The latest version of Google’s Chrome shows the potential of HTML5.

Early adopters can now get a sneak peek at the future of the Web by downloading the latest prerelease, or “beta,” version of Chrome, Google’s Web browser. One of the most interesting new features is an ability to translate speech to text—entirely via the Web.

The feature is the result of work Google has been doing with the World Wide Web Consortium’s HTML Speech Incubator Group, the mission of which is “to determine the feasibility of integrating speech technology in HTML5,” the Web’s new, emerging standard language.

A Web page employing the new HTML5 feature could have an icon that, when clicked, initiates a recording through the computer’s microphone, via the browser. Speech is captured and sent to Google’s servers for transcription, and the resulting text is sent back to the website.

To experiment with the voice-to-text feature, download the latest beta version of Chromehere. Then go to this webpage, click on the microphone, and start talking. You’ll probably find the results mixed, and sometimes hilarious. Using the finest elocution I could muster, I read the opening passage of Richard Yates’s Revolutionary Road: “The final dying sounds of their dress rehearsal left the Laurel Players with nothing to do but stand there, silent and helpless.” I got error messages several times in a row (“speech not recognized” or “connection to speech servers failed”). Once, I received this transcription: “9 sounds good restaurants on the world there’s nothing to do with fam vans island.”

The new feature derives in large part from experiments Google conducted through its Android operating system for mobile devices. For more than a year, saysVincent Vanhoucke, a member of Google’s voice recognition team, Android app developers have been able to integrate voice recognition into their apps using technology provided by Google. This has provided Google with useful voice data with which to train its voice-recognition algorithms. Today, some 20 percent of searches on Android phones are conducted using voice recognition, says Vanhoucke: people use voice recognition to write texts, send emails, or conduct searches. “It has really opened up interesting new avenues,” says Vanhoucke.

However, unlike desktop voice-to-text software, which first accustoms itself to a user’s voice, Chrome is trying to churn out text from voice without prior training.

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I suppose if they keep track of [the] IP address, they could adapt” to a given user’s voice, says Jim Glass, a speech recognition expert at MIT. Glass notes that the mobile phone provides an acoustic environment very different from that of a laptop or desktop computer; for one thing, a phone’s microphone is reliably placed right at the user’s mouth, unlike computer microphone setups in homes or offices. “This is the beta version of Chrome,” says Glass. “They’ll be collecting data, and we can be sure they will be refining their models–that’s the nature of the speech-recognition game.”

Even if it’s rough around the edges, sometimes the technology impresses. I tried once again and got back “the final warning sounds of the dress rehearsal at laurel players with nothing to do with stand there.” Not so bad. And the Chrome app nailed it to a letter when all I said was “the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.”

Third-party programmers have also begun creating Web pages capable of using the new feature of Chrome. Already available for trial is a browser plugin called Speechify that lets you search Google, Hulu, YouTube, Amazon, and other sites using voice with Chrome.

Other inventive uses could soon follow. “Games could be taking keyboard, mouse, touch, accelerometer, and speech input together,” says Karl Westin, an expert on HTML5 who works for Nerd Communications, based in Berlin, Germany. “Having an aeroplane game where you could actually scream ‘up, UP, UUUPPP!’ could be fantastic.”

But the technology is more than just a toy—it also points the way to a much more capable Web. HTML4, the last major version of the HTML language, emerged in 1997. Since then, plugins like Silverlight and Flash have added media-processing capabilities to the Web. But HTML5 enables media playback and offline storage via the browser.

“The insight we had was that more and more people were spending all their time in the browser,” says Google’s Brian Rakowski, group product manager for Chrome. E-mail and instant messaging increasingly take place in browsers rather than in separate e-mail or AIM applications. “We’d like it to be case that you never have to install a native application again,” says Rakowski. “The Web should be able to do all of it.”

source: technology review

Just in case if you don’t know, Imagine Cup, by Microsoft, is the world’s largest premier student technology competition happening round the globe since 2003.

Main theme of imagine cup is to encourage students around the globe to imagine a better world in which people are empowered by technology.

If you remember, last year team Magno Touch from University of Engineering and Technology (UET), Lahore won the Pakistan finals (out of 2,500 + students from Pakistan) and represented the country in the global finals held in Warsaw, Poland.

This year, the Imagine Cup 2011 – Global Finals will be held in United States of America (USA) and the winning team in the Software Design Category from Pakistan will be fully sponsored by Microsoft to go to the United States of America and compete in the global finals.

Who can Participate (in Software Design Category):

If you are a student, and you have an idea of solving the toughest possible thing in this world using Microsoft tools and technology, then you are good to go with registration.

