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ABBYY goes online: KMWorld

January 17, 2011 By Global EDD Group Leave a Comment

ABBYY has announced ABBYY Online, a cloud solution to provide 24/7 access to document management, data capture and linguistic solutions to users located anywhere in the world.

The company says ABBYY Online currently offers the following elements:

FineReader Online OCR and document conversion. This service converts scanned or photographed images of documents (e.g. JPG, TIFF, DjVu and others) and PDF files into DOC, RTF, XLS, searchable PDF and TXT formats. The solution accurately reads texts in 37 languages including Latin, Cyrillic, Armenian and Greek characters and supports formatting and recognition of multilingual and multi-page files.

Lingvo Online Dictionary. The company offers updated and expanded dictionary databases with enhanced word look-up technology supporting English, French, German, Italian, Latin, Russian, Spanish and Ukrainian as the starting languages.

Translation and Interpreting with ABBYY Language Services. Users can quickly submit text of any length for professional translation.

Aligner Online. The service finds matching segments in source and translated texts in 10 European languages: English, German, French, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Turkish, and Ukrainian. It allows uploading files up to 1 MB each and provides export of up to 50 rows of the aligned text into RTF or TMX (Translation Memory databases format) files.

via ABBYY goes online: KMWorld.

Filed Under: Tech Bytes Tagged With: access, KMWorld, PDF, text, translation

California’s top court backs cell-phone searches – Computerworld

January 4, 2011 By Global EDD Group Leave a Comment

The California Supreme Court has ruled that police don’t need a warrant to search the text messages on a cell phone being carried by a suspect.

The 5-2 decision in People versus Gregory Diaz, released Monday, affirmed an appeals court decision in a case involving an arrest for alleged drug dealing in 2007. Diaz, the defendant in that case, had appealed his conviction on the basis that the search violated the U.S. Constitution’s protection against unreasonable search and seizure.

Diaz was arrested in 2007 on suspicion of conspiring to sell the drug Ecstasy to a police informant. When he was arrested, police found six tabs of Ecstasy and a cell phone on his person. Going through the sent text messages that were still stored on the phone, the police found the message “6 4 80,” which a Ventura County deputy sheriff interpreted as a proposal to sell six tabs of Ecstasy for US$80. When confronted with this evidence, Diaz admitted participating in the drug sale.

The majority opinion, written by Justice Ming Chin, cited precedents from the U.S. Supreme Court, saying the contents of a cell phone are like the contents of clothing or a cigarette pack found on a suspect’s person. The U.S. Supreme Court has found that those types of searches do not require a warrant under the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, the court said.

via California’s top court backs cell-phone searches – Computerworld.

Filed Under: From The News Tagged With: person, phone, text, unreasonable search and seizure, Warrant

Smarter Than You Think – When Computers Keep Watch – NYTimes.com

January 3, 2011 By Global EDD Group Leave a Comment

Perched above the prison yard, five cameras tracked the play-acting prisoners, and artificial-intelligence software analyzed the images to recognize faces, gestures and patterns of group behavior. When two groups of inmates moved toward each other, the experimental computer system sent an alert — a text message — to a corrections officer that warned of a potential incident and gave the location.

The computers cannot do anything more than officers who constantly watch surveillance monitors under ideal conditions. But in practice, officers are often distracted. When shifts change, an observation that is worth passing along may be forgotten. But machines do not blink or forget. They are tireless assistants.

The enthusiasm for such systems extends well beyond the nation’s prisons. High-resolution, low-cost cameras are proliferating, found in products like smartphones and laptop computers. The cost of storing images is dropping, and new software algorithms for mining, matching and scrutinizing the flood of visual data are progressing swiftly.

A computer-vision system can watch a hospital room and remind doctors and nurses to wash their hands, or warn of restless patients who are in danger of falling out of bed. It can, through a computer-equipped mirror, read a man’s face to detect his heart rate and other vital signs. It can analyze a woman’s expressions as she watches a movie trailer or shops online, and help marketers tailor their offerings accordingly. Computer vision can also be used at shopping malls, schoolyards, subway platforms, office complexes and stadiums.

All of which could be helpful — or alarming.

“Machines will definitely be able to observe us and understand us better,” said Hartmut Neven, a computer scientist and vision expert at Google. “Where that leads is uncertain.”

via Smarter Than You Think – When Computers Keep Watch – NYTimes.com.

