Nuance CEO Paul Ricci said that company is nearing an inflection point with its mobile voice services and the next six months will bring “significantly greater visibility.”
On Nuance’s third quarter earnings conference call, Ricci was asked about design wins on mobile. Nuance has been repeatedly linked to Apple’s iOS 5 for voice recognition technology. Here’s what Ricci had to say.
I do think in the next 6 months that you will see a significantly greater visibility of Nuance’s voice services on a number of mobile devices and I think the visibility of that will accelerate the awareness of our technology on mobile devices, much as Dragon Go! has done in recent weeks. And I suspect we’ll create a– yet additional demand by more mobile and consumer manufacturers to incorporate voice capabilities in their devices.
If you connect a few dots, it sounds like Nuance’s greater visibility could come from Apple’s latest iPhone. Then again, Ricci mentioned multiple mobile devices. It appears Nuance is looking for its own halo affect: Become embedded in the hottest mobile devices and other customers will soon follow.
Nuance’s mobile and consumer division delivered third quarter revenue of $93.1 million, up 31 percent from a year ago. While the mobile grabs the headlines, Nuance’s business has been carried by its healthcare division. Overall, Nuance topped Wall Street expectations in the third quarter with earnings of 35 cents a share on revenue of $345.1 million. The company also raised its outlook for the fourth quarter, but much of that bump was due to three recent acquisitions—Equitrac, SVOX and Webdmex.
Yesterday news broke that the hacktivist group Anonymous is vowing to destroy Facebook on November 5, 2011 (Guy Fawkes Day). Now there is speculation that it’s all just a hoax, or that the collective group Anonymous doesn’t support what a few of its members are up to.
I contacted Facebook last night to see what the company thinks about a possible Anonymous attack. Facebook did not get back to me, so I decided to look for more information today.
On July 16, 2011, someone created accounts for an “Operation Facebook” on YouTube (FacebookOp) and Twitter (OP_Facebook). These account names are a little odd: why not just use one of the many other mediums that Anonymous has used in the past? Furthermore, the released video, embedded above, is not of the usual computerized voice and visual production quality that we’re used to from Anonymous.
The dates are also questionable: why didn’t this news spread like wildfire three weeks ago? Whenever Anonymous or LulzSec declare a new target, the world definitely notices. Furthermore, while Guy Fawkes Day is a perfectly understandable choice, it’s very far away. There are 112 days between July 16, 2011 and November 5, 2011: Anonymous rarely gives more than a few days notice, if at all.
My suspicions were confirmed via a few Twitter accounts that Anonymous has used in the past. They have given accurate information regarding the organization and its actions in the past, so I’m more likely to believe what they are saying.
GroupAnon, which has some 26,000 followers, sent out these two tweets:
No one can speak for the whole of #Anonymous. There are some anons who support #OpFacebook whilst others do not. | #AnonOps @Anonymous_SA Exactly! #OpFacebook is just an Op, it’s not Anonymous…
AnonOps, which has some 45,000 followers, sent out these four tweets:
We prefer to face the real power and not to face to the same medias that we use as tools. #OpFacebook #Anonymous #OpFacebook is being organised by some Anons. This does not necessarily mean that all of #Anonymous agrees with it. Dont be silly. Important things are happening in the world to deal with quirks like #OpFacebook. Lets keep our style & moral #Anonymous TO PRESS: MEDIAS OF THE WORLD… STOP LYING! #OpFacebook is just ANOTHER FAKE! WE DONT “KILL” THE MESSENGER. THAT’S NOT OUR STYLE #Anonymous
By contrast, here is the original message from the OP_Facebook account, which has some 3,000 followers:
spread the new video like AIDS NOU!!! youtube.com/watch?v=SWQTS8…
Here is the original “press release” from the YouTube video posted by FacebookOp:
Attention citizens of the world,
We wish to get your attention, hoping you heed the warnings as follows: Your medium of communication you all so dearly adore will be destroyed. If you are a willing hacktivist or a guy who just wants to protect the freedom of information then join the cause and kill facebook for the sake of your own privacy.
Facebook has been selling information to government agencies and giving clandestine access to information security firms so that they can spy on people from all around the world. Some of these so-called whitehat infosec firms are working for authoritarian governments, such as those of Egypt and Syria.
Everything you do on Facebook stays on Facebook regardless of your “privacy” settings, and deleting your account is impossible, even if you “delete” your account, all your personal info stays on Facebook and can be recovered at any time. Changing the privacy settings to make your Facebook account more “private” is also a delusion. Facebook knows more about you than your family. http://www.physorg.com/news170614271.html http://itgrunts.com/2010/10/07/facebook-steals-numbers-and-data-from-your-iph….
You cannot hide from the reality in which you, the people of the internet, live in. Facebook is the opposite of the Antisec cause. You are not safe from them nor from any government. One day you will look back on this and realise what we have done here is right, you will thank the rulers of the internet, we are not harming you but saving you.
The riots are underway. It is not a battle over the future of privacy and publicity. It is a battle for choice and informed consent. It’s unfolding because people are being raped, tickled, molested, and confused into doing things where they don’t understand the consequences. Facebook keeps saying that it gives users choices, but that is completely false. It gives users the illusion of and hides the details away from them “for their own good” while they then make millions off of you. When a service is “free,” it really means they’re making money off of you and your information.
