VOA慢速英语2012--Technology Report - A Hollywood Movie Producer Helps Develop Mobile Calendar Application

 

Technology Report - A Hollywood Movie Producer Helps Develop Mobile Calendar Application

This is the VOA Special English Technology Report.

Smartphones, tablet computers and e-readers have become a part of everyday life for many people. They have also led to an explosion in the number of mobile applications. There is an app for just about anything you can think of. And more and more apps are being created every day.

Robert DiNozzi is a Hollywood movie producer. He is perhaps most well-known as the executive producer of “Flight Plan,” the two thousand five movie starring actress Jodie Foster.

His most recent claim to fame is as co-developer of a brand new app called “VoiceCal.” It is a mobile calendar app that uses voice recognition software. Users are able to enter appointments into their iPhone calendar without having to type in the information.

ROBERT DiNOZZI: “I have a mobile phone but in order to put anything in my calendar, I had to pull over, stop what I was doing or wait until I got somewhere to remember to do it because it was such an arduous¹ process of hunting and pecking and typing in with my fingers. And it got to the point where I just wasn’t using the calendar on my iPhone and neither was anybody else that I knew.”

Robert DiNozzi decided² there had to be a better way. So he teamed up with a friend who is a developer. The two used voice recognition software from a company called Nuance³ to build “VoiceCal.”

ROBERT DiNOZZI: “When you launch VoiceCal you can speak any event that you want to go into your calendar and you can speak it in a natural way. For example, you can say ‘on Tuesday at five p.m. pick up Dad at the office.’ And that will appear instantly on your iPhone’s calendar.”

If you have two or more events to add to the calendar, you separate them by using the word “also.” Mr. DiNozzi says all of this can be done hands-free.

ROBERT DiNOZZI: “In settings you can make it fully⁴ automatic, so I don’t have to touch anything. I launch the app, and I can speak an event and I can see the event show up and it confirms automatically. I don’t have to touch a single thing. That’s huge for people who don’t have assistants to call and who are walking down the street or driving their car.”

Robert DiNozzi says there is a great need for an app like “VoiceCal” among busy businessmen like himself. He hopes the app will be successful over the long term.

ROBERT DiNOZZI: “In the movie business you can do all the advertising⁵ in the world and that can get you a great opening weekend. But, if the movie’s not good it will die off. So really what supports a film, just like what supports an app, is word of mouth.”

Matt Kozlov is the head of a start-up technology company called “Moonshark” in Los Angeles, California. The company makes game apps for mobile devices.

MATT KOZLOV: “It's an exploding marketplace, right now. There are hundreds of millions of devices out there right now that we can reach. And these devices have really turned eight-year-old kids, forty-year-old moms into gamers in a way that we've never seen before.”

Jennifer Lopez is helping⁶ Moonshark with a finger break-dancing game called "Dance Pad.” The company is also working with film director John Woo on an action game expected to be released at the end of this year.

And that's the VOA Special English Technology Report, written by June Simms, with additional reporting by Elizabeth Lee. Transcripts⁷, MP3s and podcasts of our reports are at www.voanews.cn. We're also on Facebook and Twitter at VOA Learning English. I'm Steve Ember.

1 arduous   

adj.艰苦的，费力的，陡峭的

参考例句：

• We must have patience in doing arduous work.我们做艰苦的工作要有耐性。
• The task was more arduous than he had calculated.这项任务比他所估计的要艰巨得多。

2 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

3 nuance   

n.(意义、意见、颜色)细微差别

参考例句：

• These users will easily learn each nuance of the applications they use.这些用户会很快了解他们所使用程序的每一细微差别。
• I wish I hadn't become so conscious of every little nuance.我希望我不要变得这样去思索一切琐碎之事。

4 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

5 advertising   

n.广告业；广告活动 a.广告的；广告业务的

参考例句：

• Can you give me any advice on getting into advertising? 你能指点我如何涉足广告业吗?
• The advertising campaign is aimed primarily at young people. 这个广告宣传运动主要是针对年轻人的。

6 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

7 transcripts   

n.抄本（ transcript的名词复数 ）；转写本；文字本；副本

参考例句：

• Like mRNA, both tRNA and rRNA are transcripts of chromosomal DNA. tRNA及rRNA同mRNA一样，都是染色体DNA的转录产物。 来自辞典例句
• You can't take the transfer students'exam without your transcripts. 没有成绩证明书，你就不能参加转学考试。 来自辞典例句