iPhone ews

ManageEngine Launches A Siri-Style App For The Help Desk

ManageEngine has launched the ServiceDesk Plus iPhone app that incorporates voice-recognition technology for IT professionals so they can make commands, dictate notes and do any number of other tasks that come with managing a help desk.

The app uses Nuance Nina, a virtual assistant, to dictate, edit, reply, assign/reassign and close tickets. The app also has touch-screen capabilities to:

• Create new tickets, categorize, and edit request details
• Assign/pick up requests
• Reply to users with resolution and close tickets from the app
• Track time spent on tickets via Worklog
• Perform searches based on subject, requester or priority
• Customize the request view
• Track the time spent on tickets using Worklog
• Update the status of the requests

The app is designed for IT professionals who spend a good part of their time on their feet, fixing problems for people around the office. But while away from their desks, they still have to do everything through the help desk, the anchor of any enterprise shop. The goal is to help IT be more productive. Instead of stopping to use the laptop or peck away on an iPhone, a technician can instead use their voice to do the work that needs to get done.

According to Opus Research, Nuance has invested heavily in voice-recognition technology, making customer service apps like ServicePlus more viable.

Dan Miller of Opus writes:

At Nuance’s Customer Experience Summit held in Orlando in early December, Doug Sharp, VP of Enterprise Engineering, noted that the company has 135 engineers “dedicated to some aspect of language understanding.” His point is that the statistical language models (SLMs) that are necessary for accurate automated speech recognition are only the beginning of what comprises a natural, multi-modal, mixed initiative user interface. Much of the heavy lifting now is taking place along a continuum that spans machine learning, data driven discovery in new or evolving domains and mining the intranet and social networks to bring continuous improvement an engine’s ability to understand meaning and provide new kinds of assistance.

My colleagues have their doubts, pointing to the issues with using simple voice-recognition to issue commands for driving places as an example:

@alexwilliams Voice recognition tech can barely understand I want to drive to my own home

— Brian McClain (@BrianMMcClain) February 21, 2013

But with the learning capabilities that come with Nuance, I am more confident that this ManageEngine app will be usable. It is designed for a specific task, not the open-ended commands that come with consumer-style applications.

Indie Mobile Devs Get A Leg Up With New Cross-Promotion Service From Chartboost, Execution Labs

Execution Labs, a Montreal-based gaming incubator, is teaming up with mobile game advertising and monetization startup Chartboost to create a new matchmaking program that will help indie game developers promote each others’ work.

It would allow smaller developers to tap into cross-promotion, a strategy that has helped bigger game developers hold on to their millions of players as they get shuttled from one game title to the next. Big game developers like Zynga and Rovio routinely promote their new games in old titles. That makes it much cheaper for them to get millions of users for a new title.

At the same time, it’s become harder than ever for brand-new game developers to break in. Yesterday, a Distimo report showed that just 2 percent of the top 250 publishers in the iPhone App Store were “newcomers.” Android is not much better with just 3 percent qualifying as “newcomers” in the Android app store, Google Play.

It’s a classic shift you see on software platforms, as early movers take advantage of lower marketing costs to gain reach and crowd out latecomers.

Execution Labs is calling this matchmaking service the “Lab Partners” program. It will help indie mobile game developers find similar developers with whom they can set up advertising trades. They’ll be able to search for other games by platform and genre to see potential partners. So if a player enters one developer’s game, they’ll see ads for another studio’s similar titles.

The service is free and is powered by Chartboost’s Direct Deals platform. Chartboost was founded by some former Tapulous employees and started off by facilitating direct advertising trades between mid- and large-size mobile developers.

Over time, that grew into a gaming-centric mobile advertising network that now involves about 12,000 titles. The company’s revenues grew fast enough that the startup attracted a $19 million round led by Sequoia Capital earlier this year.

Now Chartboost is envisioning itself as a business engine for games. While the company hasn’t shared its product roadmap for the coming year, it wouldn’t be hard to imagine it building out tools for retention and monetization later.

As for Execution Labs, it’s a Montreal-based incubator backed by BDC Venture Capital, Real Ventures and White Star Capital.

Ubuntu Touch Developer Preview and SDK Alpha Released (video)

Today Ubuntu has released their new Ubuntu Touch Developer Preview and SDK Alpha, which includes the full source code and images for supported devices, that includes the Galaxy Nexus, Nexus 4, Nexus 7 and Nexus 10 tablets.

The latest Ubuntu Touch preview has been created for developers and enthusiasts to put through its paces as the Ubuntu Touch Developer Preview is currently work in progress, says Ubuntu. Watch the video after the jump to see Ubuntu Touch in action.

Canon MREAL Mixed Reality Headset Launching For $125,000 (video)

Canon has this week announced that their new Canon MREAL mixed reality headset will be launching on March 1st 2013 priced at $125,000.

The Canon MREAL mixed reality headset consists of a head-mounted display HM-A1, powered by MR Platform Software MP-100, and has been designed to create the illusion that computer generated visual effects exist in the real world.

When the Weather Goes To Hail, Protect Your Ride With This Giant Airbag

If you’ve never experienced serious hail—we’re talking golf-ball-sized chunks of ice (or larger) raining down on you—consider yourself lucky. It can do serious damage to your property, your home, and unless it’s wrapped in this gigantic external airbag, your car.

When the weather is fair, the Hail Protector looks like your run-of-the-mill car tarp that’s protecting your vehicle from scratches, bird bombs, and the sun’s rays. But when the weather turns nasty, using an included remote it can be inflated in about five minutes to protect your car from chunks of hail, even as large as softballs its creators claim.

