Speech technology is advancing quickly; even smartphones offer apps that let you speak commands and perform voice-activated searches. Now, a new app for iPhone and Blackberry can convert spoken Arabic into spoken English (and vice versa). The mobile app's speed of processing and accuracy is unprecedented for such a complex and different pair of languages. Gizmodo reports via Popular Science reports.
Created by Sakhr and Dial Directions for use by the Department of Defense, Homeland Security, and other military customers -- not you -- the app has implications for field personnel who need to understand foreign speech in dire situations. The app also provides a text translation.
Web tools such as Google Translate can convert written Arabic to English, and speech companies such as Tell Me and Nuance convert speech to text, but this mobile app is the first to convert Arabic on a mobile phone.
This app will bring you daily blog entries from the Official White House blog, photos from the Official White House photographers, plus weekly video addresses by President Obama, videos of Press Briefings, Tweets from the White House's official Twitter account, and news articles from the Washington Post, New York Times, and Los Angeles Times.
(Government content used within this application is in the public domain. This application has not been endorsed by the Federal Government.)
Fluent News aggregates exclusively made-for-mobile content from the most trusted news sources across the Web. Xconomy Boton gives it a good review (it's not available or even visible from the Swiss app stores where I live).
Stories on Fluent News comes from top news sources, including the Washington Post, New York Times, Wall Street Journal and CNN.
In their own words: Stay current wherever you are with fast, continual news updates. . All content from your latest sync is also available for offline reading. Our interface organizes content intelligently, grouping similar stories together, which provides breadth of news as well as one-click access to broader coverage of any single story. Easily post articles to Facebook or Twitter or email links to friends.
The Barnes & Noble Bookstore app let's you shop and read reviews. And you can use your iPhone’s camera to search and shop for millions of books, DVDs, or music CDs.
In their own words:
Search millions of books, DVDs, and CDs using your iPhone’s camera. Just snap a photo of the front cover and we’ll find it for you instantly! Get product details, editorial reviews, and customer ratings – even find and reserve a copy in the store closest to you.
A store locator will help you find the Barnes & Noble superstore nearest you, see upcoming events, and get directions.
Apple has apparently decided that with the new parental controls now built into the iPhone 3.0 SDK, nudity is now okay in iPhone apps. TechCrunch reports.
The first such app, Hottest Girls, has actually been around for a little while. But an update today “upgraded” the pictures from girls in bikinis and lingerie, to topless and completely naked girls.
"We uploaded nude topless pics today. This is the first app to have nudity,” Hottest Girls’ developer Allen Leung tells Macenstein.
Erwin Mazariegos has posted some interesting comments on news apps on Poynter.org.
If we're discussing news apps, there are different kinds, such as aggregators, single-source publishers, RSS readers, and dedicated search tools.
In the search category, there's an app that provides access to over 25,000 global news sources. It's not 99 cents, but at $9.99, I think the math still works out.
The app is politicoTracker, and although this app is focused on news about politicians, it ships with the full database of over 6600 US federal, state, and local elected officials - and even better, you get to choose which politico you want to see the news about.
There's a ton more info at politicoTracker.com and it's also available in a Twitter edition.
Another interesting news app is Taptu, notable for its pretty interface. It falls mainly in the aggregator category.
The AP Mobile app is a great example of the single-source publisher genre. It is one of the first apps with push notifications, which is also quite interesting.
Maybe this is the end of print journalism, maybe not - but journalism itself will continue - no doubt.
According to Shiny Shiny, an application based on obnoxious BBC TV character Alan Partridge called Pocket Allen is The Number 1 paid-for iPhone app in Britain.
The application features 22 classic catch phrases to play with, like calling your friends with Alan's voice.
Lost in translation. Unless of course you are an Alan Partridge fan.
A useful app. Find Internet Cafe finds the nearest US Internet Cafes based on the user's current location.
Features:
- Detects your current location automatically and displays search results based on proximity.
- Shows interactive map with driving directions.
- Tap to call the business phone number.
- Tap to visit the website.
- Bookmark your favorites places for quick and easy retrieval.
