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What Is Google Now Voice Search Doing To Apple's Siri
http://www.forbes.com/sites/tjmccue/2013/05/01/what-is-google-now-voice-search-doing-to-apples-siri/
A man waits in line outside the Apple store on...
Google announced on Monday that the Google Now voice search capability is now available for your iPhone or iPad. The Google Now service is often compared to Apple Siri – both are considered virtual personal assistants that will work by natural language voice commands.
The new app is available in the Apple App Store, but you find it not by the name Google Now, but by Google Search. I loaded it onto a new iPhone5, which is a short-term evaluation phone that Straight Talk wireless sent me for a post about no-contract cell phones that I’m working on. Of course, the iPhone 5 is a powerful device and I’ve had the chance to compare Siri to Google Now. Normally, I’m working from a dumb phone or an Android-powered smartphone. If you are using a no-contract cell phone, such as the ones you find in Walmart from Straight Talk, get in touch.
Overall, I find the two voice applications to be complementary on the iPhone. There are situations where one is superior to the other. Siri, for example, couldn’t tell me what time my local Starbucks would open, but Google Now could. They both gave me standard search results, however, so I could click through and get extra details. Of course, the results are different on an Android-phone where you can’t get Siri and only have Google Now.
If you haven’t tried using the voice commands, and in particular, the voice assistant in Google Now, you are missing out. I use it to set appointments, alarms, search for airline flights, figure out the weather, learn what time a restaurant is opening or closing, check traffic, and more. These may seem like small time-savers, but if you can just click a button and start giving a simple command and get the task done — that’s a big deal. Apple’s Siri does some of these, but not all.
The same is true that Google Now can’t do everything Siri can do, at least on the iPhone. Siri could follow the command “Call Craig Smith” and found the person in my phone address book and dialed. Poor Craig, since I am writing this post rather early for him… But Google Now couldn’t do it. Perhaps it is matter of permissions and core iOS access.
Part of what drives all of this is Google’s access to your profile and personal data. I’m sure my Forbes colleague, Kashmir Hill, who writes about privacy, is watching this growing trend. But I granted it access for the iPhone test and found this new app to be a time-saver and productivity boon. If you do not grant access, you get mixed results, albeit poor results.
Google Glass
Voice commands via Google Now are what are or will drive adoption of Google Glass, in my opinion. As we get used to simply speaking our searches or task commands that a smartphone can achieve, we’ll be more ready to adopt a wearable computer like we’ve seen in the media frenzy surrounding Google Glass. If you’ve missed this, check out these posts (below) on Forbes — but you might want to skip the one with my friend Robert Scoble taking a shower with his G glasses on.
As it turns out, Google Now is useful and helpful. It isn’t going to replace the Siri functionality, not for a while, because it doesn’t get access to the core programs like the phone. But with some workarounds, installing Google Maps, too, you can get it to handle quite a few daily voice tasks. Ironically, you can ask Siri to open Google Search (Now) for you instead of hunting for the app. But you must touch the microphone icon to start the Google process.
It isn’t related precisely to Google Now or Siri, but I have used the voice dictation feature on both iOS and Android devices and love them. I have dictated long posts into Evernote and also just in email and the accuracy is amazing. A friend of mine told me she wasn’t worried if her son could type fast — voice control would be superior within a few years. She may have been right. Time will tell if your Google or Siri personal assistant can help you quit typing altogether.
SwiftKey Healthcare advocate speaking at TabTimes Conference
April 25, 2013
SwiftKey Healthcare advocate speaking at TabTimes Conference
The SwiftKey Healthcare journey continues apace! If anyone is going to be attending the TabTimes TABLET STRATEGY conference in New York City on April 30th let us know – Ashley Wharton, Director of Bayada Home Health Care, will be speaking at the inaugural event. The conference is a landmark event on the tech circuit and brings together a variety of major players from across business and IT to share their knowledge and experience of tablet deployment in industry.
Ashley is one of the earliest advocates of introducing technology into the healthcare setting and appreciates the potential efficiency gains it can bring about for physicians. As an organization, Bayada Home Health Care is synonymous with cutting-edge work practices and healthcare technology and last year rolled out 4,000 Android touchscreen devices across its workforce. The aim was to improve work practices for nurses and clinicians who visited a lot of patients at home and who would often be forced to take notes out of hours to keep up with their schedule. The team’s integration of SwiftKey Healthcare on the Android tablets has helped to make clinical data entry even simpler. Employees reported that their input became much faster and more accurate and that using the software saved a significant amount of time which could be invested elsewhere.
Ashley will be in illustrious company, joining speakers from Hewlett Packard, pharma company Sanofi-Aventis and American Airlines’ VP of Airline Operations Technology. We’ll be tweeting from the event on the day and members of the SwiftKey team will be there so come and say hello if you’re in the building!
Sarah Rowley
iKnowU reply to user review:
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Brooke L - April 22, 2013 - Version 1.5.9
Has potential
This app has a lot of potential, but it's not there yet. Having to press and hold the space bar, then slide your thumb to the correct phrase takes far too long. Needs the ability to press space once and release to choose the currently highlighted option. Something closer to SwiftKey but with the option to hold space to select phrases. Also needs better AI out of the box and perhaps the ability to analyze Gmail, FB, etc to get a jump start on a user's style. As is, SwiftKey is much faster, even out of the box. Still, I see the potential, so will keep this installed in hopes of an update.
WordLogic Corporation replied on April 26, 2013
Thanks for your feedback. We would appreciate it if you could contact us at support@iknowu.net to discuss this further as we are making some changes in this area and would love for you to test them out and comment based on your feedback.
Would at least like to be right about how hot mobile input is and that what they have as an offering is competitive.........
Anything else is just a bonus at this point.
Nuance Taps Goldman for Advice....
http://stream.wsj.com/story/latest-headlines/SS-2-63399/SS-2-219467/
Nuance Communications Taps Goldman for Advice as Icahn Amasses Stake
Nuance Communications Inc., the speech-recognition software maker in which investor Carl Icahn recently took a stake, is seeking advice from Goldman Sachs Group Inc., according to people familiar with the matter.
By Dana Cimilluca and Sharon Terlep
Nuance Communications Inc. , the speech-recognition software maker in which investor Carl Icahn recently took a stake, is seeking advice from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. , according to people familiar with the matter.
The precise nature of the work Goldman is doing isn’t clear, but the Wall Street firm is often called in when companies are under pressure from investors such as Mr. Icahn who are known for pushing for major changes like the sale of a division or the entire company, or a big stock buyback.
Affiliates of Mr. Icahn on April 1 disclosed a 9.3% stake in Nuance, without detailing any specific intentions. The disclosure was made in a filing that indicated the investment is passive, but that wouldn’t stop the billionaire investor from shifting into activist stance later on.
Nuance sells technology that companies use to interface with customers and products that convert documents into digital files. In addition to corporate customers, Nuance sells its products to individuals and healthcare providers, and had $1.65 billion in revenue in its last fiscal year.
Shares of Nuance were up 14 cents Wednesday to $21.49, giving it a market capitalization of $6.8 billion. Even after a roughly 6% increase since the Icahn stake was disclosed, the stock is down from a high of nearly $30 early last year.
Shares of the Burlington, Mass.-based company dropped sharply in early February when it trimmed its sales and earnings targets.
Activist shareholders such as Mr. Icahn have become a major force for change in corporate America in recent years, frequently taking big stakes and pushing for improvement at underperforming companies. They have become so ubiquitous, bankers say, that in many cases companies make strategic changes preemptively when they fear they are an activist target.
Private-equity firm Warburg Pincus LLC owned a 14.6% Nuance stake as of March 14, according to a regulatory filing. Warburg acquired a stake in Nuance predecessor ScanSoft Inc. in 2004, boosting its interest ahead of a merger with Nuance and then investing further in the combined company. Recently, however, Warburg has been selling down its stake, filings show.
The presence of large investors on a company’s shareholder register sometimes makes it easier to pull off strategic changes such as a partial or full sale.
– Ryan Dezember contributed to this post
Google buys Wavii for $30 million:
Google's successful bid came after Apple Inc had expressed interest in buying Wavii to incorporate the startup's natural language technology into Siri
www.chicagotribune.com/business/sns-rt-us-google-acquisition-waviibre93n00i-20130423,0,1217479.story
chicagotribune.com
Google buys Wavii for $30 million, mirroring Yahoo's deal
Gerry Shih
Reuters
11:55 AM CDT, April 24, 2013
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc has acquired Wavii, the Seattle-based startup behind a news summarization app, for roughly $30 million in cash, a person with knowledge of the matter said Tuesday.
Google's successful bid came after Apple Inc had expressed interest in buying Wavii to incorporate the startup's natural language technology into Siri, Apple's voice-activated personal assistant feature, said the person, who declined to be named because the deal has not been publicly announced.
