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Microsoft buys Nuance for nearly $20B

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Re: Microsoft buys Nuance for nearly $20B

#161

Post by mattowen_uk »

idiotsecant wrote: post #147
DrBazza wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Android Auto at least works, and that in turn has voice recognition that works. It's completely "meta" that I have to use voice recognition on my phone to call a number that triggers bluetooth that activates the hands-free and speaker in the car.

I would argue that in-car infotainment systems should be nothing but a dumb terminal into your phone. We already have devices with voice recognition, navigation, multimedia, etc. Why don't we have a way to just use that?

I've been looking for a single DIN car audio device that is nothing more than an amplifier with Bluetooth, but such a thing does not exist. My phone already does Music/Radio/Maps - all I need is the car head unit to connect to it and playback the audio through the car speakers. I've even started thinking about some sort of home built version using parts from a cheap Bluetooth speaker system (minus the actual speakers).

Re: Microsoft buys Nuance for nearly $20B

#162

Post by berkes »

astrea wrote: post #94
3v1n0 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, not that different from Google either.

But Microsoft won't see as much scrutiny as any other tech giant because they are so deeply ingrained in the government's world.

And when they are scrutinized, that most probably puts the scrutinizers themselves in a difficult position.

The report in which the organization explains why Microsofts products are privacy invading, monopolized or otherwise breaching some law or regulation, that report itself is most probably written on those Microsoft products.

Re: Microsoft buys Nuance for nearly $20B

#163

Post by schmuelio »

BoorishBears wrote: post #92
c0wb0yc0d3r wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it really reliance? To me it seems like they know their customers will just lay down and take it.

I write apps for Android and design devices that run on Android for a living. A friend once asked why I have an iPhone, and my response was pretty simple: "I'll switch to Android when I can rotate my screen animate the rotation instead of blanking out" They got it immediately. - For those not familiar with Android, your app's UI is completely destroyed on every single configuration change. Rotation. Plugging in a key…

I didn't remember how android handles screen rotations so I went and checked, I looked on both my phone and my tablet on a plethora of apps:

- YouTube

- GMail

- FireFox

- Plex

- RIF (Reddit app)

- Material (HackerNews app)

- Main home screen

- Sudoku game

All of them animated screen rotation just fine, with no blank screen or glitching. Just a smooth animation of the app screen rotating from portrait to landscape (and back).

It's possible that your assumptions are outdated and - by your own admission - should switch back to Android.

Re: Microsoft buys Nuance for nearly $20B

#164

Post by Maven911 »

For those wondering some of Nuance strengths in speech: Multiple award winning Very domain oriented and not just general speech Supports many languages

They have also had a boost in stock with covid and more people using remote speech services

Re: Microsoft buys Nuance for nearly $20B

#165

Post by dr-detroit »

Cullinet wrote: post #75
bombcar wrote: post #7

Is it just me or have speech recognition platforms like Siri actually gone backwards in the last few years (roughly coinciding with the AI/ML craze)? It feels (anecdata) that Siri is doing a bit better on voice to tex when sending messages but much worse on simple commands like “turn off living room lights”.

Lernaut & Haupsie went bankrupt in 99 holding the monopoly of every viable dictation platform and the aftermath of a enormous stock fraud that enabled management to hoover up everything at ludicrous valuations eg IBM Via Voice for something like $4BLN cash deal closed in unbelievable time, provided sufficient obfuscation and destruction to lay the sector to rest for two decades. Microsoft is making a intervention wit…

to be fair $4 Billion in 2021 is like $6000 in 1985

Re: Microsoft buys Nuance for nearly $20B

#166

Post by fakedang »

haerra wrote: post #133
fakedang wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of Europeans in the lower taxpaying tiers who love to shit on Americans (especially when the American healthcare system has been getting so much coverage the past decade).

Uhm, I guess that you have some inner frustrations, as I have yet to meet someone who thinks that healtcare is literally free.

If you're talking about people who for some reason don't understand European tax laws (which is a lot of people in the mainland and in the US), yeah I'm quite frustrated.

My issue is with people who pay nil significant taxes in Europe gloating ignorantly about how European Healthcare is free, and won't stop shitting on American Healthcare. Yeah, your healthcare is cheaper than the US but it isn't free. There is a whole bunch of middle class folks and upper class folks paying for it. And I'm not even supporting the American model.

Re: Microsoft buys Nuance for nearly $20B

#167

Post by somethingAlex »

I'm not super deep into the world to NLP, but from what I have kept up with, it seems that the state-of-the-art is almost constantly open-sourced. I understand certain companies have personal relationships already built which may be what MS is after more so than the IP, but isn't there a "canonical" way of building a, for example, speech to text system for your phone?

Is there really a lot of NLP IP hidden behind corporate walls at this point? I just assumed Alexa, Siri, Google Assistant, etc were all using the same model architectures. Genuine question, can anyone shed some light?

Re: Microsoft buys Nuance for nearly $20B

#168

Post by fakedang »

FireBeyond wrote: post #143
fakedang wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of Europeans in the lower taxpaying tiers who love to shit on Americans (especially when the American healthcare system has been getting so much coverage the past decade).

As someone who was born under the NHS in Scotland, grew up in Australia under its Medicare system (and the introduction of partial privatiz(s)ation), and has lived in the US since 2006, no-one is laboring under that misapprehension. Medicare tax is indeed a line item on Australian taxation paperwork.

I don't know where you get the impression that I'm criticizing the NHS or a nationalized Healthcare service. I'm all for a nationalized healthcare service. My issue is with people who pay nil significant taxes in Europe gloating ignorantly about how European Healthcare is free, and won't stop shitting on American Healthcare. Yeah, your healthcare is cheaper than the US but it isn't free. There is a whole bunch of middle class folks and upper class folks paying for it.

Re: Microsoft buys Nuance for nearly $20B

#169

Post by brainzap »

athenot wrote: post #102
ocdtrekkie wrote: post #13

This is really, really unfortunate. One of the last on-device speech companies is being bought out and moved into Microsoft's cloud division. Expect nobody to be willing to sell you speech recognition without a cloud subscription now.

Nuance has grown through acquisitions. They basically bought up technologies and slapped a common name on them. But each one retained its one oddities. So you configure one product with INI-style files, another one with XML files, a module within that one is configured with text files using configuration codes... it's a royal pain in the behind. Hopefully Microsoft will eventually unify these apis and configurations…

like they did with Azure? xD
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