Jelly Bean's smarter keyword feature makes text messaging faster by predicting the next word in a sentence, and improved speech-to-text technology and voice technology continues to work even if a data connection is interrupted.
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Mint.com has an iPhone application as well as a feature where users can text to receive real-time balances, and SmartyPig recently launched a mobile site.
People who have been following the torturous birth-pains of eBook-nation will instantly recall that this very same feature caused a bit of a fracas when Amazon included a text-to-voice feature in the Kindle 2, which it released in February 2009.
Just a couple weeks after the Authors Guild's overzealous copyright-maximalist stance forced the bookseller to modify the Kindle 2's text to speech feature, the company's lawyers have had a fit of irony and sent out a DMCA takedown request to MobileRead, claiming that the site's links to a Python script that enables Kindle owners to shop at Mobipocket-format ebook sites constitutes circumvention of the Kindle's DRM.
ENGADGET: Amazon using DMCA to restrict Kindle content sources
The split-screen feature allows customers to talk and text at the same time, so for example, they can send a picture to their contact while talking with them.
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But Mountain Lion does add its own version of iOS's dictation feature, which lets you enter text into any application by tapping the Fn key twice and then speaking -- crisply and clearly -- into your Mac's microphone.
Pinch to zoom isn't a feature either, so trying to enlarge text or small web buttons to make selections are a no go.
Other innovations include giving guests the ability to quickly and easily shop the products in our holiday TV and direct-mail ads with a text-to-buy feature.
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You might remember Zipwhip from its SMS-enabled espresso machine, but the outfit's hoping a new feature added to its cloud-based text-messaging platform will catch your attention this time around.
Finally, new in the latest software release is the option to condense the keyboard on either the right or left-hand side of the screen for one-handed text input -- a feature that's been extended to the phone dialer as well.
But the audio feature is far from perfect: Amazon's text-to-speech software mispronounces most obscure words and doesn't have much of an ear for dialogue.
The new feature will simplify how people communicate whether it be via text, instant messages, online chat or e-mail.
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Google has redesigned its product-search feature to make it more stylish and less like a text-heavy, SEO-optimized Google page, according to Search Engine Land.
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They'll include iMessages, the texting feature already available on mobile devices, speech-to-text dictation and predictive "smart search" in the Safari browser.
Pinched wallets are putting the so-called feature phone--which includes a camera, Bluetooth, text messaging and Web surfing capabilities--at risk, says Avi Greengart, research director of mobile devices at Current Analysis.
The improved audio and video playback performance is due to IBM researchers having found a way to partially disengage the error-correcting feature that most hard drives use to regulate the transfer of text-based files, which can interfere with video downloading, the company said.
The feature is just for Web pages now, but it is likely Google will make it a feature of search ads as well, so those small snippets of text will someday carry the potential for pop-up graphics, as well.
Slimtrader is a promising start-up that launched a commerce platform a year ago using the tools available in the developing world: feature phones and SMS. A traveler in Lagos, Nigeria can enter the text shortcode for a bus ticket and get a reply with a schedule and prices.
FORBES: Slimtrader: Filling A Void In Mobile Commerce In Africa
With the Eyes Free feature, ask Siri to call people, select and play music, hear and compose text messages, use Maps and get directions, read your notifications, find calendar information, add reminders, and more.
An honorable mention in the Tabbies for special sections went to the forbes global team that produced the text and art for last fall's "Best Under a Billion" feature on the world's rising smaller public companies.
There are 4.5 billion mobile phones in the developing world, according to data compiled by USAID, and many of them are "feature phones" -- not-so-smart devices that only make calls and send text messages.
Yahoo's image search feature scans 1.5 billion photos, but it depends on scant information like file names and nearby text.
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