News & Reviews

Speech technology on cell phones getting better but still not perfect

admin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:25:08 +0000

“Cat got your tongue?” my wife asked as we bumped along the freeway one recent afternoon. “I wonder where that phrase comes from?” she added a moment later.

Now here was an opportunity for a husband to be useful. I knew I could simply say, “Origin of the phrase ‘cat got your tongue’ ” into Google’s new Nexus One or an Apple iPhone loaded with Microsoft’s new Bing search app — the two smartphones I happened to have in my possession — to answer her second question.

The spoken word is becoming an effective way to overcome the frustrations and limitations of typing on a smartphone. Google and Microsoft now offer speech-enabled Web search on a variety of mobile platforms. And a growing number of iPhone and Android apps — and services like Google Voice and YouTube’s recent launch of automatic captioning of videos — can transcribe speech into text. The technology has evolved to a point where speech is a central feature on the Nexus One, allowing users to speak a tweet, an e-mail or a Facebook update.

“2010 is the year when speech goes mainstream,” said Dariusz Paczuski, senior director for Tellme Mobile Speech, a Mountain View company that became a unit of…

Sony is hoping Android PlayStation

admin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 14:07:02 +0000

In recent months there have been numerous reports of new Android phones from various manufacturers – HTC, Motorola and Samsung. All of them want to jump on the train or even share some time on the operating system. A name previously entered in rare phenomenon – Sony Ericsson. But now the Japanese-Swedish manufacturer responded and announced new Android phones with a new interface.

Two years of development work put in the new interface – the manufacturer wants to score with new features. According to a report by Wired, the developers of Sony Ericsson put more than two years in the development of the new interface. Meaning and purpose it was to collect multimedia and contacts from social networks on a single platform .

SonyEricsson thus starts a trial with its MotoBLUR the Motorola or HTC with sense some time ago had begun. “We have the complex PlayStation middleware where streamlined to fit in Android OS,” said George Arriola from Wired.

Later this quarter, SonyEricsson in the United States wants its new Android phones get into the trade including the Xperia X10 with 4-inch touch screen, 1-GHz Snapdragon CPU and 8.1-megapixel camera, or the Mini, a compact mobile phone with 2.6-inch display – either as a…

HTC Touch 2, Model T3333 reviews

admin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:49:12 +0000

Just yesterday, I decided to renew my old mobile phone line for a brand new HTC Touch 2, Model T3333 with my mobile service provider. I was quite excited with getting the HTC Touch 2 especially since there are many functions packed inside this medium-sized, somewhat professional-looking device.

Much unfortunately, the HTC Touch 2 doesn’t look all attractive like the iPhone. Consumers are able to choose between brown or blue. The blue I chose made the HTC Touch 2 look pretty sturdy and the silver lining around the entire sides of the phone further boost its appearance. The grip on the smart-phone is pretty comfortable too. I was quite delighted with the weight of the HTC Touch 2, a light 110 grams, comparable with the 130 grams iPhone indeed!

The HTC Touch 2’s TouchFLO interface is pretty user-friendly, allowing consumers to navigate through most of the important information on their HTC Touch 2 easily. The touch-screen is rather reactive, however, one of the disadvantages I encountered is that a little more force is required to tap on the touch screen sometimes. The Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional looks good, but at certain junctions in the phone, such as the Calendar function, appears to be a stark…

Wirelesss carriers offer a system to turn your into a cellphone payment machine

admin — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:08:11 +0000

Canada’s major wireless carriers have announced a new mobile money system that can turn your cellphone into a wireless payment machine.

EnStream LP, a joint venture of Bell Mobility, Rogers and Telus, launched a three-month pilot project for the Zoompass Tag, a sticker that converts your mobile phone into a virtual credit or debit card when it’s swiped across a point-of-sale terminal at a checkout.

It’s a little like having a prepaid coffee or gas card. Order up a coffee or fill the tank, swipe your phone and it’s paid.

The new payment system follows up on Zoompass, EnStream’s first mobile application, which was launched last year, allowing Canadians to use mobile phones to exchange money with friends and family.

“The service type environments are the ones that benefit the most,” Christian Ali, EnStream vice-president, product development, said of the new Zoompass Tag.

“You get your coffee, you tap for payment and it’s completely done within literally two or three seconds or less. It’s really all about convenience.”

The phone sticker works with a con-tactless point-of-sale reader such as a PayPass and users can see transactions logged immediately. And they can track their transaction history on their phone.

You can use the Zoompass tag to pay where there are…

Review: Nokia N97 Mini

admin — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:48:37 +0000

The Nokia N97 Mini is a smartphone that delivers despite its ‘old’ operating system. It may not be as good as its current rivals, but it still has a lot of features that can help you stay connected.

The Mini is thinner, smaller, and lighter than its predecessor (the N97), but is still packed with various connectivity features such as GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, FM Radio, and HSDPA. The 3.2-inch resistive touchscreen is responsive, while its slide-out QWERTY keyboard made it easy for us to compose messages.

The home screen can display up to six different widgets, with us being able to put Facebook, Music Player, Mail for Exchange, and our favourite contacts, in addition to the date and time icon on the screen. The silver key below the screen brings the user to the main menu, allowing users to go straight to the Calendar, Contacts, Music, Web, Messaging Photos, Ovi Store, Maps, Movies and TV, Settings, Games, and Applications.