Google and Wavii declined to comment.
Google's purchase comes several weeks after Yahoo Inc paid a similar amount to acquire Summly, the news reader and Wavii competitor founded by 17-year-old Nick D'Aloisio in London.
The deals have taken out of play two small companies that sought to enhance how consumer experience news - a significant concern for Google and Yahoo, which both maintain highly trafficked news sites.
In separate interviews last year, Wavii founder Adrian Aoun and D'Aloisio acknowledged the competition between the two startups.
D'Aloisio touted Summly's superior user interface, which condenses articles into several easy-to-read paragraphs. Aoun played up his app's technology, including a proprietary algorithm that boiled down complex news stories into sentences of just a few words.
Wavii's investors included Paypal co-founder Max Levchin, former Facebook executive Dave Morin, and Fritz Lanman, a former dealmaker at Microsoft Corp.
Most of the startup's employees are expected to relocate to Google's headquarters in Mountain View, California.
News of the acquisition was first reported by Techcrunch.
SwiftKey Founders....Startup Heroes:
http://techcrunch.com/2013/04/24/europe-crowns-soundcloud-and-swiftkey-founders-its-startup-heroes/
Europe Crowns SoundCloud And SwiftKey Founders Its Startup Heroes
Mike Butcher
posted 45 mins ago
For the last few years Europe has been emerging as a powerful source of new global startups. Hell, why else would we be doing TechCrunch Disrupt in Berlin this year? And we’ve seen efforts to recognise the heroes of the scene, with a proliferation of startup conferences, as well as awards, such as The Europas (which I chair). Now the venerable European Commission has started to wake up to the talent under its nose and created its own awards ceremony: Europioneers.
Commission Vice President Neelie Kroes has tonight announced the winners at a ceremony in Amsterdam after six months of online voting and a judging process.
The European Entrepreneur of the Year has been jointly named as Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss (SoundCloud, based in Berlin). The Young European Entrepreneur of the Year is Jon Reynolds (SwiftKey, based in London). SoundCloud won a Crunchie as Best International Startup this year while SwiftKey has been making waves with mobile partners, one rumoured to be Blackberry.
The other nominees in the running were Sebastian Siemiatkowski, Victor Jacobsson, Niklas Adalberth (Klarna), Michael Acton Smith (Mind Candy), Mikael Hed, Niklas Hed (Rovio), Jens Begemann (Wooga), Hiroki Takeuchi and Matt Robinson (GoCardless), Christian Reber (6Wunderkinder), Joshua March (Conversocial) and Daniel Ek (Spotify). A somewhat ‘guy-heavy’ list…
“Entrepreneurs are Europe’s ‘secret ingredient’ for growing its way out of the current crisis”, said Kroes. She established the “Europioneer” awards in partnership with The Next Web blog to “bring to an end the myth, the fairy tale, that all of the good ideas come from Silicon Valley.” Well ok!
The goal is to provide a new generation of Europeans with entrepreneur role models, clearly.
Here’s how they reached results: The public could nominate anyone via Twitter, Facebook and email. Some 908 nominations were submitted between the two categories. The final 20 nominees (10 in each category) were produced based on public nominations. The judges became involved in the latter stages, finally picking the winners.
The judges were Charles Arthur (Guardian), Mike Butcher (TechCrunch / me), Saul Klein (Index Ventures/Seedcamp), Antti Vilpponen (Arctic Startup/Upcloud), Olivia Solon (Wired) and Werner Vogels (CTO Amazon).
Swype now on Google Play:
http://gigaom.com/2013/04/23/swype-takes-swiftkey-head-on-debuting-on-google-play/
Swype takes SwiftKey head on, debuting on Google Play
By Kevin Fitchard
15 hours ago
While SwiftKey has always been available directly to consumers, Swype has distributed its virtual keyboard through device makers. That changes on Wednesday, though, as Nuance releases Swype into the consumer marketplace.
tweet this
Swype and SwiftKey have long competed for Android users’ attention, each proffering their own version of an intelligent touchscreen keyboards. But SwiftKey has always had a big advantage: easy availability. Anyone can go to Google Play and download the SwiftKey software onto their Android smartphones or tablets.
Swype’s maker Nuance Communications has traditionally distributed its smart keyboard through handset makers, though it has made new releases of the software available to anyone through a registered beta program. But Nuance has decided to change up its distribution model, likely to expand its presence beyond the Motorola, Samsung and HTC handsets on which it ships. On Wednesday Nuance will begin offering Swype in Google Play.
Like SwiftKey, Swype will be a paid app, but Nuance is selling its keyboard for $1 — at least for the time being — while SwiftKey charges $4. And, as with SwiftKey, you can download a free version of the fully functioning Swype keyboard for a month trial period.
My colleague Kevin Tofel is a big fan of SwiftKey and its predictive text algorithms and recommends it over all other third-party keyboards (and there are numerous keyboards). Myself, I’ve always used Swype, at first because the Android handsets I’ve owned came with the smart keyboard pre-installed, but I later got hooked, installing new beta versions as they became available.
Regardless of which keyboard offers the superior experience, there are likely many smartphone users like me who cut their teeth on Android using a smartphone preloaded with Swype. They might welcome the Nuance software on their newer Android handsets – especially if it can be gotten for a quarter of SwiftKey’s price.
For a 207k annual salary he will be hanging around......
10-K
(8)
The Agreement provided for Mr. Mark Dostie to be paid approximately $17,007 USD ($17,000 CAD) per month in exchange for his services.
Amazon Smartphone
World of SwiftKey-International usage trends
http://www.slashgear.com/world-of-swiftkey-statistics-reveal-odd-trends-galore-18278410/
World of SwiftKey statistics reveal odd trends galore
Chris Burns, Apr 18th 2013 Discuss [1]
This week the folks at SwiftKey have revealed their newest worldwide trends chat, this time calling it “World of SwiftKey”. This chart shows a collection of top notches in the countries that’ve beaten the rest for one reason or another inside the Android keyboard app – the most popular downloaded 3rd party keyboard app in the world, mind you. It all begins with the USA holding the record for Most SwiftKey Users – we won!
This chart also shows that Canada has flowed the furthest – this means they’ve used the “Flow” feature the most since it was launched in the newest iteration of the SwiftKey app. Down in Vietnam it appears that statistics are being shared the most, while India is the country that “loves Flow the most” – flowing the longest and love are different things!
Even though the USA has the most SwiftKey users, Mexico has done the most typing with a SwiftKey keyboard. Russia has chosen the Holo theme the most while Indonesia uses Pumpkin and Ireland works with Fuchsia! Greece is said to be the sloppiest typists while Denmark rings in as most efficient. Finally you’ll find Switzerland to be kicking it tri-lingually the most in the whole world.
Have a peek at our SwiftKey history for more information on this lovely keyboard for your Android device and be sure to let us know if you’re using the newest build right this minute! Today’s study has been brought to you by SwiftKey’s completely anonymous statistics collection service – you’ve taken part even if you didn’t know it!
Amazon Kindle Fire, SwiftKey:
http://www.androidcentral.com/using-swiftkey-amazon-kindle-fire
Using SwiftKey on the Amazon Kindle Fire
By Jerry Hildenbrand | Nov 21 2011 | 5:29 pm | 5 Comments
Kindle Fire
If you've got your hands on a Kindle Fire and are having loads of fun playing around with it but would love to have the SwiftKey keyboard to replace the stock Fire issue, you're in luck. Any computer software or operating system is hackable, but because the Fire runs Android we already know how most everything works -- including the settings database. Add a few Android hackers, who want SwiftKey on their Fire, and you have a solution. The method itself isn't for the faint of heart, and you'll need to be rooted (you can un-root afterwards if you like) and have adb working. I'll point everyone to the source link for the full instructions, but to help answer a few questions I'll try to explain what's going on.
Amazon has removed the GUI from the settings menu that allows you to select an input method and set a default keyboard. Android is still smart enough to know where to look for these settings, so we just have to find a way to set them, which can be done on your computer after pulling out the settings database, moving it to the USB storage, and editing it. After adding the entry to the database for SwiftKey (or any other third party keyboard), you push it back in place, edit the permissions, and reboot. It sounds pretty scary, and we won't blame you if you pass on this for now, but the instructions are very clear and will work if you follow them to the letter. If you do give this one a run, be sure to shout out in the forums so others can benefit from your guinea pig-ness. In the meantime, we're looking at alternative methods to edit the database while in place, and we'll update if and when we figure anything out.
