Nuance, a company known for its voice technology, is getting into the advertising business.
It’s launching a new product called Voice Ads, which brings Nuance capabilities to mobile advertising. These are ads that you can actually have a (limited) conversation with, potentially creating a much more interactive and fun advertising experience — which is particularly challenging for mobile… → Read More
ManageEngine has launched the ServiceDesk Plus iPhone app that incorporates voice-recognition technology for IT professionals so they can make commands, dictate notes and do any number of other tasks that come with managing a help desk. → Read More
Amazon today announced that it is acquiring Ivona Software, a Polish-based specialist in voice technologies that competes with Nuance and is already used in the Kindle Fire for services covering text-to-speech, voice commands and “Explore by Touch.” The terms of the deal were not disclosed. → Read More
TechCrunch has received a copy of a memo indicating that Nuance, the speech and natural language technology giant that also powers Apple’s Siri voice assistant, has made another acquisition: VirtuOz, a developer of intelligent virtual assistant services for online sales, marketing and support — dubbed “Siri for the enterprise” — that was founded in France and is now co-headquartered in the Bay… → Read More
Document management provider OfficeDrop has a new capability for voice-activated search that represents just the start in how mobile apps are changing with the advent of natural-language, speech-recognition technology. The service is built on Nuance, the Boston-based company that has developed a speech-recognition service called Nina, which debuted in August. → Read More
Looks like Nuance has been up to more than just updating its myriad applications. The company has announced that it will acquire San Jose-based Ditech Networks for $1.45 per share, which works out to a net total of $22.5 million. While the boards of both companies have signed off on the transaction, the deal isn’t expected to close until later this year.
I can’t blame you if Ditech Networks… → Read More
Nuance, the company that powers a large number of tools that use voice recognition (including Apple’s Siri) launched its own Siri-like voice-powered “virtual assistant” today that developers can add to their mobile apps. The Nuance Interactive Natural Assistant (Nina) uses the company’s speech recognition technologies and combines them with voice biometrics and an understanding of natural… → Read More
The future of customer service is less about the people than it is the sound of a person or even the virtual image of an individual.
Humans are just so inefficient. But they can be improved, too, through interfaces that provide them more automated capabilities.
Salefsorce.com is on the edge of this trend. It continues to acquire companies that makes it easier for agents to become more… → Read More
Speech recognition giant Nuance has made their share of plays in the mobile space before — they acquired Vlingo last year and pushed out their Dragon Go! voice command app to both iOS and Android.
Their latest mobile endeavor, Dragon ID, is a little different — its main draw is that it’s capable of recognizing distinct voices and using them to authenticate users and unlock devices.
It… → Read More
Nuance has just announced that it is acquiring Transcend, a company that provides medical transcription and speech editing services, for approximately $300 million in cash, or $29.50 per Transcend share.
Nuance, which develops imaging and voice recognition technologies, says that Transcend will help expand its customer base to the healthcare and hospital market. For background, Transcend… → Read More
Alltel Wireless, a Little Rock, Ark.-based carrier that serves six states, has today announced that it will use Nuance’s Dragon Voicemail to Text transcription to power its own Voice2Text service.
The service will basically let users read their voicemails straight from their inbox, rather than waiting through voice prompts and having to sit through a message. The beauty is that once a… → Read More
Today at Intel’s CES 2012 Keynote, the firm announced a strategic partnership with Nuance. If you’ve forgotten, Nuance is a voice recognition company, so yelling at your new ultrabook may be a closer reality than you thought.
You’ll have voice commands for checking in on notifications, and the processing never has to go through the cloud since ultrabooks will provide enough processing power to… → Read More
Speech recognition company Nuance (which powers part of Apple’s Siri), is launching its new “Dragon TV” platform today, which will allow consumers to interact with their TV using their voice and natural language. With Dragon TV, you’ll be able to speak channel numbers, station names, plus TV show and movie titles, without having to use structured commands. You’ll even be able to perform content… → Read More
Textaholics, this one’s for you.
Swype — the Android-flavored keyboard that lets you type (or swype, rather) faster than you ever thought possible — has a present for you this holiday season. With Siri on the iPhone 4S, voice control apps are sprouting up faster than you can ask Siri about the meaning of life. Voice is where we’re headed and there’s nothing anyone can do to stop… → Read More
In what Vlingo CEO Dave Grannan calls a ‘good outcome’ on Twitter, the voice-to-text technology company has just been acquired by speech recognition king Nuance.
