Duolingo App Review: How to Get 100 Million People Translating the Web for Free

Last year on European Day of Languages I decided that it was time to stop wishing I knew another language and take steps to make it happen in 2014. By the end of 2013 I was introduced to Duolingo by Apple when they selected it as the top iPhone app of the year.

Duolingo helps users learn a new language from their iPhones with user friendly visual and verbal lessons. The simple interface and the vibrant design make it a pleasure to use the app, and for a first time language learner I found it fun and simple to use.

Once you’ve signed up, you can choose which language you would like to learn from those on offer including French, Spanish, German, Italian and Portuguese. I have an ambition to learn both Spanish and Portuguese, but having a basic knowledge of French from school I decided to start there and hopefully progress.

After choosing a language you can also set a target of between 5 and 30 minutes of learning each day. I chose to start with 10 minutes to see if I could stay on track at first and I have found the daily reminders from my language coach really helpful and so far I haven’t fallen off my target!

The idea of having a coach is a great feature as are the different levels you can progress through which keeps the learner engaged for longer to complete each level. To make it more entertaining Duolingo also allows the user three lives in the form of lovely little hearts per level, and if you lose all three you have to start the level all over again. What’s great here is that even though you are starting the same level once again, Duolingo changes it up so you aren’t answering the same questions.

A series of questions encourage the user to answer correctly, learning along the way by typing in the chosen language and choosing from multiple choice and voice recordings with the phone's microphone. This innovative way of learning keeps the overall experience interesting and entertaining. Learners are also rewarded with experience points, which can be used to buy perks within the app, and, perhaps the best part, it's free, although I have enjoyed using it so much I would gladly pay for it too.

The most exciting part about Duolingo for me is the story behind it. The founder, Luis von Ahn (creator of CAPTCHA, the user identification test that tells humans and computers apart) created Duolingo out of an ambition to translate the whole web into every major language – the problem being that this would be a very time consuming and expensive project costing millions. He wondered how he could motivate people to do it for free and realised that many people have a desire to learn a new language, so Duolingo was born. Luis has created a way to help millions of people learn a new language while simultaneously motivating us to translate the web quickly and accurately, all for free.

Score: 8/10

I love... the simplicity of the app, the app icon and the way it motivates you to learn with daily reminders and helpful hints to stay on track

I'd like to... see the app offer more languages with introductory levels just to have an initial try, for example Mandarin or Russian. I would also like the app to have more ‘real-life’ scenarios to learn from. Since both Jane and I have been using the app we’ve encountered ‘The dress is red’, ‘The cat is black’ , ‘He is rich’, 'I am an ant' and our favourite… 'The shark eats the monkey'!

To find out more about the Duolingo journey click here to watch a video with its founder Luis Von Ahn. 

Download Duolingo here and find them on Facebook & Twitter to join a community of language learners...

Bon apprentissage!

Katie x

Instagram App Review - Beware it's Addictive!

I am not ashamed to admit I am slightly addicted to Instagram which actually makes a nice change for me as in the past it was all about Facebook, followed closely by Twitter and Pinterest. I feel, along with Pinterest, Instagram is one of the more positive social media platforms, or it is at least when you follow the type of people I do (lifestyle, wellbeing, dogs!) so I don't mind being an addict!

I wanted to write a review of the app, I know Instagram (owned by Facebook) isn't new, it's been around since 2010 and there are 150 million active users all over the world, but, it's relatively new for me and will be unknown to many others!

Instagram allows you to create a profile and follow users in a similar way to Twitter. You can then upload or take images which are editable through the app with photography features such as filters, blurs and changeable light gradients. You can add a caption to sit with the photo, similar to the way you would on Facebook with hashtags being important on Instagram to categorise your images and make them easily searchable. The photography features make any photo look a million times better (trust me, I know!) and once posted it gets added to your profile and will appear in your followers feeds.

It's a really simple app to use and I think it's because of that simplicity, people love it. The interface has a handy menu at the bottom with five options; home (similar to a newsfeed), explore, upload, see notifications and view and edit your profile.

Explore allows you to search for other users to follow and discover new images from a feed that is automatically updated by Instagram.

