A few days ago, I wrote about the release of the iPhone version of Pre-Babel Lens, but I have changed the plan.
The app that was time applying was translated by default with Apple Intelligence and supplemented with the machine learning Translation Framework format, but it was returned after being pointed out in the review that Apple Intelligence and language pack installation support were installed.If you think about it, it’s just common sense, but there are people who use Apple Intelligence or download the translation pack for the first time with this app, but I was only issuing simple error messages when Apple Intelligence or the translation pack were not available. The review pointed out this point. Introduce it so that users naturally download Apple Intelligence or the language pack.
I have begun to fix, but it is very difficult to ask users to prepare in two ways, and I found that this awkwardness highlighted the slowness of Apple Intelligence.
Therefore, I decided to implement two translation modes: “AI translation” using Apple Intelligence and “machine translation” using only Apple Translate Framework, and to make machine translation the default translation mode. First, download the language pack.By the time you can switch to AI translation from the menu, the preparation for Apple Intelligence is already complete.
One of its features has weakened, but the advantage of local operation remains. Most importantly, it has become more stable and faster.
There is also a welcome side effect. Since it is based on Apple Translation Framework, Pre-Babel Lens’s iOS version has a much larger operating environment. All devices running iOS 26 or later are supported.iPad has also become compatible with a dedicated interface, and it will run on Mac.
Mac version has released v0.7.0, default machine translation is enabled.
File type (.docx, .doc), PDF, drag&drop import, and keyboard shortcuts are supported, so practicality has improved. Translation without worrying about APIs or communication is stress-free. I’ll leave it to the AI to work in its area of expertise. Full translation is too heavy a load for local AI. I was a little too dependent on it, but this is exactly Maslow’s hammer bias.
If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail
Abraham Maslow, The Psychology of Science,1966
In the future version, Pre-Babel Lens will become an app that supports translation proofreading and writing assistance that I need. At that time, Apple Intelligence running locally will undoubtedly be of great help.
note: this English is translated with Apple Intelligence.
