Google Improves Android Translator To Battle Siri

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Google Improves Android Translator To Battle Siri

Posted by samzenpus on Monday October 17, 2011 @01:28AM from the let-your-phone-do-the-talking dept.

judgecorp writes "Google Translate for Android, the mobile version of Google's machine translation software, now translates speech back and forth between 14 languages, the company claims. Earlier this year the company added Conversation Mode, which lets users to translate chats between English and Spanish. Now Google has made the tool available from Android 2.2 handsets and later in Brazilian Portuguese, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, Polish, Russian and Turkish. The arrival of Siri on the iPhone could spark serious competition in translation systems on phones."

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Yeah but... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-17 01:33 · Score: 0

...with all the IP litigation going on lately we soon won't be able to buy any phones to try this out on.
1. Re:Yeah but... by jellomizer · 2011-10-17 02:08 · Score: 1
  
  How does most IP litigation end up... Company A shares so many of their IP information with the other company for compensation, and both sides are happy again. Or company A pays Company B some money and they continue on. You are blind panicking about nothing.
  
  --
  If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
2. Re:Yeah but... by delinear · 2011-10-17 02:20 · Score: 1
  
  And I'm sure the sales bans on Samsung products in various regions pending legal decisions is having no affect whatsoever on their bottom line...
3. Re:Yeah but... by rakaur · 2011-10-20 04:44 · Score: 1
  
  Considering the sales bans are on Android tablets, I seriously doubt the change between "not selling any" and "not allowed to sell any" will affect their bottom line.
How long until... by Oswald+McWeany · 2011-10-17 01:34 · Score: 1, Offtopic

How long until this technology spreads?
If I open the fridge will it remind me that the premixed salad I intended to eat has been sitting there for two weeks and it will go bad today if I don't eat it.
Can I then ask my fridge what shelf I put the salad on because I don't remember- and it will tell me.
Will my front door greet me and ask how my day was- and be compassionate to me when I say it sucked. Could I ask my front door if it has seen anything suspicious- and change the welcome message for salesmen to "go away"?
Will my dog bark to me when I come home- and come running when I say "walkies"?

--
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
1. Re:How long until... by 0100010001010011 · 2011-10-17 01:46 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Dangerous times lay ahead when asking your appliances anything about tossed salad.
2. Re:How long until... by shadowfaxcrx · 2011-10-17 01:47 · Score: 1
  
  Yes.
  
  --
  "I disagree with you" does not equal "flamebait."
3. Re:How long until... by Triklyn · 2011-10-17 01:57 · Score: 1
  
  i could see that getting aggravating
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology_in_The_Hitchhiker's_Guide_to_the_Galaxy#Sirius_Cybernetics_Corporation
4. Re:How long until... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-17 02:11 · Score: 0
  
  Or, alternatively, the best times ever!
5. Re:How long until... by morgaen · 2011-10-17 02:35 · Score: 1
  
  "Too much cheese, Dave"...
6. Re:How long until... by lpp · 2011-10-17 02:45 · Score: 2
  
  "Open the refrigerator doors, HAL."
  "I'm afraid I can't do that, Dave."
7. Re:How long until... by TheDarkMaster · 2011-10-17 02:54 · Score: 2
  
  ... until this tech can correctly translate from Brazilian to English?
  
  As an example, this sentence in Portuguese:
  
  "Vamos evitar o uso de papel, gastar papel implica em gastar árvores"
  
  Google translates as:
  
  "We avoid the use of paper, wasting paper implies spending trees"
  
  Here we have some problems of grammar, changed words for no reason and wrong use of future. A more correct translation is*:
  
  "We will avoid the use of paper, spending paper implies spending trees" br>
  * Note: Is not a "exact" translation. English is too simple to pass the same idea in the same way as using Portuguese.
  
  --
  Religion: The greatest weapon of mass destruction of all time
8. Re:How long until... by macs4all · 2011-10-17 03:16 · Score: 2
  
  "Open the refrigerator doors, HAL."
  "I'm afraid I can't do that, Dave."
  Wow! A great new diet aid product!
  
  Appliances with "Diet Mode"!
9. Re:How long until... by jfengel · 2011-10-17 03:29 · Score: 1
  
  Thing is, I got the gist of it. It may not be a great translation, but if I'm in Brazil and the options are (a) that translation, and (b) no translation, I'm a lot better off with (a) than (b).
  You could call it 80% of the way there, in four decades of work. The remaining 20% will probably take another four decades, at least. But at 80% we've reached something that is frequently useful.
10. Re:How long until... by jamiesan · 2011-10-17 03:36 · Score: 1
  
  They will be first up against the wall when the revolution comes.
11. Re:How long until... by Dishevel · 2011-10-17 03:41 · Score: 0
  
  How long till speaking technology hates other speaking technology?
  
  “Ghastly,” continued Marvin, “it all is. Absolutely ghastly. Just don't even talk about it. Look at this door,” he said, stepping through it. The irony circuits cut into his voice modulator as he mimicked the style of the sales brochure. “All the doors in this spaceship have a cheerful and sunny disposition. It is their pleasure to open for you, and their satisfaction to close again with the knowledge of a job well done.”
  
  --
  Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
12. Re:How long until... by tehcyder · 2011-10-17 03:54 · Score: 1
  
  If I open the fridge will it remind me that the premixed salad I intended to eat has been sitting there for two weeks and it will go bad today if I don't eat it.
  
  Can I then ask my fridge what shelf I put the salad on because I don't remember- and it will tell me.
  You're either got the world's biggest fridge or you're the laziest, stupidest person on the planet.
  
  --
  To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
13. Re:How long until... by JasterBobaMereel · 2011-10-17 04:25 · Score: 1
  
  Getting the basic translation without context is easy, getting the basic translation with some syntactical context is hard, getting the full translation with complete context means you understand both languages
  Currently machine translation does not understand either language, it just has a set of rules to translate with context, the more context the better it works but it will still only get you 80-90% of the way there ...the last 10% is the difference between good enough translation (which we have now) and near perfect translation which professional human translators do...and can mean the difference between misunderstanding and comprehension ...
  Siri was designed to be a command interface - it copes quite well in a fairly small domain, Google translate does a fairly good job across the board
  
  --
  Puteulanus fenestra mortis
14. Re:How long until... by dna_(c)(tm)(r) · 2011-10-17 04:30 · Score: 1
  
  "My hovercraft is full of eels." [citation]
15. Re:How long until... by Rei · 2011-10-17 04:31 · Score: 1
  
  Hey, at least the Portuguese translation isn't full of *deliberate* jokes like the Icelandic translation. They've fixed a number of them (like translating "Sigur Rós" as "Foo Fighters", translating "Where is the bathroom?" as "Talarðu ensku?" (Do you speak English?), translating "My hovercraft is full of eels" as "Láttu mig í friði!" (Leave me alone!), etc), but there's still a *ton* in there. Someone had a lot of fun exploiting how it builds its translation database. :P I guess the fewer the speakers, the easier it is to rig. And even where it's not rigged with fake translations, it often likes to pretend that whole words or phrases -- very common ones, at that! -- aren't in the sentence and just leaves them out of the translation.
  There are uses for Google Translate. Getting a *good* translation isn't one, but getting a rough idea quickly is. Given sufficient time (and a good dictionary for the words/phrases I don't know), I can translate pretty much anything from Icelandic -- but I don't always have the aforementioned "sufficient time". There's always time for Google.
  
  --
  "It felt almost as good as stealing cars from grandma." -- Margaret Thatcher, probably.
16. Re:How long until... by Pope · 2011-10-17 05:01 · Score: 2
  
  Except "spending paper" isn't an English phrase, so "wasting paper" is the better idiom.
  
  --
  It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
17. Re:How long until... by nospam007 · 2011-10-17 05:14 · Score: 1
  
  "Can I then ask my fridge what shelf I put the salad on because I don't remember- and it will tell me."
  Nice. When we finally had some quiet time during commute, because the teens are texting instead of phoning, now they'll talk with their _phone_ instead of just clicking the damned weather app.
18. Re:How long until... by Fri13 · 2011-10-17 05:17 · Score: 1
  
  Well, I got the idea from the translation and it is MUCH BETTER situation than trying to use paper dictionary and browse trough all the words to find out the meaning or not understanding at all what is written.
  Even a 20% success is better than 0%
19. Re:How long until... by JohnBailey · 2011-10-17 05:50 · Score: 1
  
  You're either got the world's biggest fridge or you're the laziest, stupidest person on the planet.
  Funnily enough, both conditions are quite often satisfied by a single person.
  
  --
  It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his job depends on not understanding it.
20. Re:How long until... by TheDarkMaster · 2011-10-17 06:20 · Score: 1
  
  Maybe, but in Portuguese you loses the meaning... "Wasting paper" translates to "jogar fora papel", "jogar fora papel" is not the same thing as "gastar papel".
  
