901am

New Media News Every Morning

Google is Developing a Voice Translator Phone, Is This the Nexus Two?

By

The Times Online is currently running a piece about Google’s plan of developing software that will run on a new mobile phone capable of translating foreign languages instantly.  The said new software will be built on Google’s current technologies in voice recognition which it already employed in the Nexus One and automatic translation. And guess what? Google plans to have this new technology ready within a couple of years. If it will be ready within this year or next, I would have thought that the phone which will carry this feature would be the Nexus Two.

But then again a couple of years will be too long for Google to release a follow up to the Nexus One. So, let’s just consider the new phone which will employ this voice translation feature as the Nexus One’s future iteration.

Now going back to the voice translation capable software project, the report said that if this technology works, it could eventually transform communication among speakers of the world’s 6,000 plus languages. And if Google succeeds, this project will certainly have a huge impact in the whole  mobile phone industry.

It may seem impossible, but Google already has the two basic technologies needed to make this  happen. It was able to implement voice recognition on Nexus One while its web translation service is being honed by scanning million of multi-lingual websites and documents, so far covering 52 languages already.

So, it is just a matter of combining these two technologies to produce the software that can understand a caller’s voice and translate it into a synthetic equivalent in a foreign language.

What do you think? Will Google be able to pull this project through? If it does, then Google is bringing down the international language barrier soon. And why I do feel like Google may succeed?

Originally posted on February 8, 2010 @ 5:14 pm

Google Nexus One Hacked to Support Multitouch on Browser

By

When the Google Nexus One was released it was expected that the phone despite having a touchscreen feature would lack one importantant and most sought after functionality – full multitouch feature with gesture like pinch-and-zoom control. But of course, Google will not want to get into trouble and put the feature on the Nexus One since Apple has patented the technology. So, we have to contend with the “-” and “+” zoom control in the Nexus One.

But this didn’t stop the folks from XDA-Developers though and worked doubly hard as soon as they got hold of their Nexus One units and now has finally released a Nexus One add-on that would enable full multitouch gesture like pinch and zoom, on the phone’s native browser at least.

Sounds exciting right? While I don’t really know the merit of this thing, still some of you might want to try this one out. Be forwarned though the the procedures outlined by the XDA Developers might accidentally brick your Nexus One. So, exercise extreme caution.

In addition, the said Nexus One add-on requires rooting of your Nexus One first. As soon as you’ve settled with that, here are the steps on how to enable multitouch functionality on your Nexus One’s browser. Good luck!

Step 1: Follow the step by step guide posted here to root your Nexus One if you haven’t already.

Step 2: Download all the required files for Nexus One multitouch add-on from the source linkhere.

Step 3: Now simply add these files by running the following commands:

adb shell stop 
adb remount 
adb shell rm /system/app/Browser.odex 
adb push Browser.apk /system/app 
adb push com.cyanogenmod.android.jar /system/framework 
adb push com.cyanogenmod.android.xml /system/etc/permissions 
adb shell reboot

Step 4: That’s about it! Once your phone has rebooted, run the browser to try out all the multitouch goodness!

 

Originally posted on January 22, 2010 @ 6:22 pm

Google Sold Only 20,000 Nexus One Units, Now that’s Too Low

By

With the fact that the Nexus One is only available through Google’s online store and only in four countries so far, it’s not surprising that Google was able to sell only 20,000 units of the phone. The report was made by Mobile-ent.biz basing from data it obtained from app analytics Flurry and covers the first week of Nexus One’s availability.

Comparing this with the sales performance of the iPhone 3GS which stands at 1.5 million units, it is easy to say that Google may have failed on this one. Even the Motorola DROID, beats the Nexus One big time, with its 250,000 units first week sales.

So, what went wrong? Did Google fail this time?  The numbers certainly don’t lie. But then, aren’t we supposed to put into consideration several variables first before comparing the first week sales of the Nexus One, iPhone 3G, Motorola DROID and even MyTouch 3G, the first Android phone.? Most certainly.

First things first, all mentioned smartphones were released with their own mobile carriers releasing and distributing them. In the case of the Nexus One, Google is the sole distributor of the unit. And besides, it is only available in four countries – U.K., U.S., Hong Kong and Singapore. A significant number of mobile phone users, who may be eager to purchase could not do so because the Nexus One was not available in their countries.

Hopefully, once Google make the Nexus One in more countries, the figures will improve.

But if not, then that’s the time when we could say that Google failed. But only on its first mobile phone venture. Not the whole Android phone business per se. Because, certainly there will be another Google phone, perhaps the Nexus 2 or Nexus 3 and so on.

Saying that the Nexus One failed because its first week sale was too low is still an unfounded conclusion. [Read more…]

Originally posted on January 13, 2010 @ 9:03 am

More Users are Planning to Buy Android Phones

By

Screen shot 2010-01-05 at 5.26.11 AM

In a few hours from now, Google is about to announce its Nexus One phone amidst spectators and media pundits. So, it is interesting to note ChangeWave’s December 9-14 survey of around 4,068 consumers showing that 4% of the respondents who own a smartphone are using Google Android OS and 21% of those respondents who are planning to buy a smartphone said that they will most likely get an Android phone.

Whether that Android phone is going to be the Motorola DROID or the Google Nexus phone remains to be seen. But the good news is that the Motorola DROID seemed to have successfully paved the way for the Android OS to fully roll out to the smart phone market, something which the previous Android phones failed to achieve.

Looking at the changes in the data from previous ChangeWave survey – the 21% of respondents who plan to get the Android phone equals to 15% increase from the survey in September while those who are currently using phone running on on Google Android equals to to a 3% increase from September data.

Another interesting to note from the survey results is the fact that among the smartphones, it is only the Android phone and RIM/Blackberry OS  buyers which increased from September to December 2009.  Future buyers of the iPhone, Windows Mobile phone and Palm OS/Web OS have all decreased.

And things will definitely change once the Nexus One phone is finally announced and hopefully released the soonest time possible. With the Nexus One hype rapidly building up, it is undoubtedly going to be an Android OS year, unless of course Apple comes up with something new – iPhone 4.0 perhaps?

Originally posted on January 4, 2010 @ 5:28 pm

Google Unveils the Nexus One, Plus a Mobile Phone Web Store

By

There you have have it folks, as promised –  Google has officially announced the Nexus One, perhaps the iPhone’s biggest threat. And to make this product launch a little something different from just your ordinary product launch, Google is highlighting the fact that the Nexus One is just the first mobile phone that it plans to market through its mobile phone web store.

The Google hosted mobile phone web store aims to give consumers, that means us a new way to purchase a mobile phone. Specifically, Google wants to connect online users with selected Android devices, which in this case for starter is the Nexus One. Google wants to make the purchasing process simple.  Unfortunately, the first thing that will great you if you’re not from the U.S. is a note that says – “Sorry, the Nexus One Phone is not available in your country.” Common Google, are we non-U.S. folks not part of these mobile phone consumers?

Anyway, going back to Nexus One, which Google is calling as a “superphone”, true to what you’ve might have read from unofficial information, reviews and photo leaks the Nexus One will have a large 3.7-inch OLED screen with deep contrast and brilliant colors display capability, a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset, Android 2.1 OS, voice-enabled keyboard, live Wallpapers, 3D photo gallery, and Google’s own mobile phone apps such as Gmail, Google Voice and Google Maps.

And now for the most important information, how much would the Nexus One cost you?  You can either get the subsidized unit under T-Mobile for $179 or unlocked version for $529 which will ship in the U.S., U.K., Hong Kong, and Singapore.

Originally posted on January 5, 2010 @ 4:18 pm