Apple Acquires UK Based Novauris Technologies

With further improvements in the technology behind Siri, Apple has confirmed to TechCrunch, that it has purchased UK based Novauris Technologies, automatic speech recognition (ASR) Technology Company. This company grew out of Dragon System R&D U.K. Ltd; is the British research subsidiary of Dragon Systems and a well known voice dictation pioneer.

The company founded in 2002, is managed by CEO, Yoon Kim, Co-founders, Melvyn Hunt and John Bridle with background work at Dragon, Nortel, SRI, Marconi and Aurix. Apple along with its confirmation to TechCrunch had remarked that `they buy smaller technology companies from time to time and that they generally do not discuss their purpose or plans’.

Financial terms of the deal had not been disclosed.Novauris began operation in March 2002 after reassembling most of the former U.K. R&D team of Dragon Systems. While founder Jim Baker funded the initial development work and originally owned the company, it was Bridle and Hunt who bought him out along with some help from other private investors in September 2004.

Thereafter they brought in Kim who headed TTS Company, NeoSpeech as CEO. Though the acquisition had taken place last year, the same had not been reported. The team, now at Apple is working on improving Siri, the speech based virtual assistant technology which come pre-installed on Apple’s mobile devices. Apple it is also rumored to be working on some significant changes to Siri with iOS 8, and probably expanding its ability to interface with third party apps.

Huge Vocabulary Automatic Speech Recognition Technology

Novauris’ technology had been used by companies such as Panasonic, Verizon Wireless, Samsung, Alpine, BMW and others and also powered much different voice in activated mapping systems. Novauris may not have been a popular name but the founders were internationally recognized speech researchers and key members at Dragon Systems, a company which was known for products like `DragonDictate’ and `Dragon NaturallySpeaking.’.

Moreover the company had been developing its own huge vocabulary, automatic speech recognition technology for access to information, locally stored on mobile devices or remote servers which had been patented in the US as well as abroad and licensed to major corporations all across the world.

Embedded as well as Server Space

The biggest difference about Novauris with regards to the competitive landscape was that they operated in the embedded as well as the server space and also owned the core engine. This has made them a very valuable asset to Apple, that they had made efforts to acquire Nuance, the technology which powered Apple’s Siri and a partnership which was not disclosed but officially confirmed only last year. Nuance Company who merged with ScanSoft in 2005 had acquired the rights to the Dragon product and offered further connection between these companies.

Novauris’ products have been supporting iOS and iPhone through its Embedded ASR – NovaSearch Compact and Server ASR – NovaSearch Server technologies. Moreover, the company’s voice recognition products also support a wide range of languages namely U.S., U.K. German, Canadian French, Singapore English, French, Korean, Japanese, Spanish, Mexican Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese, Mandarin Chinese etc; and its applications and services have the capabilities of searching on device content such as apps, contacts, FAQs, translation, music as well as assistance with navigation or search contents on device’s App store.

Apple Leading the Way to Greener and Sustainable Internet

Apple being a tech company is reported to be leading the way towards a greener and a more sustainable internet according to a new report, The Telegraph. The first to use hundred percent renewable energy to power the iCloud was the California based company and to operate the largest private owned solar installation in the US at the North Carolina data center.

Greenpeace’s report, `Clicking Clean’, on How Companies are Creating the Green Internet, on viewing and evaluating the energy choices of 19 major tech internet companies and on surveying their electricity supply chains of over 300 data centers, ended up with the conclusion that Apple with all its data centers powered by energy from sustainable sources seemed to be more aggressive in reaching the goal of 100 percent renewable energy, declaring that the company had put in efforts in helping to set a new bar for the industry.

Greenpeace, founded in 1972, a not for profit and a nongovernmental environmental organization, has often campaigned against the worst climate offenders. Recently it has turned its focus in making the internet a greener place wherein the infrastructures can be powered by renewable energy sources. According to Gary Cook, senior IT analyst at Greenpeace, he states that Apple’s quick shift to clean energy has made it clear why it is one of the world’s most innovative and popular companies.

Apple Leading in Renewable Energy

According to a spokesperson for Apple, he states that `they believe in actions speaking louder than words, especially when it comes to issues as important as climate change, where Apple is proud to lead the industry by powering their data centers with hundred percent renewable energy for more than a year’.

He further adds that they have built the country’s largest private solar array and fuel cell installation at their site in North Carolina with innovative clean energy projects which are in the works for data centers in Nevada and Oregon. Greenpeace had earlier criticized Apple for using coal power for services like iCloud and the voice controlled `personal assistant’, Siri, more than their prevailing rivals.

