“Mobile First!” That is how the big strategy change of Google was announced on the Mobile World Congress 2010 in Barcelona. From this moment on every development made by Google should be orientated first of all on the mobile use before everything else. And 1,5 years later market figures clearly prove that Google´s hunch was more than right. A recent Gartner study predicted that the internet access via mobile will outgun the PC access.
By today already 33 % of the Spanish population surf through the internet via their smartphone – this is the highest mobile penetration in whole Europe. But the flipside of the coin is that only 10% of all companies are prepared with an appropriate mobile offer, because the usage is different form the PC in 4 key points: Smartphone user look for Immediacy, Entertainment, Local information and a shopping companion when they are on the run.
The weight of internet access in everyone´s daily life already goes so far, revealed by an intern study of Google in over 30 countries, that for smartphone user eating is as same as important like being connected to the internet. The next upcoming hot topic will be “mCommerce”. Google already released its “Google Wallet” in the US, a mobile payment service.
But the numbers also show that the penetration of new gadgets likes smartphones or tablets correlate with the income of a person.For this reason there is also a special need of mobile services in the BRICI states (Brazil, Russia, India, China and Indonesia) – emerging countries where 4 times more people own a mobile phone than a PC. But at this Thinkmobile EventGoogle didn´t dwell on mobile solutions for people who haven´t any internet access on their mobile. We from Almira Labs, exactly cover this branch of services – innovative voice-based solutions accessible from every type of phone to get access to normally web-based services. Contact us for more tailor-made solutions for you!“It´s not too late to be early.”
In the last years Vodafone initiated a notable engagement in their product development to cater especially to disabled and elderly people with certain physical or intellectual limitations. For this reason the Vodafone Foundation Smart established a new European contest the “Accessibility Awards” to promote the development of IT applications designed to help them get more actively involved in society.
Therefore Vodafone Spain invited last week interested developer to a workshop in Madrid where they could meet people with different handicaps to get a better inside what these people want and look for to get more independency in their lives.
Kath Moonan, Accessibility Lead from the Vodafone User Experience Group in London, presented new developments for smartphones which should give an idea what can made be possible, like sweep keyboards for person with limited mobility, voice-based QR code scanner for drug packages for blind people or zoom magnification for visually impaired. But also effects like vibration and flashing lights in combination with certain functionalities already provide a higher accessibility. The essential part of developing mobile services for this special target is talking and later also testing those with people with access needs.
At the end of the workshop we got the possibility to experience by ourselves with different apparatus what it means to use a mobile phone with a certain handicap. Hereby special designed glove which simulates arteritis caught our attention, which made it really difficult for us to press on small buttons and icons or sending a SMS.
This is also one reason why we from Almira Labs focus on voice-based mobile service to enable a widely hand free and sight independent use of a mobile phone.
At this year’s SeniorMarketMobile congress, on the 20th, September 2011 in London, mayor producers of mobile phones for the target group of elderly people presented their latest handhelds innovations. Given by the demographic age shift in industrial countries the importance of the senior market for the telecommunication industry is continuously growing. Forecasts of European population development predict a rise up to more than 1 billion people in the age of 65 years and older till 2050.
There is no doubt, as we are getting older and our products and service needs are also keep changing. Likewise the same phenomenon occurs in the area of new technologies where evolving functionalities of handhelds need to adapt to people’s changing requirements.
One of the main objectives of the Senior Market Mobile Congress is to bring up these specific needs of the 65+ mobile users in order to provide handheld producer a clear guideline of aspects which ought to be considered in their I+D stage, like a high user-friendliness, bigger screens and keypads as well as an intuitive navigation for mobile menus.
On our part, from Almira Labs, we want to complete the senior handheld sector with aligned voice-based mobile services which are easy-in-use. We offer a wide range of intelligent solutions which are accessible for everyone, no matter the age or mobile device someone has. That way also elderly get an easy access to the latest communications technologies, like email or social networks, start using them in a confident way for always keeping in touch with their beloved.
Watch the video the get a personal inside of the senior mobile market by Albert Fellner, CEO of Emporia Phones and Lead sponsor of this year’s event:
Voice2Social is a new mobile service developed by Almira Labs which revolutionizes the access to social networks with your own voice from any phone device, both fixed and mobile. Rolling out this September and exclusively distributed byVodafone Spain, this innovative service offers a new way of publishing status updates in your Facebook wall and Twitter timeline with your own voice. From now on you can access your social network no matter where you are with any kind of phone device and no need of an Internet access.
“Voice messages provide an enormous added value because voice is the only way you can express your emotions in a natural manner. So the implementation of voice in social networks was the next logical step for Almira Labs to drive user communication on these platforms to the next level”, points out Javier Martin, CEO of Almira Labs.
Additionally, Voice 2 Social brings also a step forward in accessibility for visually impaired people, because this service will enable them an easy access by voice to Twitter and Facebook just by making a simple phone call to a landline number and record their voice message will be published within seconds to their profile.
