the Aladdin tray and your iPhone will mark each one with its flavour.

Is the trapphus empty?

Never have an awkward situation where you meet your neighbours in the stairwell again. Hold your iPhone to your apartment door and it will give you a green light if it is safe go out.

Ambiance behaviour mode

No need to ever lose face again. Record a 360° video of your surroundings and your iPhone will tell you what demeanour to apply so that you don’t stand out.

Blond-ID

Blond? Light-blond? Chestnut? Platinum? Don’t know the correct term for exactly that shade of blond? No problem. Take a picture and your phone will tell you instantly. (version two-point-one will also tell you the probability of drapes≠curtains)

Cheese slicer AoA

Making a wedge of cheese look like it belongs in Garmisch-Partenkirchen is a forbidden sin. Take a photo and your iPhone will tell you the correct Angle of Attack for the next slice to minimise slope.