Toshiba has designed and is launching a Trilingual voice app for mobile phones that allows a user to translate freely between English, Japanese and Chinese. The cool thing about this app is that it is completely client-side and requires no Server-side interaction… reducing dents to your data plan. The first app is due on Window’s Mobile with iPhone and Blackberry versions to follow.
Here’s a clip of the technology…
We look forward to seeing this technology used for other languages…
Posted by Hichame AssiCategorized Under: Online TrendsNo Commented
As per this TechYoyo post, it looks like it’s not only Chinese or Australian censorship laws that is in the news. It’s now India’s turn, with Yahoo and Bing both censoring their search results to filter Sexually explicit content, or in some cases any reference to the word ’sex’.
The clampdown is due to recent changes to India’s Information Technology Act of 2000, which bans the publication of pornographic material.
I wonder how long it’ll take before Google is forced to adopt similar filtering approaches for their Indian search results?
Last night, I caught a glimpse of a few Tweets that mentioned Microsoft ripping off Plurk… and decided I’d do some digging this morning.
It turns out, I didn’t have to dig too far, Plurk’s blog post kind of say’s it all. TechCrunch, NYT, WSJ and many others have also covered this news.
To put it simply, Plurk, a Canada based micro-blogging service that is very popular in Asia is claiming that Microsoft China has “ripped off” their code, UI and design, for their own MSN Juku micro-blogging service. From the looks of the images representing the UI and the code base it appears to be a blatant copyright violation on Microsoft’s part.
“Microsoft takes intellectual property seriously, and we are currently investigating these allegations. It may take some time due to the time zone differences with Beijing.”
It’s a weak statement, and looks like Microsoft is going to have a pretty bad week with this headache. However, I don’t think this is just a standard copyright violation, politics is playing a part here…. especially as Plurk is blocked in China!!.
Posted by Rami SawasCategorized Under: TechnologyNo Commented
It’s often forgotten that a big part of Asia speaks Arabic… the Middle East, is after all is ‘West Asia’ or ‘Near East’. Arabic language came as the 8th top language used in the web with over 50 million internet users in the Middle East. The growing rate in Internet usage in the Middle East is a significant 1,907.9 %
I couldn’t believe when I heard the news about the release of an Adobe AIR desktop application for Arabic users. I’ve always had problems (like with many Arabic speakers) typing Arabic on platforms/systems that weren’t meant for right-to-left languages, especially when you mix English and Arabic alphabets. So I finally got my hands on the application and started playing around with it.
To start with, Kzalek works on Windows, Mac and Linux with full Arabic font support. The application has a very nice and smooth interface with clear icons. It has an option to translate tweets from English to Arabic. I was surprised by the quality of the translation; the tweets do remain meaningful when translated! Other cool features include Bit.ly URL shortner, Twitpic for uploading images and sound notification for new tweets and direct messaging.
Kzalek is developed by @keepondev. Click here to watch explanation of Kzalek.
This is an important step in the growing online social networking market in the Arab world. I’m sure there will be more surprises heading our way.
Below images show the tweets in Arabic and English (click to enlarge):
We’ve written quite a lot about the Baidu and Google dichotomy in China, for instance how they’re battling it out in Mobile Search.
On this occasion the battle is a bit more mainstream with a great piece from WSJ about the different practices within China between Search heavyweights Baidu and Google. Aside from a slight digression to cover some of the localisation techniques adopted by Chinese sites such as TaoBao and TenCent IM, the article delves into the product range and local implementations of both Baidu and Google within China. The article implies quite strongly that Google is the main innovator while Baidu applies a more functional approach dedicated to the Chinese audience.
But Baidu also is an example of how many Chinese technology companies manage to outfox foreign competitors by tailoring existing technologies to China’s growing and fast-changing market. While that may not earn them respect as global innovators, their understanding of the Chinese consumer has allowed many of them to beat bigger foreign rivals at their own game in China, home to the world’s largest number of Internet users.
Posted by Saurabh KumarCategorized Under: Online MarketingNo Commented
As mentioned recently, Google plans to participate in the upcoming WiMAX auctions in India. India’s WiMAX auctions are set to take place in early 2010 will earn the Indian’s government around $5.1B. Foreign companies can take part in this auction through JVs with an Indian partner and can own a maximum of 74% stake in the JV.
Google plans to participate on a 50:50 basis with MTNL, which is a state owned, publicly listed corporate providing fixed line, mobile (2G/3G), ISP and digital TV provider. What is interesting is that the government is going to auction two blocks of the BWA/WiMAX spectrum in each circle while reserving one for BSNL or MTNL (which are both state-owned). By partnering with MTNL, Google might benefit due to the circles allotted to MTNL, which will include Delhi, Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Thane, which are all urban, highly developed regions.
Posted by Desmond PhuaCategorized Under: Online MarketingNo Commented
Cebu Pacific Airlines is getting serious with the social media space and intends to make use of the social media channel to promote its low fares. It appointed Peach Interactive to promote its low fares via the social media platform in Asia (See Article). The move is a part of a bigger digital campaign, the airline is running across the region. For those interested to hear about deals from Cebu Pacific, you can follow them on Twitter.
Social Media has been the buzzword in the travel industry in recent years and many travel companies, including Cebu Pacific, now promotes their services via this channel. What remain unclear however, for many, is the ROI on these channels. In fact many companies currently do not measure their ROI from social media. Most are still experimenting and testing waters on the effectiveness as well as finding ways to monetize this channel.
It will definitely be interesting to know how many of those who started on social media are now using social media as their main communication channel with the consumers, as well as measure the effectiveness.
Posted by Saurabh KumarCategorized Under: Online TrendsNo Commented
India has been able to create and maintain educational brands like IIT – where very good technical education is given at some of the world’s lowest costs. At the other end of the spectrum, India has about 350 million people who form the primary work force of the country without any education to speak of. Primary education is therefore one of the top priorities.
The Government of India recently announced that it is going to ask every school to have a website of its own. Schools will be required to publish updated information about its infrastructure and faculty. This is going to be made into a law very soon. Every student will soon have a unique identification number, which will help monitor India’s primary education program. The first set of such numbers will get rolled out by 2010.
The latest TechCrunch TokyoCamp was held last Friday and by the looks of it, it was a resounding success with some great Japanese (and 1 Singaporean and 1 South Korean) startups demo-ing their wares. This also includes some demos by previous Asian startup who had presented at TechCrunch50.
Here is the list of startups that presented in the DemoPit, as you’ll see they were not all web startups, some offered innovative cameras, bluetooth headsets and gadgets to remotely control your race cars through the browser! My favorites are iTwin, UserHeat and the PatentBueau… all of which should help increase efficiency and productivity one way or another.
Finally!… I just can’t believe it’s taken this long, but it looks like Search is finally catching up with other forms of Online Advertising in Australia.
As a report compiled by PwC (Price WaterHouse Coopers) shows, for the Quarter ending on 30th September 2009 Search Engine Marketing (PPC) has grown while Displays ads have fallen.
… the expenditure in the general display advertising market fell by 5% quarter on quarter and year on year. With separate Eyeblaster research showing Australians are among the least likely to click on general display advertising in the world, it appears that marketers may be looking to search, which grew by 12%, for more effective campaigns.
This is quite a significant milestone, and Search Engine Marketing is likely to continue making in-roads into Online Advertising as Advertising Agencies and Companies realise and recognise the power of Search in supporting brand campaigns and converting ROI.
