We just launched OpenSignal for iOS | Hacker News Reader

We just launched OpenSignal for iOS

opensignal.com

55 pointssinak17 comments

Just downloaded from the French app store.

Looks cool, but the French translation is so bad in some places, it makes the app incomprehensible. Usually when the translation is bad I'm able to infer meaning by re-translating into English, but I have a hard time doing it here.

For example, "SpeedTest" is rendered as "chiffrier". I had never before seen that term. I thought it wasn't even a word, but it turns out it's an old accounting word that means "ledger".

I appreciate that the app is available in many languages, but it would be nice to be able to switch back to English from within the app.

(Some parts of the app are not even translated anyway; the "about" page is still in English, and so is the "History" button on the SpeedTest page.)

- - -

The American Translators Association has put together a short document called “Translations: getting it right” (http://www.atanet.org/docs/Getting_it_right.pdf -- PDF) where one can read:

"Professional translators work into their native language; if you want your catalog translated into German and Russian, the work will be done by a native German speaker and an native Russian speaker. As a translation buyer, you may not be aware of this, but a translator who flouts this basic rule is likely to be ignorant of other important quality issues as well."

Probably the result of an automated translation. I wrote a tool to use the bing translator and automatically translate an entire resource file for both ios and android (https://github.com/joelmartinez/LocalAlchemy probably a bit outdated now since I think the translation APIs changed a bit).

But this was just a starting point because the file was huge ... I'm a spanish speaker so I was helping out with the spanish translation. Some of the translations were fine, some of them were horrendous, but as long as I just looked through the file, I could usually just find the ones that looked funny. Took me a fraction of the time than if I'd done the whole file by hand.

There's no substitute for a native speaker, but tech can help speed up the process immensely :)

Just a tip from my opinion: Be more descriptive in the title. To be blunt, no one really cares if you launch something. I'd rather have the few precious characters of the title tell me something about the app.

Other than that, looks like a cool app! :)

Haha, thanks for that. We'll bear it in mind in future. Glad you like the look of the app though.

I know this is referring to the iOS app, but can I ask why you require the permissions you do for the Android App?

I'm not sure why a network scanner needs access to my contact list, call log and SMS messages. Is this the only way to have access to usage meters? I would of thought they're exposed another way as android tracks that as well natively?

Unfortunately those are the permissions required for monitoring usage, so it looks more sinister than it is. It's irritating that in order to count data use and texts sent we have to ask for permission to access texts and contacts, which we NEVER do.

Thanks for the reply. I've installed the android version and will play with it on my walk home through boston. Should be interesting :)

I do like that it shows billing cycle, however it appears to be off by ~2 weeks on my device.

Just tried the iOS version. A couple pieces of feedback: * On the "Dashboard" screen, the ligt reflection in the upper left of each dial was confusing at first. I thought it indicated something be aimed for in the central "compass". * The compass is also somewhat unclear as to which direction is better (if you've never used a compas before). I do see you addressed this in the "About" section of the app, but you could probably do something visually to make it more apparent.

Overall, great job. Sorry about the nits I picked :o)

Thanks a lot, no problem about the nits, we love feedback! Agreed about the compass, we'll have a think about it for the next update.

The app crashes constantly on the "Coverage" tab, using the map. I'm using an iPhone 4S, on WIFI, and I'm in the midwest.

Nit-picking: It looks like the edge insets on the navigation bar buttons aren't quite set correctly.

Great work though!

awesome, but functionality seems limited... I still like knowing about specific towers like this app: http://bit.ly/13pXgQE

The author on the iTunes market seems quite close to your HackerNews user name. If you are the creator of that app it would be good form to note that in your comment. Also, if you are the creator of the app your icons seem to look very similar to the custom ones we created to use on the OpenSignal website...

He is the author of the other app - link to his site is in his Bio!

I am the publisher of the app. Did I do something wrong?

You need to work on your shilling.

stop the hidden tradedouler link please

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