thomsen.

The ‘apps’ that took the world to a whole new level in 2010 deserve much attention and praise especially for ‘apps’ that help those who are deaf/hard of hearing. The standout technology for 2010 is mobile video phones and you have to give most of the credit to Apple for finally figuring out a way to make video calls possible to everyday phone users. While the concept is nowhere close to new, it is, however, the everyday applicative use of the technology that people were not quite ready for. There has been a calling to Apple to incorporate video camera onto the iPhone to make it possible to make video calls especially from customers of Apple who are hard of hearing/deaf.

When Apple introduced the iPhone 4.0 with the new feature called Facetime, it still is and will continue to change the way how we now communicate to each using mobile technology. On top of that, it has changed how deaf/hard of hearing people communicate with each other on a daily basis. No longer will they have to wait until they are home to view video messages or to make phones calls. Text messages and emails has been the main form of communication using mobile phones, now, mobile video phones can alleviate some of that. (For mobile video phone, it will be sometime until it becomes the main form of communication in the future.)

Yesterday, Skype followed Apple lead by introducing video calling on iPhone, iTouch and will be provided an ‘app’ for Android systems (no date has been determined yet) as well. This is drastically change the dynamics of customers/clients who are deaf/hard of hearing to incorporate this technology into their everyday lives. For some users, not all clients have friends/clients that use Facetime (as of right now, Facetime can only be use in iChat), thus, a problem for those who do not have iChat or who does not have access to a Mac computer/laptop. However, with Skype, any Mac or PC can be used and you can make one or two way video calls. Thus, Skype has allowed a high degree of flexibility for clients/customers who prefer to make video calls on their iPhones or iTouch.

Standout Technology of 2010 goes to both Apple and Skype!

Congratulations and looking forward to seeing what you guys have up your sleeves for 2011!