Amazing app will make language schools obsolete

New application to be launched later this year will be able to instantly translate phone conversations from one language into another with local accents

Scientists from the renowned Beijing University Language Laboratory (BULL) have developed a revolutionary application that can turn any iPhone into an instant colloquial interpretation device.

The ‘app’, to be marketed as ‘The Babel Breaker’ (pictured) utilises a complex algorithm that can not only instantly translate a conversation in real time from one language to another, but can also translate accents and local slang.

The algorithm took 20 man years of software development by the BULL scientists.

The person receiving the call hears it in a natural accent and dialect. For example, a French speaker could call someone in New Zealand and say “comment allez-vous” (how are you going?).It would be heard by the Kiwi listener as “Airgun mate.Orright?”.

Operators are said to be excited about the app as it could lead to increased voice revenues.

This is because the interpreted call is billed twice – once in the original language and once for the interpreted part of the conversation. Users pay for the servive through their iTunes account.

In an exclusive experimental telephone call to Mobile News on an iPhone using the app, BULL’s Head of Languages Professor Idhid Itmai-Wei, said: “We started work on this project two years ago and it knocks anything Google has dans un chapeau cornes.

“This app could be the greatest step towards world peace and understanding since the United Nations was established. Think of it. No more wars started just because the protagonists couldn’t understand each other properly. You could have Colonel Gadaffi calling William Hague in a Yorkshire accent. Russian President Dmitry Medved could call Obama who would hear ‘Hey Bro’ Wassup?”

The development team at BULL is doing final testing on the app, which will be released, towards the end of the year.

“We don’t want to rush this before it is 100 per cent accurate. You can imagine the damage that could ensue if unintentional insults were transmitted,”Professor Itmai-Wei added.

The final version will instantly process the world’s leading languages and dialects including English to French, German to South African, Chinese to Spanish, and Portuguese to Australian (or ‘Strine’).

Senior telecoms analyst Hugo Phurst of investment bank Norfolk ‘n Good, which has funded development said: “It’s an exciting project and has certainly got potential.We’ve had a beta version to evaluate en zo ver ze zijn indrukwekkend. La mesure o le systme a t absolument parfait.”

Motorola Mobility Redefines the Future of Mobile Computing With the Launch of Six New Android Mobile Devices in China

Motorola Android Mobile Device in China, Motorola XOOM in China, Motorola ATRIX ME860 in China, Motorola XT882 in China, Motorola MT870 in China, Motorola MT620 in China, Motorola XT316 in China, Motorola SHOP4APPS China

Motorola Mobility, Inc. today launched a diverse range of powerful mobile devices in China that redefine the future of mobile computing and make it possible for mobile devices to truly become the center of your digital life. The new products include:

Motorola XOOM, the world’s first dual-core tablet running Android 3.0 Honeycomb

Motorola ATRIX ME860, the world’s most powerful dual-core Android smartphone with webtop application

Motorola XT882, the most powerful dual-core, dual-mode, dual-standby Android smartphone available

Motorola MT870, a powerful dual-core, stylish TD-SCDMA 3G Android smartphone designed to give Chinese consumers the best mobile browsing experience

Motorola MT620, the first OPhone 3G smartphone offering both full QWERTY keyboard and 3.1” HVGA touchscreen

Motorola XT316, Android 2.2, with a 2.8” capacitive multi-touch display, full QWERTY keypad, and colorful interchangeable covers in a compact and stylish design

Motorola fuses innovative technology with a deep understanding of how people use mobile devices to develop unprecedented mobile computing experiences, empower cloud-based services and enable seamless access to content and applications from anywhere at any time. A powerful example of this approach is the Motorola ATRIX ME860, with Motorola’s new webtop application. While in the webtop application, you can simultaneously run Android applications, browse your favorite websites with a full Mozilla Firefox desktop browser, send instant messages and make phone calls. And with 1GHz dual-core devices like Motorola ATRIX ME860 and Motorola XOOM boasting unprecedented processing power, it’s now possible to do as much on a mobile device as you would on your PC.

“Motorola is bringing to market new, game-changing mobile devices that enable people to truly realize the dream of mobile computing,” said Bill Ogle, senior vice president and chief marketing officer, Motorola Mobility. “We are innovating across the board – not just in smartphones – as we revolutionize mobile computing with experiences like the webtop application that push the limits of what you thought was possible with your mobile device.”

“The rapid launch in China of amazing devices like the Motorola ATRIX ME860 and Motorola XOOM demonstrates the importance that Motorola places on our Chinese customers,” said Frank Meng, president of Greater China, Motorola Mobility. “With our vision for mobile computing and an unbeatable product portfolio, we will provide China’s highly mobile consumers with amazing experiences and an unmatched level of connectivity to the information they need on the go and at home. We’ll also establish a powerful engine for our future development in China.”

The new device lineup builds on an industry-leading portfolio that saw Motorola introduce over 20 Android smartphones in China in 2010 and deliver even more flexible mobile experiences for work, home and play. To enable you to get the most out of your mobile devices, Motorola SHOP4APPS China, Motorola’s own application storefront for smartphone users in China, is included on selected devices. Motorola SHOP4APPS China makes it easy to discover, download and enjoy over 1,800 free and paid localized smartphone applications, transforming your device into a true entertainment and productivity center and extending its capabilities in entirely new ways. In addition, Motorola SHOP4APPS now offers the top applications developed for Honeycomb-enabled devices like Motorola XOOM, and will soon include tablet-optimized versions of your favorite smartphone applications.

Sony Ericsson Xperia Play UK Release Delay Confirmed

Those over here in the United Kingdom who are waiting for tomorrow so they can rush out and grab the first PlayStation phone, the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play are in for a little disappointment as apparently the release of the Xperia Play in the UK has been delayed.

