According to an article at TimesOnline, Google is developing speech translation for Android, and not just any speech translation, but speech-to-speech translation — the best kind of translation, if you ask us.
However, Google is noted as saying that speech-to-speech will be possible in a year or two, and will only work “reasonably” in a few years time.
Database empire Oracle has announced that they’ve acquired AmberPoint, a small company which specializes in application and performance management, where its software makes it easier to optimize apps and manage business transactions.
Oracle has said that AmberPoint’s software will be added to Oracle’s Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) product lineup.
Posted by Paul in Uncategorized, Venture capital, music on February 8, 2010
TuneWiki, the online social music player (and not really a wiki), has announced that they’ve raised $7 million in a Series A funding, led by Motorola Ventures, followed by Intellect Capital Ventures, HillsVen Capital, Novel TMT and prior investor Benchmark Israel.
TuneWiki offers apps for iPhone, Android and other handsets, where its player is capable of generating items like lyrics for each song, and generally more information (and products) about the songs they’re listening to.
At the Super Bowl yesterday, mighty Google ran its first ever ad, and at least according to us, it was by far the best. Just watch above, and see how far simplicity and a good idea can get you.
Posted by Paul in Tools, Web 2.0, google, social media on February 5, 2010
According to TechCrunch, Facebook is redoing their messaging platform and will soon be relaunched with a fully fledged webmail client. Facebook internally calls it “Project Titan”, but most can refer to it as a serious competitor to Gmail. Facebook Mail will have most of the features that Gmail has, including full POP/IMAP support.
Google’s iPhone rival, the Nexus One, doesn’t appear much of a rival after all — at least not sales wise. The Nexus One has reportedly sold only 80,000 units during its first month, compared to the few million iPhones Apple sells each month.
When first launched, the iPhone sold about 600,000 and even the Droid, another Android device, sold around 500,000 units. However, both Apple and Motorola had adverting budgets north of $100 million when their devices sold, and Google has only spent a fraction of that.
Posted by Paul in business, social media on February 5, 2010
Citing bad market conditions, the FriendFinder Network has canceled its attempt for an IPO, at least for now. FriendFinder’s IPO was meant to raise capital to pay back some of its debt, which amounts to a stunning $471 million at this point. The company is reportedly paying $75 million in interest every year, while doing just over $245 million in revenue.
Posted by Paul in Venture capital, Web 2.0 on February 5, 2010
Online scrapbooking startup Scrapblog, which lets users create scrapbooks via Flash, has announced that they’ve raised another $2.5 million in a Series B funding round.
Scrapblog, launched in 2006, previously raised $7.5 million in a series A round, bringing the total to a cool $10 million.
