Want to produce property reports with mobile tech? Touch or Talk…you decide!

In just a short number of years, mobile technology has completely changed the way we find information and entertainment, communicate with friends and family, and get things done.

Having a supercomputer in our pocket is now second nature; today more searches on Google come from mobile than from desktop computers, and by some estimates there are more mobile devices than there are people on the planet. For evidence of the mobile revolution, look no further than the growth of Android. There are now more than one billion Android users worldwide—a long way from when the first Android launched phone back in 2008. And there are 4,000 unique Android devices on the market, from more than 400 manufacturers and over 500 carriers.

The devices themselves have changed a lot, too. In today’s multi-screen world, you can now use Android on your phone, your tablet, your wrist, in your car and in your living room, and move seamlessly between each. Many of these new form factors have arrived just in the last year.

By the end of this year, 35 car models will offer Android Auto, helping you access Search, Maps, music and other information through your car’s controls. And the first sets running Android TV have now arrived.

Google’s latest mobile platform Android 6.0 Marshmallow is due out in the Autumn, and there are a number of new changes planned, including Android Pay (supported on devices with Near Field Communication) which means all you’ll need to do unlock and place your handset on a compatible contactless payment terminal.

There’s also fingerprint support, which as well as allowing you to unlock your device and pay for media from the Google Play store. the fingerprint scanning tech is also open to developers.  That means developers can build it into their own applications, allowing you to sign into them without the need for a password, as well as pay for goods using Android Pay.

Google has also carried out a lot of work surrounding battery life and power in Marshmallow, and will make use of a new function known as Doze to improve device standby time. By using motion detectors, Android will recognize when devices haven’t been interacted with for a while, such as when a person is asleep or a device has been left on a table, to reduce background processes.

Google Now has been improved upon once again in Android M. Focusing on three key areas: being aware of different contexts, providing answers and helping you take action, Google Now is now smarter than ever.  Google Now is also rolling out a pilot program called Now on Tap with 100 popular apps.  Now on Tap provides Google Now-like content right where you are, without having to leave the app you’re in.  This intelligent new assistant feature will vastly  improve the voice recognition capabilities of Android.  As well as allowing users to access information anywhere on their Android M device, no matter what they’re doing, it will also hugely improve those apps that use voice recognition as a key part of the user experience.

Just a couple years ago, the mobile voice-recognition technology behind Google had an error rate of around 25 percent. This meant that if you said “Okay, Google” to your Android smartphone and dictated some sort of question or command, Google’s software would misinterpret your voice queries about once every fourth time.  But with Android M, that voice-recognition accuracy in search is improved to 92 percent — or, an 8 percent error rate.

Even the new operating system from Apple – iOS9 – due out later this week – has smarter Siri capabilities to rival Google Now, estimated by Apple to make Siri 40% faster and 40% more accurate.

This is great news for for TouchRight users, particularly if you’re creating inventory reports on mobile devices.  As we know, touch-screen keyboards can be slow, especially on phones with small screens. To enter text more naturally, you can use your phone or tablet’s voice dictation feature (if you have a 3/4G or WIFI connection).  Just click in the description or notes areas of your inventory items, select the microphone on your keyboard and speak, and your device will convert what you say to text without any need for typing.  This feature is available now in TouchRight, and is already accurate, but with Android M it will improve even further!

So why not Touch or Talk with TouchRight Software?  It will save you even more time and lots of costly typing fees!

If you’d like more information on TouchRight and how it could help your business please get in touch on 01904 390109 or info@touchrightsoftware.com.

Alex Evans

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