Voice Social is the first service of its kind in Spain and in order to stimulate social network users of every age to subscribe to this service, Vodafone Spain provides free access during September to all new subscribers, regardless their operator. For a free subscription access: http://www.vodafone.es/voice2social .
For further information about Almira Labs’ Voice2Social: Read more…
It’s in an undisputed fact that smartphones have done a huge step forward in the evolution of the telecommunication sector with bigger screens and fully featured, easy-to-use Web browsers. This initiated a developer wave providing a wide range of useful applications with engage their user much more than the ordinary phone call and SMS usage of simpler phones.
But keeping in mind that the largest share of phone devices worldwide is hold still by feature phones with around 80%, this ratio doesn’t reflect itself in the application market. Besides OVUM recent study reflects that by 2016 feature phones share will still be higher than the smartphones one (63% feature phones, 37% smartphones).
The giant Facebook is one of the players within the industry that has already got aware of this fact and has recently launched their app for feature phones that is accessible to more than 2.500 phone models of 19 operators worldwide. With this app Facebook users can view and upload photos, view news feeds and their inbox, find friends and view profiles with their feature phone.
Since feature phones will probably always lag behind smartphones in terms of Web browser usability, adapted apps are probably the best way to deliver a richer and more user-friendly experience. Especially services developed in Java are the best option to enlarge the market for feature phone services given the fact that this open programming language run on any operational system of any mobile provider.
By improving distribution programmes and platforms for these services, Ovum predicts that the turnover of this market will almost double to US$1 billion by 2016.
Almira Labs’ service portfolio provides a wide catalogue of services for all mobile devices, both smart- and feature phones. Our special value added mobile services, developed with Java, are based on voice usage and on top don’t require no internet access or a program download in the moment of use. That is how we can provide to companies or end user an even more enriched way of communication.
For more information about our B2B & B2C solutions visit: www.almiralabs.com.
The drought in Somalia, the worst in the last 60 years, which currently dominates the media coverage is only another sad example of how fragile political systems, corruption and war can destruct entire countries, but not only economically, but also to a degree where poverty changes in hunger, illness and death.
Therefore one of new high interest themes within non-profit organizations (NGOs) is “Mobile Diagnostics” nowadays – especially against the background of their limited resources in money, medical experts and access to the affected area. In African rural areas, for example, one hospital might cover 1,800 km – too extensive to be covered by only a handful of health care workers. Simple mobile phones can be an efficient tool to provide at least an effective health consultation from a distance.
To mention an auspicious initiative in this context is HOPEPHONES.org. Their objective is to activate as many people in Western countries to donate their old mobile phones and send those as specific technological support to initiate more and more mobile health projects in developing countries. According to HopePhones, alone in the United Stated 500.000 mobile phones are discarded every day – with only 1% of all these disposed mobiles each year, 50 million people in developing countries could get an immediate access to their health worker.
But also other research initiatives do a great job to improve the medical diagnostics in poor countries. Professor Ayodan Ozcan from the University of California found a way to turn an ordinary mobile phone in an actual medical device. He developed a portable microscope attachable to nearly any mobile which allows microanalysis of blood, bodily fluids and water samples. With only some drops of blood on a microscope slide patterns of red blood cells or bacteria can be compared immediately with images in a database to detect TB, malaria, certain STDs, HIV and other diseases. One time in mass production Ozcan predicts the cost per microscope will be only $10 to $15.
According to the Spanish Institute of Statistics (INE, 2010) more than 60% of Spanish teenagers at the age of 12 years already possess their first mobile phone. Till the age of 15 years this number raises further up to 92%.
Against the background of this early adoption of the youth to mobile technology, it is interesting to know if the emotional status of teenager can be affected by their mobile usage.
Therefore O3 Wellbeing in collaboration with Almira Labs and Madrid’s University “Complutense” set up an experimental study to figure out if in particular voice messages might have a positive effect on the emotional regulation of teenagers and consequently benefit their academic results.
During a 3 month period a group of girls and boys in high school age (13-15 years) were equally split in both, a control and experimental group. A pre-post questionnaire were designed to measure their emotional status before and after the reception of a program with 24 different voice messages in which guidelines for emotional self-regulation, attention training and time management were given to the participants of the experimental group only.
Every message was sent randomly several times a week to every participant of the experimental group via VoiceCast, a special corporate service developed by Almira Labs, which allows to preset contacts list and send single voice messages to the mobile phone of its members.
Motivational voice messages via mobile phones have a strong influence on emotional regulation and academic record
As a result of the continuous voice message exposure over these 3 months the experimental group lowered in comparison the control group significantly the overall level of negative emotions in all 5 tested categories – depression, anxiety, helplessness, irritability and impaired thoughts. Furthermore a positive correlation of the number of received messages and the improvement of the emotional status were discovered.
The program had also a positive effect on academic results. The experimental group achieved better records while participating in this experiment. Overall results lead to the conclusion that instructive voice message impacts positively on students’ emotional self-regulation.
