hey in your ringtoan apps do you happen to have the voice that is used by Prof
Stephen Hawking? Just wondering. from Mich.
----- Original Message -----
From: Todd Bernhard
To: [email protected]
Cc: [email protected]
Sent: Thursday, May 30, 2013 6:39 PM
Subject: Re: Apple just approved All Access: Talking Menus & More
Robert,
Translation, or rather native speaking for a foreign language menu, wouldn't
be that much of a stretch. If the menu was written in Italian for example, we
could use an Italian voice to render the speech. Right now, it lets you choose
Female, Male, or a fun Robot voice. We could easily add other voices/languages.
Some of you already have my other apps, like AutoRingtone or Ringtones
Uncensored. Those provide custom Talking Caller ID using dozens of
text-to-speech voices. I also have Ringtones EURO, Asian Ringtones, Arabic
Ringtones and more. So it wouldn't be too hard to add more languages. We'll
add it to the list (Android, Point of Sale integration for electronic ordering,
etc.) and I'll report back on our priorities. It probably will need to wait
until our menu provider offers more coverage of other countries.
---todd
On Thursday, May 30, 2013 11:36:48 AM UTC-4, Robert Fenton wrote:
Hello Todd:
Let me start by thanking you for providing an update so quickly to
incorporate our feedback. I can't wait to try out the new version.
In your note, you also asked for additional feature suggestions for the app
moving forward. I have one for you but I suspect it will take a lot of work to
implement. The suggestion expands upon your current functionality to have the
phone speak an order to service staff if the user of the product is deaf.
Many of us travel to foreign countries for business or pleasure. In many
cases, I am not conversant enough in the local language to order food and such.
Could a translation feature be built into this app both to allow us to read the
menus and to voice our order in several languages to be heard by the service
staff?
Thank you for considering this request. I certainly understand if this goes
beyond your vision of the product.
Bob Fenton
Sent from my iPhone
On 2013-05-29, at 7:51 PM, Todd Bernhard <[email protected]> wrote:
Thank you everyone for the great, constructive feedback. We've learned a
lot and I wanted to give you an update. I just submitted an update to Apple
based on all the comments received so far!
First, I've built over 80 apps, for iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Mac OS
and even Samsung Bada. This is the most complex one I've ever built. In
addition the emphasis on voiceover, the app is also meant for the Deaf,
Non-Verbal and Non-English-speaking audience, as it can speak the order to the
waitstaff, independently of voiceover. The app is accessing four different
servers from three different companies. One server, in Switzerland, is for the
logo scanning, one in Rochester, NY (soon to migrate to Amazon's cloud servers)
is our own with our internal database with photos and premium customer info,
another in Las Vegas is for the text-to-speech hints (which you do not need if
you are using voiceover) and the last one, in San Francisco, is for the
restaurant/business/menu database. That service and server is provided by
Locu.com.
That last one is where we have the following issues. First, thanks to the
popularity of the app, we went over their previously undisclosed limit of 1,000
requests per day, around 8am Pacific time. That is why some of you saw the app
crashing. Since that provider doesn't open until 9am, I had to keep calling
until they answered to get our limit raised. (I asked for 100,000!) It was
raised and I've made an edit to the app (for the next update) that will display
a message instead of crashing if that ever happens again!
Next, is the issue of no menus. That was probably because their server
offers info for more than just restaurants. For example, they have hair
salons, spas, etc. I'm changing the app to just show restaurants, by default,
and we may re-enable other businesses in a future update, but because it was
causing confusion, I don't think it should default to "all businesses". That
other info is valuable, but the confusion seems to be the bigger problem.
Regarding stale data, I have noticed this and complained about it, too.
I think the provider's emphasis, understandably, is on growing their database
and there is less focus on pruning out old info. They are a startup, too, and
I can relate to prioritizing resources. But I think we will create a button
that lets you report old data and then we can blacklist it from the app, even
if it hasn't been removed from that provider's database. To be honest, it's
quite remarkable that they've built this menu system, without requiring
restaurants to do anything. They search for websites, and even scan paper
menus and have over one million such menus now. They have signed deals with
GoDaddy and Yelp so we're in good company. And they are excited to be part of
this accessible effort.
Re voiceover and accessibility. The specific feedback was great, and I
believe I've made all of the changes. I've used the app repeatedly in
voiceover mode and I think I've eliminated everything people were running into.
For the technically inclined, you might be interested to know that there are at
least 109 specific accessibility commands in the app source code. The problem
wasn't really the lack of voiceover commands but that we were layering views on
top of previous ones, and that meant in some views, if there wasn't another
accessible element displayed, the ones below it would "peak through." That has
been fixed.
I will change how you edit settings, like manual address versus GPS, as
this was confusing even to sighted folks!
Regarding finding the app, I sent the initial email shortly after Apple
notified us it was approved, and it takes some time for apps to show up,
especially worldwide. Nobody should have a problem finding it now, either by
searching for all access or search for blind menus or use this link:
http://bit.ly/AllAccessMenus
For a restaurant to be included in the app, or to update their existing
info, they can either contact us directly, which is preferred, or they can
contact Locu.com who is the menu database provider. There is no charge to be
listed and no charge to have a menu included. Both Locu and our firm, All
Access, offer premium features where we plan to earn revenue. Locu charges
restaurants to upload their own photos, whereas our focus is on letting users
upload their photos, via a scavenger hunt style contest, in exchange for gift
cards from the restaurant. We also charge for the Logo Launcher scanning
feature, and for the ability to add custom deals (like groupons) and other
custom buttons.
Lastly, the app is for more than menus. The app will provide a link to
directions via Apple Maps, twitter, facebook, weather, and more. Are there
other items you would like to have?
Thanks again, and please send feedback. It's probably easiest to use the
feedback button in the app. I'll let you know when the update is approved. I
hope you'll give that version a chance.
Todd@ToddBernhard
Cofounder, AllAccessMenus.com
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