The 8GB of memory (expandable to 24GB) is perfect for users who want to store their music, photos, and videos on the Mini. Users can store audio files saved in MP3, WMA, AAC, eAAC, and eAAC+ formats, video files in MP4 and 3GP formats, and JPEG photos.…

Toshiba May Take Advantage Of Dead Windows Mobile OS

admin — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:34:55 +0000

Toshiba Australia is looking to enter the Smartphone market with a new Windows 7 TG03 series model. The move comes as telecommunication carriers and vendors like HTC, Samsung and LG face the prospect that every current model Windows Mobile along with current applications will be obsolete by September when Microsoft launches their new operating system.

Toshiba believe that they will be able to take advantage of the current situation by launching a brand new phone with a new operating system and a new Generation of applications that will work on both Toshiba notebooks and netbooks as well as a new TG03 Smartphone.

Senior Optus executives told ChannelNews that Toshiba has an excellent brand name and a combination of a Toshiba Smartphone and a netbook running the new Windows 7 operating system will appeal to a lot of customers. “They are not tainted by the problems that are emerging with current model Windows Mobile phones” they said.

Last week Microsoft confirmed that their new Windows 7 series phones, expected late this year, won’t run any applications written for older versions of Microsoft’s phone software.

Rob Wilkinson the General Manager of Toshiba Australia Information Systems Division said “Toshiba Australia is seriously looking at what opportunities are out there for…

Verizon iPhone Needed: Apple loses market share to Android

admin — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 11:25:52 +0000

Just a few months back the Apple iPhone had been enjoying a healthy lead in the cell phone market, but now figures suggest that they are beginning to lose their market share to – Google Android. Although the iPhone is still the top selling phone, a constant barrage of new Android devices, such as the Nexus One and Droid, has hurt its lead.

We can take two things from this, the first is that Apple are still doing an amazing job in the market – as they only have one handset – and the other is that a Verizon Wireless version o f the iPhone is needed. The Inquirer reports that Apple took a huge blow at Mobile World Congress in February, as Google are to launch a host of new Android powered handsets in 2010.

They then ask the question – are iPhone sales in a free fall – one that is certainly hard to answer at this time. Android’s market share grew by 8.3 percent in February, taking them to an overall 15.2 percent share in the market. Apples still has a healthy 63.7% share in the cell phone market but – a drop is still a drop.

How Will Apple…

Sony Releasing Playstation Phone-This Time for Real?

admin — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 11:08:59 +0000

The release of the Sony Ericsson Playstation Phone or the PSP Phone has been one of the most rumoured news in the mobile world. The rumours have been circulating the net ever since Sony Ericsson gave the Walkman and Cyber-Shot branding to their phones.

Some said that Sony lost sales of digicams and walkmans due to the phones branded with the Walkman and Cybershot and so they would release the Playstation phone independently ie it would be called the Sony PSP Phone and not the Sony Ericsson PSP phone.

The rumours faded away with some resurfacing from time to time. But now engineers at Sony are developing a phone that will be able to download and run Playstation games. kind of like a mobile version of the PSP Go. Sony is also said to be working on an Apple iPad like device with gaming capabilities.

This move might have been initiated due to the ever growing market for mobile phones particularly in the past year or two.

Windows Mobile to be cheap alternative to Windows Phone 7

admin — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 10:31:15 +0000

It’s a question for which Microsoft’s never given me a straight answer: During the next seven months, why would anybody buy a Windows Mobile phone when Windows Phone 7 is launching for the holidays?

Once again, I tried it out Friday on Todd Brix, Microsoft’s senior director for Mobile Platform Services Product Management, during a phone interview.

“People have to obviously decide whether they want to wait for Windows Phone 7 or buy now,” he said.

The future will always bring new technologies, he added. Well, duh – but the exception in this case is that Microsoft, in unveiling Windows Phone 7 eight months before its scheduled release and on Thursday confirming that Windows Mobile apps won’t work on the new OS, effectively squashed demand for the OS it actually currently sells.

I rephrased the question for Brix.

“If they want a great e-mail experience on Windows Mobile, Windows Mobile provides that,” he said.

Brix went on to add that Windows Marketplace for Mobile offers many productivity and business-oriented apps, suggesting Windows Mobile will be positioned as an affordable enterprise solution.
Excellent. Some good detail.

I rephrased the question again.

“Windows Mobile is a very competitive solution for a lot of things people are trying to do with smartphones today,” Brix…

More than 10% of smartphone users connected to a social network in January, up almost 5 percentage points from a year ago.

admin — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 14:14:38 +0000

A rising number of smartphone Web browsers are being used to access social networking sites, an indication of how the online services are extending beyond the PC.

In January, almost one in three smartphone users accessed social networks with their mobile browsers, up more than 8 percentage points from a year ago, Web metrics firm ComScore said Wednesday. The number of cellular phone users in general connecting to Facebook through a mobile browser grew 112% from a year ago, while Twitter experienced a 347% jump.
“Social networking remains one of the most popular and fastest-growing behaviors on both the PC-based Internet and the mobile Web,” Mark Donovan, senior VP of mobile at ComScore, said in a statement. “Social media is a natural sweet spot for mobile since mobile devices are at the center of how people communicate with their circle of friends, whether by phone, text, email, or, increasingly, accessing social networking sites via a mobile browser.”

ComScore measured smartphone and other mobile phone use only through the use of the devices’ browsers. The numbers do not include access by the nearly 6 million phone users who only use mobile applications.

In looking at mobile phone users as a whole, Comscore found that more than…