Notably, Nuance has repeatedly sued Vlingo over patent infringement – and tried to acquire them – in the past, and Grannan once referred to competing with Nuance as “having a venereal disease that’s in remission”. → Read More
Looking over the web and especially the blogosphere over the past couple of days, it seems there is only one thing everyone wants to talk about: Siri. With the iPhone 4S now in millions of peoples’ hands, as expected, it’s clearly the stand-out feature of the device.
But wait. Voice technology has been around for a long time. Or, as one TechCrunch commenter succinctly put it on Erick’s video… → Read More
Swype has been blowing minds since it first launched at TechCrunch 50 back in September of 2008. For those unfamiliar, Swype is the maker of an awesome app that allows users of touchscreen mobile devices to type messages with one swipe of the finger or stylus motion across the screen keyboard. The alternative (and patented) input method has proven to be super speedy, allowing data entry at over 40… → Read More
The most talked about element of yesterday’s Apple event had to be Siri. The new feature of the iPhone 4S, born out of Apple’s purchase of the company by the same name in 2010, looks amazing. But one thing never mentioned during the keynote was a key piece of technology behind Siri: Nuance.
We first reported that Siri would be a key part of iOS 5 back in March. As we dug deeper, we learned that… → Read More
Nuance has come out with the third in its Dragon series of applications, and each time the experience gets better and better.
The latest app, Dragon Go, takes Nuance’s voice recognition software to the next level, and adds a way of understanding not just the words spoken, but the intention behind the voice query, through a system called natural language processing. Once the query is digested… → Read More
Nuance is picking up another company today, acquiring SVOX, a company that developers voice recognition software for in-car systems and consumer electronics. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Nuance, which also develops imaging and voice recognition technologies, is using the acquisition to enter the automotive industry. As the company says in the release, consumers are using speech… → Read More
Well, this is interesting. Nuance, a company that develops imaging and voice recognition technologies, is once again suing competitor Vlingo, which also develops a voice search technology and is backed by Yahoo, AT&T and Charles River Ventures.
According to the suit, which we’ve embedded below, Nuance claims Vlingo is infringing on number of Nuance’s patents including U.S. patent no. → Read More
With regard to today’s WWDC keynote, we were right about a lot of things. Twitter/iOS. Revamped notifications. Widgets (though they didn’t call them “widgets” on stage, the weather and stock areas in the notifications pull-down are widgets). iOS Messages (okay, this was more of a dream that somehow came true). July launch for OS X Lion. No “iPhone 4S”. iCloud WWDC launch. iOS 5 fall launch.
But… → Read More
With WWDC quickly approaching, the rumor mills are heating up with what we should expect at Apple’s annual conference known for big announcements. We’ve learned a little bit more that speaks to what to expect — including a couple of big, widely-requested things.
First of all, a lot of sites seem to be working themselves into a tizzy about the so-called “iPhone 4S”. While it has already been… → Read More
Nuance, a company that develops imaging and voice recognition technologies, has announced the acquisition of print management and cost recovery software developer Equitrac. Nuance is shelling out $157 million in cash for the company, and the deal is expected to close in September of this year.
Equitrac’s software helps businesses effectively manage their printing environments, reduce printing… → Read More
Last Friday, we posted about the negotiations between Apple and voice recognition company Nuance. While these talks have been going on for months, sources told us that it wasn’t yet entirely clear what the outcome would be — either a broad strategic partnership or, less likely, an acquisition. Things are looking a bit more clear now.
In digging into the information about the relationship… → Read More
This past November, the blogosphere was briefly set on fire when a comment Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak made in passing stated that Apple had acquired the voice recognition company Nuance. Wozniak quickly came out and corrected that comment, and most believed that he had simply confused Nuance with the company he mentioned right afterwards, Siri — a company that Apple actually did acquire in… → Read More
Nuance is one of those companies you may not have heard of, but likely use. They’re the leaders in voice recognition technology for text-to-speech and speech-to-text. Most devices that have voice recognition — iPhone, MyFord Touch, Dragon Dictate — are powered by Nuance. Jawbone teamed up with Nuance to get text-to-speech on their new ERA headset.
Skip past the break for the full press… → Read More
Rumors are swirling this morning about voice technology giant Nuance Communications being acquired by Apple, following remarks made by the company’s co-founder Steve Wozniak in a short video interview by TVDeck (see below, skip to the 0:40 mark). While the acquisition would make sense for Apple to make on a strategic level, there are a couple of reasons why it’s most likely not true.
Update… → Read More
SpinVox, a London-based technology startup that transcribes voicemails to text so that they can be more easily digitized, searched, and manipulated, has been acquired by speech recognition company Nuance for $102.5 million. We reported on the rumors of the acquisition a few weeks ago, when a $150 million price tag was floating around.
Nuance will integrate SpinVox’s services with its speech… → Read More
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