Busuu, one of the world’s most popular language-learning platforms, today announced that it has acquired the live video tutoring company Verbling. The double-digit million dollar acquisition sees Busuu expand into the live video tutoring space for its consumer users and corporate clients.
Busuu recently surpassed 100 million users globally, acquiring one new user every three seconds. This makes Busuu one of the world’s fastest-growing EdTech companies, disrupting the growing, $60 billion language learning industry. The company, which reached cash flow break-even last year, plans to generate over $40 million in revenues in 2020, eyeing to go public in the future.
Verbling was founded in San Francisco in 2011 by the Swedish co-founders Mikael Bernstein (CEO) and Gustav Rydstedt (CTO) who met while studying at Stanford University. After attending the prestigious Y-Combinator program, Verbling raised over 4.4m USD from renowned investors such as Learn Capital, DFJ and Bullpen Capital. The platform has over 10,000 pre-vetted live teachers and offers interactive 1-1 lessons in nearly 60 different languages.
“No matter how smart technology becomes, language will always be about human interaction – which is exactly why Busuu was built around a learning community,” commented Bernhard Niesner, Co-Founder and CEO, Busuu. “Offering live video tutoring through our acquisition of Verbling is a natural progression for our business, and gives us the potential to expand beyond just language learning in the future.”
“We are very excited to be joining forces with Busuu’s talented and experienced team,” commented Mikael Bernstein, Co-Founder and CEO, Verbling. “Combining our world-class tutors with Busuu’s AI-powered platform will enable language learners across the globe to reach proficiency even faster.”
Following the acquisition, Verbling’s team members, including co-founders Mikael Bernstein (CEO) and Gustav Rydstedt (CTO) will join Busuu. In addition to its expanded team, Busuu will also open a new office in Madrid, where the company was initially founded in 2008 before moving its headquarters to London in 2012.
Busuu will launch Busuu Live using Verbling’s platform, which will be made available to the company’s 100 million consumer users and 200+ corporate clients in the coming months. With the addition of Busuu Live, Busuu is by far the most comprehensive language-learning product on the market, offering AI-powered grammar and vocabulary training, multimedia lessons designed by experts, and content from world-leading publishers such as The New York Times, The Economist and El Pais.
Everyday billions of GIFs are sent across the globe. The use of GIF’s is growing, because GIFs allow users to express their personality beyond simple words or emojis, but what if you could put yourself in a GIF? Giftr is here to give you the freedom to create GIFs from your own memories, which brings you into your GIF’s, adding a personal dimension to the format.
Launching today, Giftr will be equipped with support for 34 languages, 7 million filters and 27 editing tools with more to come. The foundation for creating Giftr was to rediscover, explore and browse your old memories in a new way. Utilising new technology, such as GIPHY’sSDK so users can layer GIPHY Stickers onto their own GIFs, Giftr will be seamlessly fast and offers a completely new experience for editing your memories.
Giftr comes from Philippe Levieux, the same person who brought you Infltr. Infltr is the global hit application that gave you an infinite amount of filters and has become the most powerful editor for all media types. With 800k monthly active users and at least 200k stories sent to Snapchat daily. Snapchat has allowed integration for Giftr and here is what they had to say,
“Creative Kit allows Snapchatters to bring their favorite parts of other apps into the conversation with their best friends on Snapchat. When the Infltr team integrated Creative Kit to allow sharing of their creations on Snapchat, we were thrilled to see their community really embrace the feature, using it 200,000 times a day on average and to-date totaling over 40M Snapchat shares,” said Alston Cheek, Director, Platform Partnerships at Snap Inc. “We’re excited to bring Creative Kit to their new app, Giftr, and can’t wait to see how the community uses it to talk about their favorite GIFs with their friends on Snapchat.”
Giftr is an app that keeps surprising. Using a special AR feature that lets you interact with a globe. All your memories are positioned where you took them, making the connection between the memory and the place so much stronger. GIFs are perfect for sharing and Giftr is working with GIPHY to help you share your creativity.
“Whether you’re sending a GIF of your favorite TV show or layering a GIPHY Sticker onto your photo, GIFs in any form have the capacity to make everyday conversations more entertaining,” said Lydia Getachew, Business Development Manager at GIPHY. “This is why we’re encouraged to see how our SDK partners, like Giftr, are leveraging GIPHY’s technology to bring more creativity and — in Giftr’s case — personalization to people’s lives and favorite memories.” – GIPHY
Your privacy is important to Giftr and it does everything locally on your phone, making it perfect for offline use as well. Once you’re back online you can share your memories through your favorite platforms. Starting the decade off with a powerful tool that lets you recapture your memories and provides a new way to create them.
“We designed the algorithm to bring back memories in the most joyful way. There is something therapeutic about opening Giftr and discovering golden moments that are animated on your screen.” – Phillippe Levieux, Giftr creator.