SwiftKey Healthcare SDK:
“We’ve launched to home healthcare organizations with Android, but iPad is a lot more ubiquitous in the healthcare sphere," said B2B marketing manager Sarah Rowley. “At the moment we’re focusing on the U.S. market where EMRs are exploding. Healthcare providers have to use EMRs and the U.S. is an excellent melting plot for that."
http://tabtimes.com/feature/healthcare/2013/04/17/how-consumerization-pushes-swiftkey-supercharge-tablets-healthcare
How consumerization pushes SwiftKey to supercharge tablets in healthcare
by Doug Drinkwater April 17 2013, 5:45 am Comment
SwiftKey Healthcare launched in the summer of last year
The prognosis is good for the future of tablets in healthcare, and that is thanks in part to the work going on at a promising British start-up.
SwiftKey is one of the real success stories coming out of Google Play. Formed by two friends in 2008, the app development company has grown in size and industry standing in the intervening four years.
The company’s keyboard apps – powered by natural language processing -- swarmed to the top of the app charts, staff jumped up to 95 people and the company won the kind of awards and extensive media covered that most can only dream of.
Such attention saw the Swiftkey attract the attention of bigger fish in the consumer electronics world. Google asked the company to develop a tablet app at its offices in Mountain View, California back in 2011, while Samsung recently signed up SwiftKey 4 for its latest Galaxy S4 smartphone.
Smartphone first; tablet later
To find out the key to the company’s success you have to trace back to the summer of 2008, when co-founders Jon Reynolds and Dr. Ben Medlock were lamenting the frustrations of typing on Android smartphones.
“It was a well-timed direction,” said chief marketing officer Joe Braidwood, who joined the company shortly afterwards. “Devices with touchscreens were growing in popularity but they were dreadful to type on. So we basically decided to research the problem.”
That research, coupled with job offers for personnel with nature language processing expertise, resulted in the launch of the original SwiftKey app, a touchscreen keyboard application which would go on to become the top paid app on Google Play by September 2010.
Such success led SwiftKey to look next at tablets. The firm spent three weeks at Google’s offices building a tablet version of the app for Honeycomb, the first Android OS to be built for tablets, and an app which later was featured on Motorola’s original Xoom tablet.
The big bet: Improving tablets in healthcare
The company would go on to to something of a consolidation, making a number of product improvements, including new language support, better word prediction and split keyboards, a feature later adopted independently by Apple on the iPad and Windows 8 tablets.
The latest SwiftKey app - SwiftKey 4 -- has since come to market, introducing gesture swipe control among other features. But the firm’s success in the consumer space, plus its inability to provide apps for iOS or Windows 8 devices, has led the group to evaluate other possibilities, most notably improving tablets.
“For 2013 we’re really going to focus on the tablet UI,” said Braidwood. “There is no stopping 7 and 8-inch tablets -- they are here to stay -- so in the next big release we’re going to focus on other really cool things we can do for tablets.”
But SwiftKey isn’t just focusing on tablets for consumer, but on models slowly edging into the healthcare market.
The company last summer introduced SwiftKey Healthcare, a product which understands words and phrases commonly used by medical professionals, meaning these folks can accurately and quickly document patient records on their Android tablets.
SwiftKey has integrated the SDK for the solution into existing electronic medical record (EMR) systems, and it can be used on Android and now iOS devices.
“We’ve launched to home healthcare organizations with Android, but iPad is a lot more ubiquitous in the healthcare sphere," said B2B marketing manager Sarah Rowley. “At the moment we’re focusing on the U.S. market where EMRs are exploding. Healthcare providers have to use EMRs and the U.S. is an excellent melting plot for that."
SwiftKey certainly didn’t jump headfirst into tackling the market. Instead, the London company once again did its research and began by targeting the top 10 EMRs in the U.S.
“It’s just been amazing, the amount of enthusiasm from nurses, physicians and GPs [for SwiftKey Healthcare],” said Rowley, reflecting on early interest for the service.
Such interest has even prompted SwiftKey to re-evaluate its strategy. “We have been targeting the big 10-11 EMRs across the U.S. but we’re, thinking of slightly adapting that,” admitted Rowley.
“We need to target more healthcare providers and hospital trusts – they’re the customers and the EMR gives the customer what they want."
Braidwood explains that the concept of SwiftKey Healthcare started on the back of consumer demand. In fact, it was just one user, a healthcare professional, who advised the firm that SwiftKey would be an excellent addition to their organization's collection of Samsung Galaxy Tabs.
“That’s where the whole endeavour began,” says Braidwood. “It was then that we started thinking about doing the first trial, for Bayada in New Jersey.”
That trial saw Bayada Home Health Care, which provides home-based services including adult nursing, hospice and care for the mentally and physically disabled, use SwiftKey Healthcare on its 4,000 Galaxy Tabs deployed to nurses.
Rowley says that many of these workers were “pushing back” on using the Galaxy Tabs, even asking for Bluetooth keyboards, before SwiftKey Healthcare was introduced. But since the introduction, a study of 1,400 physicians found that SwiftKey Healthcare was saving them up to 30 minutes each day.
Braidwood and Rowley remain noncommittal on where SwiftKey Healthcare, currently used by around 2,000 physicians across North America, could lead to in future, even swerving TabTimes' suggestion that a similar service could be useful in education.
Braidwood instead quips, tongue-in-cheek, that “word domination” is on the company's horizon. That may be a joke, but this much is clear -- this enterprising startup is showing no signs of slowing down.
(Bayada Health will share details of its deployment of 4,000 Android tablets and Swiftkey at the upcoming Tablet Strategy conference in New York April 30).
Doug Drinkwater is the International Editor of TabTimes and is based in London, England.
Links & Apps
Amazon acquires Siri-Like Evi for $26M
".....all these moves point towards Amazon developing a mobile handset/smartphone."
Sources Say Amazon Acquired Siri-Like Evi App For $26M – Is A Smartphone Coming?
Mike Butcher
When Siri arrived on the iPhone 4S it seemed like a magic piece of software. The future had arrived. But it wasn’t alone. True Knowledge, a British startup with a natural language search engine developed in university labs, had been working out what to do next. Siri was the ‘boom’ moment. They licensed Nuance’s voice recognition technology and created an app based on the True Knowledge engine, called Evi, which worked on any iPhone and Android.
That clever move looks like it paid off. TechCrunch understands from sources that the company has been sold to Amazon for $26 million. However, calls to Amazon PR, backers Octopus Ventures and the founders of Evi have ben met with a stoney silence. A spokesperson for Octopus told us: “On this occasion Octopus will decline to comment on this specific portfolio company.”
Evi had a controversial birth, being threatened with being pulled from the Apple App store for being too similar to Siri, then being allowed to stay.
Will Amazon combine Evi with the voice recognition company they bought in January called Ivona? It’s hard to say. But smart observers might speculate that all these moves point towards Amazon developing a mobile handset/smartphone.
But the evidence that Amazon purchased Evi late last year is incontrovertible.
At UK Companies House all the Evi Technologies Ltd directors have been replaced by Amazon’s UK legal representative, and this is confirmed by the Octopus Ventures annual report. The annual reports of all Octopus Ventuers’ funds all refer to the disposing of their shares in Evi Technologies.
Companies House records show all directors at Evi have been replaced and loans paid off, while a small loss of £19,000 was recognised.
The new Company Secretary for Evi Technologies is also Amazon’s: Mitre Secretaries Ltd are the corporate secretary for Amazon.co.uk (and Amazon’s London software development company).
Evi is an iOS and Android app and runs on any Android or iPhone. The app couples Nuance’s voice recognition technology and True Knowledge’s search engine.
It uses natural language text to ‘understand’ what the user means, as well as their intent. Evi does all three of these together and has been described as being capable of ‘learning’. It has an ontology of tens of thousands of classes and almost a billion ‘facts’ (machine understandable bits of knowledge) and, says True Knowledge, can infer trillions more when needed. It also pulls in Yelp for local searches, external mobile friendly websites, APIs, traditional search, etc.
Nuance: China, voice navigation
http://online.wsj.com/article/PR-CO-20130417-907421.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
April 17, 2013, 8:00 a.m. ET
Nuance and AutoNavi Announce Collaboration to Lead New Era of Voice-Enabled Navigation Services in China
Nuance and AutoNavi Partner to Bring Voice-Enabled Navigation Solutions to Automotive Manufacturers and Navigation Device Providers
BURLINGTON, Mass. & BEIJING--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 17, 2013--
Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: NUAN) announced its strategic collaboration with AutoNavi (NASDAQ: AMAP), a leading provider of digital map content and navigation and location-based solutions in China, to bring more intuitive voice-enabled navigation capabilities to the Chinese market. Specifically, the two companies will collaborate on the voice-enabled navigation product AutoNavi Map that will be made available in the second quarter of 2013 to the world's automotive and navigation device manufacturers developing navigation offerings supporting Chinese languages.