Filed Under: Tech Bytes Tagged With: Alert, com, text, vision, yard

Some cool Android tips and tricks | Official Google Blog

December 21, 2010 By Global EDD Group Leave a Comment

Tips

Visual cue for scrolling: When you are in a scrollable list (like your Gmail inbox) and you reach the end of the list it shows an orange hue—a visual cue that you can’t scroll anymore.

Notification bar icons (Wi-Fi, network coverage bars, etc.): Turn green when you have an uninhibited connection to Google, white when you don’t. Hint: if you’re in a hotel or airport using Wi-Fi, the bars won’t turn green until you launch the browser and get past the captive portal.

Voice actions: Tell your phone what to do by pressing the microphone icon next to the search box on the home screen, or long press the magnifying glass. You can tell it to send an email or text message (“send text to mom, see you for pizza at 7”), call someone (“call mom”), navigate somewhere (“navigate to pizza”), or listen to music (“listen to Mamma Mia”).

Find things you’ve downloaded from your browser: Your downloads are now neatly collected in a Downloads manager, which you can find in the apps drawer.

Turn a Gallery stack into a slideshow: In Gallery, when you are looking at a stack of photos, put two fingers on the stack and spread them. The stack spreads out and the pictures flow from one finger to the other, a moving slideshow that lets you see all of the photos.

Walk, don’t drive: Once you’ve gotten directions within Google Maps, click on the walking person icon to get walking directions.

Easy text copy/paste from a webpage: To copy/paste from a webpage, long press some text, drag the handles around to select the text you want to copy, and press somewhere in the highlighted region. To paste, simply long press a text entry box and select paste. Gmail is a bit different: you need to go to Menu > More > Select Text.

Turn your phone into a Wi-Fi hotspot: Go to Settings > Wireless & Networks > Tethering & Portable Hotspot. (You may have to pay extra for this feature.)

Look at Maps in 3D: With the latest release of Google Maps, you can now look at 3D maps. Tilt the map by sliding two fingers vertically up/down the screen, and rotate it by placing two fingers on the map and sliding in a circular motion, e.g., from 12 and 6 o’clock to 3 and 9.

Cool shutdown effect: When you put the phone to sleep, you’ll see an animation that resembles an old cathode tube TV turning off.

Keyboard tricks

Shift+Key to capitalize a word: In Gingerbread (and supported hardware), you can Shift+Key to capitalize a letter instead of going to a separate all caps keyboard.

Auto-complete: The space bar lights up when auto-complete can finish a word.

Quick replace: Tap on any previously typed word, then tap on a suggestion to automatically replace it with the suggested word.

Easy access to special characters (like numbers, punctuation): Press and hold any key to go to the special character keyboard. You can also press and hold the “,” key for an extensive punctuation keyboard.

Applications

Angry Birds: Popular game that lets you knock down blocks by slingshotting birds.

Astro: Awesome file explorer app. Browse and access the directories on your phone, and take full advantage of its capabilities. Great if you’re a power user.

Chrome to Phone: This one is really useful for Chrome users. You can send anything you browse on your computer to your phone. So if you are heading out to a restaurant or party and look up directions on your computer, just click the “send to phone” button (requires Chrome to Phone extension) and that exact page will open on your phone. Same with virtually any webpage.

Flash: Install from Android Market to watch Flash videos embedded throughout the web. Runs even better on Gingerbread.

Fruit Ninja: A juicy action game that tests your ability to smash flying fruit. A fun time-killer on the bus or train.

FXCamera: Popular photo sharing app with slick effects and filters.

Google Maps: Use your device as a GPS navigation system with free turn-by-turn voice guidance, and take advantage of other Google Maps features like Street View, Latitude and Places.

Instant Heart Rate: Measure your heart rate using your camera.

Phoneanlyzr: Track your phone usage: who you text most, call most, average call length distribution, etc.

RemoteDroid: Control your computer from your phone. Gives you a mobile wireless mouse and keyboard. Great if you’re using your computer for music or movies.

Shazam: Identifies virtually any song you are listening to.

SoundHound: Record a snippet of a song and get it identified instantly. You can even hum (if you can carry a tune!).

Tango: A free, high-quality video call app that works on both 3G and Wi-Fi. If your device has a front facing camera (e.g., Nexus S), you will love this app.

YouTube: New UI. Plus, portrait-mode player, and view comments and drop-down box video information

Posted by Jonathan Rosenberg, Senior Vice President, Product Management

via Official Google Blog: Some cool Android tips and tricks.

Filed Under: Tech Bytes Tagged With: app, call, computer, google maps, microphone icon, phone, text

When one translation just isn’t enough – Google Translate Blog

December 16, 2010 By Global EDD Group Leave a Comment

When you come to Google Translate, we always do our best to give you the most accurate translation our system can produce. However, sometimes translation can be pretty tough. Language is full of ambiguities and our system has to do its best to make the right choices. So why choose?

