Contributing Member of the Technology, Media & Telecom Councils

GLG News by this Author

GLG News is now G+ Insights

G+ is a community for professionals, academics and entrepreneurs to connect through online discussions and in-person meetings. You will continue to see G+ Insights (formerly GLG News) here as well as on the G+ website, where you can share and discuss the G+ Insights you read.

Dedicated apps headed for the trash

July 17, 2010

Analysis of:The Mobile as TV Remote | www.appmarket.tv

The article discusses the use of a smartphone as a remote for the entertainment system (the article focused on TV). The user employs the graphical user interface to search through viewing options. The author cites the app My TV Remote application by Ryz Media as an example.

Usabilty builds markets

December 14, 2009

Analysis of:Speech at Microsoft: The "new touch"? | www.tmaa.com

Historically, making it easier to use computers and the Web have built huge companies such as Microsoft, Google, and Apple, with Microsoft and Apple most notably taking advantage of the Graphical User Interface (GUI) and pointing devices, while Google focused on easy web search. Both Microsoft and Google (as well as other organizations such as Nuance Communications and AT&T and some international organizations) have developed speech recognition and speech synthesis capability internally.

Google Voice represents a fundamental change in telephony

July 22, 2009

Analysis of:Google Voice Apps For Android And Blackberry Are Here | www.techcrunch.com

Google Voice provides a universal phone number independent of changes in your other various phone numbers. If outgoing calls are also through Google, as the referenced article indicates can be the case if one wants one's Google number to appear as the incoming number to those called, then Google is "on the call" for both incoming and outgoing calls.

Search is wide open on mobile phones

March 20, 2009

Analysis of:Ballmer Says Microsoft Can Experiment in Search, Unlike Google | www.bloomberg.com

Mobile phone search  is a new frontier--wide open and with challenges different than the PC.

Do you want your mobile phone to be like your PC?

December 10, 2008

Analysis of:Android developers, start your engines: Google unlocks the G1 | venturebeat.com

The article praises the 10,000 applications available for the iPhone and bemoans the paucity (only 460 or so) applications available for the Google Android platform. Is this the issue driving adoption of these super-smart phones? The goal seems to be to make them small PCs, but there are significant differences between mobile devices and PCs--the screen size, speed of wireless connections, and limited processing and memory capacity being the most obvious. A less obvious difference is the lack of a near-monopoly on the operating systems that we find on PCs. (Microsoft Windows and Apple user interfaces are so similar now that it is easy to move from one to the other, a fact Apple has captitalized upon.) Ignoring these differences will make the data channel on these phones almost unusable if not addressed. Subscribers will try and drop the services because they are confusing, buggy, or hard to use on the small devices.

Speech recognition in three of the 5 innovations--why not more in IBM offerings?

November 28, 2008

Analysis of:IBM unveils list of innovations | www.business-standard.com

Speech recognition is central in the “talking to the web” innovation, and required for the "digital shopping assistant" and "memory" visions--three of the “Five Innovations That Will Change Our Lives.” IBM has impressive speech recognition technology that it uses in some telephone applications and has licensed on a one-case-at-a-time basis to some other vendors.

Management reorganization matches Nuance's long-term strategy

November 3, 2008

Analysis of:Nuance Company Management Team | nuance.com

Nuance's management changes match its strategy, notably putting Steve Chambers in charge of both the enterprise business (a large part of which is automating customer service call centers with speech recognition) and the mobile business (software on mobile phones and network-based services, many of which involve speech recognition). Nuance, more than most companies, recognizes the full opportunities created by a mobile revolution where our mobile phones (portable multi-function personal devices) are becoming indispensable to us and taking on new roles. Secondly, Nuance has built a world-class organization in healthcare, creating electronic medical records, in part using speech recognition for efficiency, but providing complete solutions to managing those records (with Nuance estimating healthcare annual sales of $410 million in fiscal year 2009), and having an executive that manages those operations separately makes eminent sense, even positioning Nuance Healthcare as a spinoff.

What need does this address?

