AT&T Expands Agreement with Wizzard
AT&T Intellectual Property has an agreement with Wizzard Software, and that agreement is now expanding to provide AT&T Natural Voices™ with licensing and support. AT&T Natural Voices™ is a text-to-speech software that has won awards for AT&T. The latest versions of AT&T Natural Voices™ will be supported by Wizzard as part of the agreement, across a range of platforms.
The Executive Director of Technology Licensing for AT&T Intellectual Property, Lisa McFarlin, said “AT&T Intellectual Property is focused on driving innovations that improve how we communicate, work and live.” She added, “In many cases, the company delivers these innovations directly, but we also recognize the value of making new capabilities available to the larger marketplace via licensing arrangements. Our new agreement with Wizzard is a great example of this approach, enabling any application developer to take advantage of the same state-of-the-art text-to-speech capabilities that power the hosted AT&T VoiceTone® Service.”
The General Manager of Wizzard Technology & Services Division, Bruce Phifer, said “The technology developed by AT&T Labs includes a highly flexible engine with language and voice-specific custom dictionaries that allows users to define the pronunciation of certain words and customize speaking rate, volume and voices, resulting in a very natural sounding synthetic speech system.” He added, “The combination of this extraordinary and scalable technology with Wizzard's low cost deployment licensing model is a win-win for developers, integrators and business clients, allowing them to produce substantial savings and efficiencies by automating applications or services.”
ATT Awards $30,000 to the ICFJ
AT&T announced a contribution of $30,000 to the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) for a special three week training program offered at the University of Guadalajara’s new Digital Journalism Center. This is the first corporate donation awarded to the program, demonstrating how AT&T is dedicated to innovation and progress.
The center, newly launched in September, is a collaboration that will educate journalists in Latin America on the digital news and public news field. The specific part that AT&T’s contribution will go towards is the course entitled Digital Tools for Effective Public Service Journalism. This course will focus on topics geared towards the public of Mexico, namely education, health, and development; and how these topics can utilize digital tools.
The President of ICFJ, Joyce Barnathan, said “AT&T’s contribution will give Latin American journalists the tools, techniques and know-how to embrace the digital era.” Barnathan added, “This will make a huge difference in the quality of coverage in local communities throughout the region.”
AT&T’s Sales Center Vice President for Mexico, Walter Bona, said “Our commitment to the region goes far beyond our business.” He added, “Being part of the Digital Journalism Center’s initiative is a way for us to contribute with Latin American professionals to be better prepared to report news in light of the increased globalization in communications.”
The program will accept ten participants, based on quality of previous work, and the ability to implement the new knowledge immediately upon finishing the course. The ten participants will be taught by professionals with all the necessary credentials in reporting and database research. Most of the course will be available online; however one week of the three will necessitate students to study in Guadalajara. AT&T’s awarded $30,000 will cover the costs of this stay for all the participants and trainers.
ATT Teams Up with ChaCha
Quickly rising among the ranks of text messaging services with mobile searches, ChaCha is one of the fastest developing providers in the industry. Now AT&T is teaming up with ChaCha to promote recognition and hopefully benefit both parties. Now ChaCha will support AT&T when customers call their number, and they will use a co-branded greeting. This will certainly be beneficial to AT&T, but ChaCha will also be getting something from the deal.
Together, ChaCha’s mobile-answers service, which is free, will expand to broader horizons. The two companies will look at how to increase their services to being both text and voice-based, for further use from customers. The free service that ChaCha provides (answering answers to any question that customers may think to ask, from sports to science) will still be available so customers can profit. The questions are endless, so you could ask about an event or cultural activity, you choose what interests you.
The Senior Vice President of AT&T Customer Information Services, Susan Johnson, said “AT&T continues to look for new ways to make its voice and local search services tailored to the needs of today’s consumer—in the voice space specifically, beyond just traditional name and number searches.” She added, “Our work with ChaCha provides a great opportunity—really another vehicle—to put information and answers right at people’s fingertips.”
ChaCha agrees that this is a good move, for the companies, and for the customers. The Chief Executive Officer, Scott Jones, said “This is a groundbreaking venture for us. We will now be able to combine our efforts and enhance the service for our users and advertisers who want to reach this coveted young demographic with relevant and targeted SMS advertising.” Everyone involved can benefit from the collaboration between AT&T and ChaCha.
ATT Providing Free Service to Fire Victims
Many victims have already suffered from the horrible fires that have beset many Californians, and the final count isn’t over yet. When these types of tragedies occur, victims need to be in touch with family, insurance agencies, and many other contacts, which is hard to do if you’ve just experienced a fire. AT&T is there for you, so you are covered and connected. For victims who were displaced by the fires, AT&T offers a variety of free services, like voice mail and call forwarding for 30 days, free of charge! Individuals who are displaced by fires can access this service simply by calling 1-888-338-3291. If you call after business hours, leave a message with your contact information so a representative can get back to you. Because many victims will find that they do not have a way to send or receive calls, AT&T is stepping up. Not only are these services free, but installation is free as well so you can access the means of communication for 30 days. This makes those emergency calls happen.
The communication features that you can access allow you all the essentials. With call forwarding you can choose any phone number that you want all your calls forwarded to. You can also get remote call forwarding, so you can dial in to direct calls wherever you want them to go. With the message center, fire victims can leave greetings that update callers on their status, as well as retrieve messages that where left on your home phone. You can access the message center from any location.
The Vice President and General Manager of AT&T West, Melba Muscarolas, said “The necessity to communicate with family, friends and loved ones becomes even more vital during a crisis." She added, "The voice mail equipment is located inside the AT&T core network and facilities which are outside of the fire damaged area. With call forwarding, fire victims can direct incoming calls to their home to the telephone number of their choice to ensure they are receiving their phone calls.”
AT&T Now Helping You Exercise
AT&T is now offering innovative technologies that help you exercise. That’s right, now you can lose weight in time for the holidays, with the latest advancement from AT&T. AT&T teamed up with Trimble to provide you with the AllSport GPS™ application. With this service, you can use a select GPS-enabled cell phone to mark your fitness activity.
No matter your preferred sport, whether it is running, biking, or even snowboarding, you can use the AllSport GPS application to track not only your distance, but your time, speed, and even the number of calories that you burned while exercising. These monitors carry over from day to day, so you can keep track of your weekly activity, or even share your work out route with others. All of these features can be monitored from the handset.
Additionally to these amazing features, you can also manage parts of your work out from online at www.trimbleoutdoors.com. Through this website you can find paths that are recommended by professionals and other users, and you can even download these paths with maps in multiple views to your phone. Additionally, you can compete against other users who uploaded that particular trip or work out path, helping you to get the most out of your fitness program.
The Managing Director of Trimble Outdoors, Rich Rudow, said “Now that GPS is becoming a hot feature in cell phones, users are looking for a variety of ways to take advantage of the technology, including using them for fitness and recreation. With AllSport GPS, AT&T customers now have access to a full-featured fitness training application for their GPS cell phones. In combination with the Trimble Outdoors Web site, users can now manage all their content with a simple trip editor or download and experience thousands of professionally created trips. AllSport GPS provides an incredible opportunity for users to plan workouts and monitor their training progress using the cell phone they carry every day.” Now cell phone customers can access amazing features for working out with AllSport GPS on their GPS phone.