Upload is exactly what you expect but what's nice is if you haven't got the photo you want to upload on your camera roll, you can easily take a snapshot and edit it straight from the app without losing any quality. It's also the place you can then go on to edit and caption your images.

Profile gives you a live preview of your Instagram profile and it's the area you can make amends to your profile too. You have a handle on Instagram, mine is janelw171, your real name (should you wish), a small bio, profile picture and one external link.

In terms of the social aspect of Instagram, I enjoy keeping up with my friends but also love getting inspired every day by those Instagrammers I have never met and choose to follow. I do find the following aspect could be improved as it's very easy to 'like' a photo but a longer process to follow someone. Although, it's great to find likes from people who have discovered your photo through one of the hashtags you've used in your caption rather than following you.

A little tip - follow people with caution as, unlike Twitter where skimming through the newsfeed sometimes without even taking any of the tweets in is easy, the newsfeed on Instagram is much more overpowering so I only want people I have a real interest in filling it!

Obviously Instagram is very visual which means, if you follow the right people, it's nice to check into the app to see some fun, inspiring images to brighten up your day! I do see it more as a place for mobile snapshots so use my Pinterest account for sharing less original or personal images.

Here's a few of my favourite Instagram photos...

   

Score: 8/10

I love... the simplicity of the app, the app icon and the filters (especially useful if you are no David Bailey like me!)

I'd like to... see it be easier for people to follow people as, although liking a photo is simple, to follow someone it's a longer process

Hope to see you on Instagram soon but be warned, it's addictive! In the meantime check out my 'A Beautiful Mess' photo challenges here - I'm having so much fun completing them!

Jane x

App Review: Timelapse Your Favourite Memories with iTimeLapse Pro!

After spending a weekend at a festival in Lewes with friends this summer (read my earlier blog post here) I was introduced to an app called iTimeLapse Pro, a simple app that captures a series of photos and allows you to create a video of condensed moments all set to a backing track of your choice... and here's my review of this snappy little app!

For our first attempt we decided to create a Timelapse of a typical Katie & Jane working day involving an early morning exercise session, working from Jane’s office, followed by an afternoon of social media training and featuring dogs, tea, trains and many, many, to-do lists.

To get started you must first select ‘New Project’ and from that point you can choose whether you want to take photos manually or using a pre-defined time-frame. While creating our first Timelapse video, we chose to take images every two seconds. The app allows you to pause and un-pause throughout the Timelapse so it makes using the more 'automatic' way very easy.

We began to capture as many images as we could throughout the day, however, in hindsight, for a thorough (i.e. longer) Timelapse video, it would be good to capture more images so you can easily cut them without losing the length. However the great thing about iTimeLapse Pro is that you can make as many edits as you need to before finishing the project including adding extra images and deleting many that are unclear or blurry too.

After editing the frames, we chose a backing track from iTunes and rendered the video which compiled all the images together. A tip here, I found it difficult to work out how many frames I would like per second as there isn’t an option to test how it will look.

As soon as it is rendered you have the ability to watch the video and export it to your phone's camera roll. Unfortunately, the video was too large to share via email so I had to upload it to YouTube instead.

So here it is; head over to our YouTube channel here to see a Timelapse of Katie & Jane’s working world, we hope you enjoy it!

Score: 7/10

Price: £1.49

We love... The idea behind this app and being able to add a backing track from iTunes, it really enhances the Timelapse!

We'd like to... Practice more! It wasn’t the easiest app to use first time, and there was a lot of guesswork as to how the finished product would look, so stay tuned to see many more improved attempts here soon!

Here's the link to download from the App Store so you can create your own masterpiece!

Katie x

The Best Things in Life (in July!)

Inspired by our favourite magazine, Red, each month we'll be answering a couple of questions that appear in the magazine, as well as an additional question of our own!

The following questions are taken from July's Red issue featuring Sofia Coppola, beach barbecues and recipes from a new cookbook, Share, which raises money for Women for Women International.

If you have any questions you'd like us to answer in August, tweet us using the hashtag #katieandjane or email us at smile@katieandjane.com

Katie

The best things in life are...