So primarily, you will have to identify the toughest problem, then develop a solution and that’s it. Though, its not as simple as it seems, because your idea and the solution needs to be the best to be a winner.

So here is the time, register yourself, and try your abilities for bringing home the Imagine Cup this year.

How to Participate:

For more details and registration: http://pakistan.imaginecup.com/ or you can send an email here: b-hashau [at] microsoft.com.

Note: Last date for Registrations: March 20th, 2011

Below is the schedule:

Celebrating the International Women’s Day with the aim to support active presence of Pakistani women in digital media, Mobilink ran a blogging contest which generated a lot of posts by females bloggers who participated in the online contest.

Anam Ayyub, a student and an aspiring blogger from Lahore won the blogging contest that finally came to end today.

When Mobilink team contacted Anam Ayyub earlier today, she was overjoyed and expressed;

“I just can’t believe that I’ve been announced the winner and will now be handed over that cute girly Motorola flip-out cell phone.

This is not only why I am really happy. It is also because after taking part in this blogging contest,  I’ve been given appreciation from all around and being novice this is more than anything to me.

Thanks to all who appreciated my blog-writing. This will ensure my long-lasting blog-writing-attitude. This would not have been possible, had Mobilink not come forward and get the label of being pioneer in organizing event in order to encourage females turn into bloggers”

The blogging contest open to female bloggers only ran from Feb 25^th to March 5^th with the results announced today on International Women’s Day.

Just recently, Mobilink organized the first ever ladies blogger meet-up in Lahore with the aim to promote and encourage young women to become constructively active in digital media especially the blogging arena.

This blogging contest was the extension of Mobilink’s aim to encourage and promote young women to actively take part in digital media and express their views and opinions on different issues in the blogging circle as well as to celebrate International Women’s day in a more fruitful way.

To celebrate 100 years of International Women’s Day, Telenor Pakistan arranged an event “Celebrating Woman” at the regional headquarters in Lahore.

Justice (R) Nasira Iqbal was the Chief Guest at the event.

Also seen in the photo (L to R) are Syed Salman (AM 323), Shoaib Baig (VP HCD), Muhammad Sajwani (Director 323), Anjum Rahman (Director Corp Communications & Responsibility), Aamir Ibrahim (Chief Marketing Officer) and Rozina Pesnani (OSS Specialist)

Incoming search terms:

• email ceo ufone zte telenor mobilink warid
• rozina pesnani

Continuing with the tradition of engaging online community via blogger meet-ups, Mobilink team visited Karachi this week to meet up and interact with Karachi bloggers.

The meetup was around the Advent and Prospects of Location Based Charging in the Telecom sector. Jazz Karachi Bachat offer introduced by Mobilink was also highlighted during the discussion at the meetup.

One of the important discussions that surfaced during this interactive bloggers brain-storming session was that innovative location based services and packages must be explored and taken to a whole new level whereby customers could also be provided with many more personalized location based services and discount offer packages.

There is a lot happening around the globe with reference to location based services. Pakistan is also part of this race with its telecom companies initially launching location based services and lately introducing location based charging and discount offers.

Here are some of the pictures of Mobilink Bloggers Meetup organized at Café Zouk, Karachi on 22^nd Feb 2011.

Incoming search terms:

• mobilink jazz female model

Ufone turns 10 as the company celebrated its 10^th anniversary on 29^th January.

Ufone started out as a service for the masses and it pushed to remove the perception and reality that cellular services were only for the elite in the country. Today cellular services are enjoyed by people from every walk of life which has been made a reality thanks to the promise that Ufone once made to the people of Pakistan and has fulfilled that promise through this journey of 10 years.

Ufone has shown vast growth and endurance throughout the decade, even though with the intense competition; the organization has shown great reverence with its increase in revenue and has always remained profitable.

Over the last few years the world has witnessed one of the worst global recessions during which downsizing was one of the major cost cutting techniques used by organizations, On the other hand Ufone stood out by not following the trend and instead motivated and acknowledged its employees by giving more financial benefits and focused on growth in all business areas with a major focus on corporate social responsibility and has always come out to help the people of Pakistan through testing times.

Mr Abdul Aziz CEO Ufone speaking at this auspicious occasion said:

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Over the years, English theater in Pakistan has experienced tremendous growth. Warid has become a leader in promoting arts in the community. Greatly supporting the young talents, Warid GLOW has become synonymous to quality theater in Pakistan.