As a result of its collaboration with Nuance, AutoNavi will be able to deeply integrate voice data to their core navigation data and further optimize the user experience for its map navigation products shipping in China, as well as meet the localization demands of global automotive manufacturers in the China market. AutoNavi will rely on Nuance's voice technologies to provide more accurate voice recognition and text-to-speech.
As China's leading digital map data provider for in-car navigation, AutoNavi has developed a comprehensive nationwide, high quality and dynamic digital map database. Currently, AutoNavi is providing navigation data products and services to more than 100 models of domestic and foreign auto brands and navigation application software to mainstream automotive manufacturers. Along with the scalability of its digital map data and location-based service, AutoNavi has also developed two core mobile map apps, Amap and aNav, which have both maintained a number-one market position in China Mobile map and navigation market. At the beginning of 2013, AutoNavi announced that its free mobile map application--Amap has surpassed 100 million users, further demonstrating its distinct advantage and leadership position.
"With the rapidly expanding automotive market in China, navigation innovation is incredibly important -- it must be up to date and accurate, as well as intuitive to use behind the wheel," said Yongqi Yang, AutoNavi Executive Vice President of Automotive Business. "Nuance's automotive voice expertise and technologies deeply integrated as part of our core navigation and map data will enable us to quickly innovate voice-enabled navigation services that automotive manufacturers and navigation device providers can then bring to market as part of a safer, smarter in-car experience in China."
"The world's automotive and navigation device manufacturers need access to dynamic map data -- particularly in countries such as China where infrastructure and the number of cars on the road continues to expand," said Daniel Cheng, General Manager of Greater China Region, Nuance Communications. "Through our collaboration with AutoNavi, manufacturers will be able to offer an incredibly intuitive voice-enabled navigation experience that keeps Chinese drivers' eyes on the road and hands on the wheel."
About AutoNavi
AutoNavi Holdings Limited is a leading provider of digital map content and navigation and location-based solutions in China. At the core of its business is a comprehensive nationwide digital map database that covers approximately 3.6 million kilometers of roadway and over 20 million points of interest across China. Through its digital map database and proprietary technology platform, AutoNavi provides comprehensive, integrated navigation and location-based solutions optimized for the Chinese market and users, including automotive navigation solutions, mobile location-based solutions and Internet location-based solutions, and public sector and enterprise applications. For more information on AutoNavi, please visit http://www.autonavi.com.
About Nuance Communications, Inc.
Nuance Communications, Inc. is a leading provider of voice and language solutions for businesses and consumers around the world. Its technologies, applications and services make the user experience more compelling by transforming the way people interact with devices and systems. Every day, millions of users and thousands of businesses experience Nuance's proven applications. For more information, please visit www.nuance.com.
Nuance review.....
Interesting comments about Android growth and emerging markets:
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/04/11/what-must-investors-watch-with-nuance-communicatio.aspx
You have seen my posts, Apple would be great but there are many other opportunities in the space.
Waiting for the 10-Q to see how the conversion rate on iKnowU has been going and Con Ed's contribution.
Hey gig,
Looks like Silverstein is in the same boat as us - He has a separate Linkedin page to promote/highlight his work with WordLogic, specifically iKnowU. Great product introduction, marketing and SDK deal.
But he hates Frank. Assuming he will be smart enough not shoot himself in the foot/go to far with legal and hurt his reputation.
Apple's new push with Siri: Web based voice search.
http://isource.com/2013/04/10/apple-yahoo-partnership-rumor/
The enemy of my enemy is my new search engine?
posted on Apr 10th 2013 at 2:03pm by James Rogers
Yesterday brought numerous reports (WSJ story here behind paywall, MacRumors story here) that Apple is in the process of cementing an even closer relationship with Yahoo, and that Siri is a primary component of the discussions. Of course, this story is still at the rumor stage, but there are some intriguing possibilities for the future of iOS, and Siri especially, if it is to be believed.
Looking at the existing relationship between Apple and Yahoo, it quickly becomes very obvious what this is all about, if true. Yahoo already provides Apple with Stock Market information for its built-in iOS app, Weather forecasts for the built-in Weather app, Sports scores and statistics via Siri, and is one of the web search option in the iOS Safari web browser. So, there is already a pretty substantial relationship here. What is the next logical step? Considering the fact that the rumor specifically mentions Siri, it almost certainly has to do with voice-based web search.
While Siri is capable of searching the web, this is still one of its most glaring weaknesses because it isn’t an automatic process. Siri only prompts to search the web if it can’t find the information you are requesting through its primary sources (Wolfram Alpha, Yahoo, Open Table, Fandango, etc). And don’t think for one minute this is an accident. Over the last two years, Apple has systematically removed almost all traces of Google as a default option in iOS. Part of that effort was fulfilling any search request from Siri that could possibly be done without using Google through its native sources, cutting off a lucrative steam of Apple customer data that Google had previously had almost sole access to. Web Search, by both voice and in Safari, is really the ONLY thing left, at this point.
Now, based on these rumors, it is possible that Apple has its eyes on adding Yahoo (which currently uses Bing for search) as its default web search engine for Siri. This would allow Siri to find answers to more complex requests faster, and without additional prompting from the user. And most importantly with Apple’s current strategy in mind, this move would hold back even more data from Google.
Does this potential move actually make sense for anyone? Well, it does considering how contentious the relationship between Apple and Google has become. Two of the features that people consistently praise Google’s Voice Search for are speed and its comprehensiveness, so it makes a lot of sense for Apple to try to address this in Siri, and as soon as possible. Yahoo/Bing is really the only other game in town when it comes to search, so that’s the only play if Apple really wants to include direct search capability in Siri, but wants to keep Google out.
However, while adding Yahoo Search to Siri could enhance its functionality, removing the option to use Google at all could produce a backlash among users. Right now, Google is the dominant search engine world wide, and for good reason. Bing has improved over the years, but it still doesn’t quite measure up, so adding it as the only option for voice web search in iOS would be a little risky. However, while most technically inclined users will either jailbreak so they can choose their own search engine, or just use Google’s Search app for iOS, many everyday users will never know the difference, as long as it works. For every one of us techie people, there are 5-10 users out there who never go beyond the default options. Still, Apple tried this with Maps last year, and as we know, it didn’t “just work,” for many people. If Apple pulls this switch, they had better make sure it is ready for prime time on day one. They can’t afford any more web service mistakes.
From Yahoo’s perspective, this rumored agreement would be an absolute no-brainer. It gives CEO Marissa Mayer, who probably has her own ax to grind against Google, another headline to keep the buzz that she’s has since she took over at Yahoo alive. Plus, if Apple can get Siri out of beta and turn it into a service that customers trust and use more day-to-day, then the added stream of customer data could be quite lucrative for Yahoo. The fact that this data would be coming directly out of Google’s back pocket makes it that much better for them.
Apple and Microsoft (since Yahoo uses Bing for search) seem to make odd bedfellows here, considering that Microsoft is trying its best to strengthen its own brand and re-establish itself in the mobile market with Windows Phone and Windows 8. However, to take a stab a Google, I seriously doubt they will complain in the short term. But that’s just the short term. It’s the longer play that’s more intriguing to me, here. One of the rumors that has made the rounds since Mayer took over at Yahoo is that they will make a break from Microsoft and re-enter the search business using their own technology.
In the long term, I think this makes the most sense for both Yahoo and Apple, if it all works out. Having Yahoo inked as an exclusive partner could get Apple a potentially strong service partner, without all the fuss of trying to do anything with web search, themselves. We’ve seen plenty of evidence that web services aren’t exactly Apple’s strong suit. Outsourcing that to a company that isn’t also a direct competitor is a smart move, if Yahoo can prove that it can stand toe-to-toe against Google and Microsoft.
As for Yahoo, it’s been a long time since they were in the search business for themselves. However, when you consider that they hired a CEO who was intimately involved in both Google Search and Google Maps, I would be surprised if that doesn’t change in the next year or two. Mayer is already moving Yahoo away from being a content generating company, toward one that specializes in web products and services. It makes sense that search would once again be one of those. Having Apple as a strategic partner right out of the gate, could give Yahoo the boost they need to get such an effort off the ground.
I’ll be clear, and say that I know a move this big isn’t coming tomorrow. Something this complicated would have to unfold over a period of time, giving both parties some wiggle room and the ability to get out if the partnership isn’t working. It’s also risky. VERY RISKY. A move like this could really hurt Apple’s image in a way that goes beyond anything they’ve experience with Maps and Siri, to date. As for Yahoo, if they go back into search and fail, it will probably put them out of business.
Despite the risks, however, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see an early version of this potential partnership announced at WWDC this year. With the circumstances of the mobile and search markets what they are right now, Apple and Yahoo have one common opponent, and aren’t direct competitors themselves. Neither one of them covers all of Google’s offerings, but together, they do match-up over a much larger percentage of them. Apple needs a way to do web search without Google, and Yahoo needs the buzz and cash resources a partnership like this could provide to get a competing search engine off the ground. Both parties have a lot of reasons to make the enemy of their enemy their new best friend.
