Want to speak Spanish when you don't? There's an App for that...

This App is something special, Jibbigo will translate English speech into Spanish, or Spanish into English, without going online.

All you need do is launch the $25 app, speak into your iPhone microphone, and the translation is played over the speaker (and shown in text on the iPhone’s screen).

We think this system’s going to be extended into other languages, and while it’s clearly not going to help you navigate the complete linguistic lexicon, we suspect it’s a sign of applications to come, which in future could enable better communication between people, whatever their foreign language ability.

On the iPhone 3GS, the app will translate both languages at once (so you can talk naturally to one another), while earlier model iPhone users must choose which direction they want translation done.

It carries a dictionary of 40,000 words, and performs best if limited to one or two sentences at a time.

Quite overwhelmed at how this advanced technology can be held inside a multi-use device that fits inside your pocket. It’s promising, we think.

Developer's site.