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Google is pushing its voice-recognition technology to Apple’s iPhone first, before devices running its own Android mobile platform.

The New York Times offered photographs of Google employees Vic Gundotra and Gummi Hafsteinsoon using an iPhone for a voice search. The free application was expected to be available on Apple’s App Store on Friday. Google reportedly will soon offer the technology for other devices, presumably including the T-Mobile G1, which uses Android.

“This is an expansion of types of applications Google has already been developing,” said Greg Sterling, principal analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence. “Google has GOOG411, which is the underlying technical engine. They also have a voice-search client for the BlackBerry which is limited to maps. So this is an evolutionary step.”

Inside Google Voice Search

Here’s how it works: The iPhone user asks a question, such as “Where’s the closest Burger King?” or “How wide is the Grand Canyon?” The user’s voice is converted to a digital file and transmitted to Google’s servers.

Google Search then serves up the results — in a matter of seconds if the user has a fast wireless network, the Times reports. The search results always include any local information.

“The question with these types of technologies is how good is the speech recognition? It’s getting much better, and that’s why Google feels this is the right time to introduce this,” Sterling said. “Google has confidence now that voice recognition is good enough to open it up to the full Web search as opposed to the much more structured search on GOOG411.”

Google is playing catch-up, in a sense. Yahoo and Microsoft already offer a voice-recognition option for mobile phones. Microsoft’s Tellme service offers users information in specific categories, such as movies, maps or directions. Yahoo offers voice services through its oneSearch platform.

“In one sense this is new, but it’s not new, because Yahoo and Microsoft have been doing versions of voice recognition — and so has Google — for some time,” Sterling said. “A company called Dial Directions was the first to formally introduce voice search for the iPhone, but it was limited to selected local sites through the Safari browser.”

Building a Killer App

Could voice recognition be the next killer app for mobile? The market is growing at breakneck speed. Voice-recognition technology sales topped $1 billion in 2006 for the first time. Datamonitor expects that number to swell to $2.6 billion by 2009.

The market is heating up — and going global. Voice-recognition software maker Nuance Communications earlier this month acquired Austria-based Philips Speech Recognition Systems for $96.1 million. Philips develops speech-recognition solutions in 25 languages.

Voice recognition on the mobile phone is still not completely accurate, and may not see mainstream use until it improves. But Sterling said it is ever-improving and thinks Google’s voice search will be a popular mobile-phone feature.

Specifically, he sees the new Google application for the iPhone as most useful when a user might need to call directory assistance or do a simple search, but can’t do it safely on a keyboard while driving. Another benefit is the ability to enter potentially long search queries that would be difficult to type. But accuracy is still a factor.

“This is an evolutionary step in the whole realm of voice search,” Sterling said. “So far it has not proven to be the killer app for mobile, but it’s getting there and it’s very useful in selective situations.”

Trikona Group, which contributes to India’s growth in a socially aware manner by creating new asset classes around real estate and infrastructure, announced that Brijesh Kumar, a 36-year industry veteran, has been named Independent Director of Panthera Developers, a development company affiliated with the Trikona Group.

Kumar brings extensive experience in organizational development, process restructuring, and managerial oversight, having held key positions with several PSUs and the Indian government. His government roles most recently included the Secretary of the Department of Information Technology.

As former Chairman and CEO of the Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority, Uttar Pradesh, Kumar was responsible for many successful urban planning and implementation initiatives. He also served as Managing Director of Air India; Chairman and Managing Director of Indian Airlines; and Secretary to the Uttar Pradesh Government in numerous departments.

Brijesh Kumar joins Dr. P.S. Rana, Chairman of Trikona Development and former Chairman and Managing Director of the Housing and Urban Development Corporation Limited (HUDCO), to advise on real estate and infrastructure development projects. Panthera Developers is currently involved in developing over 25 million square feet of projects across the residential, commercial, retail and hospitality sectors in India.

“A long-term commitment to India’s growth is the core foundation of the Trikona Group. Since starting my career with the Indian Administrative Service in 1968, I have been passionate about ensuring the economic development of my country,” said Brijesh Kumar, Independent Director of Panthera Developers. “I am delighted to join an experienced management team that has the dedication to create real estate and infrastructure projects in a sustainable manner.”

“Trikona must continue to invest and develop projects that will build India’s economy and help urbanize its lower and middle classes,” said Dr. P.S. Rana, Chairman of Trikona Development. “As Trikona expands its presence through a socially responsible approach, Brijesh Kumar’s experience with PSUs and expertise in urban policy, planning and implementation will be invaluable to its efforts.”