Nuance to focus on Voice recognition?
http://wallstcheatsheet.com/stocks/where-is-carl-icahn-prowling-now.html/
Where Is Carl Icahn Prowling Now?
By Mark Knapp | More Articles
April 02, 2013
Carl Icahn was on the prowl again, and this time he found himself investing in a 9.3 percent stake in Nuance Communication (NASDAQ:NUAN) — the company suspected to be behind the technology for Apple’s (NASDAQ:AAPL) Siri.
Icahn’s investment was made known Monday in a filing by the billionaire investor. The short-term impact of his investment was a quick boost for the company’s shares. Its stock had dipped sharply in the middle of February from over $24 per share to less than $19 per share. After working its way back up to just over $20 per share, Icahn’s investment helped push it up 7.9 percent to a height of $21.77 Tuesday morning.
While the short term effects are one thing, the long term impact of a Icahn’s more than $591 million investment could show up in the advancement of Nuance’s choice technology field: voice-recognition technology.
When Apple launched the iPhone 4S with its voice assistant, Siri, on board, Apple had a selling point that not a lot of other company’s had. But, many competitors are now chasing down their own voice-recognition technologies…
Nuance in play - Icahan stake:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-07/icahn-s-nuance-stake-spurs-optimism-of-sale-real-m-a.html
Icahn’s Nuance Stake Spurs Optimism of Sale: Real M&A
By Olga Kharif - Apr 8, 2013
Carl Icahn’s purchase of Nuance Communications Inc. (NUAN) shares is spurring speculation he will seek a break-up or sale of the speech-recognition software developer.
Nuance surged 5.7 percent on April 2 after Icahn’s 9.3 percent stake was revealed, resurrecting a stock that plunged 19 percent on Feb. 8. The slump -- which drove Nuance’s price- earnings ratio to the lowest level since 2009, according to data compiled by Bloomberg -- was prompted by the $6.5 billion company cutting its forecast due to health-care and personal computer-related sales.
Icahn may pressure Nuance to sell its document-imaging division, according to Deutsche Bank AG and Mizuho Financial Group Inc. That would help Nuance reduce its $2.3 billion debt and improve sales growth at the company, Craig-Hallum Capital Group LLC said. Its voice-recognition technology, used on millions of devices, could make Nuance a takeover target for Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), Avondale Partners LLC said, while Deutsche Bank sees International Business Machines Corp. as a suitor.
Icahn “could push for strategic changes,” Joanna Makris, a New York-based analyst at Mizuho, said in a telephone interview. “There’s been a lot of frustration over the balance sheet and performance.”
Richard Mack, a spokesman for Nuance, declined to comment on what Icahn’s intentions might be.
‘Same Respect’
“Nuance will offer Mr. Icahn and his firm the same respect and accord we offer our other investors,” Mack said in an e- mail. “We always seek to maintain an open dialogue with shareholders, yet keep discussions with individual investors private.”
Icahn didn’t respond to a request for comment. John Reilly of Armonk, New York-based IBM and Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft’s Tony Imperati said their companies don’t comment on speculation.
Nuance Chief Executive Officer Paul Ricci has built up the Burlington, Massachusetts-based company through acquisitions, expanding into areas such as medical transcription and software for managing corporate printing costs. From 2006 to 2012, Nuance spent more than $2.5 billion on takeovers, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. In the process, the company’s total debt more than doubled from less than $900 million as recently as 2011.
“There’s been so much M&A, and it hasn’t resulted in meaningful organic growth,” Makris said. “I can see Icahn just being more vocal” about slowing the pace of takeovers.
Lower Forecast
In February, Nuance reduced its fiscal 2013 forecasts, spurring the stock’s biggest one-day drop in more than six years. The shares kept falling, and Nuance’s price-earnings ratio slipped to 20.5 on March 1, the cheapest level since 2009.
Sales for the year ending in September will be $2.15 billion to $2.2 billion, down from a November projection of $2.17 billion to $2.22 billion, the company said Feb. 7. Nuance also cut its profit forecast to $1.76 to $1.87 a share, from $1.84 to $1.94.
Icahn, known for taking over corporations and pressing companies to change strategy, filed his Nuance stake via a form 13G, not the 13D used for activist investments. There’s precedent for Icahn investing in companies and not requesting any strategy adjustments, including his almost 10 percent stake in online-movie service Netflix Inc. (NFLX) disclosed in October.
Still, after Nuance shares fell 20 percent in the past year, FBR & Co.’s Daniel Ives sees the potential for Icahn to become more active at the company after Nuance failed to capitalize on recent acquisitions.
‘Lackluster’ Execution
“Execution has been lackluster over the last six to 12 months,” Ives, a New York-based analyst at FBR, said in a phone interview. “It could translate into potentially more activism.”
Today, shares of Nuance lost 1.2 percent to $20.27.
Icahn could push Nuance to sell its imaging business, which sells products for scanning documents and turning them into digital text, according to Jeff Van Rhee, an analyst at Craig- Hallum in Philadelphia.
Because of its cash generation, the imaging business could appeal to a private-equity buyer and fetch as much as $400 million, Nandan Amladi, an analyst at Deutsche Bank in New York, said in a phone interview. Selling that division could help Nuance pare its debt, helping the rest of the company sell for a higher valuation, Van Rhee said in an interview.
Microsoft, IBM
“There’s a lot here that Microsoft or IBM (IBM) might want,” Van Rhee said. Nuance, whose shares closed at $20.52 last week, could command a premium of 30 percent to 40 percent, Amladi said.
IBM already collaborates with Nuance on research projects. IBM is emphasizing mobile technologies -- one of Nuance’s strengths -- with the goal of doubling its investment in that area this year, not including takeovers it could make. Nuance’s health-care technology could also be complementary for IBM, Van Rhee said.
Microsoft is another potential buyer, said John Bright, an analyst at Avondale. Speech recognition technology, for which Nuance holds many patents, is becoming increasingly critical in facilitating user interaction with various computing devices, ranging from PCs to tablets and smartphones.
While Microsoft owns speech-recognition technology from its 2007 acquisition of Tellme Networks Inc., it could use Nuance’s patents and relationships with carriers, handset makers and car companies to gain market share for products like Windows Phone, which is lagging behind devices running Google Inc.’s Android operating system and Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s iPhone, Bright said.
Losing Apple
“The problem is, Microsoft probably doesn’t want health care, and they would probably lose Apple as a result,” Nashville-based Bright said in a phone interview. Nuance’s customers include Amazon.com Inc., Apple and Samsung Electronics Co., according to filings from the company.
Given Icahn’s purchase of Nuance shares, investors are expecting him to get more active, according to Tom Roderick, an analyst at Stifel Nicolaus & Co.
“Any time you get an activist shareholder involved, the perception is there’s something within the structure of the company they’d like to change,” the Chicago-based analyst said in a phone interview.
To contact the reporter on this story: Olga Kharif in Portland at okharif@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Sarah Rabil at srabil@bloomberg.net; Tom Giles at tgiles5@bloomberg.net
HTC One Review - Swype SDK used for default keyboard:
http://www.thinkdigit.com/Mobiles-PDAs/HTC-One-Review_14145.html
Overall usability on the HTC One is very good. Touch response is fantastic across the board and we didn’t notice any slowdowns even when running multiple apps at once. The virtual keyboard is huge and responsive but strangely, it didn’t feel very conducive to fast typing. While using the keyboard, the response felt sticky at times, with the alphabet appearing a tad late after its key was pressed. Thankfully, HTC has bundled in its own version of Swype with the One which is fantastic when you want to type out that extra long message or note.
Success of SwiftKey's business model:
SwiftKey....."is the top ranked paid app in Google Play and is also licensed by top-tier phone makers, including BlackBerry."
"Paid downloads and licensing helped the SwiftKey's revenue reach seven figures in 2012. SwiftKey's chief competitor Swype was acquired by communication technology company Nuance in October 2011 for more than $100 million as a comparison."
http://adage.com/article/special-report-sxsw/swiftkey-millions-android-users-buy/240294/
How SwiftKey Gets Millions of Android Users to Buy Something None of Them Need
By:
John McDermott
Published: March 12, 2013
No Android users need SwiftKey. In fact, SwiftKey, an alternative keyboard system for Android-based smartphones, seems like one of the least-necessary apps in the Android ecosystem.
After all, every smartphone comes with a keyboard and at least some rudimentary language technology. Yet Swiftkey--a smartphone keyboard that adapts to how users write and predicts what they want to say--is the top ranked paid app in Google Play and is also licensed by top-tier phone makers, including BlackBerry.
