Vlingo’s speech recognition for Blackberry officially outcools the iPhone — for now
Vlingo, a Cambridge, Mass, speech recognition company, has just launched an awesome voice-powered interface for Blackberry smartphones.
In a recent post about speech-to-SMS provider Yap, we posited that the ultimate mobile interface would let us navigate a phone using a combination of voice and manual input. Yap’s goal was to get there eventually. But Vlingo, which launches such an application today, has left Yap — and even Microsoft’s heavyweight TellMe — choking on dust.
While voice-activated search… Continue Reading
VoiceBox tackles intelligent voice recognition
“Give me the latest weather report,” you say to your car. You listen, then direct it: “Turn the heat on to 70 degrees, and read me my stock quotes. Then play some Johnny Cash.” Sound futuristic? Yes, it does — even though it also feels like we should be there by now. That’s the testament to the difficulty of building voice-recognition systems.
However, that doesn’t mean innovative startups are giving up on that vision. VoiceBox, one… Continue Reading
Tellme, Google 411 searches — all about the data
Tellme, the voice recognition company, has released more mobile search features, giving it a leg up on Google’s recently announced 411 service.
In addition to offering voice mobile search, which Tellme announced last month, it gives you a way of search for business listings using SMS texting or mobile Web. Tellme gives business listings, maps, phone numbers and driving directions. See images below.
If you use the voice service, which you do by calling 1-800-555-TELL and just… Continue Reading
Roundup: Walking robot, MySpace News, Dot-Watt boom and more
Here’s the latest action:
Dexter, the first robot that “walks like we do” — Entrepreneur Trevor Blackwell started a robot company in Mountain View, Calif. called Anybots a few years ago (we wrote about it). He built a robot called Dexter, and had real trouble getting him to walk. It’s tougher than you may think. Well, now Dexter has finally taken its first steps. Click on image and play video. Paul Graham’s account of the challenge is… Continue Reading
Microsoft close to buying voice-recognition company, Tellme
Microsoft is negotiating to buy Tellme Networks, a Mountain View, Calif. company that offers voice-recognition technology, and could sign something as early as this week, according to multiple news reports.
A Microsoft agreement to buy Tellme could value the company at up to $800 million, according to the WSJ.
From the WSJ:
The acquisition would fit Microsoft’s broader ambitions to build Web-based voice capabilities into its own products. Businesses and consumers have lately begun turning to the… Continue Reading
Nuance shores up voice-recognition lead, buys BeVocal for $140M
Nuance Communications, the speech-recognition technology company, said it has agreed to acquire BeVocal, of Mountain View, Calif., for $140 million.
The deal allows the Burlington, Mass.-based Nuance, which dominates the speech-recognition market, to extend its reach into mobile calls, where BeVocal’s customers include carriers like Cingular, Liberty Wireless, Metro PCS and Virgin Mobile. It comes at a time when Tellme is making headway in mobile voice search (though Tellme relies on Nuance’s underlying speech-recognition technology).
Mobile phone… Continue Reading
Promptu raises $5.6 more to hold its own in voice-enabled mobile search
Promptu, the Menlo Park company that uses speech recognition to let you search on a mobile phone, has raised $5.6 million in additional financing.
Voice-powered search is an increasingly competitive field, especially in the hot area of mobile. Google last year filed a patent for voice search, and other players include V-Enable and Tellme. Tellme just launched a free mobile search feature.
This is second part of Promptu’s third round of financing. Founded in 2002, it… Continue Reading
Tellme offers free, voice-enabled search
Tellme, a Mountain View, Calif. voice recognition company, has launched a notable mobile voice search feature.
On a Java-enabled phone, you hit the “talk” button, and say the name of city and state you are searching in. Then you say the name of the business (or ‘restaurants’ or ‘pizza’), and Tellme will return results on your phone, along with address, map and directions. It is free (though data charges apply according to your wireless plan).
You can… Continue Reading
Roundup: The valley’s lure, Sequoia out of Google, Office 2.0, Lala & more
YouTube will contribute to valley’s allure — Two years ago, Google’s buzz, even before its IPO, gave entrepreneurs like Tribe’s founder Mark Pincus inspiration to dream up the social networking revolution. YouTube’s grand sale will also inspire a new wave of entrepreneurs, no doubt. The WSJ has a timely piece — written before YouTube’s sale was announced — about the entrepreneurs still coming to Silicon Valley.
There’s Matt Sanchez, co-founder of video company VideoEgg, who found… Continue Reading