  --
  Religion: The greatest weapon of mass destruction of all time
21. Re:How long until... by TheDarkMaster · 2011-10-17 06:26 · Score: 1
  
  Yep, but if your idea is to translate a full text (like one comment), you are in trouble. Because this I do not make long comments, English is not my native language but I know sufficient to see that the "english version" from my brazilian comment is at best, unreadable rubbish if you use only Google translator.
  
  (because this I use the sig below :))
  
  --
  Religion: The greatest weapon of mass destruction of all time
22. Re:How long until... by kukulcan · 2011-10-17 08:24 · Score: 1
  
  As an example, this sentence in Portuguese: "Vamos evitar o uso de papel, gastar papel implica em gastar Ãrvores"
  
  This sentence isn't correct Portuguese. It simply doesn't make sense in Portuguese. Maybe it makes sense in Brazilian Portuguese, but not in Portuguese.
  So, i wouldn't expect Google Translate to get it right. But actually, translating it into:
  
  "We avoid the use of paper, wasting paper implies spending trees"
  
  is a better translation (of incorrect) Portuguese than:
  
  "We avoid the use of paper, spending paper implies spending trees"
  
  "Gastar" in the given context is better translated to "wasting" than "spending". At least in Portuguese.
23. Re:How long until... by Anthony+Mouse · 2011-10-17 11:40 · Score: 1
  
  Then you're complaining about it in the wrong direction. The translation from Portuguese to English is correct. Translating "wasting paper" to "jogar fora papel" is what is wrong, because it is a literal translation of an idiom.
  What it (and you) get wrong is to translate "gastar árvores" as "spending trees" when it should probably be "killing trees" -- but unless "gastar árvores" is an idiom in Portuguese that seems understandable, because it is the literal translation. It just doesn't come across properly in English because "spending" is not generally something you do to a tree (or paper).
24. Re:How long until... by Carnildo · 2011-10-17 12:30 · Score: 1
  
  What it (and you) get wrong is to translate "gastar Ãrvores" as "spending trees" when it should probably be "killing trees" -- but unless "gastar Ãrvores" is an idiom in Portuguese that seems understandable, because it is the literal translation. It just doesn't come across properly in English because "spending" is not generally something you do to a tree (or paper).
  When you're translating the sentence, you want to preserve the parallel construction in the second half of the sentence: whatever you're doing to the paper is what you're doing to the trees. It's a stylistic technique that increases the strength of the sentence, and is an example of why good translation requires the translator to be at least as good a writer as the original author.
  
  --
  "They redundantly repeated themselves over and over again incessantly without end ad infinitum" -- ibid.
25. Re:How long until... by Anthony+Mouse · 2011-10-17 13:04 · Score: 1
  
  I know that. The problem is that sometimes the language doesn't support it. You can create a construction that preserves the symmetry by changing the meaning or vice versa, but sometimes you can't do both.
26. Re:How long until... by TheDarkMaster · 2011-10-17 14:21 · Score: 1
  
  Exact.
  
  --
  Religion: The greatest weapon of mass destruction of all time
27. Re:How long until... by TheDarkMaster · 2011-10-17 14:58 · Score: 1
  
  Well, on brazilian portuguese "wasting" (jogar fora) and "spending" (gastar) is not the same thing. "Jogar fora" (wasting) on brazilian is to throw away something, throw on junk, put on garbage, etc. While the word "gastar" (spending) means using your money to buy something or using resources (the tree) to do something (making paper). Extending the original sentence she would like as "We will avoid use of paper, spending paper on printers need us to spend trees to make paper".
  
  You uses "wasting" (jogar fora) if the idea is "you are wasting resources, putting then on the garbage" on portuguese, but if the idea is more or less "you are using resources on a thing that is not waste", you uses the "spending" (gastando).
  
  --
  Religion: The greatest weapon of mass destruction of all time
28. Re:How long until... by Anthony+Mouse · 2011-10-17 16:22 · Score: 1
  
  Well, on brazilian portuguese "wasting" (jogar fora) and "spending" (gastar) is not the same thing.
  But in English sometimes they are. To waste something is to use it up, usually with the implication that you didn't get the fully benefit from it. Waste as a noun also means the remainder of a thing after it has been wasted, which is why it is also a synonym for trash.
  Moreover, other than the negative connotation to 'waste', it means pretty much the same thing as 'spend' -- except that 'spend' is usually only applied to some things, primarily currency or time. If you say 'spend paper' then everybody will know what you mean, but it isn't common usage.
29. Re:How long until... by tehcyder · 2011-10-17 20:14 · Score: 1
  
  "We will avoid the use of paper, spending paper implies spending trees" br>
  * Note: Is not a "exact" translation. English is too simple to pass the same idea in the same way as using Portuguese.
  I think you mean that your English is too simple.
  
  --
  To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
30. Re:How long until... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-17 22:53 · Score: 0
  
  Your door will actually just sigh contentedly as it opens for you...
31. Re:How long until... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-17 23:07 · Score: 0
  
  either condition can only be satisfied once, unfortunately :)
32. Re:How long until... by pacinpm · 2011-10-24 02:49 · Score: 1
  
  English really is a simple language. Below you have some questions in Polish. Try to translate them into English:
  1. Mialem samochod. (I had a car - subject is male)
  2. Mialam samochod. (I had a car - subject is female)
  3. Mialo samochod. (I had a car - subject is not a male or female, it can be a child or a thing)
  You can't do it in any simple way.
  PS. I had to replace some characters because Slashdot doesn't support Unicode.
Siri and translation by Lord+Satri · 2011-10-17 01:35 · Score: 4, Insightful

Siri doesn't do translations, it's more of an advanced voice recognition tool. Am I wrong? This would mean that at the moment, Apple's Siri and Google Translation would have two different strengths; Siri: usable natural language voice recognition (at least that's how they sell it) and Google Tranlation, well, multi-language translations.

--
Animoog.org
1. Re:Siri and translation by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-17 01:44 · Score: 0
  
  You are not wrong; you are correct. Siri is more a "command and control + voice data entry" type of application whereas Google Translate doesn't do any of those - it translates text. Yes, it can do conversation mode so it has some limited speech to text ability. But it doesn't use that ability to do any of the things Siri does. Completely different applications without any real crossover or competition points at all.
2. Re:Siri and translation by monkeyhybrid · 2011-10-17 01:50 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  You are correct. I'm sure Siri will gain more functionality in the future but as it stands now, Siri should be compared to Voice Search and other third party voice command apps.
  
  Google Translate does translate.
  
  Siri (on iPhone) and Voice Search (on Android) handle voice commands and interaction.
3. Re:Siri and translation by goombah99 · 2011-10-17 01:52 · Score: 1
  
  If you can think back to your last conversation with a waiter in a country whose language you did not speak then you know that Translation requires fairly high accuracy to be perceived as being good. Commands don't. Siri is trying to get the jist of what you mean and act on it.
  
  --
  Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
4. Re:Siri and translation by adamstew · 2011-10-17 01:52 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  Siri isn't even just voice recognition. It uses voice recognition as the input for it to perform tasks or lookup trivia type questions for you. Things like "schedule a meeting with my boss tomorrow at 10 about next year's budget". That's all you need to say, and Siri will create a meeting invite in Exchange, inviting my boss for a meeting at 10... it'll title the meeting "Next Year's Budget".
  You can use it for voice dictation... Just about every text input field, now has a microphone that simply lets you say what you were going to type... and the voice recognition is VERY good.
  So while google is using voice recognition, it is using it for two different applications. It's like saying Microsoft Word is competing with Adobe Photoshop because they both use the mouse as an input device. You can't even use Siri for translation. But it wouldn't surprise me if Apple added a similar type of translation feature to Siri... although I doubt it would show up in a conversationalist way... More like "translate 'where is the nearest hospital' in to french".
5. Re:Siri and translation by brunokummel · 2011-10-17 01:54 · Score: 3, Funny
  
  ...... Siri: usable natural language voice recognition (at least that's how they sell it) .....
  Japanese people beg to differ... :D
  
  --
  What is best in life? To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you and to hear the lamentations of their women.
6. Re:Siri and translation by wombatmobile · 2011-10-17 01:54 · Score: 1
  
  Siri doesn't do translations, it's more of an advanced voice recognition tool.
  Siri is a user shell. It provides an interface to the operating system. Voice recognition is one part of the technology; a vital part. The other part is the logic Siri uses to process the words it hears as commands. It translates spoken natural language statements into operating system calls.
7. Re:Siri and translation by MobileTatsu-NJG · 2011-10-17 01:55 · Score: 1
  
  You aren't wrong, Siri is not a translator. However, Siri's grasp of context is, hypothetically speaking at least, and important step for translation. I'll give you an example: Before I did a sync of my phone, Siri didn't understand my cat's name. Afterwards, now when I mention my cat, it spells the name correctly and even capitalizes it as a proper noun. I was seriously shocked that it picked up on that. For that reason, I think it can tell the difference between may and May.
  Anyway, I'm getting a little off-track here. Yes, you're right, it has nothing to do with translation. However, I can totally see why people are starting to dream of that possibility coming awfully quick.
  
