Stature Software

Google Translate iPhone App – A HUGE Help for Business and Travel

February 10th, 2011 by Erin Posted in Business, Technology | No Comments »

There were many noteworthy things going on in technology this past week, like exciting talk of Apple releasing the iPad 3 in the fall and the ho-hum news of Facebook moving its headquarters from Palo Alto to Menlo Park, CA.

But what was of real interest to me, and I’m sure a lot of other people, was the new Google Translate app for iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch.

Available for free from the iTunes store, the new app translates voice input for 15 languages!

Google Translate for iOS also translates words or phrases into 50 languages and can read translations aloud in 23 languages.

According to the Google Mobile Blog, “the app also includes all of the major features of the web app, including the ability to view dictionary results for single words, access your starred translations and translation history even when offline, and support romanized text like Pinyin and Romaji.”

In January, Google launched a similar Translate app for Android devices.

Traveling for business or pleasure? Be sure to have Google Translate in your back pocket. This will no doubt be a handy tool for anyone traveling abroad – or even a boardroom businessman who has to communicate via satellite with, let’s say, foreign investors. Just talk right into the phone and have the translation read back to you aloud.

While handy, I do have to say that Search Engine Land may be over-dramatizing the launch of this app just a tad. They call Google Translate “a small glimpse at the future of search” – meaning that Google has broken ground in the new “search for words (and their meanings) in different languages” territory.

That is dicey terrain that will take many, many more years to dissect. Let us, instead, focus on the here-and-now – and use Translate for what it’s intended: Translation.

 Tags: Business, google mobile, google translate iphone app, search engine land, translation, travel

Password Generator – More Security, Less Thinking

February 3rd, 2011 by Erin Posted in Technology | No Comments »

Have you ever stopped and counted how many passwords you have?

While we need a password for just about everything these days, chances are you use the same password, or some sort of variant, for every login.

Security experts tell us this is a big “no no” – but do we listen?

No way.

We don’t want to have to actually think when we’re logging in somewhere – we want to get in, and get in quick!

The creators of ObPwd, thankfully, understand our plight. Their unique password generator application promises to give us our security back – and do so without requiring us to use too much brain power.

Here’s how it works.

For starters, ObPwd is a password generator, not an application for storing your passwords. It is available as a free application for computers running Mac OS X and it is a free extension for anyone running Firefox.

ObPwd reads images and will create a unique password based on that image. For example, if you click on a picture of your car, it will generate the same password everytime you click on that particular picture.

Even if you change the name of the image, ObPwd will always generate the same passcode. According to the program’s creators, if you copy images and store them in various locations, the application will still generate the same passwords.

You can also click on images on websites to generate passwords. But, if the image gets replaced, you’re out of luck.

Advantage:

- ObPwd is great for creating a limited number of passwords that you regularly use. Because you need different images for each password, using more than a couple different images could make it difficult to remember which password is used for each purpose.

Disadvantage:

- If you use multiple computers – or a tablet device like an iPad – you need to have all the images available on all computers in order to have your password generated. Difficult? Yes. But, it’s what makes your passwords more secure.

ObPwd may not have the most memorable, user-friendly name for consumers – but its application is unique and provides us with an extra layer of security. It’s probably not the best option for mobile people who need quick access to password-protected sites… but, hey, I’d try it.

I’d try just about anything – once.

 Tags: application, firfox, mac osx, number of passwords, password generator, storing your passwords

Spying Sales Leads on Twitter

January 27th, 2011 by Erin Posted in Twitter | No Comments »

Twitter is a lot of things to a lot of people… but lead generation? I wasn’t so sure, until now.

Social analytics startup, Viralheat, has just developed a software application that it claims can isolate tweets on Twitter that are potential sales leads. It’s called Human Intent – and it aims to simplify lead generation by helping businesses identify social media users who are on the edge of making purchasing decisions. All the business has to do is set up a keyword search and Human Intent automatically sorts through social media updates to pinpoint those who’re expressing an intent to buy something.

So how does the algorithm work?

Viralheat says it’s a combination of sentiment analysis, language processing and predictive analytics. It identifies people looking to buy something, people complaining about an existing product they own or perhaps looking for a replacement, or anyone who may have an issue with a service they currently use. The algorithm also has built-in filters for intent actions by verticals. Viralheat’s CTO  co-founder Vishal Sankhla notes, “Auto leads are not the same as finance leads, insurance leads, electronic leads, software services leads, etc.”