Applications on mobile phones have fundamentally changed every aspect of our lives. This is true from the moment we wake up thanks to our alarm app to staying on top of our finances through mobile banking apps. The truth is technology has seamlessly integrated its way into our day-to-day activities, improving and streamlining them. We use mobile apps so frequently we use them without even thinking about them, a lot like breathing.
Truth be told, it’s hard to believe that mobile apps stores have been around for less than a decade. Currently, there are 4.42 million apps available on the Apple and Google apps stores combined. App revenue made in 2019 so far has already reached $462 Billion with a principal projection for growth in the coming years.
(A periodic graph provided by Statista outlining the growth of mobile app revenue over form 2014 to 2023).
The graph above provided by Statista shows a clear indication of mobile app revenue throughout the years. Form the introduction of apps back in 2014, and in comparison to today, we can see a significant 364 billion dollars increase in revenue generated by mobile apps. This is set to rapidly increase by 2023 by about 473.5 billion, which is almost double the current income. These staggering figures give evidence of how far apps have come and their future potential.
When considering how mobile apps have changed our lives, it’s essential to consider the factors that have lead to their growth. Firstly, apps are popular because users love the ease and convince they provide. By merely downloading apps to their smartphones users were given the ability to use their devices like never before. Secondly, users always have their smartphones on them, which is the key factor that makes apps convenient. These two factors together drove the expansion of mobile apps in comparison to desktop applications.
Social apps
Mobile apps have transformed the way we work and communicate. Social apps have fundamentally changed the way we interact with one another. Through social media apps like Instagram, we can communicate through pictures and with people from around the world. Prior to this, we were faced with limitations in the ability to communicate with others from around the globe. Apps have transformed communication from traditional antiqued ways and fast-forwarded them into today’s world. Thanks to apps like Skype and Face Time we can now communicate in real-time video and audio communication virtually no matter their location.
As businesses seek to capitalize on this transformative power of social media, strategies for boosting your Instagram followers have become essential. With a larger audience, brands can enhance their visibility and engagement, making it easier to connect with customers and promote their products or services. Engaging with users through compelling content and targeted campaigns can lead to organic growth, but sometimes, businesses may also consider additional methods to accelerate this process. By utilizing trusted services that specialize in social media growth, companies can quickly enhance their follower count and establish a robust presence on platforms like Instagram, further integrating into the modern communication landscape.
Work apps
Mobile apps have offered us more than social media capabilities. They have given us a new way of working. Either through apps designed to be used in workplace environments or apps that are specifically tailored to be used for a specialist sector. Apps can bridge the gap between complex matters and problem-solving. They open up the opportunity to learn and share knowledge in work-based environments while streamlining processes. Performace tracking apps are also widely used in the working environment to measure and help improve services creating better working environments and helping an organisation reach their goals.
Play apps
Mobile gaming apps have also come a long way. Not only are more complex and advanced technologies being brought to entertainment and gaming apps, but the integration of technology such as AR and VR has seen the face of mobile gaming change. A great example of this is the Pokemon Go app which uses Augmented reality (AR) to hunt for Pokemons. In the past gaming was focused on consoles and its games. But now, thanks to apps, gaming is centred around apps and their capabilities which turn our smartphones into portable gaming devices.
Health and other apps
Wearable devices have increased over the past few years and so have health monitoring apps which help users keep fit and stay in shape. Consumers have become more health-conscious and so apps in this sector have increased to feed the demand. The introduction of mobile apps has also seen a rise in navigation apps and online buying apps such as Amazon and eBay. Apps have also given logistic companies the means to use mobile technology to track shipments and delivery drivers in real-time. Instead of physically going shopping, many opt to shop online now, which has impacted our lives and the economy.
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The future of mobile apps
The rapid adoption and seamless integration of apps into our lives make imagining life without apps impossible. It is clear that apps will remain hugely popular, even for years to come. It is hard to currently pinpoint what kind of technology will overthrow apps from their current throne.
Guest post by Yasmita Kumar – I am a writer and I have been writing about various topics over the years. The topics I enjoy covering in my writing are predominantly based on Technology as a whole and the impact it can have on our lives and how they are implemented and used in different industries
This year,Christmas Eve will be even more magical than ever thanks Portable North Pole (www.portablenorthpole.com) and their brand new special multi-device scenario straight from Santa’s sleigh delivered on Christmas Eve! Children will join Santa as he reviews his flight plan for the big night in a personalised video message for an excited child or children – the perfect way to get them to go to bed early too!