We’ve launched a new feature to provide you with alternate translations for each phrase in the translated text. Just click the translated phrase and you’ll see a pop-up menu of possible alternates for that phrase, as well as the original phrase highlighted in your original text. Not only can these alternative translations give you a better understanding of a confusing translation, but they also allow you to help Google choose the best alternative when we make a mistake.

This new feature is powered by harnessing the vast knowledge within our statistical machine translation system. Typically, when we produce a translation, our system searches through millions of possible translations, selecting the best — that is, the most statistically likely — translation. With this feature, we expose more of those possible alternatives. For more information about how our system works, check out http://translate.google.com/about/.

By using this feature, you can help improve Google Translate. Selecting phrase-level alternatives gives us feedback that fits well within the our system’s statistical models. We hope to incorporate this structured feedback into our system, improving translation quality over time.

We hope this makes our translations even more useful to you, and allows you to help us help you find the best translation possible!

via When one translation just isn’t enough – Google Translate Blog.

Filed Under: Tech Bytes Tagged With: Alternative, isn, menu, text, translation, translation quality

Mobile Enterprise: Prevent Identity Theft and Wire Tapping

December 1, 2010 By Global EDD Group Leave a Comment

Don’t Lose Your Identity

Have you be smished lately? What about vished? No, these aren’t games, but new terms the FBI is using to classify mobile phone threat variations of phishing. Smishing uses SMS texts to initiate the scam, while vishing uses automated phone calls.

Methods for identity theft are ever-evolving, ordinarily we’d proceed as usual, but because many mobile users are novices in regard to computer security threats, many are simply unaware that they are at risk when they respond to text and audio phishing on their mobiles.

Smishing attempts can take the form of text messages and voice messages, which come to your phone displaying messages like “We’re confirming you’ve parcel delivery”, “Your account status as been changed or ABC credit card is confirming your purchase.” Unaware users may be given a phone number to call or a website to log onto to provide account credentials to remedy the issue. The user may also be directed to a spoofed website, designed to mislead a user into providing personal information, which is in turn routed to the scammer’s computer.

So what can you do to protect yourself? The FBI recommends the following:

Do not respond to text messages or automated voice messages from unknown or blocked numbers.

Do not respond to unsolicited (spam) email.

Do not click on links contained within an unsolicited email.

Only open attachments from known senders. Avoid filling out forms contained in email messages that ask for personal information.

Contact the actual business that supposedly sent the email to verify if the email is genuine.

Verify any requests for personal information from any business or financial institution by contacting them using the main contact information.

via Mobile Enterprise: Prevent Identity Theft and Wire Tapping.

Filed Under: Tech Bytes Tagged With: computer, email messages, information, phone, text, voice

FCC Updating 911 for the Texting Generation, SRSLY | Epicenter | Wired.com

November 23, 2010 By Global EDD Group Leave a Comment

In a bid to bring the life-saving emergency service 911 into the 21st century, the FCC is looking at letting citizens report crimes through text messages and even stream video from their mobile phones to emergency centers.

Established as a national standard in 1968, 911 handles more than 230 million calls a year — 70 percent of which now come from mobile phones.

The last real overhaul of 911 by the FCC came in 2001, when mobile carriers were required to allow 911 to identify the location of callers either through GPS or cell-tower data. In the middle of the decade, some internet telephony companies were also required to implement 911 calling that would route emergency calls to the appropriate local center — a non-trivial task given the mobility of laptops and equipment using voice-over-internet protocol (VOIP).

But the 911 system still can’t handle text messages, multimedia messages or streaming video, all of which could be very helpful to first responders. A system that could handle those messages would also allow people to report crimes without being overheard, which could be useful in situations ranging from kidnapping to seeing someone being robbed on the street.

In a press release announcing Tuesday’s changes, the FCC pointed to the now-infamous shooting rampage at Virginia Tech as an example of how a more modern system could be useful.

“The technological limitations of 9-1-1 can have tragic, real-world consequences,” the release said. “During the 2007 Virginia Tech campus shooting, students and witnesses desperately tried to send texts to 9-1-1 that local dispatchers never received. If these messages had gone through, first responders may have arrived on the scene faster with firsthand intelligence about the life-threatening situation that was unfolding.”

via FCC Updating 911 for the Texting Generation, SRSLY | Epicenter | Wired.com.