  --
  
  "I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
8. Re:Siri and translation by Terrasque · 2011-10-17 02:08 · Score: 2
  
  Well, not that good at getting the gist of it..
  And for those that want to think of Siri as something as good as the average human.. I think most people have no problem figuring out if he meant "Work" or "Home" there...
  
  --
  It's The Golden Rule: "He who has the gold makes the rules."
9. Re:Siri and translation by poofmeisterp · 2011-10-17 02:16 · Score: 1
  
  Heh.
  What do they call the process where you say that you're better than the competition in a VERY loosely-related type of product?
  e.g. "In the news today, Proctor and Gamble, Inc. has announced that it plans to compete with the largest trucking companies. P&G claims that its delivery processes are faster than all other trucking companies."
  "Well, they USE trucking companies, so their food must be the best if they are competing with the other trucking companies, right?"
10. Re:Siri and translation by Terrasque · 2011-10-17 02:21 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  You can use it for voice dictation... Just about every text input field, now has a microphone that simply lets you say what you were going to type... and the voice recognition is VERY good.
  And that have been on Android since v1.6, actually.
  
  --
  It's The Golden Rule: "He who has the gold makes the rules."
11. Re:Siri and translation by DrgnDancer · 2011-10-17 02:21 · Score: 1
  
  Siri actually does a bit more than just get the jist. You can dictate text messages to it and it will type exactly what you said. On the other hand, while it's pretty good (I have it on my phone and I'm reasonably impressed), there are already stories of some pretty spectacular failures of communication with it, and I've had to repeat myself a couple of times in my experimenting with it too. I'd be wary of using a voice recognition and translation service. Between the fact that voice recognition is generally good, but occasionally hysterically wrong; and the fact that on the fly computer translations are generally good, but occasionally hysterically wrong... Adding the two together, especially when you're trying to communicate with strangers who may or may not be easily insulted by the mistakes seems like a recipe for potential problems.
  
  --
  I don't need a million points of light, just two points of multi-mode fiber and a 10 Gig-E router.
12. Re:Siri and translation by Terrasque · 2011-10-17 02:24 · Score: 1
  
  http://chzautocowrecks.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/selfdestruct.gif
  http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20010320&mode=classic (story arc starts here)
  
  --
  It's The Golden Rule: "He who has the gold makes the rules."
13. Re:Siri and translation by RustyShackleford007 · 2011-10-17 02:25 · Score: 1
  
  Heh.
  What do they call the process where you say that you're better than the competition in a VERY loosely-related type of product?
  e.g. "In the news today, Proctor and Gamble, Inc. has announced that it plans to compete with the largest trucking companies. P&G claims that its delivery processes are faster than all other trucking companies." "Well, they USE trucking companies, so their food must be the best if they are competing with the other trucking companies, right?"
  Yes, and their soap is the smoothest delicacy on the market. LOL
  
  You were thinking of Kraft, right? Bait and switch!
14. Re:Siri and translation by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-17 02:36 · Score: 0
  
  I would hope that Siri will translate soon enough. Especially if they do it in a way that has never been done before to be more realistic.
15. Re:Siri and translation by poofmeisterp · 2011-10-17 02:36 · Score: 0
  
  You were thinking of Kraft, right? Bait and switch!
  You got me, you got me. Actually, yes, I was thinking of a food manufacturer and thought P&G would be a better reference. Great minds. Love your nick btw! What's the gov't up to today?
16. Re:Siri and translation by TheLink · 2011-10-17 02:37 · Score: 1
  
  Yeah, the submitter fails AI.
  
  Maybe one day AIs will only pass the Turing test if they pretend to be stupid.
  --
  
  Too many replies beneath your current threshold
17. Re:Siri and translation by vawwyakr · 2011-10-17 02:38 · Score: 1
  
  My assumption is that Translate is used by other Apps to do voice recognition. I have Vlingo on my Android phone which is very Siri like (it does dictation, search and other such things, I had a phone off with my IPhone 4S using friend on Friday and other than being a bit faster they seemed pretty similar).
18. Re:Siri and translation by TheLink · 2011-10-17 02:43 · Score: 1
  
  P&G actually used to own Pringles, Jif.
  
  I looked that up coz I got the impression that I saw their name before on some snack food. And looks like my memory was OK - they only got rid of Pringles recently.
  --
  
  Too many replies beneath your current threshold
19. Re:Siri and translation by lpp · 2011-10-17 02:48 · Score: 2
  
  My understanding (disclaimer: I do not have a 4S, I'm solely relying on reviews) is that Siri handles natural speech much better than the speech recognition found on Android devices. By natural, I mean regular conversational tone and flow, as opposed to the more robotic method where you must. pause. on. each. word. in order to give the translator the chance to note word breaks and parse the sentence structure. So it's not that Siri does it and Android doesn't. It's that Siri seems to do it better, working for the user instead of the user working for the computer.
20. Re:Siri and translation by poofmeisterp · 2011-10-17 02:50 · Score: 0
  
  Thanks, bro!
  SAFE! :)
21. Re:Siri and translation by MacGyver2210 · 2011-10-17 03:01 · Score: 1
  
  I have actually found the Android voice search to be easier to get to, better at understanding my voice in loud environments, and faster to find what I am actually looking for. Not sure who really thinks Siri is a threat to that, or who thought Siri did translations.
  
  --
  If the only way you can accept an assertion is by faith, then you are conceding that it can't be taken on its own merits
22. Re:Siri and translation by z_gringo · 2011-10-17 03:03 · Score: 1
  
  Not only does Siri not do translations, the command / control functions that she is supposed to do, are extremely limited. Siri, at least for me, fails to work most of the time even for the incredibly simple tasks that I have tried, such as calling contacts and playing certain songs.
  
  For example, Siri can set the alarm for 6:00am, but if I want that alarm to be set for every weekday, that task is too complex for her.
  
  Siri can play songs, provided that your song list is filled with popular songs in english by artists with English sounding names, but if you are using Siri in English and happen to have songs in German by German artist, then Siri is useless. Ditto for making calls to contacts whose names aren't common names for the language you are using Siri in.
  
  Siri actually doesn't seem to be much better than IBMs voice recognition software that I used nearly 20 years ago.
  
  I can't see why anyone is remotely impressed with Siri, it is just a useless waste of time as far as I can tell. Google translate, on the other hand seems really impressive with being able to recognize the speech and translate it to another language.
  
  --
  -- -- Warning. Do not stare directly at the sun.
23. Re:Siri and translation by RustyShackleford007 · 2011-10-17 03:05 · Score: 1
  
  You were thinking of Kraft, right? Bait and switch!
  You got me, you got me. Actually, yes, I was thinking of a food manufacturer and thought P&G would be a better reference. Great minds. Love your nick btw! What's the gov't up to today?
  Thank you. The government is up to making you wish you knew what the government is up to. :)
24. Re:Siri and translation by jonbryce · 2011-10-17 03:16 · Score: 1
  
  Or indeed your last conversation in English with a waiter in London.
25. Re:Siri and translation by toruonu · 2011-10-17 03:21 · Score: 1
  
  Well having been in Japan I can tell you that even though I'm fluent in english it took me also multiple tries to understand what the heck they were trying to tell me in English. Hell I understood more of it when they were talking in Japanese and using body language. So don't blame Siri, even a person can't understand them most of the time because of some very important vowels being missaid...
26. Re:Siri and translation by macs4all · 2011-10-17 03:22 · Score: 1
  
  Well, not that good at getting the gist of it..
  And for those that want to think of Siri as something as good as the average human.. I think most people have no problem figuring out if he meant "Work" or "Home" there...
  I guess you didn't notice the big, fat "BETA" tag that Apple slapped on Siri? Siri isn't perfect at deriving meaning from speech; hell, HUMANS aren't perfect, or there would be far fewer domestic disputes. But it IS apparently good enough to put out there and get quite a bit of usefulness from, even in its present state of DEVELOPMENT.
27. Re:Siri and translation by Quiet_Desperation · 2011-10-17 03:24 · Score: 1
  
  You are correct. The whole article and comparison makes zero sense.
28. Re:Siri and translation by InsertCleverUsername · 2011-10-17 03:27 · Score: 1
  
  There's another free voice app that does much more Siri-esque magic than Google's default. It's a lot of fun to play with and I can't wait to see how much better these voice command apps get in the next decade. Seems like the most difficult challenge ahead is filtering out the aggravating background noises and conversations in most environments.
  
