One app that I find myself using semi regularly in my own studies is Text Grabber. I remember that when I mentioned this app in a talk two or three years ago, several teachers were interested and asked about it so I thought it might be worth including in this app blog.
Text Grabber is an OCR scanner which allow you to scan in and then export text. Using OCR (optical character recognition) the text you scan with your device's camera is actually read and behaves as though you had typed it in. Additionally it can also translate the text into any of forty languages. This is great if you are reading a menu on holiday and of course it has countless other uses too. Personally I use it most to import paragraphs from a book when I need the precise text for quoting or as a reference in an assignment and I appreciate not having to type the text in myself.
Earlier this term, Valerie mentioned that her students were using another app called Scan and Translate. When I took a look at it I could see that it was very similar to Text Grabber with the bonus that it is free (optional in-app purchase of £1.49). Thanks to Valerie and her students!
These apps don't work too well with the iPad 2 camera but might be worth investigating on your phone or later iPad if you ever find yourself needing to translate text or get fed up copying text out of a book. The only frustration I have ever experienced with Text Grabber is around line endings but it is still quicker to do the scanning and sort out rogue line endings than to type it up myself.
A couple of days ago we looked at other scanning apps including Scanner Pro and Evernote. These previous apps work at the document level and make PDFs for you, whereas Text Grabber and Scan and Translate are more about the content or words themselves. There is some overlap of functionality between these apps but whichever you use they are all mindblowing tools when you consider that you are carrying them around in your pocket or bag with you ready for when you need them!
I would love to know what our language staff think about this app.