Most Mac users will experience one of three reactions after reading the word “Rosetta.”
The first involves breaking into a cold sweat, and possibly hives, after remembering that Apple no longer supports the translator that ran all those old, useful apps written for PowerPC-based Macs after Apple switched over to Intel chips.
Option two, imagining the Rosetta Stone itself, the magical key to unlocking ancient script, stumbled upon by Napoleon’s troops
Or there’s an association with foreign phrases, mall carts and almost certainly the most recognizable name in language software, Rosetta Stone.
We’re focusing on that last one here, and about how Rosetta Stone has finally brought their language software, in the form of the Navigator series apps, to the iPhone — for free.
The Navigator apps aren’t complete language courses; they’re rather sparse (a phrase book, and three free lessons), and designed to give you just the basics. But they’re brilliantly user-friendly and have all kinds of advanced features, like the ability to tell you whether or not you’re pronouncing a phrase correctly (and if you’re not getting it right, you can even adjust the sensitivity level).
Right now, the Navigator apps are available for four languages: Spanish, Italian, French and German.
When he was eight, Eli Milchman came home from frolicking in the Veld one day and was given an Atari 400. Since then, his fascination with technology has made him an intrepid early adopter of whatever charming new contraption crosses his path. He calls San Francisco home, where he works as a journalist and photographer. Eli has contributed to the pages of Wired.com and BIKE Magazine, among others. Hang with him on Twitter.
