Alright, admit it: you're obsessed with the new Word Lens iPhone app too. If not, you're about to be.

Word Lens is a free app to start, and what it does is uses the camera on your iPhone 3GS or iPhone 4 to instantly manipulate words. In the free version, the app reverses the words right on screen, or erases them completely—your choice. If you pony up $4.99 each, you can upgrade to a Spanish to English or English to Spanish dictionary, which provides the magical instantaneous translation of (clear) words viewed by your phone's camera. We held it up to a Kindle, and a page of Spanish literature, to demonstrate above. The real thing is on the left, and at right is how the Kindle appears in our iPhone camera, with the Word Lens translation.

Note that it's not perfect, but it works best for reading simpler things, like menus at a Mexican restaurant or directions. ]]> JetSetCD 2010-12-20T17:14:51-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2010/11/11/95929/367

Would you pay more attention to your tour guide if she was wearing a bustier that literally spoke to you? The Japanese hope so, as a lingerie company has just unveiled the "Welcome to Japan bra," based on the design of a regular tour guide uniform but oh so more revealing.

The bustier is part of a big push for Japan to attract 30 million foreign tourists each year, says the Sydney Morning Herald, and it even commemorates the opening of Haneda Airport's new International Terminal by affixing an airplane on a white bra strap, like a runway (you can just barely see this at the top of the image). ]]> JetSetCD 2010-11-11T10:34:46-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2010/10/18/84011/925

Delta might not have the fun factor of JetBlue or Virgin America, but they sure fly to a lot more destinations. So if you’ve ever dreamt of being a global flight attendant now might be a great time to consider a career up in the air with Delta. It’s more than just serving drinks and reviewing safety information, and you might just need to shell out some cash for a copy of Rosetta Stone.

Make sure you have some pretty strong stuff on your resume, because since Delta opened their website in search of new flight attendants they’ve received over 80,000 applications. The carrier is bringing back some workers from furlough, but they’re still looking for even more new blood for their crew. Now’s the time to update that LinkedIn profile you forgot about, and to delete those embarrassing pictures off that other social network. ]]> kjb 2010-10-18T17:00:05-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2010/6/21/162735/902

We've seen vending machines at airports peddling everything from Kosher food to gold bars, and yet this Rosetta Stone vending machine at Orlando International Airport completely took us by surprise last weekend.

It makes perfect sense to be selling the expensive (but comprehensive) language learning courses at an airport, but why in the terminal with the flights from Southwest and Jetblue? They aren't exactly flying to Europe or Asia or anything. That said, these are selling as when we passed back by this machine on our flight out of MCO, we noticed that a few more languages had sold out.

Would you buy a language learning course from an airport vending machine like this?Let us know in comments below!

Related Stories:
· Where to Find One of the WOrld's First Gold Bar Vending Machines [Jaunted]
· Keeping Kosher at JFK [Jaunted]
· Airport News [Jaunted]

[Photo: Jaunted] ]]> JetSetCD 2010-06-21T16:55:55-05:00 28.4313828 -81.308437 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2009/12/3/1338/16052

In this day and age, travelers just have to realize that the blah, formal phrases in pocket guidebooks just won't do anymore. Words like "please" and "no, thank you" won't magically restore order to a mob trying to board a European LCC flight, and they sure won't stop a touchy-feely fellow passengers on public transportation. So we're here to help you out with a bit of dirty dialect, for special occasions of course.

Today's Lesson: Five Essential Italian Phrases

1. What the hell are you talking about? = Che cazzo stai dicendo?
We'd be tempted to use this in our daily life outside of Italy, but within it's truly indispensable. Using this phrase is how you deal with someone trying to confuse you with a flow of Italian. Set a stalling waiter straight, shake off the inevitable scam artists hanging around the Vatican, and have it ready for playful fights with your friends or the parking ticket officer.
[rough pronunciation: kay kahtz-oh sty dee-chen-doe]]]> JetSetCD 2009-12-03T14:09:37-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2008/5/9/111020/6710

The notoriously hilarious website Signspotting has just relaunched, featuring even more photos of ridiculous Chinglish, poorly worded bathroom placards and unfortunately named restaurants. (Dinner at Phat Phuc Noodle Bar, anyone?) The revamped site now lets you rate every sign, making it into a veritable Hot or Not for semioticians.

It can also net you some travel cash. Every week, site photo editor Doug Lansky sifts through dozens of entries to pick the best sign and pays the photographer $50, just like that. Really awesome signs can even earn round-the-world tickets on Star Alliance; so far six have been awarded and Lansky hopes to hand out another next month.

In the meantime, he's organizing an exhibition in Stockholm of some of the best Signspotting has to offer. The outdoor show in Kungsträdgården Park runs July 5-20.

Related Stories:
· Signspotting [Official Site]
· Signspotting Exhibit [Official Site]
· Chinglish coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: Signspotting]]]> pbb 2008-05-09T13:00:01-05:00 http://www.jaunted.com/story/2008/5/2/55425/15007

Back in high school German classes, we were handed a weighty dictionary and a grammar-heavy textbook and left to fend for ourselves. Trust us, it didn't help when we finally got to Germany. If only we'd had iPods back then, we could have downloaded the new iPod phrasebooks from Collins publishers.

The new "digital phrasebooks" come in all the main western European languages, plus Polish and Mandarin, and come July, they'll add Japanese, Turkish and Finnish to the mix. For less than $10, you can see and hear 500 useful phrases that really are useful: from "Where can I charge my cell phone?" to "Is there a danger of avalanche?"

If you're not convinced, they even let you start off with a free demo--we checked the German one and it had basic phrases all the way up to "This is my partner." Seems they've got everything covered.

Related Stories:
· Collins Launch Digital Phrasebooks [Business Traveller]
· Lingolook Flashcards [Jaunted]
· Languages coverage [Jaunted]

[Photo: cdharrison]]]> amandak 2008-05-02T10:00:01-05:00 Search Jaunted string http://www.jaunted.com/search/