Spinning: I’m not one for spending hours in the gym, slogging it out on the running machine just leaves me feeling bored and always as though I could have done better. Spinning is my new work out – I love the fact that for 30 minutes it’s non-stop and by the end of the session you are left feeling exhausted – but in a good way! It’s a great way to build fitness into your life especially if you are always busy and on the go!

Trying new food: I’ve been meaning to try Kale Chips for a while, and this month I found the time to bake some, they were surprisingly tasty and healthy too – the perfect snack!

A Beautiful Mess app: I haven’t found such a fun app in a while, I love being able to create little masterpieces to share with my family and friends. Now with a lot more borders and backgrounds to choose from, I would thoroughly recommend it to those who love photo-sharing apps. To find out more about it, read my earlier blog post here  

I never go on holiday without...

My favourite reading material: Red Magazine, Women’s Health and Zest. Three magazines jam-packed full of inspirational articles, facts and motivational women. Just the things to enjoy while relaxing on the beach, leaving me ready to hit the ground running when holiday time is over!

The social media question I get asked the most is...

‘Should I delete negative comments?’

The answer is a definite no! Social media is a two-way street and as long as you have planned for unwanted situations, then you should be able to resolve any issues efficiently. Social media is a place where brands meet their consumers face-to-face, and if they get this meeting right, it can be such a powerful way of building brand-loyal ambassadors that translate into purchasing product. Therefore accept that negative comments will arise from time to time, but deal with them proactively and ensure the customer has a positive experience. This will allow you to be public with your efficient resolution too – gaining trust in your company long-term.

Jane

The best things in life are...

Jimmy's Iced Coffee from Selfridges (me above drinking it!). It reminds me of days spent on a my favourite Greek beach!

The Happier app, I've banged on a little about it (find out the rating I gave it in my recent blog post here) - but I genuinely love it and so glad to have been able to share it with many others.

Training for the Color Run 5K in July, will it be the 'happiest 5K on the planet'? My legs will tell you afterwards!

I never go on holiday without...

P20 sun protector - it's the only product that doesn't aggravate my prickly heat. Damn you sensitive skin!

The social media question I get asked the most is...

'Should I join all the platforms?'

No but we'd always encourage you to test them out. On a personal level, try them, if you get enjoyment out of using them continue, if not then quit. In terms of when brands ask this question, this is exactly the need for a strategy first - discover where your target market is and join them there. Better to focus on a few key platforms brilliantly than them all half-heartedly.

Happier App Review - What Makes You Happier?

My absolute favourite app at the moment is 'Happier' - a colourful, simple app that helps you to collect all those moments that make you happy and share them with others.

The Happier team created the app after being inspired by research that shows when you acknowledge and share positive things you become happier, healthier and more productive.

**Happier has been updated (as of August 2013)... head to the end of this post to read about what I think of the changes!

After spending much of my time on holiday in Australia in the stationery shop Kikki.K (yes really!) I collected a number of their journals including 101 Dreams, Happiness and Gratitude and the overwhelming thing across all of them to increase your happiness is to be grateful everyday... Happier helps you to do just that.

The notion behind the app is not only an inspiring thing but the app's design is smooth, clean-looking and very clear. The colours blend perfectly together and the layout is so natural, it's effortless to use.

When you are ready to 'share happy'  three boxes appear (it's recommended that you input three moments per day to increase your happiness, although you can add as little or as many as you like), you then add your moment and are able to upload an image with it too. Adding an image really enriches the experience so I'd encourage you to do so.

Next is where my favourite feature comes in... categories. You select a category to sort your Happier moment from 'working out' to 'eating awesome food' or you can add your own; the team says they love to see new ones. Categories really make a difference to the user-experience as on the home screen all your Happier moments are sorted into boxes for each category so if you need to feel inspired to do some exercise for example, your past moments are there to inspire you. My most used category is 'the little things' as Happier has really helped me to discover more of the simple things that make me happy every day.

The features and design have clearly been really thought out with easy sorting of your moments by a-z, top and recent; scrolling images and the beautiful animations that appear once you have added three or more moments. It's worth adding three just for them!

Although you are unable to add much personal information (name and image) it's great to interact with others and read their Happier moments. Research has shown that happiness is contagious and Katie told me that after looking at my Happier profile it certainly brightened up her day!

