Could it one day be reality?

Entrepreneurial Idea: "There's an app for that." Or so they say, but there's no app for changing the language interface on an Android phone. We are forced to go with an Iphone or a weird unresponsive smartphone to get the language setting we want. Android is getting better and better every passing day, but they are still losing out on a lot of customers because of no option to change the language setting like one can do on an Iphone. My idea is for an app that can do that. The day we can all have ANY phone of our choice with the language we understand will be the day cellular devices take a great leap into the future.


The idea above seems very simple in words, right? It's not-not anymore that is. After many additions to the program it's a lot more than what it use to be. It's an idea that came out of a want to help my parents, now if it were to ever come to fruition it may help many more in the world than just my parents. It's a big idea, bigger than what I originally intended because of all the additions. Ready for a run through?

In this day and age, news spreads in an instant. Gone are the days of waiting until something became old news. Now we have things like IM and social networks. One of the most well known and frequently used one is Facebook. If people really thought about it Facebook is actually a free advertising website. The number of "likes" on just website alone can generate enough notice for an idea that it may eventually take off. After letting the public know more about this app it's time to make the app more customer friendly so that more people will more likely use it and rate it well.

In order to keep up with customers it's wise to also keep up with the company internally. Inside the operations of the company things must be in order. Using software such as Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Access keeps the company in order. As the app gains more and more followers better equipment is needed for all the improvements that the app has integrated into it's original design (i.e. the addition of cloud storage, and saving translations.) Included with the extra pieces of equipment would be m RAM and cache.

This is IF this can be accomplished. This is a big IF. In order for this to happen more people have to have the desire to help the people in our country who do not speak or read English really well and therefore has a very hard time using their electronic devices. A lead programmer would be needed in order to create this program. Then after this somehow get it to the public through one of the app stores.

After this- we may or may not make enough revenue to continue, but if we do; would that be enough revenue to get all the new gear that may be needed to expand even further? Probably not so more investors would be needed. When there is a good amount of money to use, then it's back to work. We can then start adding a lot more improvements and make the app a global thing and a lot more than what it use to be so that it can stick around to help others from all around the world. Maybe it'll happen one day, maybe.

Safety First

Entrepreneurial Idea: "There's an app for that." Or so they say, but there's no app for changing the language interface on an Android phone. We are forced to go with an Iphone or a weird unresponsive smartphone to get the language setting we want. Android is getting better and better every passing day, but they are still losing out on a lot of customers because of no option to change the language setting like one can do on an Iphone. My idea is for an app that can do that. The day we can all have ANY phone of our choice with the language we understand will be the day cellular devices take a great leap into the future.

Ok, let's backtrack. Remember that idea in the blog titled "Technical Improvements" where one can save their speech translations and then save it on a cloud? There can be a lot of security risks if this app is used by a corporation. Some of the conversations may contain very sensitive information that other people (outsiders) shouldn't have access to. In a world that is becoming more technologically advanced by the second there are also people out there who work every second on how to break the security on these advancements. These people include hackers- who just basically try to hack into a database. Then there are "crackers" who will probably try to access an employees recorded messages by trying to figure out their username and password. Finally comes the hardest to deal with and hardest to fish out threats, "corporate spies" i.e. unethical employees, they try to gain  high level access in a corporation in order to access information. Great...what to do now?

Just like every second technology is being improved, and every second people try to break the security measures put in place to protect sensitive information, there are also people working on trying to stop these people from accessing this information. These kind of people are the saviors of privacy on the internet. They have developed a system called, "Firewalls" that protects data from unauthorized intrusions by constantly monitoring transmissions to and from the computer. So, in the event that something malicious, like a virus were to attack, the system would know right away so that the virus can be quarantined immediately. I guess putting out a few extra bucks won't hurt, if you want your data safe.

So, are you afraid that your data will be stolen, or accessed without your permission? Don't worry the translation app has you covered. It already comes with all the necessary protection software that it needs to keep everything safe and away from prying eyes. Rest assured that everything that needs to be kept private, will be kept private. Then, to add icing to the cake you can also customize the app's security settings- that is also protected by an encryption (people who do not have the proper access codes cannot tamper with the security settings) so that you can monitor exactly what goes in and out.

Operating the Operating System

Entrepreneurial Idea: "There's an app for that." Or so they say, but there's no app for changing the language interface on an Android phone. We are forced to go with an Iphone or a weird unresponsive smartphone to get the language setting we want. Android is getting better and better every passing day, but they are still losing out on a lot of customers because of no option to change the language setting like one can do on an Iphone. My idea is for an app that can do that. The day we can all have ANY phone of our choice with the language we understand will be the day cellular devices take a great leap into the future.