September 29, 2008

Analysis of:Google's Android Has Phone Debut via T-Mobile | online.wsj.com

Good for encouraging application developers if the size of the Android market grows sufficiently, but chicken-and-egg problem could deter growth. The Graphical User Interface, like that of the Apple iPhone, is strained by the small size of the device, and not all that easy to use without intense concentration on the device. The focus is existing types of web surfing and search. That may not be what people want to do with their mobile devices in sufficient numbers and often enough to create the market Google (and others) want for data services. The key is understanding what data services people want on mobile phones and delivering a user interface such as speech recognition that allows direct, intuitive, and hands-free use of those functions.

Mashups just an example of speech technology as SaaS and AT&T moving into commercial apps

September 8, 2008

Analysis of:AT&T Research Working on Speech Mashups | www.research.att.com

AT&T has decades of speech research (beginning at Bell Labs), but hasn't done much commercially since the divestiture of Lucent. This marks a reentry into commercial apps.

Nuance's Zi acquisition is likely to close and forms part of a consistent strategy

September 8, 2008

Analysis of:Zi Corporation Provides Update on Strategic Alternatives | www.sys-con.com

Zi will be under pressure from Nuance patent suits to negotiate with Nuance. Nuance's acquisition strategy has a strong strategic underpinning. The healthcare business, Dictaphone, could stand alone as a strong company.

Clear benefits of hands-free use could change mobile phone dynamics

August 6, 2008

Analysis of:New Study Proves Safety Benefits from Speech Recognition Use in Automobiles | nuance.com

Previous studies largely used self-reporting by individuals in accident reports, and sometimes came to the conclusion that there wasn't enough data to show with statistical significance that hands-free use reduced accidents. This was often mis-reported as there being NO difference. This study measured distraction directly with a driving simulator. Vendors of core speech technology such as Nuance Communications (NUAN) and IBM are already benefiting from hands-free driving laws, and this could encourage more of them. Services such as Google's 800-GOOG-411 or Microsoft's (Tellme) information services such as 800-555-TELL or Yahoo!'s voice-enabled OneSearch are basically still in trial form, and haven't received much publicity. They work, and this study will encourage more publicity, accelerating the use of speech services on mobile phones.

Google expands its voice search capabilities

July 9, 2008

Analysis of:Google Tests Maps with Voice | www.speechtechmag.com

"Voice Search" is a capability that promises major impacts on the user interface for mobile phones. "Just say what you want and get it" is a better way to interact with a small device with a microphone than the PC-style navigation required by even the best visual interfaces, even the Apple iPhone. The result is delivered to the phone as voice, text, or graphics. The Google beta test extends the voice interface in their experimental business directory 800-GOOG-411 (available from any phone) to selected Blackberry phones. A small client software application on the phone uses the location data from Google maps to avoid the user having to say their location (required for 800-GOOG-411), and delivers the results using the Google maps interface, just as if it were typed. Users can speak a category, such as "coffee shop" or a specific business name to get the result. This approach is similar to Yahoo!s OneSearch using voice (working with start-up Vlingo) and Nuance's offerings.

It's not just about pricing -- it's about services and advertising

February 21, 2008

Analysis of:Verizon Wireless Introduces New Unlimited Plans That Are as Worry Free as the Guarantee | biz.yahoo.com

- If you can call a service free, the mobile phone becomes more like the Web. There's minimal impediment to trying a voice service. - Services available now include free (ad-supported) directory assistance, driving directions, news on demand, movie times and tickets, horoscopes, and more. Providers already include Google, Microsoft, AT&T, Dial Directions, and more. - If the amount of time spent on a call is not correlated with cost, "voice surfing" can become popular. "Sticky" and social-site services that entertain as well as provide information can proliferate. - The mobile component of Unified Communications becomes more economical. Listen to those emails converted to speech as long as you want. - The enabler of such services is speech technology--speech recognition, text-to-speech synthesis, and a W3C standard, VoiceXML. Unlimited mobile calling coincides with a maturing of this technology, technology necessary to make voice-interactive services profitable.

Speech Recognition: Beyond Technology

July 11, 2007

Analysis of:Recognizing Nuance | online.wsj.com

Advances in user interface design have been some of the most dynamic drivers of business opportunities--The Graphical User Interface on PCs and Web browsers and, more recently, Apple's innovations with the iPod and iPhone are some obvious examples. Speech recognition adds a dimension to ease of use, particularly on small devices such as wireless phones. Past overstatements of the technology's capabilities have led to a current underestimate of the technology's abilities--and consequently, to investment opportunities.

Page : 11 to 14 of 14