News Byte

Now You Can Tweet Right to Left

With the help of some clever engineering and six weeks of work by 13,000 volunteer translators, Twitter now supports Arabic, Farsi, Hebrew and Urdu and allows right-to-left and left-to-right languages to exist happily in the same tweet. This makes 28 languages in which Twitter is available.

Translation Start-Up Cloudwords Debuts in Salesforce App Exchange

With so many companies going global, there’s lots of language translating going on. Cloudwords helps those in charge of that work keep track of it all.
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For Viki, Web Video Translation Equals $20 Million

The Singapore-based site, which provides crowd-sourced translations in more than 150 languages, lands a big round from SK Telecom, the BBC.
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Google Translate Can Now Say “Take That, Siri” in 14 Languages

The company’s Android app, which began testing speech-to-speech translations in English and Spanish in January, now supports a bunch more languages.
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Smartling, a Language Translation Engine for the Web, Raises $10 Million

Ever thought that translation on the Web could be better? You’re not alone. Smartling, a New York-based start-up, aims to break down the Web’s language barriers.
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Google’s Eric Schmidt Shows Off Movie Studio, a Tablet Video-Editing App

Speaking at Mobile World Congress, the Google executive says that contrary to critics, devices are actually improving human connections. His talk is just getting started. Click here for live coverage from Mobilized’s Ina Fried.

Released Google Exec Speaks on His Role in Egyptian Protests (Video and Transcripts)

Wearing a T-shirt bearing his employer’s name, Google executive Wael Ghonim spoke with reporters after being released today from 12 days of detention for his role in protests against the Egyptian government.

A Very Short Letter From a Friend in Cairo

After a few days of trying, and despite the restrictions on communication to and from Egypt, today I heard back from a friend who’s in the thick of events unfolding there.

Google Puts “Se Habla Espanol” Sign on Android

The search giant is adding an “experimental feature” to Google Translate that does on-the-fly audio translations between Spanish and English. It is also making other tweaks to the interface of the Android application.

Google Buys Phonetic Arts to Make Machines Sound Human

Google is beefing up its voice services with today’s acquisition of Cambridge, England-based Phonetic Arts. Google’s view is that voice will be critical going forward to making mobile devices with small screens and keyboards more useful.

Apple vs. Google: Game On

SAP CEO Steps Down