In this day and age there are all sorts of phones, and to make life more difficult for the general public they DON'T OPERATE ON ONE SYSTEM! As if life wasn't hard enough, we now have to deal with all these different operating systems. There is Apple, Android, Blackberry, Palm (not really around anymore...) The app that I want to create will probably not be useful for Apple based cellphones, but it definitely will be useful for Android, Blackberry, and Palms devices. However, here's another problem; each operating system's app market isn't based off the same operating system, but don't worry we have you covered. The app will hopefully be very configurable so that no matter which market you download it from it will work for your phone. Accessible to all is how things like this should be.

Speaking of accessible to all, how does the idea of open source sound like to all you techy configure-ers? Do you have a great idea for how to make this app better, would you like to configure it to your liking? You wouldn't have to pay a penny from your pocket for the codes on the app to fiddle around with it. Also, you can redistribute it! How awesome is that? If you want you can pay a fee for support, but that's totally up to you. If some how you third part developers can somehow make it so that no matter the OS everyone's app is the same, then you've just landed yourself a new job!

Sharing is caring, that's how the world should operate a bit more. There is just too much of a political thing going on  along with corporate greed. There is always a very innovative and smart person out there who is just waiting for the opportune moment to turn the tables of their life. It would be nice if the company of a developing app could help them, maybe they would turn around and help us. A world where even operating systems are the same will hopefully bring the people of our world a bit closer to each other.

Another Blogger

Blogger's URL: http://techcrunch.com/2012/02/26/habits-are-the-new-viral-why-startups-must-be-behavior-experts/

The blogger I've decided to review is Nir Eyal. He has founded and sold two companies since 2003. Currently he works on behavior design, market strategy, and agile development.Nir Eyal also works for several Silicon Valley incubators, and on top of that collaborates in lectures with Dr. BJ Fogg's Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab. He typically blogs about technology and behavior design.

In Nir Eyal's blog- Habits Are The New Viral: Why Startups Must Be Behavior Experts, he blogs about how in order to attain status as a well ran company then that company should study consumer behaviors. Since after all most people have habits, why not make money off of that? He speaks of that habit/ itch that one has to constantly check their email and Facebook page. It even goes so far to saying that if someone were to say something as ordinary as "book" the words "Amazon.com" may automatically come to mind just because your mind links those two together so tightly. He argues that at the start up of a company consumer behavior analysis should be built into the very DNA of the company in order to keep it running because the company has to constantly know how the consumer is changing and therefore be smart enough to figure out what the consumer wants.

I like Nir's blogging style, it's very to the point on his issues. This article also can be easily understood because it relates to my life personally. I definitely know  that "itch" he is speaking of when he mentions Facebook and email. I also agree with him that consumer behaviors should be built right into a company's DNA because there wouldn't be a business without customers and in order to keep customers you have to keep them happy. I wish he had more pictures or used other more familiar things as examples in his blog; such as how Apple has built "Genius" into their system so that it can gather anonymous information on consumer playlists and "genius-ly" make playlists for that specific consumer. Other than that I thought this was a very informative and interesting article to read. If I ever were to build a company I would probably refer to this article on consumer behavioral patterns. Keep up the good work Nir!

Technical Improvements

Entrepreneurial Idea: "There's an app for that." Or so they say, but there's no app for changing the language interface on an Android phone. We are forced to go with an Iphone or a weird unresponsive smartphone to get the language setting we want. Android is getting better and better every passing day, but they are still losing out on a lot of customers because of no option to change the language setting like one can do on an Iphone. My idea is for an app that can do that. The day we can all have ANY phone of our choice with the language we understand will be the day cellular devices take a great leap into the future.

So I've been thinking. Perhaps after successfully making a program that can convert the internal language of a cell phone we can expand outward, literally. What I mean by this is to also translate whole passages and other materials outside of the cellphone. How cool would it be if a person just had to point their camera at something and hit the translate button or translate texts in other languages to their own? This is where Cloud Computing may come in handy. After something is translated by our program and you wanted to keep the translation (because of course it would be an awesome translation) instead of it taking up memory on your phone you could save it to our cloud and access it from anywhere in the world.

Oh! Another idea! Speech for the translated material! How cool would that be? Think about it, if you were on the streets of a foreign country and you couldn't pronounce the word your cellphone could do it for you and of course sound like the actual natives. Want to keep that conversation also for future use? No problem that can be done. If we use things like Lossy Compression (take the sounds that the human ear cannot hear and toss it-for lack of a better word) then the file that you save onto the cloud or your cellphone won't take up as much space. You will have more space for other things. Don't worry the file even after being compressed will still sound good. Using this you can maybe use it to practice your actual conversation skills.