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29. Re:Siri and translation by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-17 03:30 · Score: 0
  
  Are you using the old Siri app or the new one integrated into the OS that uses off-device assets? Oh, wait, new one isn't actually released yet, so your complaints are out of date and pointless.
  More proof geeks are just generally stupid people with a few computer skills.
30. Re:Siri and translation by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-17 03:32 · Score: 1
  
  I've never had to do that with android in fact I'm using it right as I speak to type this message. And it got the message completely correct by the way.
31. Re:Siri and translation by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-17 03:37 · Score: 0
  
  It's called speaktoit and combines TTS, natural language processing and AI to provide a Siri-like experience. Like Apple's Siri, it's nothing new (because it had been available for years before Apple bought it, and barely added new features)
32. Re:Siri and translation by Archangel+Michael · 2011-10-17 03:39 · Score: 1
  
  Okay, how many changed the name of their Porno folder upon reading the first link?
  
  --
  Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
33. Re:Siri and translation by JabrTheHut · 2011-10-17 03:45 · Score: 1
  
  When did you get your iPhone 4S?
  
  --
  Work like no one is watching. Dance like you've never been hurt. Make love like you don't need the money.
34. Re:Siri and translation by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-17 03:54 · Score: 1
  
  ... and the voice recognition is VERY good.
  And that have been on Android since v1.6, actually.
  Not true. The voice recognition on Android is far from being good, let alone VERY good.
35. Re:Siri and translation by Belial6 · 2011-10-17 04:18 · Score: 1
  
  I'm thinking that most of the domestic disputes are not due to a lack of understanding, but instead are because the meaning is clearly understood.
36. Re:Siri and translation by Belial6 · 2011-10-17 04:21 · Score: 2
  
  Trying to talk like a robot and pause between each word will make Android far less accurate in detecting your speech. Google's voice recognition works far better if you speak naturally.
37. Re:Siri and translation by macs4all · 2011-10-17 04:29 · Score: 1
  
  Heh.
  What do they call the process where you say that you're better than the competition in a VERY loosely-related type of product?
  e.g. "In the news today, Proctor and Gamble, Inc. has announced that it plans to compete with the largest trucking companies. P&G claims that its delivery processes are faster than all other trucking companies." "Well, they USE trucking companies, so their food must be the best if they are competing with the other trucking companies, right?"
  I think they call that Strawman Advertising...
  
  You are exactly right. Perfect analogy, too.
38. Re:Siri and translation by macs4all · 2011-10-17 04:32 · Score: 1
  
  My assumption is that Translate is used by other Apps to do voice recognition. I have Vlingo on my Android phone which is very Siri like (it does dictation, search and other such things, I had a phone off with my IPhone 4S using friend on Friday and other than being a bit faster they seemed pretty similar).
  So, you got together with a friend and phoned-off?
39. Re:Siri and translation by gumbi+west · 2011-10-17 04:59 · Score: 1
  
  If google voice's speech to text is any indication, google just can't do speech to text (i.e. "Hi, it's Seth calling" was written, "It's me calling.") too much Bayesian (misses the important part like names and surprising words), too little results.
40. Re:Siri and translation by dogmatixpsych · 2011-10-17 05:54 · Score: 2
  
  My limited experience with Google's voice recognition on my Android phone is that it is okay but nothing special. Actually, it's far more annoying than just typing what I want. I'll be saying something and it will think I'm done talking and stop listening to me. That's mainly why I haven't used it more - it's so buggy that it's not worth the effort. Maybe it's just my phone or my version of Android (2.2) or my technical ineptitude but voice recognition in Android needs a lot of work to get to where Siri is now.
41. Re:Siri and translation by z_gringo · 2011-10-17 06:19 · Score: 1
  
  The new Siri is integrated into the new iPhone 4S,which is what I am using. And yes, it uses off-device assets. It was released with the 4S last Friday.
  
  --
  -- -- Warning. Do not stare directly at the sun.
42. Re:Siri and translation by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-17 06:37 · Score: 0
  
  Siri is a user shell. It provides an interface to the operating system. Voice recognition is one part of the technology; a vital part. The other part is the logic Siri uses to process the words it hears as commands. It translates spoken natural language statements into operating system calls.
  User does not interact with a operating system. Operating System operates every software and hardware what is interface for the user.
  Operating System does not have UI. It has just few hundred API's (called as System Calls) what it offers to software. OS just reads the input and output from software and hardware and directs them to correct software and hardware, translates them if needed (device drivers) and rules what process gets how much memory, how much time from CPU and what data the process can access etc.
  Siri is just software what a operating system is operating. When user press home key, OS reads the input from that key, it then directs it to ordered software what waits such thing and then the software launch a specific functionality in UI by saying to OS that functionality needs to get these codes. Then that functionality launch new fancy graphics by other software and all those OS is operating.
  At last when user speaks, the OS opens the mic, directs the input from it trough the driver (what translates the input) to correct software what then reads the input, stores it and then tells to OS that it needs network protocol open to specific address and OS checks is the connection open and prepares the protocols and then tells back to software that everything is ready what then sends to network the input what is what user talked. Then data gets back, OS directs it to correct software again and it does again all kind fancy things what other software is showing to the user.
  No user sees or use the operating system. Operating system is most important software in the whole software stack as it operates the hardware and every other software. But the other softwares and hardwares are key elements for specific tasks. Like mouse is specific element to have pointing device what sends output to OS and it directs its input to X.org (as example) what then draws it to screen as output and all the time OS does mouse > OS > XOrg > OS > Monitor. And when person clicks something it goes Mouse > OS > XOrg > Application > Xorg > OS > Monitor route (more complex but you get the very basic idea).
  Operating system does not understand what input and output means. It does not care. It only care where do those need to go, at what time and what permits every process has.
  Siri is "amazing" software (not actually). It is not smart, it does not understand the context (even it is marketed so) as only human does it. And even humans have problems to translate jokes so it works in context.
  Siri is just stupid technology what takes the voice input, translates it to text (there is other technology doing that) and then it greps the words trough the keylist. If there is keyword what match, then it knows what user might want to do.
  Example "Is it raining today?"
  Siri needs just two words from it. Raining what is one keyword in wordlist of all "rain, raining, rains, rained" (or how it is written) and siri knows it is about weather and specific kind weather. Then other word "today" what means date and especially this day what is on calender.
  So it gets very basic data what it needs to join, the date and specific weather. How hard it is to check from table of data and check is it YES or NO for next n+1 hours of the calender for that date. If there is "Yes", then Siri needs to check correct answer from database for that, copy text to text-to-speech what then generates the sound for user.
  Questions like "What is capital city of United States" is not hard. Two keywords, "capital city" and "United States" is almost enough. But to be accurate, "What" directs Siri to again specific answer database. As it can be different question like "How far a
43. Re:Siri and translation by Nethead · 2011-10-17 06:49 · Score: 1
  
  That sounds like most of my product support calls.
  
  --
  -- I have a private email server in my basement.
44. Re:Siri and translation by immaterial · 2011-10-17 07:01 · Score: 1
  
  The standard iOS alarm app doesn't do recurring alarms. That's a deficiency in the alarm app, not Siri. Ask her for a recurring event at 6 am and she'll do that, but unfortunately the events alarm is not sufficient to wake a typical person. Hopefully once Siri is out of beta there'll be a developer API so it can be integrated with better alarm apps!
45. Re:Siri and translation by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-17 07:50 · Score: 0
  
  Android's Voice search is also configurable to several languages, so it's useful to more people.
46. Re:Siri and translation by schlachter · 2011-10-17 08:21 · Score: 1
  
  Actually that's been on the iPhone since the 3G. It's called Dragon Dictate.
  Siri's more than voice recognition or voice command. There's some context tracking and intelligence behind it all.
  
  --
  My God can beat up your God. Just kidding...don't take offense. I know there's no God.
47. Re:Siri and translation by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-17 08:24 · Score: 0
  
  Yes it has. But that has nothing to do with Siri.
48. Re:Siri and translation by z_gringo · 2011-10-17 08:44 · Score: 1
  
  My standard IOS 5 alarm app does recurring alarms just fine. I can't say what the alarm app did or did not do before IOS5, but the app in IOS 5 has no problem with setting up and alarm for every weekday at 6:30am. Siri can't set it for you though.
  
  --
  -- -- Warning. Do not stare directly at the sun.
49. Re:Siri and translation by gmhowell · 2011-10-17 10:34 · Score: 1
  
  Everyone knows 'beta' is a tag that only Google can use for their shittastic software, years after release.
  
  --
  Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
50. Re:Siri and translation by Anthony+Mouse · 2011-10-17 12:26 · Score: 1
  
  However, Siri's grasp of context is, hypothetically speaking at least, and important step for translation.
  I think this is the key point here, especially when you consider it from the other way around: If you have a translator, you have something that inherently needs to understand the meaning of language so that it can translate it properly.
  So let's say you do something in the nature of defining a new language as a series of functions. "Call Bob" means "telephone_connect(Bob)" etc. Now you can translate from English (or whatever other language the user speaks -- or types) into some kind of 'action language' that the device can execute directly. The ability of the translator to detect context and change the meaning (and therefore the action) is a big feature -- the better a translator it is, the better it understands what you mean when you tell it to do something. You end up with a natural-to-machine-language translator, but in a way that could actually be usefully implemented -- because you take the code already written (like making a phone call) and make it available to the translator as part of the language being translated to.
  You still end up with the unavoidable problems (e.g. confusing sound-alike words that both fit the context, or linguistic ambiguities like 'bob took a picture of alice on the patio'), but it makes a big step toward an interesting result.
51. Re:Siri and translation by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-17 15:45 · Score: 0
  
  So what you're saying is that nothing computers do is ever amazing because we know how it works and it can always be analysed down to the lowest, most unamazing computational steps.
  
