Technology

Thumbnail image for 18-century Code Cracked

18-century Code Cracked

by Richard Kazandjian December 14, 2011 Languages

Machine translation is probably not a good choice for your business. However, in the right hands it can be quite useful. A case in point: researchers from the University of Southern California and Uppsala University in Sweden just used a machine translation program described as being similar to Google Translate to crack an 18th-century cipher [...]

0 comments Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for Siri Doesn’t Understand Scottish Accents

Siri Doesn’t Understand Scottish Accents

by Richard Kazandjian October 31, 2011 Entertainment

At its last conference, Apple introduced Siri, a robotic virtual system that comes embedded in the new iPhone 4S.  Right after it was introduced, Apple caught a lot of flack for Siri’s name, which sounds vulgar in both Japanese and Georgian. Now that the product has been released to the general public, Apple is getting [...]

0 comments Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for Another Week, Another Tech Translation Fail

Another Week, Another Tech Translation Fail

by Richard Kazandjian October 28, 2011 Entertainment

Last week, Apple was roundly mocked for using the name “Siri” for its new voice-controlled personal assistant.  Apparently, they didn’t bother to see if the name would have any negative connotations in other languages. In fact, it sounds very much like “buttocks” in Japanese and is a particuarly crude way of referring to one’s penis [...]

1 comment Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for Braille Keyboard for Tablets

Braille Keyboard for Tablets

by Richard Brooks October 21, 2011 Languages

For several years, smooth, sleek touchscreens have dominated the tech gadget world. Touchscreens are said to be more intuitive than other input methods, as even infants instinctively know how to use them. However, the touchscreen revolution has left one group of people sitting on the sidelines: those who can’t see the shiny screen or its [...]

1 comment Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for Amazon’s Kindle Now Speaks French

Amazon’s Kindle Now Speaks French

by Richard Kazandjian October 12, 2011 Languages

French speakers now have a new option for consuming ebooks and other digital media that speaks their language: Amazon’s Kindle, which was just released in French last week. The French version of the device, which costs 99€ on Amazon.fr, is Wifi only and comes with neither a touchscreen nor a keyboard. Still, Amazon is touting [...]

2 comments Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for Apple Translation Fail

Apple Translation Fail

by Richard Brooks October 10, 2011 Technology

Apple just completed its first new product announcement without iconic founder Steve Jobs, who passed away on Wednesday. The unveiling of the iPhone 4S disappointed many of the techies waiting with bated breath on the iPhone 5, but the demonstration of a virtual assistant app called “Siri” was one of the highlights. Siri is capable [...]

8 comments Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for Translation Technology Replicates Your Voice

Translation Technology Replicates Your Voice

by Richard Brooks September 30, 2011 Technology

Microsoft has been experimenting with some very interesting translation technology. For example, the company’s chief research and strategy officer, Craig Mundie, recently appeared on a computer screen in Beijing, speaking perfectly fluent Mandarin. Nothing unusual about that, except for the fact that the real Craig Mundie doesn’t speak Mandarin at all. Instead, Microsoft has created [...]

0 comments Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for Facebook Translates Comments

Facebook Translates Comments

by Richard Kazandjian September 14, 2011 Machine Translation

Facebook already connects hundreds of millions of users around the globe, and the site itself has been translated into more than 70 different languages. Now, it looks like the popular website may take its efforts to break down language barriers between users to another level by offering automatic translations for comments. At the moment, the [...]

2 comments Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for iPhone App Helps Troops

iPhone App Helps Troops

by Richard Kazandjian August 11, 2011 Learning Languages

When it comes to Afghanistan, winning the all-important “battle of hearts of minds” has proven to be quite difficult…especially when soldiers don’t speak the language. Now, a new, free iPhone app is available to help soldiers learn Dari, one of the local languages. The app, TripLingoDari, was recently profiled on CNN.com. Dari, the Afghan dialect [...]

0 comments Read the full article →
Thumbnail image for Games Computers Play

Games Computers Play

by Tanguy July 19, 2011 games

Can we really teach computers to understand language, like a human can, or are they more like parrots, able to memorize certain words and phrases without actually grasping the meaning? A new paper presented by MIT researcher Regina Barzilay and her graduate students indicates that computers will one day  have the capability to truly understand [...]

2 comments Read the full article →

← Previous Entries