In what seems like an amazing tool to violate someone's privacy - but anyone being able to check someon'es credit rating is common in the US I think (that's why the Swiss value banking secrecy) - Credit Card Check app is a simple software to help you check validity of a credit card number.
In their own words:
You dont have to go online or transmit sensitive credit card information.
A must-have for anyone taking orders over the phone or international orders. Perfect for call centers or small offices. Download and start using this tool to instantly eliminate fraudlent orders and invalid card numbers.
It checks for the valid length, prefix, card type debit or credit and check digit for the major credit cards such as: Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discovery, Diners, JCB, Maestro and Visa Electron.
Kevin Rose is reporting that the iPhone version of the popular Twitter client TweetDeck is set to be launched tonight (Tuesday, June 16th) at 9 PM PDT. Although the free app will officially be announced at that time, availability is totally dependent on the whims of the App Store. TUAW reports.
Mashable notes that TweetDeck for iPhone reflects many of the features of the desktop version, including multiple column-based friend groups and a beautiful user interface.
MapQuest released its first iPhone app, MapQuest 4 Mobile and after testing it for a while, ReadWriteWeb believes it's a worthy challenger for the iPhone's built-in mapping application, which is based on Google Maps.
Just like the MapQuest web site, the iPhone app focuses on finding local businesses and directions. One of the nicest features of the app is that you can save your maps and routes on the MapQuest.com web site and then retrieve them on your phone. Finding local businesses is also very easy thanks to a carousel with different types of businesses that sits at the bottom of the map. You can just click on the gas station icon, for example, and the map will highlight all the local service stations in the area.
CallingCards.com introduces the new "World Access" calling application for iPhone. World Access makes it effortless for iPhone users in 50+ countries to dial their friends and family anywhere in the world while saving up to 90% compared to using your mobile provider.
In their own words: No more memorizing toll-free numbers or pin numbers. Just launch our application, select a person from your contacts, and we will automatically dial for you! Instantly connect to your party in seconds while being hassle-free!
Hello Vino is an app to help you find the perfect wine - anywhere, anytime.
Whether you're looking for a wine to pair with food, enjoy on its own (by taste or flavor), or give as a gift, Hello Vino assists the beginner wine consumer with recommendations.
You can also perform a quick search for a specific wine while you're shopping in a store or sitting in a restaurant, to help with your wine purchasing decision.
The e-guides can be personalised, with places marked as favourites, and can be easily searched with the use of keywords.
And as they are in digital form, they can be easily dated – so if that four-star hotel you were going to treat yourself to has become a clip joint, you will be told.
20 guides will be available from the iTunes store, including ones on London, New York and Dubai, and they will be available for £9.49.
A two-player Wi-Fi sword fighting game has been released for iPhone and iPod Touch. Developed specifically to take advantage of the iPhone's accelerometers and networking capabilities, iSamurai is an interactive sword-fighting game, where the two players slash, thrust, and block each other with their iPhones.
A do-jo training room is even provided for practicing. You can also play in single mode with computer provided opponents
Tired of long lines Disney? Now, there's an app for that reports The Orlando Sentinel.
Wait Times is an iPhone app that will tell you how long the lines are at the Magic Kingdom.
Approved for sale by Apple on Tuesday, the "app" depends on other users to supply wait-time information. They choose from a list of rides and then enter or view the wait for that ride. The more information people report, the more useful Pope's 99-cent app becomes.
Although Disney displays wait times for rides on boards throughout its parks, the company does not post that information online.
Developers and fans can track app sales with a new app called AppRankings.
Simply search by app name, developer, or keywords to find an app, then add it to the tracking list in any of the App Store categories or countries. The app's top 100 ranking will then automatically be retrieved.
You can display a graphical history of each tracked app, going back to the first time you began tracking. And you can track as many different apps in any categories or countries as you want, both paid and free.
TomTom introduced a long-awaited iPhone app due this summer that lends turn-by-turn spoken directions and voice activation for the new iPhone 3G S. TWIC reports.
Announced by TomTom co-founder and CEO Peter Frans Pauwels at the Apple Worldwide Developer’s Conference, the app will be sold for a price not yet announced as will a new car mounting kit to be available at www.tomtom.com.