For higher accuracy, Human Intent includes a spam filter, which removes retweets and mentions that are not relevant. Finally, the algorithm learns through human curation. If it makes a mistake, users can mark tweets that should or should not be identified as leads. As more feedback rolls in, the algorithm improves.

All of Human Intent’s data can be viewed in a dashboard, and can be exported to programs like Excel or Salesforce. Also, since it links directly to consumers’ social updates, businesses using the program can respond to those updates right on the spot.

This is a brilliant idea – as it eliminates the dreary marketing duty of sifting through thousands of tweets and other social updates to determine potential narrow sales leads – which, by the way, I thought was next to impossible on Twitter.

I thought wrong.

Launching in beta next week, Human Intent will only be available to existing Viralheat customers at no additional cost (for now). Once the program launches in full, pricing and availability will be announced, and beta users will receive a discount.

 Tags: human intent, lead generation, sales leads, Twitter, viral heat

A Dream To-Do App for Business Professionals

January 20th, 2011 by Erin Posted in Stature Projects | No Comments »

Application developers who are racking their brains trying to come up with the next best business app, are now getting ideas straight from the horses’ mouths.

Users of Google’s Tasks app were polled on what they’d like to see next. In other words: What would their dream to-do app do?

This, of course, is a question that has played out in all of our minds. But for those business professionals who need better organizational skills and task management, well, they have more than a few helpful ideas.

One of the common requests from people was a task list that doesn’t always look the same, and one the supports delayed tasks. For instance, if you have a conference call scheduled for next Friday perhaps the app won’t show this task (and offer a completion check) until the day before as opposed to viewing it on the to-do list for an entire week. Basically, people don’t want an app that treats all to-dos as something you can do any time.

Here are some of the other dream to-do app requests:

- Available across platforms (iOS, mac, windows, android, etc…)

- Write note first, categorize later

- Color coding

- Syncing with Google Docs or web interface

- Email functions with enhanced features, like the ability to flag a message for future follow up.

- Quick & intuitive adding and editing of tasks.

- Reasonable security; password protection.

- Ability to turn on/off specific features.

- A task list that is hierarchical and allows projects within projects.

- A notification system alerting when to complete a task (email/notification) – and the subject line of the email needs to be the task.

So there you have it. Sounds easy enough, right?

Developers, now get crackin’.

 Tags: application developers, business app, google tasks, task management, to do app

Ask.com is Back with More Q&A

January 13th, 2011 by Erin Posted in Technology | No Comments »

Ask.com. Remember them?

They were big like 10 years ago, back before “Google” was a verb.

I’ve never really used them before, but may be willing now. Recently, I been searching the Web, not with terms, but with questions. I’ve needed answers to ailments, how to remove three discs stuck in the Wii console (don’t ask), quick fixes for recipes, even grammar questions. Sometimes Google is helpful with my questions. Sometimes not. Ask.com may be just what I’ve needed.

The 15-year-old search engine has undergone a makeover of sorts, now offering a social search and more personalized browsing.

Here’s how it works.

Simply type in your query and Ask.com will direct the question to experts – rather than leaving the answers up to the whole community – and by identifying the users’ interests through their LinkedIn and Facebook profiles.

This new personalized browsing feature – which is available with an Ask.com invite or to Ask’s iPhone app users – helps the site generate its own profile for a user. Give a few pieces of information, along with some Facebook and LinkedIn details, and poof – your Ask.com profile is built. Based on your profile, Ask.com is betting that it’ll know what types of questions you’ll want answered – and, in doing so, will route those questions to someone whose profile shows experience or knowledge related to your query. Does that make them an expert? Probably not.

And here’s where the social aspect comes in.

The personal profile that is created will help Ask.com identify users with similar interests, and users will be able to follow other users.

It does sound like a lot of work just to get a question answered. But, if the Q&A space is something that floats your boat – like it does for me – then the new relaunch of Ask.com is probably worth your while.

No advertising, just information. That’s what I like.

 Tags: ask.com, ask.com invite, google, personalized browsing, search engine, social search