The idea just keeps expanding because of the needs of society these days. We just want to make this product as consumer friendly as possible. The improvements that can be made to this app to make it easier for anyone to use seems endless. The only limitation for improvements is how far technology can take us. Hopefully one day this idea will come to light and the world will be more connected through mutual understanding of each others' language.

Us vs. Competitors

Entrepreneurial Idea: "There's an app for that." Or so they say, but there's no app for changing the language interface on an Android phone. We are forced to go with an Iphone or a weird unresponsive smartphone to get the language setting we want. Android is getting better and better every passing day, but they are still losing out on a lot of customers because of no option to change the language setting like one can do on an Iphone. My idea is for an app that can do that. The day we can all have ANY phone of our choice with the language we understand will be the day cellular devices take a great leap into the future.

I bet you are wondering how is this company different from all the other ones out there. Here are two examples of other companies who are similar to us, but aren't quite as unique as us and why.

Competitor 1.) https://market.android.com/details?id=com.nuance.nmdp.pro&feature=more_from_developer#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEwMiwiY29tLm51YW5jZS5ubWRwLnBybyJd
-As you can see both of us use translation technology to make the world of many languages a more connected world by letting us understand a different language. That's where the similarities end. Nuance's app is an app that needs to be spoken to in order to work. It doesn't translate the phone interface just words and conversations. How does that make using a foreign country phone any easier? The answer is it can't because you still can't read the screen on the phone.

Competitor 2.) http://www.languageline.com/
- Language Line also translates languages. However it translates more personally-there is another person on the other side. They do everything from business translations to translations for a doctor visit. There it goes again, the ending of similarities. First off it doesn't specifically deal with phones, its not an app and it can't be put on a phone interface. Second, it only translates documents, but not  the language of the phone itself, so here we are again; stuck with a foreign phone that we can't even use for simple commands.

The competitors have nothing on us. We are entirely new and different. Where as  the competitors are trying to focus on translating speech and documents we just want you to have a phone you are able to use without language frustrations. No other company it looking to do that because they just assume it's not as needed as a regular translator. They are wrong we do need a language translator for the phone interface so that we can use our phones to the fullest extent.

A Few More Improvements

Entrepreneurial Idea: "There's an app for that." Or so they say, but there's no app for changing the language interface on an Android phone. We are forced to go with an Iphone or a weird unresponsive smartphone to get the language setting we want. Android is getting better and better every passing day, but they are still losing out on a lot of customers because of no option to change the language setting like one can do on an Iphone. My idea is for an app that can do that. The day we can all have ANY phone of our choice with the language we understand will be the day cellular devices take a great leap into the future.

 In class this week my awesome IST professor gave a lecture on Hardware. It made me think about the future of my phone language modifier app more. What if the feedback was so great and more and more people were downloading and using the app? This calls for expansion and more help would be needed to run the app and improve it. I don't know much about the market so I may contact Deloitte-which is one of the world leaders in developing marketing strategies. They could help me with my next move. This may include whether I should partner up with a big company like Google to make the app more widespread and how to manage the revenue of the app. Better yet they could help create a website for the app that will draw more attention. Perhaps the website could even have a little online demo of the app so prospective "downloaders" will now exactly what they are getting.

Expansion for the app requires a lot more than just calling on Deloitte for marketing strategies. More gear would be needed for the PCs that are running the program and making it work for the millions. If the app makes a lot of revenue then it's possible to invest in better computer parts that are running the program. We can make  the computer faster and more efficient by adding a better cache. Adding more RAM to juice up the PC would be perfect too! The PC would then be able to run more programs simultaneously if the app had more programs in it due to expansion.

What do you think of these extra improvements? I think they are worth while. If something expands it's obvious that more help would be needed. If it's an app then the PC that houses the program would probably need to be better. That's where the extra revenue can be used to "beef" up the PC even more so that it's more efficient. Expansion also calls for more professional help from people who understand the market and its demands. This is where Deloitte can step in and help out by coming up with a marketing strategy and putting up a website to let more people see how the app works.

Making it Better

Entrepreneurial Idea: "There's an app for that." Or so they say, but there's no app for changing the language interface on an Android phone. We are forced to go with an Iphone or a weird unresponsive smartphone to get the language setting we want. Android is getting better and better every passing day, but they are still losing out on a lot of customers because of no option to change the language setting like one can do on an Iphone. My idea is for an app that can do that. The day we can all have ANY phone of our choice with the language we understand will be the day cellular devices take a great leap into the future.