Altogether these results already provide a deeper insight of the growing importance of mobile technology in the education and healthcare sector. In this regard Almira Labs offers several cutting-edge solutions for companies and final clients to implement mobile technology to improve traditional healthcare services.
For more insides about the study, click here.
For more information about AlmiraLabs’ VoiceCast get in contact with us: info@almiralabs.com
Within the last years social networks turn to an essential communication medium not only for a personal use, but also on a professional and political level.
Facebook, founded in 2004, has already reached by today 700 millions of users by adapting their platform in more than 70 languages to this date. In the same way, Twitter celebrates these days its 5th anniversary surpassing the threshold of its 200 millions member and of the same amount daily tweets. The principal use of social networks, like these, within the Spanish community is primarily obtaining information, before consulting any other information source (IAB Spain).
Unfortunately the majority of the social networks still don’t provide any intuitive access to every group in the society. Alone Spain counts more than 4 million of disabled people (nearly 10% of the population), according to the Spanish Census Bureau (INE), who see themselves confronted with serious obstacles in accessing these platforms.
A recent study by the Observatory on ICT Accessibility of the web portal Discapnet confirms the insufficient access for handicapped person. One of the mayor problems especially for visually impaired and motionally restrained persons especially is reflected in the buttons and icons, those illustration are perceived too small and hardly recognizable or lead to wrong interpretations of their functions. Further access barriers were detected in the missing separation between presentation and content, as well as the deficient access of Script and PDF Documents.
For instance, some forms, which are essential for executing any kind of interaction between user and web administration, are impossible to use for disabled people. So basic functions like signing up, search content or add contacts can result in an unmanageable task for them. It would be far more convenient to apply text instead of images in a web, which details the information that an image wants to transmit.
From the visual impaired point of view it would be also recommendable to work with more contrastive colors to make it easier to distinguish different areas on a page.
We from Almira Labs are aware of the obstacles that handicapped people might see in their ICT usage. Therefore we also bear in mind the particular requirements of this group in the development of our voice applications for telephone devices to literally offer accessible mobile services for everyone.
From the 30th, June until the 30th, September, 2011, Vodafone Business Place offers to his clients a promotion to experience for 2 months free a special mobile service from Almira Labs which allows the sending of emails over the phone with your own voice.
Hablamail, an exclusive service for Vodafone Spain, is thought for a professional use for every kind of phone device on the market and without the need of internet connection. Therefore, no matter where you are, with a simple call, you can send a voice message by email to your clients, colleagues or even to yourself. Thus, you can not only pass important information to your contacts in an instant, but also save reminders of meetings, appointments and events which you can copy to your personal agenda in a later moment, so you will never forget anything again.
The voice message you sent is attached to an email by an .mp3 file, transmitting a personal touch and proximity, hence utilizing fully all emotions of your voice. The audio file can be replayed directly in the same email, so it’s also really easy to forward it by mail to further contacts. It also exists the possibility to download the audio file to your computer and add it by only one click to virtual GTB software like Evernote or Remember the Milk.
With Vodafone’s promotion you save the monthly fee of 1€, but can send as many emails you want by your phone from anywhere you are, only paying the local call to Hablamail’s service number.
So in case you are Vodafone Spain client, don’t miss this special occasion to convince yourself of Hablamail without any commitment and enjoy more flexibility in your day-to-day.
Already for the 4th time the ONCE Foundation presented theInternational Congress on Design, Research Networks, and Technology for all (DRT4All) in Madrid. Between the 27th and 29th of June, 2011 the topic on making new technologies better accessible for everyone was touched.
The Vodafone Foundation in Spain, sponsor of this event, also patronized actively this event with different workshops, among those “Proposals in the field of Social Networks” presented by José Manuel Azorín, manager of the social product unit at Vodafone Spain. Already 40% of the Spanish population are handicapped and elder people who see themselves confronted by high obstacles in accessing social networks. Therefore it’s indispensable for the telecommunication industry to respond also on these special needs.
As one selected showcase service which aims to close the Digital Gap and aspires a deeper social integration for visual impaired, José Manuel presented a new mobile service to access social networks by voice.
This announced service developed by Almira Labs allows publishing voice messages on Twitter and Facebook with a simple phone call. Its principal advantage is based in ease of usage: the access from every kind of fix or mobile telephone device in the market, without the need of advanced terminal or internet connection.
Thus Almira Labs also takes active part to bring democracy to telephone services. And certainly, we will keep you updated as soon as we will launch this new service in the near future.
“Mobile First!” That is how the big strategy change of Google was announced on the Mobile World Congress 2010 in Barcelona. From this moment on every development made by Google should be orientated first of all on the mobile use before everything else. And 1,5 years later market figures clearly prove that Google´s hunch was more than right. A recent Gartner study predicted that the internet access via mobile will outgun the PC access.
To mention an auspicious initiative in this context is 
A recent 
Already for the 4