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BlackBerry 10 gets voice commands in latest dev update (video) Jul 20th 2012, 17:08 Those lucky enough to have their hands on a BlackBerry 10 Dev Alpha device were treated to a nice little software update this week. While some were having trouble just getting it installed, others were able to fire it up pretty quick and found a nice surprise waiting for them -- voice controls. Hold down the play/pause button on the side and you'll be prompted to speak a command and offered a unified search interface. Sound familiar? It should, Android and iOS have both hopped on the speech recognition bandwagon, and its becoming an expected feature of a modern mobile OS. The fine folks over at N4BB were able to give the suspiciously familiar sounding virtual assistant a run through and, lets just say it's a bit rough around the edges. Of course, thanks to the limitations of the alpha quality software there wasn't much to actually test anyway. To see it in action check out the video after the break. Continue reading BlackBerry 10 gets voice commands in latest dev update (video) Filed under: Cellphones, Software BlackBerry 10 gets voice commands in latest dev update (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 Jul 2012 13:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink   |  N4BB  | Email this | Comments Google acquires Sparrow, the Apple-focused email app maker Jul 20th 2012, 16:11 Well, we can't exactly say we saw this one coming. Sparrow, maker of popular email apps for iOS and Mac OS X, has just announced that it's been acquired by Google. Expectedly, details on the acquisition are being kept under wraps at the moment, but company CEO Dom Leca has confirmed in a blog post that Sparrow will be joining the Gmail team at Google to "accomplish a bigger vision." Fans of the company's apps will be glad to know, however, that the team will "continue to make Sparrow available and provide support for our users" while also working on new things at Google. That does sound like most of their attention will be focused elsewhere, though. You can find Leca's full statement on the matter at the source link below. Filed under: Internet, Software Google acquires Sparrow, the Apple-focused email app maker originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 Jul 2012 12:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink 9 to 5 Mac  |  Sparrow  | Email this | Comments ASUS Transformer Prime, TF300 and Infinity TF700 getting Jelly bean in 'the coming months' Jul 20th 2012, 15:35 Hot on the heels of HTC confirming a Jelly Bean upgrade for select handsets, ASUS released a statement (pasted after the break) assuring tablet owners that all of the company's new tablets, at least, will be upgraded to Android 4.1. So far, the outfit is committing to updating the Transformer Prime, along with the Transformer Pads TF300 and TF700. Though ASUS is careful to say it's considering other devices, it's patently not promising to upgrade the original Transformer or the Eee Pad Slider. No word, exactly, on when owners of those newer devices will get a taste of Project Butter and Google Now, except that it should happen within "the coming months." Hopefully, of course, that's just an outside figure: after all, ASUS isn't known for saddling its tablets with heavily customized skins, which have been known to bog down the upgrade process. Continue reading ASUS Transformer Prime, TF300 and Infinity TF700 getting Jelly bean in 'the coming months' Filed under: Tablet PCs ASUS Transformer Prime, TF300 and Infinity TF700 getting Jelly bean in 'the coming months' originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 Jul 2012 11:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments Lenovo CEO spreads the wealth, distributes his $3 million bonus to lower level employees Jul 20th 2012, 15:31 The list of CEOs and other execs in the US that have accepted multi-million dollar bonuses for lording over the crash and burn of a company (or even an entire economy) is staggering. And we can guarantee you that most of that money went towards fancy cars and golden toilet seats. Lenovo's Yang Yuanqing, on the other hand, received a sizable $3 million bonus for actually being good at his job. The additional bonus was a reward for steering the company to record shipments and profits despite a weakening PC market. And what did Mr. Yuanqing do with that money? He gave it back to his employees. That second bonus was broken down into 10,000 discrete chunks and dispersed to line workers, assistants and other lower-level employees. I think that officially makes Yang Yuanqing our new favorite CEO in tech. Filed under: Misc. Gadgets Lenovo CEO spreads the wealth, distributes his $3 million bonus to lower level employees originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 Jul 2012 11:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink The Verge, ZDNet  |  CNN  | Email this | Comments

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