Whether you believe in evolution or creationism, it is hard for technology to beat the natural world when it comes to design and function. Often it is best to study nature and try to emulate its wonders. That’s what Audience has been doing for its voice processor that can be found in NTT DoCoMo’s new mobile phone, Sharp SH705iII. Audience created the A1010 Voice Processor and based it on the intelligence of the human hearing system.

The Audience A1010 supports Sharp’s Triple Kukkiri Talk by providing noise suppression, voice equalization, and voice stretch performance. It doesn’t matter if annoying noise comes from the caller’s environment, or over the network from the other end of the call, Voice Processor reduces multiple noise sources to make for a clearer call.

The Audience Voice Processor is the first custom IC to be modeled on the human hearing system. By understanding the auditory pathway, from the cochlea to the brainstem to the thalamus and cortex, Audience is the first company to create a commercial product based on the science of Auditory Scene Analysis (ASA). The Audience Voice Processor is able to deal with a complex mixture of sounds and handle the signals the way the human brain actually perceives specific sounds. This allows the technology to identify and suppress noise sources that would otherwise interfere with a call.

There is similar technology out there, but it makes sense to begin with how we hear and tailor the technology to that, instead of ignoring the human hearing system and focusing simply on the electronics.

Audience

Via Mobilecrunch

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Schmap, publisher of over 200 free on the internet travel guides, has opened access to their guides for iPhone and iPod Touch users by way of a remarkably nifty web application. The guides cover cities throughout the US, Europe, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, and provide information on everything from the city’s historical background to the best places to get your drink on.

As portrayed in the image above, the internet app utilizes the iPhone’s gyro sensors and a Safari specific Javascript function to determine how the device is currently oriented, and swaps between two display modes accordingly. If the device is oriented vertically, points of interest are displayed as a easy list; if horizontal, the points are overlaid on a map of the area. This grants the user to jump back and forth between modes without having to dig through menus, and is an ingenious way to make the most of the available screen real estate.

In addition to the city guides available for many major cities, Schmap is working on implementing a local search feature to provide similar functionality for cities they haven’t charted out yet. While local search results obviously won’t be as in-depth as the custom written city guide entries, it provides enough to get by: the business name, street address, and phone number. It did a good job of finding coffee shops in my area, even pointing out a few I’d somehow managed to ignore. I was unable to get the local search to recognize any zip codes, so you might need to type out the city’s name for the time being.

My only dislike with the service thus far is the tiny size of some of the buttons. I definitely don’t have sausage fingers, yet I constantly found myself tapping just outside of the detection areas. This was especially true of the arrows at the top and bottom of the interface.

Overall, Schmap for iPhone/iPod Touch is an incredibly handy application, especially while traveling or getting to know a new area. I’d anticipate to pay a few bucks a month for the service; that it’s free is just the mega delicious icing on the cake.

To check it out, just head over to http://www.schmap.com on your iPhone or iPod Touch.

Via Mobilecrunch

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Last week, CrunchGear reported on a rumor that Helio and Virgin Mobile had gone to the table to discuss the possibility of a merger.

SK Telecom, one of Helio’s two parent companies (the other being Earthlink), is calling shenanigans. According to a spokesperson for SK Telecom, there hadn’t been “any sort of talks” between Helio and Virgin, saying all rumors as such were “groundless” and that they remained “committed to Helio.” In the vaguest statement of the century, she also added that SK Telecom was actively seeking opportunities to expand in the US.

Being a large fan of Helio, I’m relieved to hear that SK Telecom is sticking with’em. SK Telecom certainly has deep enough pockets, and Helio’s got the right idea - they’ve just gotta figure out a way to get their devices onto more shelves, in more places.

[Via mocoNews.net]

Via Mobilecrunch

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Whether you believe in evolution or creationism, it is hard for technology to beat the natural world when it comes to design and function. Often it is ideal to study nature and try to emulate its wonders. That’s what Audience has been doing for its voice processor that can be found in NTT DoCoMo’s new mobile phone, Sharp SH705iII. Audience created the A1010 Voice Processor and based it on the intelligence of the human hearing system.

The Audience A1010 supports Sharp’s Triple Kukkiri Talk by providing noise suppression, voice equalization, and voice stretch performance. It doesn’t matter if annoying noise comes from the caller’s environment, or over the network from the other end of the call, Voice Processor reduces multiple noise sources to make for a clearer call.

The Audience Voice Processor is the first custom IC to be modeled on the human hearing system. By understanding the auditory pathway, from the cochlea to the brainstem to the thalamus and cortex, Audience is the first company to create a commercial product based on the science of Auditory Scene Analysis (ASA). The Audience Voice Processor is able to deal with a complex mixture of sounds and handle the signals the way the human brain actually perceives specific sounds. This grants the technology to identify and suppress noise sources that would otherwise interfere with a call.

There is similar technology out there, but it makes sense to begin with how we hear and tailor the technology to that, instead of ignoring the human hearing system and focusing simply on the electronics.

Audience

Via Mobilecrunch

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Last week Sprint Nextel announced that it was partnered with Clearwire to build a high-speed WiMax network in major U.S. markets. Investors like Intel, Google, Comcast and Time Warner Cable have agreed to invest $3.2 billion in the Sprint and Clearwater partnership. The new company, called Clearwire, is slated to have over $15 billion in assets. But lawsuits filed in Illinois by iPCS subsidiaries may put the brakes on Clearwire’s plans.

