Tag Archives: googl

LG smartwatch called G, as in ‘Gee, should I wait for Apple?’

The smartwatch market got a little more crowded on Tuesday as LG Electronics launched its LG G smartwatch, which runs on Google’s (GOOGL) Android Wear operating system. Seoul-based LG is making the G watch available for purchase from the Google Play Store online and through key retailers worldwide. The watch costs $229 and works with smartphones running Android 4.3 or higher. It features a button-free design with a display that remains “always-on” to provide “glance-able” smart notifications on your wrist. “As one of the first Android Wear devices to market, we see this as the beginning of a long-term commitment to making wearables running Android Wear a household name,” Jong-seok Park, president and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company, said in a statement. “We’re confident that once consumers see how useful and compelling LG G Watch can be, it will be integrated into their daily lives, just as …

Nuance rocked by sale chatter, Apple Siri developments

Speech-recognition technology provider Nuance Communications (NUAN) has been roiled in recent weeks by sale rumors and reports that Apple might drop Nuance from its Siri voice response app in favor of its own technology. Since hitting an all-time high of 31.15 in February 2012, Nuance stock has struggled. It hit a low of 13 last November and has risen since then on hopes for a buyout. Apple (AAPL) and Samsung have been rumored as possible acquirers of Nuance. Wired reported Monday that Apple has built its own speech-recognition software team by poaching engineers and managers from Microsoft (MSFT) and Nuance. Apple wants to catch up to Microsoft and Google (GOOGL) in the neural network approach to speech-recognition technology, which has leapfrogged the algorithms Nuance uses, Wired says. Neural network voice-recognition tech focuses more on context and the relationship among words to increase accuracy. Nuance was up nearly 1% to below…

Google Eyes Music Ad Market Vs. Pandora, Apple

With Google’s (GOOGL) acquisition of music-streaming service Songza, the search leader is going up against Pandora Media and Apple in a market expected to top $2 billion this year. Songza is a music-streaming service where users can chose music channels based on the time of day, the mood they’re in or what they’re doing. Users could chose, say, easy, breezy summer songs. U.S. advertisers this year are expected to pay $2.04 billion for online and