I knew I'd enjoy the app when I downloaded it but didn't think I'd use it on a daily basis and I do... Happier makes me, well, happier!

Jane x

Score: 9.5/10

The only reason Happier didn't get 10/10 for me is unfortunately I lost my notifications after viewing them but I contacted the friendly team who replied straightaway and are looking into it for me.

Price: Free

We love... the fantastic design, fun features and happiness it brings to the day!

We'd like to... be able to interact more with other users but giving a virtual smile to them at the moment will do just fine!

Find out more about this fantastic app and download it for free at the Happier website

**My review has been updated as Happier has added more features!**

The team at Happier listened to user feedback and decided to make the app 'easier, faster and more fun' and here's my opinions on the changes...

As I said above in my original post, I wanted to be able to interact more with other users of Happier and I'm pleased to say that this feature has been updated. It's much easier to connect with others and 'follow their happy moments' but the key improvement for me is you can now comment easily on moments and also say 'me too!' if you really love a happy moment.

The update also features a 'cleaner overall layout' with 'fewer steps to share happy' - this feature is my only negative of the update... I no longer land on my happier moments when I open the app and this is certainly something I miss. To open the app and be hit with all my happy times was really uplifting and although now my friends happier moments appear instead so actually it takes me longer to get to my favourite part of the app.

Other great new features I love are the photo frame function where users can add more than one photo to their happy moment and position them in a lovely little frame - great for sharing even more fun photos. There are new celebrations, which I just love! These colourful animations make me smile and are even easier to share across social channels. Finally, another great new feature is the app now reminds me of my past Happier moments while I'm browsing my newsfeed - a lovely little touch!

App Review: A Beautiful Mess

A Beautiful Mess is a stylish photo app which allows users to add fun filters, fonts and doodles, to an image of their choice. The app was created by Elsie & Emma founders of the blog of the same name www.abeautifulmess.com. The app has quickly risen to the top of the app charts and at the point of writing is currently enjoying spot number 15 in the top 100 paid charts in the App Store.

**A Beautiful Mess has been updated (as of September 2013)... head to the end of this post to read about the latest additions! 

Users can download either an existing background, or select an image from their photo library to begin. Images can then be scaled or cropped and then styled by applying a choice of borders, filters, text, doodles and phrases to create your own masterpiece. The image can then be easily shared with friends via Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or email.

We love the colour options, the unique fonts and the interface which is really easy to navigate.  The filters apply a number of different looks including ‘classic’ or ‘spotlight’ which transforms the image, making it a lot of fun to use.

There are however a number of in-app purchases and due to this, a significantly limited choice of backgrounds. A great update in the future could include saving completed images in the app, so that there is one place to view all user-created photos.

A Beautiful Mess in a word is gorgeous, it helps you create fun and engaging images and it’s simple to use. We would definitely recommend it to those who love creating pictures, messing with fonts and applying doodles to photos and sending them to your friends!

Score: 8/10

Price: £0.69

We love... The app's design, colours and icons

We'd like to... View all of the photo creations in one place within the app

Here’s one we made earlier… 

**My review has been updated , since  A Beautiful Mess released its latest version of the app and added more features!**

Since the initial launch of A Beautiful Mess, Elsie & Emma listened carefully to user feedback and with this latest version (1.06) released a wealth of additions including extra fonts, doodles and backgrounds to the free & basic package you get when you first download the app.

The most significant change has to be the addition of the undo-redo feature which now finally allows you to swipe left to undo and right again to redo your actions. This enables the user much more flexibility when creating images and the ability to edit, instead of starting all over again each time you make a mistake.

There are still many in-app purchases taking the form of doodle, font and border bundles or packages, so to have full use of the app, bear this in mind. However you can still create gorgeous images even with the basic package, and the app continues to be one of the most helpful tools when creating images to go with our blog posts , or inspiring pins over on our Pinterest boards. 

It’s also worth mentioning that the team at A Beautiful Mess love to see the creations on Twitter, so make sure you use the hashtag #ABeautifulMess when sharing to be in with the chance of being featured over on their lovely, and incredibly popular lifestyle blog!

Here’s one we made earlier….

To find out more about their latest photo book and to see the photo challenges Jane has been attempting over the last couple of months click here.

Katie x