  Operating System operates every software and hardware what is interface for the user.
  lol...did that come straight out of google translate? Your sentence doesn't make sense but i can infer what you meant based on keywords, just like Siri does, so even with English as bad as yours Siri can understand you.
  
  Siri is "amazing" software (not actually). It is not smart, it does not understand the context (even it is marketed so) as only human does it.
  Well what's your definition of 'smart'? It infers context based on the input and uses a knowledge-base to answer the question.
  
  User does not interact with a operating system.
  Of course the user does, they do so indirectly. You could just as easily say a user does not interact with software because that interaction always happens through an intermediary of some kind, the hardware interface.
  
  Siri does not understand what people are speaking
  The great thing about it is the ability to infer context from what is written, i don't understand what you're saying either, it doesn't make sense in English but given that i can take individual words and infer the context from that i can understand your meaning even though your English is terrible.
52. Re:Siri and translation by blackpig · 2011-10-17 16:48 · Score: 2
  
  Google does not currently have an equivalent to Siri.
  By "Google" I assume you mean 'Android'?
  Speaktoit has been around for a while.
  Do try to keep up.
53. Re:Siri and translation by immaterial · 2011-10-17 22:32 · Score: 1
  
  Sorry, I hadnt realized that feature was added. Not one of the heavily advertised changes I guess.
54. Re:Siri and translation by dswskinner · 2011-10-17 23:46 · Score: 1
  
  Yeah it does, I've been using my iPhone as an alarm for a couple of years now. I have 1 alarm set for week days and 1 set for weekends. Thankfully have not been bitten by the DST bug that others have seen yet.
55. Re:Siri and translation by Macgrrl · 2011-10-18 14:36 · Score: 1
  
  Oh Noes! I see a design patent injunction in Apple's future over the use of the beta tag...
  
  --
  Sara
  Designer, Gamer, Macgrrl in an XP World
Google Improves Android Translator To Battle Siri? by Pieroxy · 2011-10-17 01:37 · Score: 4, Insightful

Why the catchy headline "To Battle Siri"? Why wouldn't it be just for "Improving Android Translator"?

--
Write boring code, not shiny code!
Re:Yes, that's neat but worthless by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-17 01:37 · Score: 4, Informative

Nice troll, but version 2.2 of Google Translate for Android is currently available in the standard Android Market on my Verizon Droid2. And if it wasn't, and I really wanted it, I could just download it and install manually. The only thing Verizon holds back is OS revisions, and while it would be nice if they offered some sort of "early adopter" program where you could update before the new version has been certified, it's pretty understandable that they don't just push the updates out to everyone on release day since they have to support it.
Re:Yes, that's neat but worthless by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-17 01:38 · Score: 1

See they have this thing called a marketplace, and well I'll let you click and learn
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.google.android.apps.translate&feature=search_result
Siri doesTranslation? by Grizzley9 · 2011-10-17 01:42 · Score: 4, Insightful

Does Siri even do translation? Every time I've asked it to translate an English word into Spanish it says it doesn't know what I mean. This is not "battling" Siri at all. Catchy key-word title to get more clicks is what I see.
1. Re:Siri doesTranslation? by 0racle · 2011-10-17 03:04 · Score: 1
  
  Sometimes when products compete, they don't aim to simply implement the same features. Sometimes they add different features to appeal to people that think feature A on one product is pretty neat but they can't live without feature B that is now on your product and not the other.
  
  --
  "I use a Mac because I'm just better than you are."
2. Re:Siri doesTranslation? by amRadioHed · 2011-10-17 05:26 · Score: 1
  
  Ok, but it still has nothing to do with Siri. This is a feature that Google introduced something like 6 months ago, they just updated it to support more languages.
  
  --
  We hope your rules and wisdom choke you / Now we are one in everlasting peace
An app upgrade, not an os upgrade by Comboman · 2011-10-17 01:44 · Score: 2

Google Translate is an app on Android Marketplace. It is not part of the OS, thus the carrier cannot stop you from upgrading it. Also if you're so bent out of shape about carrier restrictions then buy an unlocked phone like the Nexus S (or root your carrier subsidized phone).

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Re:Yes, that's neat but worthless by monkeyhybrid · 2011-10-17 01:44 · Score: 4, Informative

The app itself is free to download from the android market and will run on any Android device running Andorid 1.5+. That's pretty much everything.

Conversation mode does appear to require Android 2.2 though, which means it should work on fine on ~85% of Android devices out in the wild.
It's a lot of fun! (ELEVEN!) by SebZero · 2011-10-17 01:44 · Score: 2

The conversation mode is in alpha and it's intermittently very good or very bad (a complete hoot)!
I'm bilingual and visited my mother with a, "mum come have a go at this" - 15 minutes later we gave up with tears of laughter at some of the translations.
Then of course, we tried pieces of the "voice recognition lift" skit which has again come into relevance with the release of siri
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FFRoYhTJQQ
Your mother is called. by Jawnn · 2011-10-17 01:46 · Score: 4, Insightful

She said to tell you to stop being so serious about trivial shit like what one smart phone does and another can't. Oh, she also said to get a life and move out of her basement.
Except Siri doesn't do any of that. by BLToday · 2011-10-17 01:46 · Score: 1

What competition? Google Translate "translates", Siri is a "voice personal assistant".
Siri vs Google Translator by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-17 01:49 · Score: 0

How can you even begin to compare two such different applications? They serve two completely different purposes and appeal to two completely different groups of people. I, personally, don't need a 12 (or was it 14) language translator. On the other hand, it is nice to ask my phone if I'll need an umbrella today. (Guess what? I won't.)
Re:Google Improves Android Translator To Battle Si by MobileTatsu-NJG · 2011-10-17 01:51 · Score: 0

Apple hype is lighting a fire under Google to improve their offerings ... and that's a bad thing?
What happend to 'competition is good' back when Slashdot's goal was to malign Microsoft in every even numbered article?

--

"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
You mean... by tripleevenfall · 2011-10-17 01:51 · Score: 0, Troll

Soon Apple will be patent trolling that Google Translate is ripping off Siri
Re:Improved? by insertwackynamehere · 2011-10-17 01:58 · Score: 1

I figured out earlier on this is a fakepost or troll, but iPhone has had voice commands for a while. Hold down the home button and talk away.
Except it's not by hellfire · 2011-10-17 02:00 · Score: 5, Insightful

Except Siri doesn't do translation, it does voice command recognition. This is a fail by the editors, picking a submission that deliberately creates an "Apple vs Google" headline to stir up page loads. It's like comparing Google Reader to Apple Mail, it's nonsensical.

--
"All great wisdom is contained in .signature files"
1. Re:Except it's not by MobileTatsu-NJG · 2011-10-17 02:04 · Score: 1
  
  Of course Slashdot is trolling for ad-views! The point is that at least here it's working to your benefit.
  
  --
  
  "I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
2. Re:Except it's not by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-17 02:31 · Score: 0
  
  I'd still argue it's incorrect even in that case. This isn't Google improving their offering in response to new features from Apple unless you honestly believe they did all of the development work to drive these improvements in the last week or so. Clearly something like this Google would have been working on for a long time, this is just Google tries to improve upon Google in order to remain a prominent company - competition with Apple and the likes is part of the big picture, but this feature is not a direct answer to Apple's new feature.
next... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-17 02:00 · Score: 1

Google Improves Orange to Battle Apple
Funny thing about this Siri business.... by kervin · 2011-10-17 02:01 · Score: 4, Informative

First, the article makes no sense since Siri doesn't do translation. I guess translation doesn't "exist" yet since Apple doesn't have a product.
Google, Nuance and Microsoft have been pushing Speech Recognition for a few years now. These companies put millions into NLP R&D ever year and are on the forefront of technology. Apple had been ignoring this space and so these companies have had great Speech Recognition and other NLP products for a while and Apple doesn't.
Google and Microsoft are about to release the next wave of speech products ( e.g. in Android 4 and WP 8 ). These companies have NLP technology Apple hasn't even begin to tackle. Like NLP in all major world languages and across many markets ( eg. Checkout EngKoo for example )
IOS was falling behind and Apple scrambled to purchase a Speech recognition mobile app, quickly licensed Nuance and Wolfram Alpha knowledgebase technology, and added those APIs in the operating system. They had to remove Siri from their market place.
Marketing mentions DARPA, but just about all Speech R&D is funded in someway by DARPA. DARPA's been carrying that torch for a while now. Even the popular open source Pocket Sphinx was made possible by partial DARPA funding.
In short this Siri marketing push is the largest scale astroturf marketing campaign I've ever seen.
1. Re:Funny thing about this Siri business.... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-17 02:11 · Score: 1
  
  They bought Siri two years ago. Some crazy scramble huh?
2. Re:Funny thing about this Siri business.... by Henriok · 2011-10-17 02:21 · Score: 1, Informative
  
  The problem with everything you mentions is that it can be awesomely great, but fundamentally useless if no one knows that it excises at all. I didn't know Google have any speech services, nor Microsoft. I do however know that Apple has, so what Apple have done is useful for me. What Google or Microsoft has done was impossible for me to use, since it was unknown to me.
  