At SXSW this past weekend, I caught up with SwiftKey CMO Joe Braidwood in the Austin Hilton lobby to find out what if any traditional marketing the tech company does to get Android users to pony up $3.99 for a better smartphone keyboard. Answer: not much. In fact, his trip to SXSW cost more than any media buy he's made -- and is more effective.
SwiftKey is one of many mobile startups that, along with Samsung and Google, are plying their wares in Austin, Tex., in a bid to gain to gain traction among early-adopters, tech opinion-makers and agencies. And like the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Apple is nowhere to be seen.
Paid downloads and licensing helped the SwiftKey's revenue reach seven figures in 2012. SwiftKey's chief competitor Swype was acquired by communication technology company Nuance in October 2011 for more than $100 million as a comparison.
This is all despite being shut out of Apple's App Store--iPhone users typically spend far more on apps than Android users--and spending only $20 on promoted Facebook posts and another "100 quid" on a recent Adwords campaign. The company's growth can be almost entirely attributed to its community management, its relationship with Google's mobile team and embedding itself with the tech community by way of attending events such as SXSW.
When SwiftKey noticed that one member of its online community was an especially active commenter on its VIP member board, for example, Mr. Braidwood hired him away from his job as a panini waiter to be the company's community manager. Likewise, the company integrates user suggestions into new iterations of its product.
"We empower everyone among our elite members to feel like they're really meaningful," Mr. Braidwood said. "They get early access to everything we build and they get to kick the tires on everything we build."
In SwiftKey's case, this has meant allowing its users to cut down on their finger-tapping time by recognizing their language patterns in various formats, auto-populating text fields accordingly. When posting to a friend's Facebook wall via an Android phone, SwiftKey knows what colloquialisms a user is likely to punch in. Likewise, the keyboard can help users maintain a more professional tone when drafting an office email. One user said that whenever he texts his wife, SwiftKey suggests "where are you" before a single letter is typed.
But it's the first part--SwiftKey not being allowed to bring its keyboard to the iPhone--that illustrates how Samsung and Google have used SXSW to engender themselves to the members of the mobile tech community that Apple has shunned. Samsung and Google--however complex their relationship may be--have made a point of reaching out to the mobile tech community and allowing them to improve their ecosystem of products while Apple has opted to keep its closed.
"What Google did with Android was it allowed you to choose any keyboard," Mr. Braidwood said. "That's one of the tenets of [Google's] open philosophy toward its operating system: You shouldn't control the user experience. And that's where Google stands directly against what Apple does."
Facebook Home - SwiftKey built-in:
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:EYp43oloD2UJ:www.phonearena.com/news/Facebook-Home-may-have-built-in-Swiftkey-on-screen-keyboard_id41551%3Futm_source%3Dfeedburner%26utm_medium%3Dfeed%26utm_campaign%3DFeed%253A%2Bphonearena%252FySoL%2B%28Phone%2BArena%2B-%2BLatest%2BNews%29+&cd=5&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
Facebook Home may have built-in Swiftkey on-screen keyboard
Posted: 04 Apr 2013, 13:56, by Nick T.
Categories: Android Apps
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Facebook Home may have built-in Swiftkey on-screen keyboard
As we were watching a replay of the Facebook Home announcement (yes, we're that geeky), a peculiar detail caught our attention. The on-screen keyboard used during the demonstration seemed familiar, as if we had already seen it somewhere. Then it hit us - that was Swiftkey!
What that leads us to believe is that Facebook Home may come bundled with the Swiftkey virtual keyboard, which is smart, accurate, and nothing short of awesome even if it doesn't really offer full-body typing. Moreover, the full version of Swiftkey costs $3.99 (as of this writing) to download from the Play Store. If the Facebook Home launcher really comes with Swiftkey pre-loaded, that will add a lot of value to an app that is supposed to come at no charge.
Of course, we might be wrong as we're just speculating. Swiftkey might have been loaded for the event only, but then again, you never know. We'll know what the deal is in about a week, as soon as Facebook Home arrives at the Play Store.
Looks like Facebook Home will come with Swiftkey keyboard
Looks like Facebook Home will come with Swiftkey keyboard
"Standard language in such a release-that is why---what is he supposed to say--I love Frank?"
It is a bit unusual to highlight Dostie, Lawson and the technology. He could have been/it would have been standard practice to provide generic remarks - But Raffa chose to be specific.
Anyone that has been around for a while/has done some work on WLGC knows who Frank is - Look at my past posts. We are in agreement on Frank. If you can separate your justified anger towards Frank from the product you may have an easier time seeing my point of view.
Get a cheap/older HTC or Samsung phone and download both iKnowU and SwiftKey. We have tech reviews and users telling us that iKnowU is competitive with SwiftKey. Let us know what you think?
SwiftKey was the best selling app on Google Play last year, they have inked numerous SDK type deals including Samsung and Blackberry. Mobile input is a hot sector this year. As I said in a previous post, SwiftKeys success has proven the business model/potential revenue stream - WordLogic has at least a very competitive product to SwiftKeys, so my thought is things have been/are in play.
I have to admit this is getting old and it does not seem that anyone agrees so I will stop posting it. Hopefully there will be an event in the near future that proves all this out and will make both of us happy.
Note that the real question with Raffa is why was he brought on. He is an expensive M&A pro. Why hire him before a revenue stream is developed? Note my comments on SwiftKey.
Tounces,
I had the same initial reaction......
The Explanatory Note states it is an update to the original filing in August of 2012.
Assuming this is for Dostie and his crew along with Lawson. As shareholders we want the key players to have some skin in the game.
EXPLANATORY NOTE
This Post-Effective Amendment (the “Post-Effective Amendment”) constitutes Post-Effective Amendment No. 1 to the Registration Statement on Form S-8, Registration No. 000-32865, filed on August 3, 2012 with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “Original Filing”). This Post-Effective Amendment is being filed to include Exhibit 5.1 and Exhibit 23.1, which were inadvertently omitted from the Original Filing. No other changes have been made.
Clean up from 8/3/2012 filing - Perhaps part of audit work?
April 4th-Facebook To Reveal "Facebook Home" on HTC phone:
http://techcrunch.com/2013/03/28/facebook-android-phone/
Facebook To Reveal “Home On Android” Sources Say Is A Modified OS On HTC At 4/4 Event
Josh Constine
Thursday, March 28th, 2013
Facebook just invited press to an event at its headquarters on April 4th to “Come See Our New Home On Android”. Sources tell us it will be a modified version of the Android operating system with deep native Facebook functionality on the homescreen that may live on an HTC handset. The evidence aligns to say this is the Facebook Phone announcement people have been speculating about for years.
One source recently told us to be on the look out for a Facebook mobile press event in early April where the social network would reveal an altered Android OS running on HTC. It’s said not to be a full-on rewrite of Android, but rather a “flavor” that will have all sorts of extra Facebook functionality built in. We’ve also heard it referred to as an “application layer”. Imagine Facebook’s integration with iOS 6, but on steroids, and built by Facebook itself. It could have a heavy reliance on Facebook’s native apps like Messenger, easy social sharing from anywhere on the phone, and more.
Rumors we’ve heard say that the project could actually be called “Facebook Home”, and it’s hallmark would be a heavily Facebook-ified mobile phone home screen. This could include Facebook news feed stories and data splayed out right on the home screen, along with easy access to Facebook apps.
Now we’ve received the invite to this supposed event we were told to watch for, and other signs seem to verify what our sources are saying. The announcement would align with what MG Siegler reported in January. It looks like MG might have been right about what was happening, but just with the wrong timing. [Update: Since we published, 9To5Google's has reported that Facebook and HTC have been developing a joint ad campaign.]
Finally, it meshes with AllThingsD‘s 2011 report that Facebook was building a phone with HTC. However, one source says that several key members of the Facebook OS team have left the company including Rasmus Andersson who recently went to Dropbox. That may have prompted Facebook to scale back its ambitions from true fork of Android to this more subtle modification.
In addition to a modified OS, I think Facebook could launch a more basic homescreen replacement similar to the SO.HO, Nova, or Go launcher for Android that would be compatible with standard versions of Android. This would give users a Facebook-heavy homescreen experience with much of the features described above, but without deeper operating system hooks and data access. As a complement to its modified OS, this Facebook Home Launcher would let Facebook’s new mobile developments extend to a wider range of devices beyond HTC. If Facebook really wanted to play it safe it could reveal this launcher instead of an OS modification, but more likely I see it as way for its work to gain greater reach.
Some think Facebook may be too small and young of a company to manufacture its own devices without thoroughly distracting itself, but it’s already got many building blocks of a mobile operating system. Its recent developments around VoIP could let it develop a Phone app alternative. When possible, Facebook could route calls over its self-built open sourced Skype alternative, and use normal a cellular connection if a call’s recipient isn’t equipped with the right Facebook app.