Think for a while and prepare for a day that will go down in history. November 5 2011, #opfacebook . Engaged.
This is our world now. We exist without nationality, without religious bias. We have the right to not be surveilled, not be stalked, and not be used for profit. We have the right to not live as slaves.
We are anonymous We are legion We do not forgive We do not forget Expect us
Summary: Toshiba’s Qosmio F755 3D is for 3D enthusiasts looking to enjoy 3D movies and games on a laptop without having to wear dorky 3D glasses.
Just in time for Back-to-School, Toshiba introduces a 15.6″ Qosmio F755 3D laptop that will keep your college-bound student entertained with all the latest 3D movies, without any 3D glasses. (3D gaming will have to wait till November as Toshiba is working with Nvidia on some driver and display tweaks, according to ThisIsMyNext.)
Rachel King first told you about a variant of this laptop back in April when it launched in Japan as the Qosmio T851; it has since been updated with a faster processor in the American version and renamed the Qosmio F755 3D.
Though Toshiba has not released detailed specs on the F755 3D yet, ThisIsMyNext is reporting that the laptop has an Intel Core i7 2630QM CPU, 6GB of DDR3 RAM, a 750 GB hard drive, as well as a Nvidia GeForce GT 540M graphics card that can run “Call of Duty: Black Ops and StarCraft 2 ran fluently in high details and 1360×768,” according to NotebookCheck. Rounding out its high-end multimedia features are its built-in Harman Kardon speakers, integrated Blu-ray rewritable drive, and a HDMI port to connect the F755 to your HDTV for 1080p playback.
What sets this 3D-capable laptop from others is its glasses-less 3D display. The Qosmio’s 15.6″ HD TruBrite screen is a “double parallax image display” that projects two sets of images for the left and right eyes to create 3D effect, which is essentially how the Nintendo 3DS display works. To help minimize dizziness from looking at 3D content at the wrong angle, the laptop even engages the built-in web cam to track and “react” to your “motion and position” to keep you in your 3D sweetspot.
Though the display on the Nintendo 3DS is capable of displaying both 2D and 3D content, it can only show one mode at a time, The F755’s 3D screen is the first on a laptop that can display 2D and 3D content simultaneously, which means you could be editing a 3D video in one window, while IMing in 2D in another, with both windows opened on the same screen.
While this desktop replacement may not be the most budget- or school-friendly computer for Back-to-School, it packs some quality specs and innovations that make the 3D experience on a laptop more enjoyable. (I for one am curious just how the motion and position tracking web cam can improve my on-screen 3D viewing angle.) If nothing else, the F755 3D with its red lid will definitely stand out from the crowd of new MacBook Airs on campus this school year.
The Toshiba Qosmio F755 3D is available from select e-tailers and ToshibaDirect.com starting mid-August, for $1699.99.
Frustrated by the fact that Amazon has had to remove the link to the Kindle Store from the iOS Kindle app? Want to read your Kindle books via the browser on your PC or iPad?
Now you can!
Here is Amazon’s web-based Kindle cloud reader. And it works!
The web-based Kindle reader is compatible with the Chrome browser on Windows, Mac, Linux and Chromebooks, the Safari browser on PC and the Mac, and the Safari browser on the iPad (requires iOS 4+).
Here are some highlights from the press release:
- Automatically the Kindle library, as well as last page read, bookmarks, notes, and highlights for all Kindle books
- Current book is automatically made available for offline use
- Immediate web updates
- Customize the page layout to your desired font size, text color, background color, and more
- Kindle Cloud Reader will be available on additional web browsers, including Internet Explorer, Firefox, the BlackBerry PlayBook browser, and other mobile browsers, in the coming months.
Facebook has launched an instant messaging service for mobile phones, similar to BlackBerry Messenger.
The dedicated app, for iPhones and Android devices, allows users to contact individual friends or groups of people.
Its release comes a month before Apple is due to unveil a similar product.
Attention has been focused on mobile messaging recently because some of the London rioters were known to have used it to co-ordinate their movements.
So far Facebook's mobile messenger is only available in the United States, but it is expected to eventually roll out in other countries.
The social network's 750 million users already have the ability to send messages through the website, and on Facebook's original smartphone app.
Its new application adds the option to send directly to a mobile phone via SMS, and also to include location information.
Bad timing?
Facebook's timing has raised a few eyebrows within the industry, given the debate around BlackBerry Messenger's role in the recent UK rioting.
However, it is likely that its decision to launch in the US now was influenced by the impending Arrival of Apple's iOS 5 and its integrated messenger.
Stuart Miles, the founder of Pocket-lint.com, told BBC News that Facebook might be able to make mileage out of its compatibility with more than one phone system.
"Apple will be iPhone to iPhone, like Facetime. The same as BBM which is Blackberry to Blackberry. [Facebook] will be Android to iPhone, so theoretically it can only benefit from the platform," said Mr Miles.
"The big question you have to ask is how long will it be before Google+ has a messaging service built-in."