Internet Energy Usage Growing Rapidly

Facebook as well as Google were commended for their energy efforts. It was reported that Facebook powered its Iowa based data center with wind energy with the energy company, MidAmerican Energy investing around $1.9 billion on one of the world’s biggest order of onshore turbines meant to meet the social network’s demand.

Google on the other hand used power purchase agreements for wind energy in providing electricity for its services like Gmail and YouTube. With Amazon Web Services, it was found that only fifteen percent of the energy was sourced with renewable energy. Company which hosted Netflix, Vine and Spotify and various others, sourced 28 percent of the demand from coal power, with nuclear energy providing 27 percent while gas provided 25 percent.

According to David Pomerantz, a collaborating author on the report states that with the internet energy usage growing rapidly, it is found that for the first time, a large number of technology leaders led by Apple, Google and Facebook are working to power the internet with hundred percent renewable energy which is a major shift.

Apple’s Deal with Chip Designer Renesas

Apple, it is reported by Japan’s largest business daily, is likely to buy the unit of a Japan based chipmaker that makes display related chip for Smartphone and is looking into acquiring controlling interest and eyeing the unit of Renesas Electronics that would help to improve image sharpness and battery life. Renesas SP Drivers is a joint venture between Renesas, Sharp and Taiwan’s Powerchip and Apple would acquire Renesas’s entire 55 percent stake for 50 billion yen ($479 million).

If the deal gets struck with Renesas, Sharp Corp would be selling all its shares in Renesas SP Drivers to Apple if the US company requests for such a transaction after a deal with Renesas, it was reported.

Sharp owns about 25 percent of the venture with Powerchip handling the manufacturing, holds the remaining 20 percent. According to Nikkei, Renesas SP Drivers being a leading supplier of driver and controller chips for small and midsize LCDs has a share of around one third of the global market. Display driver and controller chips both play a key role in the display’s quality, power efficiency and performance.

Improvement on Future iPhones

Apple’s discussion with Renesas comes as an improvement on future iPhone with larger displays for users familiar with it. As mobile screens grow larger and sharper, handset makers are heading in finding ways to make phone displays more energy efficient making them thinner.

According to Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Mark Newman, he states that `for iPhone to maintain its premium image, it has to keep pushing its technology forward especially in displays’, which is very true since user are always seeking to get more updated versions on their products.

Chip Expertise In-house

With the share of the Smartphone market falling, Apple it seems to be bringing in more chip expertise in-house heading in being a chip giant. Apple has already bought in a host of chip related companies which include PA Semi that designed and sold semi conductors and Intrinsity, a designer of ARM processor cores.

Both these chip companies have enabled Apple to move processor design expertise in-house, the result of which can be seen in cutting edge silicon like the 64 bit A7 which powers the iPhone 5S, iPad Mini Retina as well as iPad Air. According to business daily, it was reported that Apple expects to complete the stake purchase by summer and most of the unit’s 240 or more, employees in Japan are likely to stay on after the transfer that Apple is keen on completing in summer.

As Apple has relied on multiple suppliers for components, to gets all its iPhone liquid crystal display chips from Renesas SP and with image quality being a crucial thing for Smartphone, Apple probably would want to meld the design of core display components into an overall product development.

Apple acquired Israel based flash memory startup Anobit in 2012 and recently purchased PrimeSense, the 3D sensor company behind the Microsoft’s Kinect sensor. Apple’s share fell to 15.2% last year on global Smartphone shipments, with less than half of archrival Samsung with China’s Huawei along with other low cost competitors hot on its tail.

Microsoft Brings Office Suite to Apple’s iPad" For Free

Office Suite Version in Word/Excel/PowerPoint

It is reported that Microsoft will be bringing its Office Suite of products to the iPads driving the point home of its long rumored version of Microsoft Office for iPads which trailed the iPhone and Android versions of software by nine months with the software going live in the iOS App Store, very soon. The Office Suite version comes with Word, Excel and PowerPoint and is available only for iPads running and can create and edit files created in other versions of the software.

They also feature the same OneDrive integration as the Windows as well as mobile version; the tablet application seems to be more capable than the mobile versions. Microsoft states that the app will preserve the formatting and visual fidelity of documents which are created on other platforms. This application would be available at no cost, though it comes with some strings attached.

