Tag: tech news

Skype and Microsoft Research collaboration has resulted in major technological advancement in telecommunication.

Microsoft has recently made technology news by revealing a new translation service for the freemium VoIP (voice over IP) and messaging app Skype, which has the ability to identify spoken words and translate these words into a different language and, in almost real-time, speak back the translation.

After 15 years of research Microsoft intends to launch the new service by the end of the year.

Presently, Skype has an estimated 300 million monthly users who utilize its service via smartphones, tablets, computers and television. At the end of 2014, Skype Translator will be available for Windows 8. However, Microsoft also has the intention to make it available to other operating platforms in the future.

Skype’s corporate vice president, Gurdeep Singh Pall, said “Skype has always been about breaking down barriers. And the language barrier is huge. It has been a blocker to productivity and human connection.” He went on to say that “Skype Translator helps us overcome this barrier. It’s going to make sure you can communicate with anyone without language barriers.”

The technology was demonstrated by Pall in California at the Code conference. He held a three minute conversation with one of his German colleagues via a Skype video call. Pall spoke in English and his words were translated into German while his colleague spoke in German and Pall and the audience heard the German to English translation in almost real-time.

There were a few mistakes during the conversation, but these were extremely minor compared to those that occurred when the service was first demonstrated two years ago, translating English to Chinese. This shows the technological improvements that have been made in such a short time.

Microsoft’s technology news could preserve Skype’s competitive edge.

Skype was acquired by Microsoft back in 2011 for $85 billion. Globally, Skype continues to be the most used video and voice chat. However, it has a lot of competition from other popular messaging services like WhatsApp, FaceTime and Hangouts. The translation feature could be what allows Skype to keep a leg up over its competitors.

It is likely that there will be more Skype-related technology news in the future as more advancement are made and because Microsoft has yet to announce if the new translator service will be free or not.

This is the case, regardless of the fact that the more beloved devices are cost prohibitive in those regions.

According to a recent technology news report, the trend of people always wanting what they can’t have continues even in the mobile world, as research is showing that emerging markets still prefer iPhones over Samsung devices, despite the fact that they cannot afford them.

A recent study showed that Apple is the smartphone brand that is the most desirable among residents in emerging markets.

The research making this technology news was published in a report from Upstream based on a study conducted by the Ovum research firm. Within the study, which was conducted in 2014, it was revealed that Apple managed to edge out Samsung Electronics when it came to the appeal of their smartphone mobile devices. This was also interesting as another recent survey that was conducted by Upstream in 2013 showed that Samsung had been a solid leader.

Part of the explanation of this technology news was that Samsung saw a small drop in its favor among those consumers.

The brand’s appeal to consumers in the developing market fell from 32 percent to 29 percent between the last survey and the current one, said Upstream. While this isn’t a tremendous drop, when it is combined with the dramatic jump experienced by Apple in terms of its appeal in those regions, it made all the difference. Apple had previously been preferred only by 21 percent.

Some analysts are crediting Apple’s growth in appeal to the release of the iPhone 5C, which was designed specifically to be a lower cost device. This helped to make these mobile devices more accessible to consumers within emerging markets and allowed the brand to climb up to the front and center point in terms of draw within these marketplaces.

This technology news also suggests that the added marketing efforts that Apple has made in those countries in order to sell the iPhone 5C have had the desired impact. This, despite the fact that even that less expensive device remains too expensive for consumers in those countries.