While checking his plans, Santa has time for one more phone call and children will be amazed and delighted when the phone rings and Santa himself is on the line telling them to go to sleep early in readiness for his arrival. For just £12.99 for a Magic Pass for one child https://www.portablenorthpole.com/santa-video, you will receive access to all NEW videos and past content as well as a unique Reaction Recorder to make a keepsake of their face and response to the surprise call. The Magic Pass also includes enhanced video and a NEW Family Option to allow you to create one video for multiple children.
There’s so much content included within the Magic Pass, you can build excitement and encourage good behaviour from mid-November onwards. Don’t forget to print off their personalised Nice List Certificate too!
New content also includes high definition videos with amazing outdoor shots of Santa’s reindeers and huskies as well as a premium personalised birthday message from Santa that children can enjoy all year round but its particularly great for November and December born children who often get their birthdays overlooked by Christmas.
Here’s a full list of what’s new this year:
A brand new special multi-device scenario straight from Santa’s sleigh on Christmas eve with a personalised video message from Santa on one device (desktop, smartphone, or tablet) and integrated into the video message is a call from Santa to your phone during the video message. This message can be made for one child or the whole family. *
2019 kids and grown-up editions of our free personalised cinematic video messages from Santa with amazing outdoor shots featuring husky dogs and reindeers.
Download messages in 1080 HD.*
An all-new Premium personalised birthday message from Santa that can be enjoyed all year long. *
A total of five new Premium personalised videos with even more ways to personalise the message. *
Another new multi-device Premium video scenario with a group option. This is great for parents looking to encourage good behaviour from their children in the days leading up to Christmas.*
Two new Premium personalised video calls. *
Six new Premium personalised voice calls. *
The Reaction Recorder is now available on Google Chrome for desktop and laptop, as well as on the PNP mobile app to capture the moment your little one realises it’s Santa speaking to them directly on one of our Premium videos to create a lifetime keepsake.*
Fun games in the Kid’s Corner section on the PNP mobile app for year-round play.
New personalisation options. Santa will know even more about your loved one, than ever before.*
* Features only available with purchase.
Since 2008, the Portable North Pole (PNP) website (www.portablenorthpole.com) and mobile apps (https://pnpapp.page.link/PR2019) has offered personalised videos and calls from Santa in a tradition that is now enjoyed annually around the world with more than 220 million personalised video message views by Santa fans worldwide.
Motif, the Apple-approved personalised photo book app, has announced the launch of its free iOS app – bringing its top-rated photo app extension for the macOS desktop to the estimated 1 billion+ iPhones and iPads currently in use. This app is available globally in 32 countries, including the United Kingdom and Ireland, and can be translated into 5 languages. The Motif app syncs directly with the iOS Photos app library, making it quick, easy, and convenient for iOS users to create beautiful, personalised photo books with a professional feel, straight from the photos already stored on their device. You can avail of our exclusive code below if you wish to check it out.
Launched in July 2018 as a native macOS extension, Motif quickly earned the highest rating for an Apple Photos Extension in the Mac App Store. The platform is beloved by Mac users for bringing their photos to life with advanced technology, intuitive editing tools, and easy-to-use personalisation. Now, Motif on iOS joins its desktop counterpart just in time for Christmas, putting the ease of creating gorgeous photo books at every user’s fingertips on the go.
The Motif iOS app is designed to be user-friendly. Clear and easily accessible views provide direct access to page editing, image and text editing, and overall book organisation in just a few taps. Whether choosing an overall design theme for the book or specific layouts for a page or spread, Motif presents all options with images in place and in context. A simple three-step wizard guides you through the photo book process in a snap. Key features include:
Syncs directly with your photo library: No need to export or upload photos; Motif works locally with the images and albums in the Photos app on your device, so there’s no need to spend time exporting or uploading your pictures anywhere else. Motif’s machine learning algorithms create memories from your photos that highlight your recent vacations, family events, and other favourite moments that can be made into a personalised photo book in seconds.
Finds your best pictures for you: Motif’s smart technology combs through thousands of photos so you don’t have to, analysing images for overall quality and similarity to identify duplicates and recommend the very best ones. This includes checking images for focus, clarity, people, faces, image orientation, panoramas, and more; it even weeds out unwanted images such as screenshots.
Automatically lays out your book: Motif auto-flows your selected images into more than 80 professionally designed layouts, picking the best combinations of vertical and horizontal compositions, while correctly centring and cropping to fit the layouts. Or, create your own mix and give it a personal touch.
Delivers photo-first quality: Motif is a photo-first brand, so every book features clean themes and a premium, professional look. Users can type or dictate text, and customise the pages with pops of colour, patterns and professionally designed themes.
“One year after the successful launch of Motif, we knew the natural next step would be an expansion to iOS, to bring this functionality to the full ecosystem of iPhone and iPad users,” said Craig Bauer, Global Managing Director of Motif. “Millions of people now have access to the simple functionality and advanced technology that Motif delivers to create the most beautiful, professional-looking photo products available.”
