The first half of 2010 we´ve been very busy consolidating Forvo´s infrastructure. Now we are ready to release a bunch of amazing tools for you. Last week we announced Forvo Translate, now it´s time for more:

- Forvo API: More than 100 developers have signed up for an API account since we opened it. Now, we are happy to announce that is completely operative. We would love to see what great websites you create with Forvo pronunciations. Let´s show the world how to pronounce!

And as the last piece of Forvo you already know what is coming next… soon.

I have to admit that Forvo Translate started as a joke… Could we do a Translation service better than Google´s? The answer was yes. And we did it :)

Using Forvo´s API, we´ve added to Google Translate the only this is wrong with it: Human pronunciations.

Sure, Google have made a great job with their text-to-speech voice synthesis but if you speak other than English the results are just hilarious. Furthermore, Google have pronunciation enabled for just couple of languages. Forvo covers the 57 languages of Google Translate, and about 200 more possible to come.

So we are now introducing Forvo Translate. It´s almost the same that Google Translate but with authentic native pronunciation. Why don´t you give it a try and comment your thoughts on it?

Or maybe you will enjoy more this presentation of Forvo Translate by Ilmostro a Forvo Editor:

Ask yourself this… would you employ C-3PO to teach you Wookiee, if you could have Chewbacca do it?

The answer is NAAAAAAAAAAAAWGH

While we have yet to figure out how to take recordings from irascible aliens, we can already upload thousands of human pronounced words on your mobile… or android. Don’t take chances with artificial voices, go for the real thing!

Nobody worries about upsetting a droid, but you don’t want to upset a Wookiee by saying things wrong, do you?”

Stop Androids. Get Human.

This summer part of the Forvo team will be visiting Los Angeles and San Francisco to establish partnerships with other tech companies, entrepreneurs and geeks ;)

We have also planned the first Forvo users meetup in the area. If you want to know more about these events planned for August and September just leave your comment, we´ll be giving more information soon in this blog and in our Facebook group.

An amazing project developed by Linguamon – Casa de les Lengües.

“In what country are the most languages spoken? How many languages are spoken in Germany? Where is Swahili an official language? How many dialects of Catalan are spoken in Catalonia? To answer all these questions, and many more besides, look no further than Living Maps, a resource that Linguamón – House of Languages has created, using state-of-the-art map processing technology, to help internet users find out all about the planet’s linguistic diversity.”

More information.

Three new languages available to browse Forvo, Danish, Hungarian and Hindi. The editors who have made this possible are Olfine, Detheltsort, Frankie, Komal_K, so thanks to them.

Maybe you think that we are only releasing new languages these days. Not at all!! :) We are almost done for the API final release. There are more than 40 developers pre-registered and we can´t wait to see what they have in mind to create with Forvo pronunciations.

And we are also readying a special tool that we hope you are going to love as much as we do. Prepared to be surprised.

1. Kawaii
2. arigato gozaimasu
3. hajimemashite
4. itadakimasu
5. Hiroshima
6. Subaru
7. konnichiwa
8. aishiteru
9. doraemon
10. Nigiri-zushi

New languages come in pairs. We mentioned German in our latest post but also Dutch was released. It was an awesome work from more than 20 people that joined their effors to complete these translations. Thanks!

These are the other languages currently been translated: Finnish, Polish, Romanian, Hindi, Japanese, Danish and Hungarian. So we hope to have Forvo translated into your language soon!

Maximum speed at Forvo HQ. After ending the beta stage, now we are happy to announce the first steps of our long-waited API. We have opened a new site to give you more information about it and also to start receiving your pre-inscriptions. If you plan to make your site much interesing using Forvo pronunciations don´t wait to ask for your free API key.

We are quite excited about the news projects and posibilities that the API is giving to you. Pronunciations for your dictionary? A better Google Translate with real human pronunciations? Whatever you want.

Last week also saw the light the German translation of Forvo. We have translated, with your help, Forvo into 11 languages and 5 more are under development. Thanks!

It has been almost two years online collecting the greatest pronunciation database in the world so we decided last week to close the Beta stage of Forvo.

The last improvements were related to the recorder. Now it´s more accurate and sensitive. We would like to thank to the great people at avchat who help us a lot with it. For the people who felt the recorder a little buggy these are great news :)

The end of the Beta is not the end of our project! We keep working hard in new translations, features and of course the “really coming soon” API.

Another big milestone in Forvo development: we are now releasing Forvo in Arabic. This is the first language we not only translate but adapt the layout to the right to left writing. Thanks to our dear editor jasmen who has guided us in all the translation process.

This is the amazing look of Forvo in Arabic but the best is that you check it online for yourself and don´t doubt to report any problem you find.