iConji Offers International Messaging Without Translation

LOVELAND, Colo., May 20 /PRNewswire/ -- Over the Sun, LLC is proud to announce the release of its revolutionary social networking application iConji Messenger.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20100520/LA08092)

iConji is a fun, new way to communicate with friends across town or around the world using a vocabulary of pictographs whose meanings are translated into several languages.

iConji was initially conceived by Kai Staats and Dan Burcaw, co-founders of Terra Soft Solutions, former developer of Yellow Dog Linux, as a means by which messaging could offer more rich, engaging communications in a world where nearly two-thirds of the population of the planet now have access to, or own mobile phones. Current trends predict that these nearly four billion phones will be replaced with models offering interactive screens and always-on connectivity.

Kai Staats, now Principal Manager of Over the Sun, LLC, states, "iConji was born of a concept for how a new kind of digital communication could bridge the gaps between the cultures of our world, not to take away their unique identities, but to express them. The iConji vocabulary is 'open' in that it will grow, given new characters contributed by a worldwide community, enriching the vocabulary for everyone."

An iConji character is an image within a 32x32 pixel square which holds a single meaning, such as "sports car" or a dual meaning such as "food" plus "to eat."

Each character carries the author's name, a brief story of its creation, and user generated data such as location and notes, and if desired, designation as a noun, verb, adjective, or adverb.

Staats concludes, "While iConji may carry a deeper, intrinsic value in cultural expression — it's just fun to use. Using homonyms and plays-on-words, iConji messages are often quite humorous as well as informative. Whether you are sending a complete sentence with proper grammar to a co-worker, or a simple, one-character message inviting a friend for a drink after work, receiving an iConji message always causes me to smile. As the old saying goes, 'a picture is worth a thousand words.'"

Dan Burcaw, CEO of Double Encore, a leading iPhone OS developer, called iConji a "game-changer," adding, "As technology evolves, it is projects like iConji that take full advantage of devices such as the iPhone, opening the door to a whole new way of thinking about human communication. We are honored to have been part of this project."

The iConji vocabulary launches with 1185 characters, each translated into English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Hindi, Mandarin Chinese, and Japanese, with Turkish and Swahili in progress.

iConji is immediately available from the Apple iTunes store for Apple iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad; and as a free Facebook and web browser application.

Visit www.iconji.com to learn more and sign up!

About Over the Sun, LLC

Over the Sun is an innovations company exploring product development opportunities in diverse markets, including social networking and mobile, personal computing. iConji marks OTS's first product delivery.

For more information, visit www.overthesun.com.

SOURCE Over the Sun, LLC