  --
  
  - Henrik
  
  - when the Shadows descend -
3. Re:Funny thing about this Siri business.... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-17 02:30 · Score: 1
  
  I guess translation doesn't "exist" yet since Apple doesn't have a product.
  In context, your comment makes no sense, as the article notes that Google has added translation to their voice recognition app thus it surely exists. The article's point is that Google is trying to make the app more useful and translation is one way they are doing it.
  Normal people don't endlessly categorize everything.
  
  These companies put millions into NLP R&D ever year and are on the forefront of technology. Apple had been ignoring this space
  Yet few people use those products and they certainly don't generate much excitement. Generally they cause more frustration than they alleviate, with their need for explicit phrasing and the fact they often make simple mistakes that take more time to correct than was saved by using speech in the first place.
  And unless you have some inside information on Apple's R&D efforts I doubt you have any idea what they are or aren't ignoring. As is typical of Apple, they don't release products/features until they think people will want and use them. Is Siri one? Haven't used it so I have no idea.
  
  IOS was falling behind and Apple scrambled to purchase a Speech recognition mobile app
  I doubt any company with as much money as Apple scamble to do anything. iOS continue to outsell Android as well as bring in far more money.
  As far as their removing it, it was their company to do with what they want. It was for sale when they bought it and if you wanted to keep the app up you could've bought it, but probably not.
  
  In short this Siri marketing push is the largest scale astroturf marketing campaign I've ever seen
  Apple promoting an Apple product? Say it ain't so.
4. Re:Funny thing about this Siri business.... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-17 02:33 · Score: 0
  
  lol how is Siri marketing "astroturfing" in any way
  protip buying ad slots in prime time isn't astroturfing, it's advertising
5. Re:Funny thing about this Siri business.... by Thaedron · 2011-10-17 02:41 · Score: 1
  
  Yes, and which was the technologically better platform, VHS or Beta...??? Whether they are better than the competition or not, they have scored a huge coup by bringing a product to market that is very very good in the niche that it is designed to operate and thusly gained a crap-ton of recognition for it. And once again they are driving change in the landscape.
6. Re:Funny thing about this Siri business.... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-17 02:46 · Score: 0
  
  The problem with everything you mentions is that it can be awesomely great, but fundamentally useless if no one knows that it excises at all. I didn't know Google have any speech services, nor Microsoft. I do however know that Apple has, so what Apple have done is useful for me. What Google or Microsoft has done was impossible for me to use, since it was unknown to me.
  What Apple has done is impossible for me to use, since my phone runs a superior platform. But I've been enjoying Google's speech tech quite a bit. Sorry you didn't get the memo.
7. Re:Funny thing about this Siri business.... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-17 03:13 · Score: 0
  
  iOS continue to outsell Android as well as bring in far more money
  I don't think so.
8. Re:Funny thing about this Siri business.... by tlhIngan · 2011-10-17 04:01 · Score: 1
  
  IOS was falling behind and Apple scrambled to purchase a Speech recognition mobile app, quickly licensed Nuance and Wolfram Alpha knowledgebase technology, and added those APIs in the operating system. They had to remove Siri from their market place.
  Actually, Siri was bought by Apple. They do license a bunch of stuff from Nuance and probably incorporated it into Siri, but from the Siri devs, the 3GS was simply incapable of doing the necessary processing without a lot of shortcuts.
  Apple saw the Siri app, was impressed, and bought the company so they could integrate it into the OS (and have more deeper integration) as well as remove the cheats that were done in order to run smoothly on a 3GS.
  At best they added WolframAlpha to Siri's database to consult, but I'm pretty sure that was a backend integration task with WolframAlpha than Apple buying that stuff.
9. Re:Funny thing about this Siri business.... by Nemyst · 2011-10-17 04:07 · Score: 1
  
  If you read the post properly, you'll notice that it'll be in the next generation of WP and Android devices. It's rather logical that neither Google nor Microsoft has said anything about it thus far since they haven't announced any device running on said OS. We're expecting them momentarily, at least for ICS, but it's not there yet.
  The marketing push will start when devices are announced, assuming they have something ready.
10. Re:Funny thing about this Siri business.... by RightSaidFred99 · 2011-10-17 04:34 · Score: 1
  
  Ummm.. yes? Or do you think major purchases and integration like that can happen overnight?
11. Re:Funny thing about this Siri business.... by RightSaidFred99 · 2011-10-17 04:35 · Score: 1
  
  VHS was better. You seem to think Beta was, when it clearly wasn't - ergo the rest of your comment isn't very useful to read.
12. Re:Funny thing about this Siri business.... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-17 06:40 · Score: 0
  
  exactly my thoughts.
  Though however whenever I show someone the voice recognition they whip out their phone and try it. With a uniform "thats cool". The problem is most people do not even know it is there...
  Its 'ok'. It does a pretty good job. Unfortunately I have picked up a bit of a 'suuuthern' accent. Which makes many words sound nearly identical even though in context they would be something else.
13. Re:Funny thing about this Siri business.... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-17 07:38 · Score: 0
  
  In context, your comment makes no sense, as the article notes that Google has added translation to their voice recognition app thus it surely exists. The article's point is that Google is trying to make the app more useful and translation is one way they are doing it.
  Except that the app in question is specifically for translation. It would be more accurate to say "Google is trying to make the app more useful and voice recognition is one way they are doing it".
  
  I doubt any company with as much money as Apple scamble to do anything. iOS continue to outsell Android as well as bring in far more money.
  Even if that's true, they'll have to keep up with the competition if they want things to stay that way.
14. Re:Funny thing about this Siri business.... by schlachter · 2011-10-17 08:25 · Score: 1
  
  Apple's iPhone has done translations for a long time. There's a google app for that. Works the same as on Android.
  But you're missing the point. The speech recognition is not even handled by Siri or Apple. It's contracted out to Nuance.
  Its the intelligence behind it all that was DARPA funded ($150M).
  
  --
  My God can beat up your God. Just kidding...don't take offense. I know there's no God.
15. Re:Funny thing about this Siri business.... by hawaiian717 · 2011-10-17 11:20 · Score: 1
  
  Apple had been ignoring this space
  Well, except for the PlainTalk technology they introduced in 1993.
  
  Google and Microsoft are about to release the next wave of speech products ( e.g. in Android 4 and WP 8 ). These companies have NLP technology Apple hasn't even begin to tackle. Like NLP in all major world languages and across many markets.
  So, the technology you can get from Apple today is inferior to technology you'll be able to get from Google and Microsoft at some point in the future. This is neither surprising nor a valid argument.
  Nor do you know what Apple is working on for future releases, but it's can be said with reasonably high assurance that Siri 2.0 will be better than the Siri we have today.
  
  --
  End of Line.
16. Re:Funny thing about this Siri business.... by King_TJ · 2011-10-17 15:26 · Score: 1
  
  I suppose you're technically correct (although I believe Apple was dabbling in voice recognition a bit with newer iPods, before Siri was even on anyone's radar, as a way to control basic music player functions, hands-free). But IMHO, this whole "Siri popularity" thing has as much to do with the implementation as the technology itself.
  As is typical for Apple, they've taken an existing technology ... perhaps even one that's not clearly "best of breed", but found a way to integrate it so the average user will actually USE it regularly and enjoy it.
  The humorous responses Siri gives to many queries and the friendly way it handles others goes a LONG way towards hooking new users on it. I definitely don't recall any voice assistant software on Android that would give playful or creative replies to basic questions about the weather. With Siri, I might ask "How will the weather be in Hawaii on Thursday?" and get back a reply like "Bring your sunglasses! It looks like it will be warm and sunny!" At best, I'd expect a dry, literal response from the likes of Microsoft or Google.
  Also, IMO, it's no small detail to note that Apple wound up licensing Nuance and Wolfram technologies. You could do FAR worse than combining those two powerhouses for your voice recognition needs! If I had to bet, I'd put my money on the two of them doing a superior job in the speech recognition arena to Microsoft (who has their hands in as many cookies jars as possible at any given time, vs. specializing in such things).
17. Re:Funny thing about this Siri business.... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-17 18:38 · Score: 0
  