Sprint is affiliated with iPCS. iPCS has 640,000 subscribers in seven states. Three of iPCS’s subsidiaries have filed suit in Cook County Circuit Court in Illinois, claiming a Clearwire service would compete with iPCS within its markets and violate an exclusivity agreement between Sprint and iPCS that goes back to 1999.

An Illinois appellate court upheld a lower court ruling that found Sprint’s 2005 buy of Nextel Communications violated its exclusivity agreement with iPCS. The court ordered Sprint to divest itself of all Nextel assets in iPCS territory. Sprint is currently appealing that decision, but unless the appellate court is overturned by a higher court, it looks as though Clearwater’s move might be blocked in iPCS coverage areas subject to the exclusivity agreement.

Last week, Sprint filed a preemptive lawsuit in the Delaware Chancery Court. Sprint is asking the Delaware court for a declaratory judgment ruling that Sprint’s affiliate agreement with iPCS doesn’t prevent the new Clearwire company from competing in iPCS territory because of Clearwire’s association with Sprint.

There are a lot of juicy legal issues to sort out in all of this but unless you’re a legal scholar you probably don’t care. All this might end up in some sort of billion dollar settlement between Sprint and iPCS, or it could languish in the courts for years, stunting the growth of the Clearwire project.

Via Mobilecrunch

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An AT&T spokesperson just told us that the iPhone Black dropdown reference on the AT&T Wireless website is just a temporary placeholder. The spokesperson says that it was used over the weekend for a “scheduled catalog update,” distinguishing the various iPhone models (4GB, 8GB and 16GB). Sorry dudes, the 3G iPhone is probably not called the iPhone Black. Unless, of course, the spokesperson was just covering AT&T’s butt, which could always be possible.

Via [Gizmodo]

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Umm… looks like the vehicle won. Reader Meir ran over his iPhone with a Mercedes — if you’re going to destroy your phone, do it in style, people — and quickly hopped out to retrieve the device, now artfully crazed like a 18th century glazed ceramic chamber pot. His story:

A couple of days ago, due to a series of very unfortunate events my iPhone
found itself being driven over by the back wheel of a big mercedes. The
incredible thing is that my iPhone still works perfectly. The screen has been
shattered to countless pieces, and they keep falling off daily. To tell you
the truth, I have a hard time deciding what to do, keep risking my life with
the iPhone or go back to my older primitive cell phone, not an easy
choice… Almost everyone I showed the iPhone to had the same first
reaction; “It’s breathtaking this thing still works”

Meir, use the iPhone. Even a shattered, potentially life-threatening Apple cell is better than a brand new, in box Anything Else at the AT&T Store (TM). Friends don’t let friends use sub-standard UIs.

Check out CrunchGear for more iPhone coverage.

Via Mobilecrunch

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Umm… looks like the automobile won. Reader Meir ran over his iPhone with a Mercedes — if you’re going to destroy your phone, do it in style, people — and swiftly hopped out to retrieve the device, now artfully crazed like a 18th century glazed ceramic chamber pot. His story:

A couple of days ago, due to a series of very unfortunate events my iPhone
found itself being driven over by the back wheel of a large mercedes. The
astonishing thing is that my iPhone still works perfectly. The screen has been
shattered to countless pieces, and they keep falling off daily. To tell you
the truth, I have a hard time deciding what to do, keep risking my life with
the iPhone or go back to my older primitive cell phone, not an easy
choice… Almost everyone I showed the iPhone to had the same first
reaction; “It’s breathtaking this thing still works”

Meir, use the iPhone. Even a shattered, potentially life-threatening Apple cell is better than a brand new, in box Anything Else at the AT&T Store (TM). Friends don’t let friends use sub-standard UIs.

Check out CrunchGear for more iPhone coverage.

Via Mobilecrunch

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Umm… looks like the car won. Reader Meir ran over his iPhone with a Mercedes — if you’re going to destroy your phone, do it in style, people — and swiftly hopped out to retrieve the device, now artfully crazed like a 18th century glazed ceramic chamber pot. His story:

A couple of days ago, due to a series of very unfortunate events my iPhone
found itself being driven over by the back wheel of a large mercedes. The
breathtaking thing is that my iPhone still works perfectly. The screen has been
shattered to countless pieces, and they keep falling off daily. To tell you
the truth, I’ve a hard time deciding what to do, keep risking my life with
the iPhone or go back to my older primitive cell phone, not an simple
choice… Almost everyone I showed the iPhone to had the same first
reaction; “It’s astounding this thing still works”

Meir, use the iPhone. Even a shattered, potentially life-threatening Apple cell is superior than a brand new, in box Anything Else at the AT&T Store (TM). Friends don’t let friends use sub-standard UIs.

Check out CrunchGear for more iPhone coverage.

Via Mobilecrunch

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While most of my gases are superheated, these guys use compressed air to freeze memory for a brief period allowing you to lift the security keys hidden in memory. This is basically a how-to for you hacker types and you also get to see a man loving a dolphin.

While most of my gases are superheated, these guys use compressed air to freeze memory for a brief period allowing you to lift the security keys hidden in memory. This is basically a how-to for you hacker types and you also get to see a man loving a dolphin.

Via [crunchgear]

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