Filed Under: Tech Bytes Tagged With: com, emergency, text, Voice over Internet Protocol, voice over internet protocol voip, Wired

Mobile Enterprise: Using your Smartphone to Pay, Google Enabled Print Ads

November 18, 2010 By Global EDD Group Leave a Comment

Accepting Cash, Credit & Mobile

It’s been awhile since your phone was just a phone. The proliferation of smartphones has turned phones into mobile devices fit for the most savvy multi-taskers. We can read, text, play games, watch videos and oh yeah, make a phone call. Soon our mobile devices will become credit cards, meaning we can soon say goodbye to the Constanza wallet.

Google’s new Android operating system plans to work with a new chip so that users can tap their phones on in-store terminals to pay for purchases. But Google wasn’t the only one making news. Recently, three major US wireless carriers announced they were launching a joint venture to allow customers to pay for goods and services with their handsets.

Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile USA plan to cover 220 million customers through a venture called Isis Mobile Commerce Network. Expected by mid-2012, Isis will use a Near-Field Communication (NFC) chip that will enable secure wireless data communications over a distance of up to 4 inches, securely transmitting data from the phone to the retail outlet.

Through Isis, digital wallets aim to make it possible to fundamentally change how you shop, pay and save. Without having to carry and keep track of cash, credit and debit cards, reward cards, coupons, tickets and transit passes, the digital wallet will ce

via Mobile Enterprise: Using your Smartphone to Pay, Google Enabled Print Ads.

Filed Under: Tech Bytes Tagged With: chip, Enabled, phone, proliferation, text

Google Voice for iPhone | Official Google Blog

November 16, 2010 By Global EDD Group Leave a Comment

: Image via Wikipedia

Earlier this year we launched a Google Voice HTML5 web app for iPhone users. Today we’re taking the Google Voice experience on the iPhone to a whole new level with the launch of the official Google Voice for iPhone app.

With this native app, you’ll continue to have access to all the major Google Voice features on your iPhone, like:

Cheap rates for international calls
Free text messaging to U.S. numbers
Voicemail transcription
Display your Google Voice number as caller ID when making calls

In addition to these benefits, the app provides some features that make using Google Voice on your iPhone a much better experience:

With push notifications, the app will alert you instantly when you receive a new voicemail or text message
Most of your calls will be placed via Direct Access Numbers, making them connect just as quickly as regular phone calls

via Official Google Blog: Google Voice for iPhone.

Filed Under: Tech Bytes Tagged With: app, Google, iphone, native app, text, voice, voice number, Web, wikipedia

Audio files are challenges for computer forensics and e-Discovery

November 14, 2010 By Global EDD Group Leave a Comment

Unified Communications is the term used for the integration of all communications – data and voice communications – via the Internet. This can include data in its myriad forms, such as email, instant messaging, faxes, data generated by business computer applications and text messaging. But the main sources include voice over the network sent avenues or stored digital devices such as VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), voice mail, audio, video, Web conferencing, white boards, and. Wav files. SuchIntegrated communications can save money from its operating budget.

Savings arising from, among other expenses, the abolition of fees for long distance calls when using VoIP, by dispensing with the need to travel to meetings if they can be held in a virtual environment, or travel to distant classes when a teacher or a team can help with a plaque from different physical locations. Savings, as they hit the 26% of the companies that they have introduced benefit. But if litigation requiresIdentifiable data. wav and voice-based files can be expensive for a computer forensics expert or an e-discovery system to find and difficult, and index.

There are many tools designed to search text files, and also for the text of deleted files. These range from computer forensics suites, such as EnCase, Forensic Toolkit, and Access, that any costs thousands of dollars to open source tools, including hex editors that all costs the user nothing. The more extensivePackages can be less expensive in the long run if billable people added to the mixture.

There are many wildly expensive e-discovery systems for the storage and indexing in large masses of data that support generated on a daily basis in companies. Services can be outsourced or brought in business. Also can snap the cost of commissioning of the systems and processes pale against the sanctions and penalties which may result from not prepared for litigation, shouldare formed.

There are also many effective tools for scanning paper documents into text files that are then searchable.

While many of the tools for searching and storing of data effectively and accurately when it comes to audio, no such degree of accuracy or simply yet exists for the purpose of searching for specific information. Currently, there are three ways to find Audio: phonetic search, record, by hand, and the automatic transcription.

via Audio files are challenges for computer forensics and e-Discovery.

Filed Under: Tech Bytes Tagged With: computer, computer forensics expert, discovery, Savings, text, voice, Voice over Internet Protocol, voip voice over internet protocol