Sunday, July 6, 2014

Apple May Unveil Voice Technology With IPhone - Technology - Information Technology

Apple Inc. (AAPL)'s next iPhone, due to be unveil at an event today, can be a showcase for improved voice controls, bringing phones closer to the realm of "Star Trek"- style speech recognition.New voice commands will let user make appointments in their calendar, send text messages or e-mails, and waves the Web, said Gene Munster, a psychiatrist at Piper Jaffray Cos. Apple already has essential voice-control ability on the iPhone for placing a call or accessing a song. Today's occasion is called "Let's talk iPhone," hinting at an expansion of the features.Voice technology is up-and-coming as the latest showground for Apple's rivalry with Google Inc. (GOOG), which has spent years promote speech technology. In progress Google features transcribe voice letters to text and perform Web searches base on verbal commands. The face up to so far has been getting middle-of-the-road users to adopt the technology, said venture capitalist Larry Marcus, who has invested in speech-recognit ion company SoundHound Inc.Apple can "make it exciting and create people think about it in different customs," Marcus said. "Voice controls are a very original way to interact with your device."Voice information won't be the only features additional to the new iPhone. The device may include a better camera and a stronger central processing unit to make program run faster, people familiar by means of the matter said earlier this year. Apple show off some of the new software for the device in June, as well as new messaging and notice features.ICloud ApproachesThe company also is readying iCloud, an overhaul for storing files such as movies and music on Apple's remote servers so they can be access through iPhones, iPads and Mac computers.Natalie Kerris, a spokeswoman for Cupertino, California- based Apple, declined to comment on today's event.The fifth-generation iPhone comes at a key time for Apple. Today's event will be the company's first major product presentation since co- founder Steve Jobs submissive as chief executive officer in August, what time he turned the job over to longtime deputy Tim Cook.The new speech technology would put together on a service Apple introduce in 2009 called Voice Control, which lets users make a call or play tune by speaking into the phone. Those skin tone haven't taken off, Marcus said."They have probably been taking further time to figure out how to get it accurate," he said.Nuance SoftwareSpeech-recognition technology also is obtainable from companies such as Nuance Communications Inc. (NUAN), which offers voice-to-text transcript software. Automakers are adding speech skin tone as well, letting drivers make a call or prefer a song while keeping their hand on the wheel.Mobile devices symbolize a growth marketplace for voice-command technology as people try to perform more complex compute tasks on the go. Facial appearance will increasingly blend vocal and physical information, said John Donovan, chief knowledge officer of AT&T Inc. (T), a carrier for the iPhone."Certain things are more naturally verbal, some things are more as expected typed, and some things are more unsurprisingly swiped," he said, referring to the swiping motion that iPhone users compose on the device's touch computer screen. While declining to talk about Apple specifically, he said a big item for consumption event can "pick up the pace" adoption.Apple acquired a speech-recognition software corporation last year called Siri, which lets users make restaurant reservations or investigate for a flight with voice information. Apple also is probably functioning with Nuance to power the right to be heard capabilities of the new iPhone, said Mike Phillips, chief know-how officer and co-founder of Vlingo, which also makes voice-recognition technology.How Far?The move is good for the whole market, Phillips said. "The question is: How much farther do they go?" he said. "Do they really try to transform the search experience ?"That would mean making voice a main method of searching, rather than a once-in-a-while method, Phillips said.Apple also is facing mounting competition in touch-screen smartphones -- a market it pioneered. Samsung Electronics Co. and HTC Corp. are relying on Google's Android software to woo iPhone users. And Google is acquiring its own mobile-phone company, Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc., for $12.5 billion.The Apple-Google rivalry has expanded to the courtroom, where Apple and Android adherents are suing each other for patent infringements.Smartphone ShowdownAt stake is leadership in the market for smartphones, which is projected to double by 2015, when 1 billion of the handsets will be sold, according to research firm IDC. While Apple is the single biggest smartphone maker, the Android coalition leads the market, accounting for 41.7 percent.The iPhone is Apple's top-selling product, generating almost half its sales last quarter. The company hasn't released a new model sin ce June 2010, so there may be pent-up demand for an update. Apple will sell a record 25 million iPhones during the December quarter, Piper Jaffray's Munster estimates.The success of the product has helped Apple's stock weather market turmoil and the loss of its CEO. Shares of Apple, the world's most valuable company, have climbed 16 percent this year. The stock fell 43 cents to $374.17 at 9:55 a.m. New York time on the Nasdaq Stock Market.Even so, the long delay between new iPhones has put pressure on Apple to ward off competitors, said Ramon Llamas, an analyst with Framingham, Massachusetts-based IDC.





iAutoblog the premier autoblogger software

No comments:

Post a Comment