The mounting kit provides a speaker and microphone to the iPhone and allows it to mount on a windshield. It uses the TomTom’s current twist-and-lock mount that can fold up for carrying in your pocket. It also charges the iPhone and allows you to tilt the iPhone so it may adjust between landscape and portrait modes. The kit will not allow voice commands for inputting directions, however, according to TomTom marketing VP Tom Murray.
The Palm Pre's SDK is still too primitive for flashy games and complex office apps, but there's already a decent stable of (19) basic apps, and they're all free.
ColorSnap lets users isolate a color within any photo taken on their iPhone and get matching Sherwin-Williams paint colors along with a coordinating palette to complement their choice.
“The app not only makes it simple to determine the color, but to bring it home by easily locating one of our 3,300 stores,” said Ellen Moreau, vice president of marketing communication at Sherwin-Williams.
According to PC World, Slasher is once again on the App Store in all of its knife-wielding, horror-sound-playing glory.
The iPhone app that showed a picture of an ordinary kitchen knife to the accompaniment of a "horror" sound was rejected by the App Store last August, on the basis of "objectionable" content which has continued unabated to this day.
Is this the sign of a kinder, gentler Apple? Or is the company just finally clearing its backlog from last August?
USA Today writes about specialized audio apps that help people with disabilities communicate. Among them, American Sign Language and Proloquo2Go, which the article describes as helping 7-year-old son JW speak. JW is autistic.
JW goes everywhere with the slick touch-screen mp3 player strapped to his arm. It lets him touch icons that voice basic comments or questions, such as, "I want Grandma's cookies" or "I'm angry — here's why." He uses his "talker" to communicate with everyone — including his service dog, Roscoe, who listens to voice commands through the tiny speakers.
The app also aids children and adults with Down syndrome, cerebral palsy and Lou Gehrig's Disease, or ALS — even stroke patients who have lost the ability to speak, says its co-developer, Penn State doctoral student Samuel Sennott.
Using the iPhone and Touch allows developers to democratize a system that has relied on devices that were too expensive or difficult to customize.
The B-BOT app for iPhone. B-BOT allows you to customize your contacts by making B-BOT cartoons of yourself and your friends.
B-BOT features a huge variety of bodies to choose from along with hundreds of hair styles, accessories, eyes, mouths, sneakers, and more. There are over 400 items to choose from. You can make over a billion B-BOTs of yourself and your friends.
B-BOT was conceived by Tristan Eaton and Peter Cortez while working together on the 2008 Barack Obama Campaign. It was developed by Greg Elliott, the creator of SynchStep.
iBatko is a chat app. Its primary goal is to allow you to experience the pure joy of meeting new and interesting people from around the world just by hitting the "Meet a Stranger" button while waiting in a traffic jam, or being bored, or just want to chat with somebody.
Everyone is completely anonymous and no personal data is shared although, if you like the person on the other side nothing stops you from sharing your e-mails and becoming friends
Ananga Ranga, an app based on the ancient Indian text Kama Sutra, developped by Bulgarian company Cramzy, provides vivid descriptions of 50 sexual poses. Pocket Picks reports.
Founder Iliya Yordanov details the app in an eye-opening video walkthrough on the company’s website.
A trio of snapshots show each sexual position enacted by a pair of 3D models, which can consummately be zoomed using multi-touch. “We’ve hired a professional 3D artist to design 50 Kama Sutra poses, each shot from 3 different angles,” he explains.
Despite the mature nature of the app, Yordanova tells us that Ananga Ranga will sail through Apple’s certification process. “I already spoke to Apple, and they said it will be approved for iPhone 3.0, where parental controls will be introduced.”
We’ll know for certain this summer when Cramzy submits Ananga Ranga.
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Apple has apparently decided that with the new parental controls now built into the iPhone 3.0 SDK, nudity is now okay in iPhone apps. 
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In what seems like an amazing tool to violate someone's privacy - but anyone being able to check someon'es credit rating is common in the US I think (that's why the Swiss value banking secrecy) - 
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A two-player Wi-Fi sword fighting game has been released for iPhone and iPod Touch. Developed specifically to take advantage of the iPhone's accelerometers and networking capabilities, 
Tired of long lines Disney? Now, there's an app for that reports 
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