Find the new Motif app in the iOS App Store, available in the UK and Europe. The app is free; pricing for photo books starts at £6.99 for a soft cover photo book and £17.99 for a hard cover photo book. For more information, visit www.motifphotos.com.
Get a 20% discount with the code TechBuzzIrelandMotif
If you’ve been online recently, you’ve probably heard of the mobile application called Headspace. Originally created in 2010, Headspace has found a home on the smartphones of millions of users in more than 190 countries around the world.
What is Headspace? It’s an app that takes users through guided meditation sessions with the goal of improving health and happiness. Ultimately, Headspace and apps like it hope to help users manage their mental health and experience a more balanced life.
For today’s fast-paced, always-connected world, mobile apps are the perfect solution to mental health concerns. While they are not designed to replace professional treatment, mental health apps are a great way to manage symptoms and stay on top of your wellbeing.
To help you find an app that suits your needs, check out the infographic below that aplaceformom.com has sent us it covers 8 of the most highly-rated mental health apps on the market.
When everyone on your Christmas gift list has it all already, then it’s time to think outside the box and get creative. Luckily, FUJIFILM Imagine has you covered, with tons of customisable and sentimental gifts ideas for loved ones who, on the face of it, are impossible to buy for.
SNAP. CREATE. GIFT
FUJIFILM Imagine know that photos locked away on your smart phone hold the secret to amazing Christmas gifts. Simply choose photos of your family and friends and use them to create personalised presents through the FUJIFILM Imagine mobile app, online, and on touch screen kiosks in store nationwide. With lots of quirky options, ideal for stocking fillers and secret Santa’s, your creativity will know no bounds. Choose from personalised jigsaws, teddies, mugs, iPad covers and much, much more. Then, wrap it all up with personalised gift-wrapping paper to really bring a smile to their faces this festive season.
GET SEMTIMENTAL WITH PICTURE BOOKS AND CANVAS PRINTS
For those extra special people on the list, why not put together a scrap book full of memories close to both your hearts? Bring your digital photos to life by printing them in a luxury photo book that can be treasured forever. Photo books can be customised online with heartfelt text and an array of decorative backgrounds, borders, and embellishments. For the interior lover in your life, opt for eye catching framed canvases instead, perfect for adding to walls and displays.
Gift availability varies in-store – call in-store, visit www.fujifilmimagine.ie, or download the FUJIFILM Imagine App. You can collect in-store at selected FUJIFILM Imagine stores in Ireland or if you want to send it as a gift, worldwide delivery to an address of your choosing is available.
The Google Translate app has been the go-to tool for travellers, academics, and the curious alike, with its game-changing live camera translation function helping people make instant sense of signs, menus, and other foreign language text, all with just a point of their camera.
To date Google Translate has supported the conversion of almost 40 languages into English via this function, but today they have announced that a whopping 89 languages can now be translated live into the 100+ total languages supported by Google Translate. This means that translating Irish into German or Japanese is now a possibility, opening up a world of opportunity and fun.
Not only is this a boon for Irish people travelling abroad, but visitors to Gaeltacht areas and others with an interest in Gaeilge can now get instant help and clarification thanks to Google Translate. For the first time, Neural Machine Translation (NMT) technology is built into instant camera translations, which produces more accurate and natural translations and reduces errors by 55-85 percent in certain language pairs. And most of the languages can be downloaded onto your device, so that you can use the feature without an internet connection. However, when your device is connected to the internet, the feature uses that connection to produce higher quality translations.
A language ‘auto detect’ function has been added too. When traveling abroad, especially in a region with multiple languages or unfamiliar symbols, the first challenge is to know the language of the text. But in the new version of the app, you can just select “Detect language” as the source language, and the Translate app will automatically detect the language and translate.
To round it all off, the app has got a new redesign and under-the-hood improvements, resulting in the fastest and most powerful Google Translate to date. The app is available for download now on both Android and iOS platforms.
Graphic & motion design tool Crello has launched a mobile app for iOS, enabling social media enthusiasts to create eye-catching visuals in just a few minutes, directly on their iPhone.
The app features 20,000 ready-made templates for stories, images, videos for social, web, blogs, and ads which users can select for free while on the go, including premium templates from Advanced and PRO plans. Crello are adding new designs to their templates daily following major trends and a global event calendar, with an average of 700+ templates added every month.
The app’s easy user interface enables those with no design background to create designs in just a few minutes in 20 design formats including specific formats for Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, Twitter, and Youtube.
Crello are offering 250+ fonts, 12,000+ icons, illustrations, shapes, and other design objects to help people make their own designs from scratch.
To celebrate the launch, all premium Crello features available in the iOS app will be free to use for everyone who downloads the app until August 31st, 2019.