Social Media is a huge thing in our lives nowadays. Many of us spend a huge amount of time on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter to the point where we lose track of time and are constantly  monitoring it like hounds looking for food. As a company I don't see why we can't take advantage of  the readily available focused attention. By using sites like Facebook and Twitter my idea for a language change app can be heard by the whole world in no time at all! People can "Share" the link, "Like" it and post it so that all their friends can see it and the friends of their friends can see it till almost everyone knows about it. The idea could go viral in a matter of days all because social media is instantaneous. What better way is there to spread the word on something than a great social site.

In many companies Microsoft Excel or a variation of it is constantly used to be keep inventory or to track growth and income. Excel can also be used to keep track of this language app. It can track how many users are using the app and in which countries. If the countries the users are using the app in are having some qualms about the translation software of the phone interface they can report it and it can be fixed so that the local language can understand it. Excel can also track the growth of the app and if it is getting bigger then the app developers would know to hire more help or expand.

Combining the two different things, Social Media and Excel would greatly enhance the app. Social Media will be able to attract attention to the app at a fairly fast pace and with the growth of the app Excel will be able to track the growth so that any improvements that can be made on the program can be taken care of. The app in theory should be able to run as efficiently as the language software on the Iphone.

Apple vs. Android? Almost there.

Here at Syracuse University, diversity is one of the greatest things. There are tons of people here who are from places around the world, each one with their own different background, their own different story. My story starts with my parents. I'm sure the majority of you who are reading this blog can relate when I say that our parents are the ones who give us our foundation, and our strength; for without them we wouldn't be where we are. They support us in everything we do so, wouldn't it be nice to give back to them?

I'm first generation Chinese, my parents cannot speak or write English fluently; so imagine my surprise when they asked me to look into getting a touch screen phone for them--a good one (Not the small clumsy touch screen ones--too frustrating, I'm sure some of you out there know what I mean.) I said, "OK I will look into it", but the question going through my head was how in the world are they going to FULLY use it if they can't read English? Matters are even more complicated due to the fact that my family uses T-Mobile (Please don't hate if you're a fan of another carrier). The only phone that I know of that is top notch and has Chinese in its software is the "almighty" IPhone. Great... As I went through the T-Mobile store I found no phones worth my time, or my parents'. The best ones that were out were Samsung branded and those only had language choices between Korean,English,Spanish, and French. I cannot for the life of me figure out why more Android phones haven't been installed with Chinese in them (I mean come on, its one of the world's most widely spoken languages.)

Alright, now for my project idea. We all know that there are thousands of apps out there. You know the slogan, "There's an app for that." Well, hate to burst the bubble of the clever person (Don't mean to be mean) that came up with that slogan, because there is NO app for what I'm looking for. For my project I want to create an app that can do what an IPhone can. At the touch of a few buttons the phone's entire screen and phone commands will change to that chosen language. Do you have any idea how much that will benefit not only Google, but also the entire U.S. that buys Android phones? It makes me wonder if Google has figured out yet that one of the reasons why they haven't quite surpassed Apple in sales yet is because they can't sell to the masses. I know many families who because of a language barrier have turned away from Android phones for Apple phones, ONLY for the language option. Why haven't Google fixed this problem? There is no way an Android device can stand up against an Iphone if they can't fix this big dilemma. Imagine how much easier it would be for people who do not read English well to use their phones, especially people like your parents. There would be no more of trial and error and frustration for them.

My parents would always ask me to help them delete messages from their phone, help them enter contacts, and every other basic thing only because they cannot read English well enough to fully use their cellphone. Cellphones are meant to be a convenience, there is no convenience in not being able to read a language. Now that I'm away from home because of college I think of them non stop and the different things they might not be able to do without me (Yes, I worry. Who cares. As if our parents don't worry enough about us enough.) With the creation of  this app, life would be so much easier for the portion of the population that hasn't fully grasped English. Everyone can enjoy a great cellphone without the fuss and a choice limitation.
I hope that this won't be just an idea for long. Perhaps Google can come up with a solution, they would have so many more people buying their phones. Heck, if I had the knowledge of app creation I would do it myself, but I don't. For now, an app that could change the language of the phone would be great, maybe eventually ALL phones will be programed with every desirable language, but baby steps first right?I hope Google can do this soon, they would gain more then what they put in, probably really quickly too.

So folks, thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed. Remember to take care of the people who take care of you (In this case your parents.) Always look to your roots for the answer, God knows that's how this idea was created. HAPPY READING! :) Chao!