Wordfast launches Wordfast anywhere

A few days ago Wordfast launched their internet-based CAT tool application. This is no doubt a step towards this sky full of clouds (if you know what I mean) but at a first glance a very simplistic one. One thing we can say in favor of Wordfast is that they are consistent with their old look, keeping their old followers safe from the riddle of nowadays features-packed CAT tools. One thing we can say against them is that they just keep the pace in the industry, provide no great breakthroughs and really need some help with the design of their interphase. Of course, at some point we could say that the simple the better, but I would say that I'd rather keep it simple and go a little complicated every now and then, but still have the option, than just having to stay simple. The new tool promises to be free of charge, asks for not many details to create an account, and will run from almost any internet-enabled device. This last promise is perhaps the most interesting one. In this days of mobility frenzy, the promise to take care of that urgent translation in the middle of the traffic while heading downtown seems like gold to me. Maybe you can't progress that much, but sometimes a little progress is gold. Picture yourself in the backseat of that taxi, coming back from that downtown meeting you reluctantly attended. You could just take your iPad out of your portfolios and start taking advantage of the time. This is what in my opinion gives value to their offer. The tool is free, so no matter what you use, SDL Trados, Alchemy Publisher, or any other CAT tool, you could just work there, export your TM and then just import it into your local TM. An ideal scenario would be as follows for me (this is only in theory, I will carry out the tests and publish them soon):
You get out of your meeting, rush into a cab and find yourself trapped in traffic trying to find yourself something to do. Suddenly you remember, you are the "proud" owner of an iPad with a 3g connection, you take off your jacket, roll up your sleeves, and get down to work. First you use your logmein connection to get into your iMac at your office, find this urgent file, connect to Wordfast anywhere, upload it and have it ready. Then you just open the Wordfast anywhere website on your iPad and start working. In the middle of your journey through the traffic you get a call and get a request to meet someone else not far from your actual location. You get off the cab, look at your watch and realize you still have almost 2 hours before the meeting takes place. You rush yourself to a Starbucks order a very nice caramel macchiato (you need the sugar right now the calories won't hurt that much), a turkey breast panini and sit in a nice coach to cool down and keep translating with your IPad and your online application. After the 2 hours are gone you rush to your meeting just around the corner, chat with your client, realize this could just have been a phone call, and hit the road in the yellow car again. Unfortunately for you it is rush hour again, but this time you are ready to face it, getting "comfortable" on the back seat of the cab, you wear your headphones, look for some soothing music in your iPod application in the iPad, open the Anywhere website and keep translating. By the time you get out of the traffic it is so late that getting to the office will just be a waste of time, so you decide to just get home. When you arrive home, all you want to do is unwind from the craziness of the day and comfortably sit in your veranda to drink a glass of wine (ok you could also have a cup of Coffee if you think it is to early in the week to drink alcohol). You just take out your bluetooth keyboard, your iPad stand and comfortably sit to translate and enjoy the view (as long as you don't have kids going crazy because you just arrived!). Next morning you get to the office, log into your Anywhere, download your translation memory and import it into your favorite CAT application. How does this sound? It sounds great to me as long as the web-based application is responsive and reliable, as long as my information is guaranteed to be kept as private, and as long as I don't get caught in using just Wordfast, but instead have full compatibility with my current Desktop CAT tool. Well, we shall put this to the test in the next days and keep you all posted. In any case, keep enjoying that glass of wine or cup of coffee and let us do the hard work to provide you with tips and recommendations. Cheers!