Users can download the application from the App Store without an Office 365 subscription wherein they can only view and read data files but not edit them. If the need to create, improve or edit documents, an Office 365 subscription would be needed which would cost around $100 a year, as related by Business Insider.

Empowering to be Productive Across all Devices

Office seems to be the most important product for Microsoft. Microsoft is taking the risk of making Office irrelevant and though it is a bit late, its decision could be right in deciding to bring Office to the iPad. Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella, states that Microsoft is willing to take risk and this move seemed important since it indicates a mindset change at Microsoft.

According to Microsoft, Office for the iPad does not seem to be an altered version of the Windows suite but made brand new for the iPad which appears to blend in smoothly on the iPad and according to Business Insider, Microsoft had invested in making the transition seamless. Microsoft has also stated that bringing Office to iPad was a way to empower people enabling them to be productive and work more across all devices.

Value Added Features

The Office for iPad in general retains some of the value added features which could be associated with Office inclusive of the ability in tracking changes and co-author documents. While tracking changes on its part does take up bulk of the Review menu in Word for iPad, it does seems to be well implemented and co-authoring support enables users to work on a document simultaneously.

Apple on its part is very much excited that the software is coming to its ecosystem. Apple spokesperson, Trudy Muller informed CNET in an email stating that they were excited that Office is coming to iPad mentioning that it was a new addition to its many existing productivity app already available for the tablet like iWork, Evernote and Paper by FiftyThree.

A Quiet update to Office Mobile for iPhone has also been issued by Microsoft and the version 1.1 of the software updates the application for iOS 7 eliminating the requirement of Office subscription. Moreover the viewing and editing of documents stored in OneDrive would be free to the user with Microsoft account irrespective of their subscription status.

My Passport Pro – Thunderbolt Powered Dual Drive Solution

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) Company and world leader in storage solution recently introduced My Passport Pro, one of the first portable Thunderbolt powered dual drive solution, enabling creative professionals as well as enthusiasts, high performance and capacity in mobile solution. With user selectable RAID functionality, for MAC system, it delivers the needed performance for the most demanding application without the power adapter or extra cable and is available in the capacities of 2 TB and 4 TB. The drive is suitable for graphics professional on the lookout for high performance or consumers in need of reliable mirroring.

Western Digital’s slim line Passport drive is a good option for portable back-ups and is fairly a conventional hard drives with capabilities of high speed storage. My Passport Pro includes a Thunderbolt interface with twin hard disk which by default come configured as RAID 0 (striping) for maximum performance. WD’s Drive Utilities software can also be used to change configuration to RAID 1 (mirroring) for extra data processing, plain old JBOD for disks and will be available on OS X desktop.

Reliable for Creative Work

My Passport Pro is quite reliable to get the creative work from the field back to the studio which is powered by integrated Thunderbolt cable for true portability with speed as high as 233 MB/s for most of the demanding applications. There is no USB 3.0/2.0 port as the USB would not provide sufficient power for two internal disks and it cannot be used with older pre Thunderbolt Macs. Executive Vice President of branded products and worldwide sales, WD, Jim Welsh, states that `the only Thunderbolt dual drive solution that’s bus powered, WD’s My Passport Pro enhances the workflow of mobile creative professionals by providing fast transfers and data protection for the large amounts of digital content generated outside the studio.

He further stated that `from photographers, videographers and musicians to graphic designers and architects, people depending on portable storage for their livelihood would find My Passport Pro defining a new level of performance, reliability, especially portability’.

My Passport Pro Enables Video Manipulation 

According to Jason Ziller, Intel’s Director of Thunderbolt Marketing, he states that by combining dual storage drives on a portable, bus powered device, the My Passport Pro from WD is a powerful storage solution with high capacity for prevailing demanding users’. Powered directly through the integrated Thunderbolt cable, a design unique to WD, besides providing super fast transfer, also has edit and backup capabilities.

Superior to both FireWire 800 and USB 3.0, the Thunderbolt integrated technology of My Passport Pro enables video manipulation which is quick and easy with the ability to copy a 22 GB high definition video file in half the time that is required by a USB 3.0 drive working in RAID 0 formats. My Passport Pro, consisting of two 2.5 inch hard drives is housed in a sleek aluminum enclosure and is thoroughly shock tested for extra durability for reliable performance when working on the go. It will be available immediately by Apple and other major consumer electronics retailers as well as etailers and the pricing for the 2TB My Passport Pro will be $299.99 while the 4TB will be $429.99 USD.