Issist, the company behind the iZoom magnification software for windows, is delving into the world of mobile apps including Mercury, a suite of android apps to offer magnification, OCR, and other functions. Namita Joshi, Marketing Manager for iSsist joins us in this podcast to talk about the company's direction, their choice of Android as a platform, and some of the features and pricing for the software. Blind Bargains audio coverage of CSUN 2014 is generously sponsored by the American Foundation for the Blind.
Transcript
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Hide transcriptDirect from San Diego, it’s BlindBargains.com coverage of CSUN 2014. The biggest names, provocative interviews, and wall-to-wall exhibit hall coverage, brought to you by the American Foundation for the Blind.
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Now, here’s J.J. Meddaugh.
J.J.: We’re here at CSUN 2014 with Namita Joshi. She is a Marketing Manager for Issist, and Issist, who has done magnification for a little while, now has an Android app. So welcome to our podcast.
NJ: Hello.
J.J.: Hello. Like you said, your name’s very exotic. It’s a really cool name. Awesome.
NJ: It means “friendly.”
J.J.: Oh, well there you go. Good stuff. So you have an app that you’re releasing for the Android for magnification. Tell us a little bit about this.
NJ: Yes. What we actually figured is that a lot of people have to buy a lot of different things. They have to buy a little magnification device for just reading their pills; they have to buy a big text-to-speech device to read their printed material; they have to buy another device to get their digital content. What we tried to do is just put all of it in a simple app and put it on an Android phone or a tablet. Everybody now wants to use what everyone else is using. Everyone has a tablet, everyone wants to use a smart phone, because it does so much more than just one thing.
And that’s what we are trying to work here. Right now, we are on Step 1, where we have a magnifier. It zooms in, it changes color, and we also have news – it reads videos. It actually reads podcasts. Now we’re going to be putting email and OCR, everything on it so that it’s one device.
J.J.: Is the app more designed for low vision, or are you going to have accessibility features baked in for the totally blind as well?
NJ: It can be used by totally blind because it reads everything out. When you move your finger on top of the phone, it will tell you where it is.
J.J.: So does it work with TalkBack or the built-in speech on the phone?
NJ: Yes, it’s the built-in speech on the phone. But we also have Nuance voices that we integrated, and it’s going to also speak – so if you’re on the main page, it’s going to say you’re on the main page, and then if you move into email, it’ll say you’re on your email. If you move into contacts to call someone, it’ll say you’re in your contacts. So it’ll say everything out.
J.J.: Given that there’s a million different Android devices out there, as far as magnifying, how does the results compare to a dedicated portable magnifier?
NJ: That’s an interesting question, because maybe a few months back, the cameras were not there. But now you have cameras that do 16 megapixels, 20 megapixels, and now in fact, in three months, they’re going to have a device that’s going to do 30 megapixels. So other devices kind of become a little irrelevant.
J.J.: Some of the newer phones, do you recommend say one of the newer Android devices that has a higher –
NJ: Yeah, Samsung. The latest Samsung phones.
J.J.: The S4 or the S5 just is coming out next month.
NJ: Yes, exactly. That’s something we are using right now. You have Google Nexus, which is – you could go with –
J.J.: The Nexus 5.
NJ: Yes, the Nexus 5. So any of the latest Android phones that have Android 4 and above is great to go.
J.J.: What is the magnification level?
NJ: You can magnify up till about 10x to 20x. And once we have the digital magnification, which you’re going to have in one month, which will be able to do OCR, you can go up to 40x, 50x.
J.J.: Okay. So the OCR and some of these other features, like you said, they could be used by anybody, and it has the Nuance voices. Is the magnification app available – you said next month?
NJ: Yes, we will have it next month. You can go to the App Store – actually not the App Store; it’s called the Play Store for Google. You can go to the Play Store, and it’s called Mercury, and you can just download it. We’ll give you a serial number; you can start using it.
J.J.: So as far as the app, is all of the features going to be bundled together?
NJ: Yes.
J.J.: Okay, so it’s going to be one single product.
NJ: Yes.
J.J.: What’s the pricing going to look like for this?
NJ: The pricing is going to be around $395 for everything.
J.J.: $395?
NJ: Yeah, $395 for everything. But we’ll probably have just the magnifier app separate, which we haven’t really decided the price for right now.
J.J.: How do you convince people – people aren’t used to paying $395 for a mobile app, so how do you convince them that this is deserving of that?
NJ: Well, the thing is that we’re going to probably have distributors packaging the whole thing. It’s going to have a dedicated stand, it’s going to come with a phone, and the app on it. So it’s not a regular app. It’s specially built.
J.J.: So you see Android as a means to an end; as opposed to packaging a camera or OCR package with proprietary software, you’re using an existing platform on Android.
NJ: Yes, also because it will let you do way more. So right now you have a little portable magnifier that is just a portable magnifier.
J.J.: For the same price.
NJ: Yes, and you’re paying $200 for it. For around $600, $700, depending on the phone you get, you will be able to make a call, you will be able to check your email, you will be able to listen to your news, you will be able to text message, and do magnification and OCR.
J.J.: Why did you choose Android over iOS?
NJ: That’s because Android is just easier to program.
J.J.: Especially with the camera. I know people have talked about limitations of the camera.
NJ: Yes, iOS actually limits you on a lot of things. Even depending on the kind of app you want to put, what you want to do with it, what information you want to grab from it. So very limited, but maybe in the next two years or so we’ll have Apple as well.
J.J.: You never know. Right, sure. If people want to get more information about this app, how can they do that?
NJ: They can just go on our website. We’ll have information in a week over there. It’s www.issist.com.
J.J.: Can you spell that?
NJ: That’s i-s-s-i-s-t.com.
J.J.: And again, the name of the app?
NJ: The app is called Mercury.
J.J.: But it’s not out yet; it will be in…
NJ: Yes, in one week you’ll have information about it, and it’ll be out in a month.
J.J.: Great. Hey, thank you so much for sharing it.
NJ: Thank you so much for having me talk to you.
J.J.: All right.
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J.J. Meddaugh is an experienced technology writer and computer enthusiast. He is a graduate of Western Michigan University with a major in telecommunications management and a minor in business. When not writing for Blind Bargains, he enjoys travel, playing the keyboard, and meeting new people.