“Brijesh Kumar has been one of the key proponents for the liberalization of the Indian economy. As demonstrated by his success in the development of Greater Noida, he has built an organizational model for sustainable growth in India,” said Aashish Kalra, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Trikona Capital.

“Trikona also understands the economic, social and political complexities facing the continued growth of India, and we are pleased to have Brijesh Kumar share our vision and help establish new asset classes,” he added.

Electrotherm India Ltd said on Tuesday its board would meet on November 20 to consider a restructuring of the company.

Ahead of the news, shares in the company ended 0.27 percent higher at 128 rupees in a weak Mumbai market.

When it comes to aviation GPS one brand which comes in all minds is the Garmin Avionics. They are the leading manufacturer and sellers of the aviation GPS and top brand in the world. Especially they have a wide range to choose from when it comes to portable GPS.

They have come up with two brands under the portable GPS category namely Garmin 496 and 396. Although each of them have their own advantages and disadvantages you can choose between them with the features they offer and whether they indeed would be useful for you not.

Firstly Garmin 396 comes with the color mapping and the satellite weather alerting system. This also comes with an updated database on U.S. obstacles and terrain database.

This Garmin 396 also comes with high resolution screen which can be read even under direct sunlight and comes with lithium-ion battery. And also many similar features to that of Garmin 296.

While the Garmin 496 packs all the features that Garmin 396 has but is even bundled with mini-MFD which is available only with 496. It also has more sophisticated software and more features making it an ideal choice for the pilots. Hence, between them Garmin 496 scores more and comes out with flying colors.

There are mainly two types of vinyl fences based on the process of manufacture. Out of this, the co-extruded vinyl fence has a high demand due to various reasons.

In a co-extruded vinyl fence, there exist two layers of which the outer layer has a high ultra violet coating where as the inner layer has only a thin layer of ultra violet inhibitors. This greatly reduces the cost of manufacture of this vinyl fence. When this kind of fence making requires a highly sophisticated technology and equipment, the cost of the fence remains lowest owing to the reduced cost of materials used for making the fence.

The inner layer of materials is made of a different colour than the outer layer. This is also intended at reducing the cost of the product without affecting the quality. There are a large number of manufacturers making co-extruded horse fence and other fencing. They take special car to give extra thickness to the external layer of the fence. This will avoid the chance of a scratch penetrating the colour of the interior layers.

This fence will have the same level of durability and quality that an aluminium fence will have. Since they are available in various designs, they easily got customer attention.

The Scottsdale landscaping options available in the market can be made to work in a way that will help you. Such services can be sought from online stores according to your requirements. Landscaping can be chosen based on the price and the quality. Some materials are really costly and such designer landscaping will be expensive as well. The plans which can be obtained from designers can be availed in easy to use ways.

Phoenix landscaping options can be used along with other design options and accessories like statues and sculptures. This will add to the beauty of the landscaping and thereby make them more attractive. You can choose a Scottsdale landscape contractor that goes well with your ideologies as well. Landscaping is easy to lose if you are too careless about the placing. To avoid this, you can use the contractors’ services for upkeep and maintenance. The landscaping services are highly comfortable to use. There will be slight variations to the materials used for making the landscaping a reality. Otherwise all landscaping will have the same basic pattern which makes the designs common and inconvenient for you. You can prefer to go for designs which can be modified as per the property in concern.

Metallurgy
coke producer Gujarat NRE
Coke has posted a net profit of Rs.1.02 billion in the second quarter this fiscal, up from Rs.125.5 million a year ago, a company statement said here Saturday.

“Fundamentals are not driven by market sentiments. Globally there is a shortage of good quality hard coking coal and met coke, and we are extremely well integrated, enjoying efficiencies across the entire gamut of our workings - from the mines of Australia to the production of
coke in our plants in India,” Arun Jagatramka, vice-chairman and managing director of
the company, said.

Gujarat NRE is in the process of increasing its met
coke capacity to 2.5-million-tonne per annum by December 2010, which includes setting up of a one-million-tonne greenfield plant in south India. Necessary land for the project has already been acquired and initial work in the project has started, the company said.

Key Wall Street stock indices slipped Wednesday despite the Federal Reserve’s decision to slash the benchmark interest rate to its lowest level in more than four years.

The Federal Reserve announced the second rate cut this month in an effort to make loans cheaper and stimulate the struggling economy, but it did not encourage investors, one day after the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average scored its second-largest point gain in history.

Shortly after the Federal Reserve’s announcement, the Dow surged by more than 200 points on what had been an uneventful day of trading. But by the time trading ended, the Dow had fallen by 74.16 points from Tuesday’s closing mark, or 0.82 percent, to 8,990.96.

