Interlecta News and Product Blog

If you need funding for your project or start-up, you’d better ask for more than a million, because no one would want to give you less. However, if you have several millions and you have no idea what to do with them, find a country with one or two amateur wireless carriers and establish a third one that will win recognition and popularity in less than an year. To do this is not easy. You would need a team of the right people, in the right place and on the right time. If, for some reason, you can’t rely on these people, either kick them out or just don’t count on them…

This is a summary of the three lectures this Mobile Monday, Sofia. Three managers of leading companies spoke about how to start or develop a successful business and what are the conditions to find funding for an idea or project.

Neven Boyanov, our managing director - product development, told everybody how to start a company in case you do not have millions… Neven told how Interlecta was started, what difficulties we have been through, how we achieved our goals and what are Interlecta’s future plans.

The event took place in “Matti” Hall, NDK Sofia and was attended by representatives of online media, wireless carriers, developers, IT specialists, investors, with whom we exchanged ideas and made arrangements to talk business in the near future.

This Mobile Monday we are telling our success story, i.e. how Interlecta was started, who was struck by the idea of a Interlecta mobile translator, who we are and what we have achieved through the years. Speaker of the company will be our head of software and product development Neven Boyanov who will make clear what it takes to become and stay one of our team.

Speakers have approximately 20 minutes to present their story and our twenty minutes will tell what we have learned throughout the years, what our key success strategies have been and, of course, what are our goals for the future.

Mobile Monday Sofia starts on 22nd February 2010 at “Matti” Hall in NDK, Sofia @ 18:30. Everyone is invited to the event to meet representatives of wireless carriers, mobile applications developers, entrepreneurs and investors. Attendance is free! See the agenda at http://mobilemondaysofia.com/events/2010/02/13/mobile-venture-stories-starting-up-a-business-in-the-mobile-industry.html

It appears that a lot of people experience problems while purchasing Try-and-Buy products from App World. In most cases you can download the trial and even purchase the full version but you are not able to download it. In fact in the last few days we received a lot of support requests that describe the same issue.

We identified the problem and it is in the App World, not in our application.

What I’m offering here is not general solution for the problem. This is based on my own experiments, it worked for me.

Now, the details. The problem that I had was that I purchased Interlecta Translator (Try’n'Buy) but first downloaded the trial version. Unfortunately, after the trial period ran out, when I tried to download and install the full version, the App World wouldn’t let me do it. Actually, it will show me that there is upgrade available but will not provide a button to download/install the upgrade.

So, this is what I did, in result of which I was able to download, install and use the latest paid and fully functional version of Interlecta Translator for BlackBerry.

(1) First, I removed the Interlecta Translator from App World. Don’t worry, you will be able to reinstall it again without paying for it twice.

(2) Second, I removed completely the App World application from my BlackBerry. You can do that by going to Options / Advanced Option / Applications, where you should find “BlackBerry App World” and choose from the menu “Delete”. It is important that after this is completed to reboot your device - you can do this by pressing together the Alt-Shift-Del keys.

(3) After that I installed the App World again. You can do that by going to http://appworld.blackberry.com directly from your BlackBerry and follow the instruction. Please note that this is quite large application so it is good idea to turn your Wi-Fi on and use it for that operation. After that is finished you should reboot your device again.

(4) The next step is to start the App World and reconcile your account. This is very important. This will ensure that you are not loosing your existing applications, those that you’ve already paid for. You could do this by going to the My World, the icon at the bottom-right corner, and while there choose from the menu “Log In“. You will be prompted to enter your PayPal information. Please, be sure that you use the same PayPal account that you used when purchasing from App World. Upon successful signing in you will see a message that your conformation was successfully reconciled.

(5) Now you have to find the Interlecta Translator Try’n'Buy either by searching for “interlecta” or from the list on the applications under My World. You will see that there’s only one version and that’s the latest one. It will not ask you to pay again for it, because you’ve signed in. Just install it. After successful installation you may be asked to reboot your device.

(6) After that you’re ready to use the software.

Disclaimer: This is not a solution provided by Interlecta or RIM, this is my personal experience. Follow the steps above at your own risk.

Please, share your experience by adding your comments here.

It was reported by our support team that some people had difficulties going through the procedure of purchasing products from RIM’s App World, and especially our Interlecta Translator for BlackBerry downloading and installing them on their smartphones. That’s why we decided to make this video and share it through YouTube.

All comments are welcome.

The question that everybody asks in the last few days is

“I paid for the application
but I am getting an error
message - Service expired.
What should I do?”

Here is how it goes.

As you know our product Interlecta Translator for BlackBerry was promoted on App World carousel some time ago. This product was a Try’n'Buy version for which the “Try” period was seven days and the Buy product has 1 year license. Some of the users decided directly to purchase the product while others first downloaded the trial version. But after the seven days passed, everyone (even those who had purchased the product) got one and the same message - service expired.

The thing is that the application versions for “Try” was 1.3.18 & 1.3.19 which is a trial of Interlecta Translator. The version with the 1 year license is 1.3.21. However, all users who purchased or just decided to try the product got version 1.3.19, which, as mentioned above, is a trial, not a full version.

Remember that it is App World that is responsible for the correct distribution of our products on their site and the error message you get is a problem of App World, not Interlecta.
We are posting this to help you to resolve the problem.

What you should do is …
(1) Upgrade Interlecta Translator to version 1.3.21 which is the latest one.
(2) After the upgrade is finished you may need to reboot your BlackBerry.
(3) Now, the most important step: go to Interlecta Translator and choose the Option from the main menu, there choose Sign-out, then exit the application and start it again.
That should fix all of the above problems.