According to an article over on Slash Gear, Sony Ericsson has confirmed there will be a delay in releasing the Android 2.3 Gingerbread Xperia Play with some vendors apparently due to delivery problems and sent out this statement…

“We can confirm that the Xperia™ PLAY handsets are still planned to launch in the UK for 1st April, as originally communicated. However, as of today, we have experienced a freight issue that may impact the number of Xperia™ PLAYs arriving at some retail outlets. This said, consumers can purchase Xperia™ PLAY as of April 1st at a number of stores across the UK.”

The guys were also contacted by Vodafone UK with a statement that says the delay with the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play has nothing to do with the software issues as mentioned by O2 UK…

“Sony Ericsson has advised us that it will not be able to supply the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play and Arc devices to meet their original launch date of 1 April. Unfortunately, this means there will be a small delay before pre-order customers receive their orders and the device is made available for sale in our shops.

We’re working closely with Sony Ericsson to ensure our customers’ phones are delivered as soon as possible and we will contact people directly with specific timescales when we know more.”

So there it is, anyone hoping to grab the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play on April Fools Day may find themselves a tad disappointed but if its only a delivery problem surely it shouldn’t take that long to sort out.

Sn0wbreeze Beta Video: iPhone 3GS Untethered Jailbreak on iOS 4.3.1

If you own the Apple iPhone 3GS you will be happy to know that it can now run the Untethered Jailbreak on iOS 4.3.1 and to do this you need the new Sn0wbreeze Beta jailbreak tool.

The new Windows jailbreak tool aka Sn0wbreeze has been updated to give a tethered jailbreak on iOS 4.3.1 and iDB mentioned the new release beta a few days ago and some of you have already been successful jailbreaking your iPhone on 4.3.1.

iDB do recommend holding off on iOS 4.3.1 until an untethered solution is released from the Dev Team because the Sn0wbreeze beta is a tethered jailbreak, but to their surprise one of their readers called Ryan (ryandodge) sent in a video (Shown below courtesy of YouTube) of his iPhone 3GS running an untethered jailbreak after using the latest Sn0wbreeze 2.4b1.

Ryan did say:

“Don’t quote me, but mine is. I don’t know how, or why. I had to restore it really weird, because my Power button is broken, and I had to restore to a custom, hacked 3.1.3 firmware to cause it to enter DFU Mode. Then, I used that DFU Mode to restore to my cooked Sn0wbreeze 4.3.1 firmware. So, when I installed WinterBoard, and my phone restarted, I expected to have to do some cooky thing to make Cydia work, but… it just worked. I can make a video if I must.”

If you watch the video below it does show that his iPhone 3GS is running Cydia 1.1 untethered after using the Sn0wbreeze 2.4b1 jailbreak.

Please let us know what you think of the video provided below, is this something you would do or have you already tried it out?

AT&T, T-Mobile USA Merger will see Job and Market Losses

If you are of the ilk that the proposed merger of AT&T and T-Mobile USA if it is given approval by the powers that be, wont deliver any bad side, think again as the word is the merger would create job losses and market losses.

According to an article over on Phandroid, the chief exec of AT&T Randall Stephenson has spoken to the Wall Street Journal saying, “We anticipate there will be some markets we will have to divest.”

Although the exec couldn’t say which markets would be affected by the merger, and dismissed the notion that the merger if it goes ahead would be bad for competition… “This industry is anything but a duopoly. The industry is intensely competitive now, and will be intensely competitive after the deal.”

Another roll on effect should the acquisition of T-Mobile be given the official go ahead is that some employees will be left without a job, which apparently is a common side affect of a merger, although there’s no word on just how many employees would lose their employment.

We’d like to hear from our readers and what they feel about the proposed merger of AT&T and T-Mobile USA, do you think it is a good move or bad, will AT&T becoming bigger be bad or good for competition in your view?

States Attorney Concerns over the AT&T, T-Mobile deal video for your viewing pleasure below so feel free to check it out.

Google Pulls Popular Playstation Emulator Ahead of Xperia Play Release

Noted developer ZodTTD, best known for developing the popular PSX4Droid Sony Playstation emulator for Android has taken to Twitter to announce that Google has pulled the application from the Android Market, eight months after being first approved and released. The timing for the removal is coincidental, as the Xperia Play from Sony Ericsson is expected to be released in the middle of April from Verizon Wireless in the US and later in the month in Europe.

Strangely, other similar emulators have so far been left alone, with Google releasing a cryptic statement on the situation:
"We remove apps from Android Market that violate our policies."

As the Xperia Play will be preloaded with Sony’s Playstation Pocket emulator with support for the forthcoming Playstation Suite in the future, the move is seen as one instigated by Sony, with Google  complying with the request, raising dubious questions regarding the “open nature” of the market . Also, since the emulator was never officially licensed, the policy violation is clear, but does not explain why it took eight months for it to be removed or was even approved for distribution in the first place without proper licensing.

Another explanation may center on the idea that PSX4Droid and other such emulators were tacitly approved by Google and convinced the search giant to pursue an arrangement with Sony to develop a gaming platform to counter Apple’s increasing dominance in the mobile gaming space. Meanwhile, the developer of PSX4Droid is currently investigating third-party alternatives for distribution as work was being conducted on an update to improve graphics performance, ironically in light of the forthcoming launch of new Android smartphones with newer graphics processors, such as the aforementioned Xperia Play.

Twitter Kills The #Dickbar

Yes, it’s happened. Days after Jack Dorsey comes in to head product, the dreaded #Dickbar, or the Quickbar that inserted ads into your tweet-stream on the iPad and iPhone, is dead. While Twitter had taken the step to pin it to the top of the app weeks ago, today it’s decided to do away with it altogether.

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