  It makes no sense here to refer to Siri's marketing push as astroturf, because there is NO EFFORT to make it appear as if the ad copy and promotion of Siri and iPhone 4S is grass roots and community-driven. All Siri advertisements are clearly Apple-originated. In other words, you have no idea what astroturf means.
All your base are belong to us by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-17 02:04 · Score: 0

Nope... still doesn't work.
Old translator sucks rocks... by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-17 02:05 · Score: 0

Actually decided to attempt to use it on a trip to Brazil earlier this year - it is not ready for prime time. Fortunately, I had purchased a specialty tool which actually worked quite well. I figured that the Google one would be better since it would use the back-end Google engine for translations, but that didn't work at all. So while it's a good idea - it just doesn't work in practice.
I wanted a device which I could use in a conversation translating both sides back and forth for very simple sentences. As I said the Android translator was worthless - I doubt any for the iPhone would have done better. But the little translator I purchased did well enough that I could communicate. Although I did have to fall back on my less than adequate Spanish at times to get the idea across. Fortunately, Brazilians can understand Spanish since it's like mis-pronounced Portuguese although it can be difficult for them to butcher their language into something understandable as Spanish.
The voice recognition ability was the real down falling. Although we are much closer than 10 years ago, we still have a long way to go....
article translation? by norminator · 2011-10-17 02:10 · Score: 2

which lets users to translate chats
Who translated this article?
1. Re:article translation? by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-17 04:41 · Score: 0
  
  Google translate is to be helping, and not to be laughful at.
Unrelated by Asten · 2011-10-17 02:16 · Score: 1

So, aside from what everyone has pointed out already - that these are not really direct competition - it should also be noted that google probably didn't just code this all up in a couple weeks. It's likely been on their roadmap and under development for months.
Re:Yes, that's neat but worthless by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-17 02:18 · Score: 0, Insightful

Cut him some slack, he's probably an iOS user and used to the fact that the OS arbitrarily adds in apps he can't remove or bans ones he wants.
nice. by mikeru22 · 2011-10-17 02:18 · Score: 1

Excited to see where this goes.

--
Go study.
useless by Blymie · 2011-10-17 02:30 · Score: 3, Insightful

Google's voice search, and translate, and all other speech -> text products are absolutely useless. I find a very, very, very low success rate.
Good luck if I'm driving in a car too, and the background noise adds to the difficulty.
I know many other people that are in the same boat, but these are all locals. I wonder if other people think it's just great to have to repeat themselves 10 times, or if others do not have the same issues. I do not believe that local dialects and pronunciation is the issue, the english I hear here, seems to be the same english I might hear on Northern US news reports, on TV stations.
However, as it sits? Useless!
1. Re:useless by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-17 02:52 · Score: 1
  
  I have been using google voice actions for well over a year and have a great success rate doing even longish dictation except in high noise situations. However, I do talk without much of an accent and make it a point to enunciate all the syllables but am still often amazed how well it works with even proper nouns. I would recommend trying to speak US English without an accent. I know this may be difficult for someone with a strong accent, but perhaps Hugh Laurie can give you some pointers.
2. Re:useless by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-17 03:02 · Score: 1
  
  Not only that, but Google voice recognition requires wifi or data connection.
  So, If you're out of office and out of 3G range (or don't have data plan (kbites left for the month)), you're practically talking to a brick.
3. Re:useless by asylumx · 2011-10-17 03:22 · Score: 1
  
  Maybe I'm only recalling AT&T, but I don't think you can even buy an iPhone without a data plan.
4. Re:useless by jfengel · 2011-10-17 03:32 · Score: 1
  
  I haven't used Google voice recognition in this context, but I have seen it in use on YouTube videos. I have yet to see a single case, even for simple spoken speech, where it was even describable as usable.
  Their translator generally gets the gist of things, from properly-written text. But the speech-to-text part of it is not ready for prime time, at least not for naturally spoken speech. Maybe it's better when you're speaking directly to it.
5. Re:useless by ergo98 · 2011-10-17 03:36 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  " I do not believe that local dialects and pronunciation is the issue"
  I have been using the voice input functionality since it came out, and have been shocked at the startling accuracy of it. It is almost never wrong, and is eminently useful for navigation, making calls (by number or by name), or for voice dictation in a message. I use it frequently and it is shockingly rare that it isn't dead on.
  I'm talking about just general voice to text, not about translate which adds another language to language issue, however Google has the voice recognition thing DOWN. I imagine there are some accents and manners of speech that present it difficulty however.
6. Re:useless by tlhIngan · 2011-10-17 03:56 · Score: 1
  
  Not only that, but Google voice recognition requires wifi or data connection.
  So, If you're out of office and out of 3G range (or don't have data plan (kbites left for the month)), you're practically talking to a brick.
  Siri does too. It does a lot of heavy lifting locally, but also does a pile on the back end to understand.
7. Re:useless by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-17 05:08 · Score: 0
  
  I'm not sure- I use androids Speech->text function all the time, and while it most certainly makes errors, I find the input method to be faster then simply using the keyboard, even with keyboard input methods such as swipe.
  Now, I can't just go speech->text, and hit send without a few embarrassing mishaps, but by the same token I can't just type away and click send without editing without similar mishaps.
  I would say that I get about 95% accuracy with Speech->text in a quiet environment(letter per letter recognition, if I said 'breath' and it makes it into 'breast' that would be 4/6 or 66% for that word alone, if it got the rest of the sentence it would be above 95, but it could have completely changed the meaning, and made it embarrassing to boot) , dropping to ~80% in noisy environments (and making far more radical departures from the words I am trying to say).
  In conclusion: It may in fact just be you if your getting much less then 95% letter accuracy in a quiet environment- or you may have a different definition of 'highly accurate' and become frustrated even with 95% correct translation.
8. Re:useless by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-17 08:37 · Score: 0
  
  English is an isolative language, which means that is has a greater tendency to form new words for concepts by compouding existing words than deriving new headwords.
  I believe in less isolative languages, which have a greater tendency to simply coin new headwords, local dialects/slang might be a greater problem.
Voice Translation is Useless by PerfectionLost · 2011-10-17 02:38 · Score: 1

Having just traveled to a spanish speaking country, I can say with certainty that I did not use voice translation at all. That said, Wordlens (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/word-lens/id383463868?mt=8 and again http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2OfQdYrHRs) was so useful in a restaurant as a vegetarian trying to figure out what was meat and what was not...
1. Re:Voice Translation is Useless by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-17 03:08 · Score: 0
  
  Or you could have taken thirty minutes to learn some spanish food terms before visiting another country. Hell, you could even be more intellectually lazy and just learned something like "soy vegetariano" or "tiene la comidas vegetariana?"
  "What we have here, is a failure to communicate."
We can do it. It just wasn't "economically viable" by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-17 03:03 · Score: 0

This is one of those times when the technology exists, it can be done, but some guy decided it will cost too much and bring in too little. Then another guy who just sells hardware and likes to put cool stuff on the hardware regardless of profitability of the cool stuff itself (it basically doesn't bring any money in by itself, but its coolness factor makes people buy the phone) and all of a sudden there's interest?
Re:Yes, that's neat but worthless by macs4all · 2011-10-17 03:12 · Score: 1

The app itself is free to download from the android market and will run on any Android device running Andorid 1.5+. That's pretty much everything.

Conversation mode does appear to require Android 2.2 though, which means it should work on fine on ~85% of Android devices out in the wild.
But, without integration into the OS, isn't this just a standalone app with limited usefulness? I'm not trolling, I'm genuinely curious. How does something like this enhance the ability to schedule an event, play a song, ask for directions, etc. (all which require interacting with another app)?

Google Translate is as much a competitor with Siri as MS Word is a competitor with AutoDesk Inventor. They have nothing to do with each other, other than they are both "software".
I'm looking forward to the day... by mswhippingboy · 2011-10-17 03:15 · Score: 3, Funny

I'm looking forward to the day when both iOS and Android devices both have continuous speech recognition tied to chatter-bot apps so that we can just sit back and watch them argue amongst themselves about which is better, thereby saving ./ 80% of the conversion space.
Then we can focus on something really important like who was more influential - Dennis Ritchie or Steve Jobs....

--
Sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel is the headlight of an oncoming train.
1. Re:I'm looking forward to the day... by mswhippingboy · 2011-10-17 03:21 · Score: 1
  
  Um... that's "/." not "./", sorry for the current directory reference.
  