Please, do not send one and the same message more than once. All users usually get a reply within 24 hours, but in some cases it might take a little more as we never send automatic messages. Your tickets are being replied by humans not machines and that takes up a lot of our resources.

However, we are sorry for any inconvenience this problem might have caused and we are working to make things right in the future.

—————————————

UPDATE 2010-02-10

In some rare cases you won’t be able to upgrade you purchased software to newer version, example: from 1.3.19 to 1.3.21. You could try this:
* Go to App World and uninstall Interlecta Translator try’n'buy application.
* Reboot the device.
* Go to App World and find Interlecta Translator try’n'buy application, choose Reinstall
* Reboot the device.
* Go to Interlecta Translator, and after going through the initial procedures of testing connection and activating the service, check at the About screen what’s the version number. It should the most recent one.

If that doesn’t work you’re may be running version of the App World that is too old, you should probably upgrade it. If that doesn’t work either, you should contact App World customer support.

Please keep in mind that providing the correct version to the end user is responsibility if App World and we have no control over it.

—————————————

UPDATE 2010-02-16

In case the above did not work for you please look at this article: http://blog.interlecta.com/?p=466 - “How to upgrade a Try and Buy product at RIM/BlackBerry App World”.

Please, keep in mind that our company Interlecta is not responsible for the payment processing, so if you need a refund please contact App World.

The best way to show our sympathy to the Haitian people and be useful to all those who are there to help Haiti recover from the tragedy is to add Haitian Creole to our Interlecta Translator. This we have decided on our weekly meeting and we are glad to be the very first who add Creole to a mobile translator for BlackBerry platform.

Haitian Creole was officially launched on the 5th of February, last Friday, and we are now finishing some details for launching the language for our mobile translators for J2ME platform. Everyone can download our Try’n'Buy Interlecta Translator directly form their BlackBerrys at …
http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/3571
or
http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/2009

Try both links as only one of them should work for your device and carrier/country combination. We will announce Haitian Creole for J2ME platform as soon as it is released on the market.

Many companies release new products before Christmas and New Year, but we from Interlecta release such after the happy holidays. We also wait for Santa to bring some presents and use the holidays for rest, fun, and winter sports.

It is just now, when everything is quiet and no one sings jingle bells, that we use our working hours to create and release a product or two on App World. It is a brand new advanced version of our Translator for BlackBerry. The gadget has a network diagnostic tool, which will save you time, effort and confusion checking the available connections your BlackBerry and wireless carrier provide, i.e. Interlecta Translator will “know” which connection to choose in order to work properly.

The product has a new interface, better network service, use of Wi-Fi, and the most important - built-in support button. Customers won’t need to visit our homepage in order to contact our support department because they will be able to do this directly from the application. This system will provide all the details our developers need to resolve the technical issues.

Last but not least is the fact that Interlecta Translator for BlackBerry has been released in a Try’n'Buy version. Everyone can test it on their favorite BlackBerry for seven days after which they will need to pay a small fee for a whole year subscription and priority support. What is the fee? Please check this link in order to try and buy our brand new Interlecta Translator for BlackBerry or go here and look for Interlecta.

Winter came to remind us that New Year and February are coming closer….and with February comes  the Mobile World Congress 2010 in which we intend to take part in.

We have already started to physically and mentally prepare ourselves for the event as a picture of two of our staff members has appeared on the pages of the brochure for the upcoming 2010 Congress! We are good an have to keep ourselves looking that way!

To get more serious now, we in Interlecta are preparing new features and new applications  and are working very hard to climb some more steps up on the ladder of the most significant mobile software developers. Problem with missing fonts on BlackBerrys has been solved and version with the new feature will be released as soon as ready and approved.

So, wait for more news!

The Startup Conference is a conference that gathers students, investors (a.k.a. angels), entrepreneurs, Vcs, into the conference hall of a university which this year was the University of Architecture, Building Engineering and Geodesy in Sofia. The aim of every entrepreneur who gets the possibility to take part and speak about their company/product for 3 minutes, is to find an angel willing to take them to the heaven of successful business.

On the 21 and 22 November Interlecta was one of the fifteen to enlighten the Startup Conference with their presence. The spokesman on our behalf was, of course, our managing director Neven Boyanov who, in three minutes only, presented our company, showed some statistics on the global mobile and Internet usage, defined a problem and suggested a solution.  Short as it seems, the time was enough to attract angels and Vcs on our side during the elevator pitch itself and on a cup of coffee later on.

The second day of the Startup Conference passed in talks who is who in the startup business, coffee pauses and more lectures on how to be successful or unsuccessful in your business.

Not literally, of course. What is meant is that another translator with the name Interlecta Translator is the new product offered on the mobile software market in India. This time Interlecta are partnering with the most influential wireless carrier in India, AirTel, and offering the product on Cellmania, on their part – one of the most influential mobile software distributors in the same country.

BlackBerry is not the only platform we are focusing on as millions of people around the world own JAVA/J2ME based phones! And they also need to send messages in foreign languages. All AirTel clients interested in this unique and exclusive limited time offer can browse http://airtel.cellmania.com from their mobile phones, search for key word “translate” and get a year subscription free of charge.

Those who do not embrace this offer in time will need to pay a small subscription fee. If any difficulties with the cell’s internet settings, contact AirTel customer support service.

The Interecta Translator on Cellmania translates text typed on the phone’s screen and the output can be sent an SMS. To increase the functionality of the mobile translator, new languages have been added so now users can send messages in Africaans, Belorussian, Galilean, Yiddish, Irish, Icelandic, Macedonian, Malay, Farsi, Swahili, Tagalog, and Welsh (Cymraeg) among others.

Story about other mobile translators for AirTel users to be continued.