[updates:This story originally published about Facebook launching a modified version of Android that creates a Facebook content-heavy home screen experience that will debut on an HTC handset, but has since been augmented with references to other sites who later reported their sources had heard similar details about the event. It's also been fleshed out with more info later drawn from our sources, specifically that the project may be called "Facebook Home" and that Facebook may have scaled back its Android modification ambitions over the years as some team members left the project and company.]
With deeper control of a modified operating system would come huge opportunities to collect data on its users. Facebook knows that who you SMS and call are important indicators of who your closest friends are. Its own version of Android could give it that info, which could be used to refine everything from what content you’re shown in the news feed to which friends faces are used in ads you see.
This announcement might not be a Facebook Phone, but rather a Facebook phone — one where everything the user sees is social by design, even if the handset’s innards are made by someone else.
Facebook version of Android OS on HTC phone:
Could Facebook and HTC use WordLogic SDK product?
How could improved mobile input help Facebook and HTC?
Facebook's most important revenue stream is from mobile advertising. HTC needs to be competitive/relevant with Samsung, LG etc. as an Android alternative to Apple, Microsoft and Blackberry.
Are SwiftKey's SDK deals with Samsung and Blackberry a blueprint for WordLogic's next move?
http://www.slashgear.com/facebooks-android-os-will-be-called-facebook-home-31275899/
Facebook’s Android OS will be called “Facebook Home”
Brian Sin, Mar 31st 2013
Last week, we reported that Facebook is planning on revealing its own customized version of the Google Android operating system . They will be debuting their “special” version of the Android OS onto one of HTC’s devices. It’s speculated that it will launch on a new HTC device, however, there’s also reports that the OS will be able to run on HTC’s older handsets, and even on its upcoming flagship handset, the HTC One.
Facebook's new Android OS will be called Faceook Home
Now reports are saying that Facebook’s version of Android OS will be called “Facebook Home”. Sources revealed to 9to5Google that the tagline on Facebook’s invitations, “Come See Our New Home On Android”, is actually a teaser to the new product name. Facebook’s version of the OS will feature deep integration into Android. Facebook Messenger, Photos, and Contacts will be set as the default programs, with Facebook Messenger being used for both messaging your Facebook friends, as well as sending out SMS text messages.
The HTC smartphone that will feature the new, modified Android OS, and will most likely be announced at the event as well. Many sources say that the phone highly resembles the iPhone 5. It will have a home button at the bottom-center of the phone, with capacitive buttons on its right and left side. The device will have a screen larger than 4-inches, with speculations that it will be 4.3-inches. The phone is also said to be similar in size to the iPhone 5.
On top of both of these reveals, we’re also expecting Facebook to announce an upgrade to its Facebook for Android app. Android users have been waiting for a long time to have a decent Facebook for Android app. The current app, while much better than the versions before it, could still use a lot of work. We’re hoping that the app is just as smooth as the iOS app, if not better. Facebook had its employees work extra-hard on the Android app, so it’d be nice to see the results that have come from that. Tune in with us on April 4th, 10:00 A.M. PST, for the official updates from Facebook’s event.
Dostie and Lawson will likely walk if Frank is up to his old tricks........One would think that Dostie and Lawson with their experience realize there is a window here to monetize the technology.
Sendai iKnowU probably netted $1 give or take for each purchase at the old $2 price - 50% margin on Google Play.
Nobody pays for apps, but once the trial period is up for iKnowU some % of people will pay. Trick will be to figure out what that percentage is. We will have some numbers in a couple of weeks with the annual report - That will help us figure it out. Thinking thirty percent maybe forty percent of users conservatively will pay for it given the ratings and SwiftKeys success on Google Play.
The SAMsix partnership should also provide some revenue in the first quarter.
As for M&A and revenue growth, OEM's are in the market looking for a SwiftKey alternative - A quality, competitive SwiftKey alternative which WordLogic has.....
I don't think WordLogic needs to do much more to attract offers - Whether it is OEM licensing deals a takeout or maybe private equity if they can get rid of Frank.
SwiftKeys success has proven the business model/potential revenue stream - WordLogic has at least a very competitive product to SwiftKeys, so my thought is things have been/are in play.
You are missing the point.......
We all know who Frank is - Enough said.
The product Dostie has put out is very good, maybe excellent, it is in one of the hottest sectors of the market and it has gained some traction - WordLogic finally has some revenue coming in the door and cash on the books - So the fundamentals of WordLogic right now, today/not last year are good - Right?
David Raffa is unlike any of the other people you mentioned - A M&A professional with a unusually strong reputation - Is that fair?
Why was he brought on - Why now - Why now with cash starting to dwindle? Was he brought on by Frank or did Frank have to bring him aboard? Fair question?
Can you imagine Frank calling David Raffa and asking him to come aboard - "David I would like you to conduct a review of our business strategy, audit our financials and put it in writing" Really, Frank's idea?
Why would he depart by publicly complimenting the company - Dostie and Lawson - Fair question? Interesting that he focused on employees under Frank - Was there a message there?
Assuming, yes assuming, that the company is now vetted, would you agree that WordLogic is in a better position for a OEM deal, private equity or a takeout?
David Raffa is now available as an independent expert on WordLogic, to be hired by Frank again or by an interested player.
I would have liked to see Raffa stay as an independent director - My comfort level would have been much higher - Yours also. But effectively we have everything we need - Contacts with highly respected Patent attorneys and M&A specialists.
So yes, hence David Raffa, old man/my friend.
Provest there has been a deal, SAMsix, and everyone is aware of the product offering from WordLogic compliments of iKnowU.
"us longtimers have seen this play like a record player" What has changed is that mobile input is a hot sector and WordLogic is in the sector with a well positioned, high quality product.
Frank bumbled into this. For the most part compliments of Google and Apple with predictive search and the iPhone/iPad.......
Give Dostie lots of credit for getting iKnowU up and making a SDK product available - Some credit to Silverstein/Sichel for creating a business plan based on SwiftKeys success and executing a daily run book to accomplish advertised goals.
Read Dostie's recent public comments regarding the patents - Let's see how the market values the patent portfolio now that WordLogic is in play........Let's see if Raffa can clean up/dress up enough to get a date to the big dance.....
What's your rush, old man?
"rather than hoping some entity will notice Wordlogic because of Swiftkey"
I think that you are missing the point.......
If WordLogic is in play for OEM deals, VC or M&A how would you value the company - Off of SwiftKey first because they are the dominant direct competitor and first to market with the most similar product. Then the past takeouts like Swype(Nuance) and Siri.
WordLogic is in play because of SwiftKey's success with their product and business plan execution......
WordLogic is following right behind with the same business plan but with a stronger product offering and a patent portfolio.....
Hence David Raffa.
WordLogic roadmap:
Defined by SwiftKey.........
“Hopefully in the next 12-18 months we’ll start to become a dominant provider, and to achieve that you need to have a good proportion of the top ten manufacturers,” Reynolds said during his October 2012 interview.
Medlock said in a previous interview with this blog that his company was finding a balance between “brand building and deep partnerships,” using Google Play app sales as a way to market the technology to manufacturers, who could then license the technology. Up until 2012, the majority of SwiftKey’s revenue came from app sales; last year, though, licensing deals with manufacturers were forecast to overtake app sales and founders Medlock and Jon Reynolds expected the trend to continue.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2013/03/14/confirmed-samsung-embedded-swiftkey-typing-technology-in-gs4/
Confirmed: Samsung Embedded SwiftKey Typing Technology In GS4
In its bid to create a phone with features so useful you hardly have to download extra apps, Samsung has integrated popular predictive typing app SwiftKey as a core technology set in the new Galaxy S4.
It had been rumored for some time that Samsung had licensed SwiftKey’s predictive typing technology for the phone, and confirmed this afternoon with an official statement from SwiftKey’s co-founder to Forbes.
“We are excited to confirm that Samsung has chosen SwiftKey’s innovative keyboard technology to be at the heart of its flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S4,” co-founder and chief technology officer Ben Medlock said in an e-mailed statement. “This is fantastic progress for our vision of bringing the best touchscreen typing experience to as many people as possible.”
Thursday marks the first time SwiftKey has been able to divulge a major manufacturing partner.
SwiftKey is a London-based technology company that makes money from selling its app on Google Play for Android, and from licensing its language-prediction technology to device manufacturers like Samsung. Till now its deals with OEMs have been kept quiet with confidentiality agreements. It was rumoured to have been pre-installed in the BlackBerry 10 phone, without any of its own branding, but would never confirm the rumours.