And so you don’t have to keep your eye on the weather 24/7, there’s even an accompanying mobile app you can download that will warn you of impending storm and hail conditions an hour before they strike so you can ensure your ride is protected. If it saves you from having to replace a windshield or having a dent removed, the $300 to $400 price tag is a relatively cheap way to avoid a hefty repair bill. [Hail Storm Products via Gizmag]

Lay Waste To Wireless Networks With This Hacktastic Nexus 7

Tablets are great for slouching on the sofa and checking your Facebook, but they can also be super sleek hack-machines. Take the new Pwnie Express Pwn Pad as an example; it’s a fully-loaded hacker suite designed to puncture any network.

Built from a Nexus 7, the Pwn Pad obviously makes use of Google Android OS, but also has Ubuntu 12.04 tucked away inside to handle some of the more complex software built in. And that’s not the only addition to the tablet’s arsenal either; it also comes with a TP-Link wireless adapter to support packet injection at a far higher range than the Nexus 7’s meager little wireless chip could do on its own.

Positioned as a tool for a serious security professional—a tool that could go so far as to replace a laptop in the field—the Pwn Pad doesn’t come cheap. You can expect to pay a cool $795 for one when they ship in early April. And, even with that price tag, Pwn Pads don’t really offer any additional functionality or software than a standard penetration-testing laptop doesn’t have, but damned if it isn’t slick as hell. And though it’d make for a fun toy for any script kiddies out there, they’d have to save up an awful lot of allowance before they could afford it. This is definitely a professional device. For awesome professionals. [Pwfnie Express via Wired]

Apple Working With NYPD to Track Stolen iPhones

Apple is working with the New York City Police Department to locate stolen iPhones and iPads, a radical change from the hands-off approach that the company employed previously. The NYPD estimated that the theft of Apple products accounted for a significant rise in crime in the Big Apple, with more than 3,890 reported thefts of Apple products in 2012.

Reports The New York Post:

Every time an Apple device is stolen, detectives attempt to get tracking numbers from the victim or online records.

That number, known as the International Mobile Station Equipment Identity, is then shared with the officers in Police Headquarters who pass it on to Apple.

The California-based company then informs the NYPD of the device’s current location - and it can track it even if it was reregistered with a different wireless provider.

Apple has been criticized in the past for not having a centralized database of stolen devices and for even repairing or replacing stolen units under warranty. It isn’t yet known if this is a new program that any police department can use, or if it is only applicable to the NYPD.

Google Glass Can Use iPhone’s Data Connection Via Bluetooth

The Verge’s Joshua Topolsky has written a lengthy piece about his experiences using Google Glass, the company’s new on-face computer.

Google Glass is a tiny computer that mounts to an eyeglass frame and has a small display that is visible only to the user. The wearable device has a built-in camera that sees what the wearer sees, GPS, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth connections. The glasses can handle many of the same tasks as smartphones, including giving driving directions, sending text messages, showing weather reports and more.

Some potential purchasers were concerned that Glass would only be compatible with Google’s Android smartphone operating system, but it appears the device will be able to tether to any smartphone via Bluetooth. Topolsky writes:

The device gets data through Wi-Fi on its own, or it can tether via Bluetooth to an Android device or iPhone and use its 3G or 4G data while out and about. There’s no cellular radio in Glass, but it does have a GPS chip.

Google hopes to put Glass on sale sometime before the end of the year for less than $1,500.

Big Music Says Google Isn’t Cracking Down on Pirate Sites, After All

Six months ago, in the wake of the SOPA/PIPA debate, Google made a peace offering to the Big Media companies: It said it would try to make pirate sites harder to find in its search results.

That’s not happening, says the group that represents the big music labels. A new report from the Recording Industry Association of America says it’s as easy as ever to find links to pirate sites via Google search, and that it’s often easier than finding it from approved outlets like Spotify or iTunes: “We have found no evidence that Google’s policy has had a demonstrable impact on demoting sites with large amounts of piracy.”

You can see the full report below; I’ve asked Google for a response. In the meantime, note that Google’s initial offer never made any ironclad promises about stamping out piracy, or even booting pirate sites from its results: “Sites with high numbers of removal notices may appear lower in our results. This ranking change should help users find legitimate, quality sources of content more easily…” (emphasis added).

Update: Here’s the Google response:

“We have invested heavily in copyright tools for content owners and process takedown notices faster than ever. In the last month we received more than 14 million copyright removal requests for Google Search, quickly removing more than 97% from search results. In addition, Google’s growing partnerships and distribution deals with the content industry benefit both creators and users, and generate hundreds of millions of dollars for the industry each year.”

Google report card 2013 final _1_

Via Licensing Adds Two More to LTE Patent Pool, but Big Names Still Missing

Patent firm Via Licensing is announcing Thursday that two more companies — China Mobile and Deutsche Telekom — have agreed to contribute their LTE intellectual property to a patent-licensing pool.

The company’s strategy is to gather enough intellectual property around LTE in one pool that device makers can go to to license technology for their products.

However, many big names — and important LTE patent holders — still aren’t on the list. Some key holders, folks such as Ericsson and Qualcomm, are unlikely to join, since licensing is an integral part of their business.

But Via hopes to get enough of the rest of the big patent holders to make its pool attractive to device makers.

Via won’t say if any companies have actually yet licensed the patents.

Although China Mobile and Deutsche Telekom aren’t seen as among the top holders of LTE-related patents, Via hopes they could inspire others to sign up.

Via Licensing CEO Roger Ross said that he is hopeful that companies such as Huawei, LG or Apple might decide to join the patent-licensing pool.

“I don’t want to be overly optimistic,” he said, but added, “I think we are going to get some of those very large patent holders.”