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Google Chrome spellchecks multiple languages at once
Google is adding a new feature for Chrome that will help bilingual folks and ex-pats a lot. Developer François Beaufort revealed that you can now spellcheck in multiple languages, even in the same document, without getting the dreaded squiggly red lines. That's a feature that the Android SwiftKey keyboard has had for ages, but it'll save others a lot of trouble when writing in comments, blogging systems like WordPress or Google's Docs. It's now enabled in the experimental Chromium Canary browser on Windows, ChromeOS or Linux, usually a good sign it'll come to the final build soon (Chrome on Mac uses the OS X language settings). I tried it in a Google Doc, and as you can see below, it works nickel chrome.
Chrome update brings improved spell checking to Windows, Linux and Chrome OS
A new stable release of Chrome is out today, bringing improved spell-checking to Google's browser. Mountain View announced the update on the Chrome Blog, explaining that it refreshed the dictionaries for all supported languages -- and adding support for Albanian, Korean and Tamil. Additionally, the "Ask Google for suggestions" feature now includes grammar checking and context-sensitive spell-checking in English, so you can expect the search giant to set you straight on the difference between "affect" and "effect." If you've added custom words to your dictionary, you'll now be able to sync them across all your devices running Chrome. Look for the browser update to roll out to Windows, Linux and Chrome OS users in the coming weeks -- Mac support is still in the works.
Chrome 26 beta adds context-aware spelling checks so you kan rite gud
We've all grown a little complacent with our spelling now that auto-correction has filtered down to the OS level, and that creates problems when we use browsers that aren't quite so diligent. Those who grab Google's Chrome 26 beta, though, will get an extra safety net for their writing skills. Chrome OS, Linux and Windows users receive an optional, cloud-synced spelling engine that watches for errors in context and pays attention to broader grammatical issues. The engine also covers a much wider range of proper nouns, so it's less likely to throw a red flag when unique subjects are involved. Mac users and non-English writers will have to wait for matching support; everyone else can hit the source link to avoid future typographical train wrecks.
Researchers find fewer words being added to languages, fewer ways to tell you precisely that
What if one of the words in this post means absolutely nothing in the year 2094? It's possible, and more possible than ever before. That's according to recently published research from a group at the Institutions Markets Technologies' Lucca Institute for Advanced Studies in Italy, who have found that fewer new words are being added to languages today than in eras prior. Despite the proliferation of the internet and untold new ways to communicate, more and more words are being eliminated while fewer words replace them. It's hard to pinpoint the exact reason(s) why, but most gurus suggest that reliance on rigid spellcheck tools and the rise of short-form communication have made it less necessary to find new ways to say things. You can read more on the findings there in the source link, where we're sure master wordsmiths will be saddened by the lack of descriptive flair.
Behind the scenes video reveals Google's attention to search detail (video)
If you're interested in how much detail the engineers at Mountain View pay to every element of Google's search business, check this out. This is footage of the Quality Launch Review, a meeting that takes place every week on Thursdays. Amit Singhal assembles a room full of engineers to delve into "losses," the company term for when a search query goes awry, and turn them into "wins." This week, the team examined error-correction in searches that are over ten words long, and how best to resolve it. It may not be the most exciting thing you'll ever see, but it's a fascinating insight into the effort that begins every time you don't find what you're looking for.
Friday Favorite: After the Deadline
I spend a lot of time in the web browser, so much that I use web apps more than their standalone counterparts. I use twitter.com to compose a tweet, gmail.com to check my email and so on. As a result, I use several plug-ins and extensions to improve the efficiency of my online work. In a previous Friday Favorite, I covered Lazarus, a form recovery tool. Today, I'm going to tell you about After The Deadline, an extension for Firefox or Chrome that'll spell and grammar check your writing. After the Deadline works with most text fields in a web browser. It appears as a small ABC icon in the bottom right corner of a text box. When you're done typing your comment, tweet or feedback, you can click the icon and the extension will both spell and grammar check your writing. When you're checking with After the Deadline, the ABC icon will change to red. Spelling errors will be highlighted in red; grammar errors in green. One little drawback with the tool is that you can edit the errors, but you can't edit the surrounding text until you click the ABC icon and turn the checking off. It's a step up from OS X's spell check feature because the grammar check will pick up a lot of writing errors that spell check doesn't detect. The most common one I get is word repetition such as "the the" or "a a." It's not as thorough as a dedicated grammar tool like Grammarly, but those tools cost money and don't integrate into the browser as an extension. After the Deadline is perfect for informal writing like comments, emails, or feedback forms. It'll prevent you from making a glaring spelling error when you're communicating online. There's also a Wordpress plugin, if you use that CMS. The extension works with Firefox and Chrome for the Mac and is available for free from After The Deadline's website.
Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich review
The next version of each smartphone's operating system is always the best. We impatiently wait for the latest and greatest firmware to come around, expecting it to liberate us from the shackles of last year's code and features that haven't shown up yet. This happens incessantly with Google's Android OS, and version 4.0 -- unveiled at this year's I/O conference in May -- is no different. Known as Ice Cream Sandwich (referred to henceforth as ICS), the last word in the title indicates the merging of Gingerbread, the most recent phone platform, and Honeycomb, the version optimized for use on tablets. We knew this much, but were otherwise left with conjecture as to how the company planned to accomplish such a feat -- and what else the new iteration had in store. Which devices will get Ice Cream Sandwich? Hands-on screenshot gallery Galaxy Nexus and ICS roundup But now the time of reckoning is upon us, and the Samsung Galaxy Nexus -- Android 4.0's mother ship -- is slowly spreading across the globe, its users being treated to this year's smartphone dessert. ICS is one of the largest and most important upgrades we've witnessed from Android since its humble beginnings, making a huge change in user experience as well as a massive number of bullet points on the list of features. Now that we've had the opportunity to take it for a spin, where does it stand in the ranks of mobile operating systems? Follow us beneath as we dig into the layers of this sweet sandwich.
iPhone OS 4.0: iPad-like spell check
Reader Tom has been kind enough to send in a few images of the new spell check redesign in iPhone OS 4.0.As you can see, Apple has ditched the blue bubbles with the "x" and now gives you the option of choosing between multiple word selections. Stay tuned! We'll have more on the iPhone OS 4.0 preview as the information rolls in!
Ask TUAW: Prepping a Mac for transfer, adding words to spell check, updating Boot Camp, and more
Welcome back to Ask TUAW, our weekly troubleshooting Q&A column. This week we've got questions about preparing a Mac that you're transferring to a new owner, updating Boot Camp, adding words to the built-in spell check, dealing with flaky network disks, FTP clients, and more. As always, your suggestions and questions are welcome. Leave your questions for next week in the comments section at the end of this post. When asking a question, please include which machine you're using and what version of Mac OS X is installed on it (we'll assume you're running Snow Leopard on an Intel Mac if you don't specify), or if it's an iPhone-related question, which iPhone version and OS version you have.
Unsung Snow Leopard feature: multiple-language spell checker
OS X has had a system-wide, built-in spell checker for a while now, but until Snow Leopard, it could only check the spelling of whatever your default language was. But what if you needed to prepare a document in another language, say for a college Spanish assignment? In that case, you'd end up with a document with pretty much every single word underlined in red, with no reliable way to spell check it. But now, OS X offers simultaneous spell checking not only in four different varieties of English, but also in Spanish, French, German, Italian, and six other European languages. You can mix and match these languages in a single document, and the built-in spell checker will intelligently adapt to whichever language it thinks you've switched to. Pages from iWork '07 doesn't seem to benefit from this new feature, nor does the 2008 version of Word, but it works just fine in Safari and TextEdit. With TextEdit you get an added feature: once it figures out what language you're typing in, autocorrect will work for that language just as well as it does for English. So, for example, when you write in Spanish, the computer's dictionary knows it has to look for words in Spanish. Or, if you'll forgive mi español descompuesto, Entonces, por ejemplo, cuando tú escribes en español, el diccionario de la computadora sabe que tiene mirar por palabras en español. That last sentence would normally have red underlines under nearly every word, but using TextEdit in Snow Leopard the spell checker adapted to Spanish spelling as soon as I finished typing "entonces." It also auto-corrected espanol to español, which is much easier than having to type option-n, n to get the tilde above the n. The adaptation seems to happen on a paragraph-by-paragraph basis. In other words, the spell checker doesn't seem to be intelligent enough to recognize when you switch languages in mid-paragraph, much less mid-sentence. The spell checker will do its best to figure out the primary language of the paragraph; for example, if you type a few words in English but the rest of the paragraph is in Spanish, the English words will show up as misspelled. There's some potential for confusion if you switch back and forth between languages within paragraphs, but between paragraphs there's no apparent issues. This would have come in really handy a couple of years ago; after opening some old Spanish assignments I had, I found some of my compositions riddled with minor errors (mostly misplaced accent marks) that the spell checker in Leopard or Tiger never would have caught. ¡Viva la Mac! View the video below for a brief glimpse of the new spell check behavior in action:
Mac 101: spell check errors
There's a funny post at The Apple Blog today that points out a few typos that give Mac OS X Leopard's built-in spell checker a bit of trouble. For instance, the error "instrucitons" suggests "isntrucitons" as well as "instructions", and "applicaticataion" when "applicatication" is typed instead of "application." There are a few more in their list.I've noticed that my iPhone always suggests "he'll" when I want to type "hell" (yes, I type "hell" enough to have noticed this). Of course, this is simple to fix. You can correct these errors for good by right-clicking (or Control-click) on the correct spelling and select "Learn spelling" from the contextual menu. Use this same method to add uncommon words, like surnames, etc.
Mac 101: Enabling Built-in Spell Check
Mac OS X offers a system-wide built-in spell checker. Many OS X applications including Mail, Pages, TextEdit, Safari and iChat AV (among others) allow you to take advantage of this feature to find and correct spelling mistakes. To enable spell checking in an application, control-click (or right-click on a two-button mouse) a text field or text entry area. Choose Spelling from the contextual pop-up menu and then make sure that Check Spelling as You Type is checked. If it is not checked, just select it to check it. Selecting it again disables the feature. More after the jump...