The much hyped and awaited play ‘Bombay Dreams” is now staged at the Karachi Art Council for 25 days consecutively, starting from 27^th, January to February, 20^th, 2011. Originally, the play was an Andrew Lloyd Webber production, created by famous Indian music director A R Rahman. Directed by Shah Sharabeel, it is an adaptation of the original one in accordance with the local scenario. The play beautifully hints at the identity issues confronting human beings.

GLOW and Center Stage Productions staged an array of successful plays over the years in the cities of Lahore, Islamabad and Karachi including; The Phantom of the Opera’, Tom, Dick and Harry, Home Is Where Your Cloths Are, You Only Marry Twice, Moulin Rouge and Bombay Dreams. These are the largest plays of this magnitude in the region and believed to be the most expensive stage shows in Pakistan.

The long association between Warid and CSP has not only set a precedent of quality stage for dramatic presentations in Pakistan but has also groomed the audience which comes to appreciate quality theater. Center Stage Productions is the most recognisable figure in Pakistan theater that is rewriting the rules of commercial theater for our entertainment starved society for over 10 years.  Back in 2010, Sharabeel brought ‘Moulin’ Rouge’ to Karachi with this promise that he will return to Karachi again in 2011 to stage Bombay Dreams.

Commenting on Warid’s backing of the play Mr. Suhail Jan, General Manager Commercial, Warid Telecom said‚   “We greatly support theater in the country because it is a way for us to foster the local talent of Pakistan and help our young leaders to pursue passion and also cultivate enthusiasm for arts and entertainment in the community. These plays are the biggest showcase of performing arts in Pakistan.  In a country where talent is in abundance but finances can be a hurdle‚ Warid is proud to be a leader in promoting arts in the country.”

Director of the play Shah Sharahbeel said, “On behalf of Centre Stage Productions, I am deeply grateful to Warid Telecom and its team for supporting Center Stage Productions. I am sure we as a Nation have all the guts and the talent to become a truly progressive Nation. We don’t just do plays but we are building a norm, driven by our philosophy of being faithful to our talents. We demonstrate our best and that’s what makes Center Stage Productions the finest and the most disciplined theatre production company in the country. Once again I am extremely grateful to Warid Telecom for all their generous support”

“The play is known for its rhythmic tones composed by A R Rahman and will definitely cheer the audience of Karachi” added Shah Sharabeel the director of the play.

Atif Aslam, the brand ambassador of Warid GLOW performed live at DHA Golf Club,

Karachi.Over 1600 youngsters attended this much awaited concert and danced the

night away with the thrilling performance of Atif.

Here are the photos of the event

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With a sonorous yet soulful style of singing, Atif (Warid’s Brand Ambassador) rocked LUMS(Lahore University of Management Sciences) with his thrilling performance.

Over 1500 LUMS students/alumni attended the concert and danced the night away.

Attendees appreciated efforts of Warid Telecom for organizing series of Atif concerts for the entertainment hungry Pakistani youth at a time when nothing is happening around due to security concerns.

Glow and Atif, will be heading to Karachi next week for another exciting concert.

Incoming search terms:

• lums
• atif aslam concerts picture
• lums music concerts
• lums pictures

CONNECT-IT 2010 promises enhanced marketability avenues leading to establishment of beneficial business relationships on an international level. CONNECT it will be the showcase of the latest technologies to match the rising need for telecommunication & information technology solutions in today’s world. The show carries great value for the country’s fast growing industrial, corporate and consumer markets that are in continuous search for modern technology.

VISITOR’S PROFILE:
Educational Administrators, Corporate Decision Makers, Functional Managers, IT Strategists, Technology Marketers, IT Managers, Software Development Consultants, Telecommunication Managers, Networking Administrators, E-Services Provider, Financial Institutions, IT Trade Press, Corporate Developers, System Integrators, Software Engineers, Web Developers etc. are the target visitors.

EXHIBITOR’S PROFILE: Profile for exhibit includes Mobile Equipments & Services, Wireless Components, Telecommunications & Internet Services, Network Components, Computer Systems, Multimedia, IT Security Tools, E-Learning, Integrated Call Center Systems, Voice Processing, Ethernet, Telemarketing, Service Providers, Customer Service Centres, Music & Messaging, Call Management Systems, Software Tools & Development System, Enterprise Solutions, Satellite Communication & Broadcasting etc.

5th Information & Communications Technology Exibition & Conference

@ Capitalise on one of the fastest growing industries of Pakistan
@ Showcase latest ICT technology and solutions
@ Secure new businiess leads through optimum networking
@ Enhance your businiess networking through interactive IT, Telecom and Youth Sessions

Facebook Event for latest updates: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=284897317790