- Quick specs
- Price: Free to try (3-day trial); $99.00 to buy (Buy it now)
- Operating system: Windows XP/Vista
- Date added: September 24, 2009
- Total Downloads: 5,669,490
- Downloads last week: 1,077
- See full specifications
- CNET editors' rating: stars
- Average user rating: stars out of 155 votes
See all user reviews
CNET editors' review
Reviewed by: Seth Rosenblatt on May 25, 2009
The ancient city of Babylon was a crossroads of cultures and languages, and the program Babylon makes good on its linguistic heritage. It can translate 31 languages from your desktop, offers a huge gallery of glossary add-ons, and gives direct access to Wikipedia results in 20 languages. In addition to deeper language libraries, the latest version introduces a new, streamlined interface, single-click document and Web site translation, and a new language detection-feature that recognizes languages without user input.
Babylon translates individual words and phrases on the fly by highlighting and right-clicking or using a hot-key combination that can be adjusted in the Settings menu. Babylon 8 also introduces a "globe" option that keeps the program running in the background and available on your desktop. You can listen to a computerized voice pronounce words in English, but you'll need to add more text-to-speech engines to hear words in other languages. Another helpful feature lets you quickly convert currency, measurements, or time zones, and you can create your own personalized glossaries with links and embedded images.
If you regularly need translations across all your programs and Web surfing, Babylon's default setting to load at start-up will probably seem like a boon. If that's not what you're looking for, you can adjust it under the Miscellaneous tab in Settings. Resource usage spiked when translating full documents, but not overly so--it worked rapidly and didn't interfere with a simultaneously running media player. The full-featured 30-day trial offers plenty of time to decide whether Babylon is valuable to you. The wide array of features and impressive options for adding custom content help this reference tool earn a top rating.
Publisher's description
From Babylon :Babylon 8 is the ultimate all-in-one translation solution operated by a single click on your mouse. Simply click on a word or text in any desktop application and get instant translation results into 75 languages. Translation of full texts, Web pages and comprehensive documents is supported by 31 languages. All these features and more, like the integration into Microsoft Office Speller menu, contextual access, language detection, currencies and units conversion, are accessible without interrupting your work flow. Babylon 8 comes with a new dictionary pack, including updated Babylon dictionaries and 17 new Wikipedia titles. You may enhance your translation experience with premium content dictionaries from acclaimed publishing houses such as Oxford, Britannica, Merriam-Webster, Larousse, Vox, Langenscheidt, Pons, and Duden. With Babylon 8, understanding, reading and writing in all languages is easier, faster, and more efficient than ever before.
What's new in this version:
Version 8.0 r38 may include unspecified updates, enhancements, or bug fixes.
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User reviews
- Average user rating: 3.3 stars out of 155 votes
- My rating: 0 stars Write review
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Showing 5 of 24 user reviewsSee all 24 user reviews
This software version | All versions -
Version: Babylon 8.0 r38
"They unilaterally disable your license"
Pros: Good dictionaries
Cons: But you can't use them. Babylon somehow unilaterllay disables them, saying they have "leaked" out onto the internet, and that you have to buy them again. See this long thread: http://shar.es/aLEKt
Summary: Don't buy it - your money will disappear.
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Version: Babylon 8.0 r38
Pros: a low grade of efficiency, the rest only problems, to begin for receiving what one paid for
Cons: As regards to this company one feel very ragged
Summary: DO NOT BUY
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2 out of 2 people found this review helpful
Version: Babylon 8.0 r38
"Babylong is writing here a 5 stars reviews!"
Pros: It's clear Babylon themselfs are the ones that writing here the 5 stars reviews. Read my summery.
Cons: It's clear Babylon themselfs are the ones that writing here the 5 stars reviews. Read my summery.
Summary: The first review is from September 28, 2009, and it has one star.
Since that and the last review, there isn't any two reviews with the same date.
But!
The ONLY reviews that has the same date, are THREE from September 30, 20... read more >> -
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful
Version: Babylon 8.0 r38
"Expert user AFTER 8 yrs, GOT TIRED OF IT"
Pros: Quick simple translation of basic very common words.
Cons: With every update you are going to receive an AGGRESIVE number of marketing message. They get more intrusive every time, blocking sometimes functionalities if you are offline or configure not to connect to the internet.
Summary: I Bought a lifetime license and infinity updates (every update needs to be paid). New functionalities don't convince. They never improved what they were supposedly selling DICTIONARY DEFINITIONS AND TRANSLATION!!
Really poor customer service. ... read more >> -
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful
Version: Babylon 8.0 r38
"Fast translations; locks you into perpetual upgrades"
Pros: Very fast translation of words
Cons: Your lifetime purchase will last until the next upgrade [in 3 years time]
Translation of individual words and some phrases - no sample sentences
The translation engine is not lemmatised; it does not cope with conjugations or declensionsSummary: Your lifetime purchase will last until the next upgrade [in 3 years time]
Translation of individual words and some phrases - no sample sentences
For German-English, the translation of a noun does not give the definite article - so to find ... read more >> - See all 24 user reviews Write review
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