The broader Standard & Poor’s 500 declined by 10.42 points, or 1.11 percent, to 930.09. The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index, however, climbed by 7.74 points, or 0.47 percent, to 1,657.21.

On currency markets, the dollar slipped to 97.06 yen from 97.7 yen Tuesday. The US currency fell against the euro to 77.21 euro cents from 78.64 euro cents Tuesday.

Gold hit a one-week high as the dollar weakened sharply on Wednesday, and the precious metal stayed firm after the Federal Reserve cut U.S. interest rates, as markets had expected.

Gold’s rise came amid strength across the entire commodity sector as global markets welcomed the Fed’s recession-fighting rate cut. Silver and palladium, sometimes seen as industrial metals, also rallied as stocks kept rising.

The U.S. Federal Reserve lowered its target for overnight bank lending rate by half a percentage point to 1 percent, the lowest since June 2004.

“I think it has already been factored into the market, honestly. That’s why gold had these substantial rallies,” Bruce Dunn, vice president of trading at New Jersey-based Auramet Trading.

Dunn, however, contended that a rate cut alone would do little to boost the ailing U.S. economy.

“Nothing has changed in the last 48 hours. They cut rates, so what? They have been cutting rates for a long time, and things have progressively gotten worse,” Dunn said.

Spot gold rallied to $773.40 an ounce and was at $749.85 an ounce at 3:06 p.m. EDT (1906 GMT), against its Tuesday close of $744.30.

U.S. gold futures for December delivery settled up $13.50, or 1.8 percent, at $754.00 an ounce on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.

The Federal Open Market Committee said in a statement that “The pace of economic activity appears to have slowed markedly, owing importantly to a decline in consumer expenditures.”

The Fed said it expected inflation to moderate in coming quarters due to declining prices for energy and other commodities and prospects for weaker economic activity.

Gold has fallen about 20 percent since it hit a high of $931 on Oct. 10 as financial market losses prompted investors to liquidate commodities and other assets.

“Now with more interest rate cuts and more aggressive action by central banks, the indiscriminate selling of financial assets, including gold, has subsided,” said Jeffrey Nichols, managing director of American Precious Metals Advisors.

The dollar fell against other major currencies, as rising stock markets boosted risk appetite and traders factored in a substantial Fed rate cut later in the day.

Rises in other commodity markets help boost gold prices. The broad-based Reuters/Jefferies CRB index jumped 6 percent.

Platinum fell to close at $789 an ounce from its Tuesday close of $809.00, but rebounded smartly in late trade from a session low of $755.50 an ounce.

Reports of production cutbacks and falling sales among car manufacturers have erased 65 percent from platinum’s value since March. The automotive industry, which uses the metal in catalytic converters, accounts for more than half of global platinum demand.

Palladium was at $189.50, up from its Tuesday close of $176, having surged more than 10 percent to a two-week high of $195 on speculation the sell-off in the metal was overdone.

Spot silver was at $9.82 an ounce, after rising to a one-week high of $10.02, against its previous finish of $9.16.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will provide India with a loan of $800 million to make Himachal Pradesh the country’s ‘hydropower state’, the lender said Thursday.

The eight-year loan package will help finance the construction of several run-of-river hydropower generating plants that will bring in combined capacity of 808 MW for the small mountainous state, ADB said in a statement.

Himachal Pradesh has abundant water resources, with five major rivers flowing from the western Himalayas. Its power generation potential is 20,415 MW, about 25 percent of India’s total hydropower potential, out of which only 6,150 MW has been developed, according to the statement.

In 2006, the state government approved a hydropower policy that aims to make Himachal Pradesh the ‘hydropower state’ of India.

‘Himachal Pradesh’s focus on hydropower development will provide jobs to state residents and will further the state’s and the country’s goal of maximizing this clean, indigenous resource to help meet its energy needs,’ said Andrew Jeffries, an energy economist at ADB’s South Asia Department.

The multi-tranche financing facility, which will be allocated based on the readiness of the project, allows ADB to engage the state government in a continuous long-term dialogue on its clean energy policies, said the Manila-based development bank.

The projects will provide affordable and reliable power supply to local residents and industrial users in the state, ADB said.

Any excess supply can be exported to other parts of India, It added.

At present, ADB and the Himachal Pradesh government have identified two projects ready for financing through the first loan tranche of $150 million, including the construction of the 111-MW Sawra Kuddu Hydroelectric Project on the Pabber river in Shimla district, and civil works for the 65-MW Kashang I Hydroelectric Project located in Kinnaur district.