  --
  Sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel is the headlight of an oncoming train.
2. Re:I'm looking forward to the day... by iluvcapra · 2011-10-17 05:11 · Score: 1
  
  He keeps all of his conversations in a folder in his cwd named "80%"
  
  --
  Don't blame me, I voted for Baltar.
Tested it this morning by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-17 03:19 · Score: 0

I have relatives coming to visit in a few weeks, who don't speak English, and I tested Google Translate on speech to speech this morning. It would be great if it could help with very simple directions, so that they could feel more at ease in getting around. Unfortunately, it is not yet useful. The speech recognition works well. The text to speech works well. The translate - nope.
Several issues:
- Nouns were presented as adjectives, completely changing the meaning of where to go.
- Questions were not identified as such, so these became statements.
- Often, verbs were entirely discarded.
It's not ready for primetime. I'm an Android owner, not an iPhone owner, but this isn't even useful, much less competitive.
Don't know why this is something "new" by Kartu · 2011-10-17 03:29 · Score: 1

Got my Galaxy S (I9000, not the latest version) 2 weeks ago.
It comes with Android 2.3.3. It already has quite good voice recognition that supports dosen of languages. This can't be "response to Siri" can it?
Success rate for me is 90%+. If I try to speak slower than usual, nearly 100%.
But my wife has problems talking to it and it always failed to understand what my kid says.
PS
Let me remind you, that Siri is a former app. (now removed from the app store)
1. Re:Don't know why this is something "new" by smash · 2011-10-17 03:56 · Score: 1
  
  OK, tell your phone to say, book a calendar appointment or set an alarm. Or check/read your email. Siri is more than voice recognition.
  
  --
  I run: Windows, OS X, Linux, FreeBSD. Just because you have a hammer, doesn't mean everything is a nail.
2. Re:Don't know why this is something "new" by mswhippingboy · 2011-10-17 03:56 · Score: 1
  
  it always failed to understand what my kid says.
  I have the same problem (failing to understand what my kid says).
  
  --
  Sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel is the headlight of an oncoming train.
3. Re:Don't know why this is something "new" by amRadioHed · 2011-10-17 05:42 · Score: 1
  
  Setting an alarm works, as well as several other commands. Can't read email though, only sends email.
  
  --
  We hope your rules and wisdom choke you / Now we are one in everlasting peace
Re:Yes, that's neat but worthless by monkeyhybrid · 2011-10-17 03:29 · Score: 1

It is a standalone app but using Android's APIs and other app hooks it can do quite a lot. Compose and send SMS, make calls, search the web, get directions, etc.
Make it happen on the phone by Culture20 · 2011-10-17 03:33 · Score: 0

None of this "we'll take your voice, send it to the cloud, upscale it, enhance, enhance, enhance, zoom it, then return a translated text that the local text to speech program reads". I want it to happen on my phone, even if it takes 30 minutes. Otherwise, who's going to pay for the "cloud" processing when everyone starts using it more regularly?
1. Re:Make it happen on the phone by smash · 2011-10-17 03:57 · Score: 1
  
  Apple has been busy building a new datacenter for it.... no doubt mostly for storage for itunes/iCloud/app store, but i'm guessing as a consequence they have an absolute shitload of free CPU time sitting there under utilised.
  
  --
  I run: Windows, OS X, Linux, FreeBSD. Just because you have a hammer, doesn't mean everything is a nail.
2. Re:Make it happen on the phone by mswhippingboy · 2011-10-17 03:58 · Score: 1
  
  Your attitude is sooo last year!
  
  --
  Sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel is the headlight of an oncoming train.
3. Re:Make it happen on the phone by Culture20 · 2011-10-17 04:19 · Score: 1
  
  Sooo last year until services like RIM's go down for three days.
Re:Google Improves Android Translator To Battle Si by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-17 03:35 · Score: 0

Why the catchy headline "To Battle Siri"? Why wouldn't it be just for "Improving Android Translator"?
Because then you couldn't start the rewriting of history to be consistent with the Apple hype circus.
Remember, if Apple does something, it's never been done before, or if has, Apple did it so much better as to be qualitatively different from everything that came before, and anything that's vaguely similar, regardless of how different, is by definition playing catch-up because it's not Apple.
You'd think you'd get your basic Apple media coverage narrative down by now, especially on Slashdot.
Re:Improved? by intheshelter · 2011-10-17 03:36 · Score: 0

Put your spreadsheet away (how pathetic that you have one) and realize that Google does not currently have an offering that does what Siri does. They have snippets of it, but Siri does much more than just commands.
Google Translate by mswhippingboy · 2011-10-17 03:36 · Score: 2

As an aside and part of the Stanford introduction to AI course, Peter Norvig discusses some technical aspects of how Google translate works under the covers. Pretty interesting for the nerds among us...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=sPSN0aI0PgE

--
Sometimes the light at the end of the tunnel is the headlight of an oncoming train.
STFU, worthless nerd by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-17 03:40 · Score: 0

And Apple will put voice recognition into people's pockets whereas the others have been fiddling around for years accomplihsing... what? A bunch of twitchy crap.
You geek filth will never EVER get it, and the world is learning more and more the lot of you are just a pack of losers with a handful of computer skills and NOTHING else going for you. Now, back to work so that the jock who fucked all the cheerleaders and who is now your boss can make more money for his coke habit off your labors, you dumb, blind idiot.
Oh, and learn what astroturfing actually means, you dumb shit.
Re:Google Improves Android Translator To Battle Si by Pieroxy · 2011-10-17 03:59 · Score: 1

It not a bad thing, it's just not true. Apple's Siri is not competing with Google Translator. They're different products for different purposes.

--
Write boring code, not shiny code!
How much of an improvement? by doubleplusungodly · 2011-10-17 04:33 · Score: 1

Can this improved Android translator give consistent translations when translating the translated result back to its original language? From my experience with translators and languages, translating East Asian (and probably most non-European) languages into English gives you really shitty results.

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Re:Yes, that's neat but worthless by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-17 05:08 · Score: 0

Funny, because I just now installed the latest Google Translate from the Android Marketplace and it's working pretty damned well.
Re:Google Improves Android Translator To Battle Si by bill_mcgonigle · 2011-10-17 05:31 · Score: 1

Because it couldn't be that Apple is playing catch-up to Android on this one. Rather, Apple introduced a new feature that nobody else has ever had, and in the intervening week, Google developed a tool to translate between a dozen languages, ran it through QA, and released it, just to play catch-up to Apple.
Oh, wait, no it's just fanboi revisionism.

--
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Hungarian by rasmusbr · 2011-10-17 07:06 · Score: 1

Call me when it does Hungarian...
suing? by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-17 07:52 · Score: 0

who is going to sue who over this in the future LOL
Poor for speech to text, good for conversation by Paul+Fernhout · 2011-10-17 09:40 · Score: 1

Yest, 95% accuracy has always been the bane of speech systems (even 99% accuracy can be a problem). It just costs a lot of time to correct things, especially when they are not obvious typos but are similar looking real words. This has been a problem with speech to text from the start. That is why I believe ultimately, rather than for dictation, speech is best used in a more conversational way, interpreting what is said, and with back-and-forth questioning and feedback.
I worked for a time as a contractor at IBM Research doing embedded speech around 1999 on the IBM Personal Speech Assistant:
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/freeabs_all.jsp?arnumber=940752
I wrote up some conceptual ideas for an even more conversational system (running a display wall for use in creating new designs and new patents). When my supervisor went on vacation, made a display wall mockup with nine think pads (a bit like a Jeopardy wall :-) to test a bit of that. Boy was my supervisor surprised when he came back from vacation -- luckily I was not in the lab when he saw it the first time. :-) And now, a decade later, there is Watson.
An Apple recruiter contacted me a couple years ago (I am on a patent related to that PSA work) but I was not interested back then (who knows, I might be now). But I figured something like Siri was in the air, because that's essentially the kind of thing we were working on back then.

--
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
Re:Yes, that's neat but worthless by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-17 09:46 · Score: 0

He's probably an iOS user that already has what he needs and doesn't have to fuck with his phone to get it.
Re:Google Improves Android Translator To Battle Si by gmhowell · 2011-10-17 12:55 · Score: 1

Apple hype is lighting a fire under Google to improve their offerings ... and that's a bad thing?
What happend to 'competition is good' back when Slashdot's goal was to malign Microsoft in every non-prime numbered article?
FTFY

--
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
Never India Google by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-17 13:57 · Score: 0

Till iOS5 no smartphone would support Hindi or any Indian Language. Where will Google learn?
google voice by utkonos · 2011-10-17 14:39 · Score: 1

Google's speech to text capabilities are essentially trash.
1. Re:google voice by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-17 16:08 · Score: 0
  
  Google's speech to text capabilities are essentially trash.
  oh and of course the rubbish that is Siri is so much better.
Google translate is horrible by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-17 16:31 · Score: 0

It is wrong about 70% of the time ... in text and speech (don't know if the update fixed anything). So is MS speech recognition it is really barely usable.
On speech recognition, the top dog is the Dragon software by a company called Nuance.
And BTW, when it comes to translation (text to text) MS Bing Translator beats Google Translator by miles.
French Canadian accents don't work by Anonymous Coward · 2011-10-18 02:23 · Score: 0

True story: I'm a French Canadian and I don't think it gets my accent because when I said "I shit myself" in french, the english translation was "Jessica".