Medlock said in a previous interview with this blog that his company was finding a balance between “brand building and deep partnerships,” using Google Play app sales as a way to market the technology to manufacturers, who could then license the technology. Up until 2012, the majority of SwiftKey’s revenue came from app sales; last year, though, licensing deals with manufacturers were forecast to overtake app sales and founders Medlock and Jon Reynolds expected the trend to continue.
“Hopefully in the next 12-18 months we’ll start to become a dominant provider, and to achieve that you need to have a good proportion of the top ten manufacturers,” Reynolds said during his October 2012 interview.
Medlock, who has a PhD from Cambridge in applied natural language processing, and Reynolds, a fellow Cambridge graduate and former trainee with the British government, founded their company in August 2008 and launched their first keyboard app for Android in 2010. Since Apple does not allow integral features like the keyboard or dialler to be augmented by third-parties, the app was never available on iOS.
The core technology is based on algorithms related to natural language processing (NLP), which learn each user’s typical vocabulary to predict which words are most likely to go together. SwiftKey, which bills itself as “more than just an app,” is headquartered in Southwark, London.
Samsung’s decision to reveal its licensing deal with SwiftKey meanwhile appears to be another example of the electronics company distancing itself from Android, the dominant operating system that powers its most popular phones.
Though Android has helped Samsung make plenty of money till now, (Samsung commanded 42.5% of the Android market globally in 2012), according to Gartner, Samsung wants to ensure it doesn’t become too reliant on a platform that professes to be open source but also has many ties to Google.
SwiftKey on Samsung Galaxy S4 and Blackberry Z10 in US.
SwiftKey has blazed the trail for WordLogic - Plenty of opportunity for an OEM deal with WordLogic......
Superior functionality with a patent porfolio, WLGC provides a viable option to the premium pricing model of SwiftKey.
"Critics have praised the Z10’s features, including its virtual keyboard"
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-21/blackberry-s-u-s-debut-marks-biggest-test-of-comeback.html
BlackBerry’s U.S. Debut Marks Biggest Test of Comeback
By Hugo Miller & Sarah Frier - Mar 21, 2013 6:09 PM ET
BlackBerry’s new Z10 smartphone goes on sale in the U.S. this weekend, almost two months after its debut in other countries, putting the company’s turnaround plan to the test in its largest single market.
Chief Executive Officer Thorsten Heins is kicking off U.S. sales of the device tonight at a theater in New York’s Times Square. The event, where rapper Ludacris and R&B singer Janelle Monae are slated to perform, marks the arrival of the Z10 at AT&T (T) Inc. stores tomorrow. The phone will be offered by Verizon Wireless on March 28.
Heins is trying to reverse BlackBerry’s fortunes in the U.S., where the one-time smartphone leader has lost ground to Apple Inc. (AAPL)’s iPhone and Google Inc.’s Android. Sales in the country fell by almost half to $520 million in the third quarter from a year earlier, through the U.S. still accounts for about a fifth of revenue for Waterloo, Ontario-based BlackBerry.
“There’s no risk of overstating the importance of the U.S. for BlackBerry,” said Ramon Llamas, an analyst with IDC in Framingham, Massachusetts. “It’s such an important bellwether market.”
AT&T, the second-largest U.S. carrier, will offer the Z10 for $199.99 on a two-year contract, putting it at the same price level as the main iPhone. The phone was first unveiled on Jan. 30, and it’s been available for weeks in the U.K., Canada and other markets. Heins has attributed the U.S. delay to the longer equipment-testing procedures of American carriers.
Verizon, Sprint
Verizon Wireless, the nation’s biggest carrier, has begun taking orders for the Z10 ahead of making it available in stores next week. Sprint Nextel Corp. (S), No. 3 in the market, won’t sell the Z10 at all. It’s waiting to offer the Q10, a version with a smaller screen and physical keyboard that’s coming out later this year.
Early demand suggests that the Z10 will perform as well in the U.S. as in BlackBerry’s home market of Canada, Chief Marketing Officer Frank Boulben said in an interview.
“I expect that we’re going to hit the ground running tomorrow with substantial pent-up demand,” he said.
The U.S. will add to the phone’s global footprint, Boulben said. By the end of April, BlackBerry expects the Z10 to be available from 150 carriers around the world. By this time next year, there should be six different BlackBerry 10 models on the market, he said.
‘One-Trick Pony’
“It’s not a one-trick pony -- neither from a country standpoint nor a device standpoint,” Boulben said.
The rollout of the new phones is supported by the biggest marketing campaign in the company’s history. As part of the blitz, BlackBerry splurged on a Super Bowl ad in early February, betting that it could build excitement around the phone even though a U.S. debut wasn’t imminent.
Now that the Z10 is finally here, the key to its success will be how well store salespeople can demonstrate how the phone works to both BlackBerry loyalists and others, said IDC’s Llamas.
“This is an entirely different platform,” he said.
Critics have praised the Z10’s features, including its virtual keyboard. It also dispenses with a home button, which is used by the iPhone or Samsung Electronics Co.’s Galaxy S to take users back to the main screen. The Z10 relies instead on gesture-driven navigation to switch between applications and peek at messages while still in the Web browser.
Stock Rally
Shares of the company, formerly known as Research In Motion Ltd. (BB), have rallied 36 percent this year on optimism that the new lineup can revive BlackBerry’s prospects. The stock added 1 percent today, closing at $16.16. Still, it remains down almost 90 percent from its 2008 high of $147.55.
The staggered rollout of the new devices makes it tougher for analysts to predict the impact on quarterly results. Sales estimates (BBRY) for the period that ended March 2 range from as little as $2.41 billion to as much as $3.42 billion. The average estimate is $2.84 billion. While that would represent a decline of 32 percent from a year earlier, it’s a smaller drop than the company posted the previous quarter.
Ehud Gelblum, an analyst with Morgan Stanley (MS) in New York, raised his rating on the stock this week to the equivalent of a buy, citing the potential for the BlackBerry 10 phones to lift the company’s average selling price and profitability.
Still, BlackBerry will struggle to regain lost market share in the U.S., he said. The company will appeal mainly to existing BlackBerry users looking to upgrade, rather than gaining converts from Android and Apple’s iOS operating system.
“Our more bullish stance is not based on a resurgence in share in the U.S., where we believe users are already mostly sold on the Android/iOS duopoly,” he said.
A new twist on the touch screen interface/front end for input yes......
A company could license SwiftKey's or WordLogic's SDK and marry this interface......
The recent patented functionality Dostie has talked about in the press is where the value added/competitive advantage is.
The players in mobile tech are going to find it hard to ignore that SwiftKey is being used by Samsung and Blackberry.......
Apple is a possibility, but as a shareholder any OEM deal will do the trick, which is what I think is in the works.
My thought is that it will be hard for players in mobile tech to ignore Samsung and Blackberry using SwiftKey.......
Building similar functionality at this point will take too long..........
Apple is a possibility, but as shareholders any OEM deal will do the trick/re-value the stock, which is what I think is already in the works.
SwiftKey default keyboard Samsung Galaxy S4
Lots of opportunity for WordLogic to emulate SwiftKey's OEM efforts..........
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57574451-94/samsung-galaxy-s4-keyboard-powered-by-swiftkey/
Samsung Galaxy S4 keyboard powered by SwiftKey
The Samsung Galaxy S4 will have a powerful default keyboard, thanks to some SwiftKey technology baked right in.
Jaymar Cabebe
by Jaymar Cabebe
March 14, 2013 5:04 PM PDT
Samsung's new flagship device has officially been unveiled, and it has a lot of new features packed in. But what many aren't talking about is the device's on-screen keyboard, which, arguably, is one of the most important aspects of its interface.
In an attempt to improve on its previous flagship phone, Samsung has partnered with third-party keyboard maker SwiftKey to have its proprietary technology built into the Galaxy S4 keyboard.
Despite not knowing the extent of the companies' partnership as yet, we think the move looks like a solid one. Samsung gets some ultrapowerful typing technology to power its keyboard, while SwiftKey extends its reach with placement on a high-profile device. To be clear, though, the GS4's keyboard will not be branded as a SwiftKey product. It will just have the tech baked in.
From the New York launch of the GS4, Dr. Ben Medlock, cofounder and CTO of SwiftKey, confirmed that, "Samsung has chosen SwiftKey's innovative keyboard technology to be at the heart of its flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S4. This is fantastic progress for our vision of bringing the best touch-screen typing experience to as many people as possible."
It's no secret that SwiftKey is one of our favorite Android keyboards available. It has earned high marks here at CNET and has been a Google Play Editors' Choice app for quite some time. And with its latest version, SwiftKey 4, the keyboard added support for SwiftKey Flow, a gesture-based input style that was initially made popular by Swype. This feature, along with SwiftKey's incredibly "smart" predictive technology make the keyboard a pleasure to use. And now the keyboard will be available to Samsung Galaxy S4 owners, right out of the box.