Type of Article: MacTech Blog

Speech recognition to achieve 82 percent penetration in mobile devices

Voice-based user interface technologies are becoming an increasingly important part of the user experience for smartphones, tablets, and smart watches.  According to a recent report from Tractica (www.tractica.com), this growth is being driven by a variety of use cases that include not only traditional applications like hands-free calling, but also high-growth areas like virtual digital assistants (VDAs), always-on interfaces, and voiceprint identification of individual speakers.

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Medical apps are leading advancement in 3D printing

Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com) says that 3D printing (3DP) technology has progressed rapidly in recent years, and that medical applications are leading to some of the most significant deployments of 3DP technology.

New data from the research group reveals that 3DP of medical devices has reached the Peak of Inflated Expectations, but certain specialist applications are already becoming the norm in medical care.

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The Northern Spy: Modula-2 R10 Templates

By Rick Sutcliffe

Modula-2 R10 has been the Spy’s meat and potatoes in this space for a few months now. It is the fully modern dialect of Niklaus Wirth’s Modula-2 that he and Telecom engineer Benjamin Kowarsch have developed to address serious software engineering issues of safety, security, reliability, and extensibility. This month we consider the use of Generic templates to reach toward the software engineering grail of reusable code.

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Production printer market grows in the second quarter

The worldwide production print market enjoyed 9.4% year-over-year growth in unit shipments in the second quarter of 2015 (2Q15), according to new data from IDC.

According to the research group, shipments grew to approximately 9,279 units (printers and MFPs) and shipment value increased 6.0% to nearly US$1.1 billion in the same time period. All of IDC’s regional markets saw positive year-over-year unit growth in the production print space. Key contributors to the worldwide growth were Latin America (32.7%), Middle East & Africa (30.7%), and Western Europe (19.7%).

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