Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : General Magic -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Madarasz who wrote (8676)	6/22/2000 11:24:00 AM
From: Souze	Respond to of 10081

More news: BusinessWire, 06/22/2000 11:18 Global Services Network Selects General Magic's VoiceXML-Based magicTalk Platform for Their Unified Communications Applications and Services SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 22, 2000-- Companies Partner to Deliver Advanced Voice-Enabled Solutions for the Mobile Professional and Enterprise Markets General Magic, Inc.(TM) (NASDAQ:GMGC), a leading voice application service provider, today announced they have reached agreement with Global Services Network, Inc.(TM) (GSN), a provider of unified communications and messaging services, to deliver unified communications applications and services to the enterprise and mobile professional markets. Under the terms of the agreement General Magic will develop and host customized unified communications applications for Global Services Network using General Magic's industry-leading VoiceXML-based magicTalk(TM) communications platform. This will equip GSN's Polestar(TM) branded product with advanced functionality such as e-mail by phone (text-to-speech), voice dialing, enhanced voicemail and fax, broadcast messaging, cardless calling and conference calling, as well as other features proprietary to GSN, all to be accessible via a magicTalk natural language voice-user interface (VUI). Polestar will also be WAP (wireless application protocol) enabled to allow subscribers to manage information and communications over wireless digital phones and Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs). As part of the agreement, General Magic will receive development fees and recurring revenues from hosting and licensing, as well as stock equity in Global Services Network. "Simply stated, our decision to use General Magic's magicTalk platform provides Global Services Network with voice-technology that we believe is generations ahead of any competitor in the market," said Blake Ponuick, president and chief executive officer of Global Services Network. "This alliance with General Magic provides us with immediate, carrier grade scalability as we move to aggressively grow our subscriber base in the enterprise and carrier markets and focus on rolling out local services nationwide." "We are very pleased to be working with GSN to rapidly deploy superior voice application services to our joint subscribers," said Steve Markman, chairman, chief executive officer and president of General Magic. "Our agreement with GSN demonstrates the value of the magicTalk platform in delivering advanced voice-enabled applications for the mobile professional and enterprise markets." About General Magic General Magic creates value for its customers through state-of-the-art voice solutions. General Magic offers years of expertise in combining language, personality, and logic, creating a natural conversation between people and information. As a voice application service provider (Voice ASP), General Magic serves companies with high volumes of customer contacts who need cost-effective solutions that maintain the trust and loyalty of their customers. For more information about General Magic, visit the Company's Web site at generalmagic.com. About Global Services Network Global Services Network is an early entrant in the emerging, multi-billion dollar communications application service provider (ASP) category providing unified communications and messaging services to affinity organizations, enterprises, and mobile professionals. Its Polestar(TM) service is a media agile "Intelligent Communications Agent" featuring web-enabled one number service, real-time control over voice, messaging, fax, and email communications. Polestar is "One number that allows you to be reached wherever, whenever, and however you want. One number that allows you to manage all your communications instead of them managing you." Global Services Network, Inc. is privately held with offices in Portland, Oregon and Vancouver, BC, Canada. For more information about Global Services Network and Polestar, please visit our company website at mypolestar.com. General Magic notes that some of the statements in this press release contain forward-looking statements that involve substantial uncertainties. These include, among others, statements concerning the adequacy of the Company's financial resources to execute its business plan; market acceptance of the Company's technologies and services; the Company's ability to attract, retain and motivate key technical, marketing and management personnel; the ability of the Company to establish and maintain relationships with businesses that have high volume customer interactions, and to establish alliances with companies that offer technology solutions for such businesses; the challenges inherent in the development, delivery and implementation of complex technologies; the ability of the Company's third party technology partners to timely develop, license or support technology necessary to the Company's services; and the Company's ability to respond to competitive developments. The forward-looking statements in this press release involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause industry trends, or actual results, performance or achievement to be materially different from any future trends, results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these statements. These and other risks are detailed in General Magic's Registration Statement on Form S-3 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on May 26, 2000. Note to Editors: General Magic and magicTalk are trademarks of General Magic, Inc. and may be registered in certain jurisdictions. Other trademarks are owned by their respective companies. CONTACT: TSI Communications Leili Eghbal, 650/635-0200 Ext. 207 leghbal@tsicomm.com KEYWORD: CALIFORNIA INDUSTRY KEYWORD: COMPUTERS/ELECTRONICS INTERNET TELECOMMUNICATIONS MARKETING AGREEMENTS PRODUCT Today's News On The Net - Business Wire's full file on the Internet with Hyperlinks to your home page. URL: businesswire.com Copyright 2000, Business Wire

To: John Madarasz who wrote (8676)	6/22/2000 11:25:00 AM
From: Mark Oliver	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 10081

IBM overhauls voice-recognition strategy By Joe Wilcox Staff Writer, CNET News.com news.cnet.com June 21, 2000, 9:01 p.m. PT IBM tomorrow will completely revamp its voice-recognition technology strategy, focusing more on delivering core technologies than on individual products. The shift recognizes that computing is increasingly moving to smaller devices, such as handheld computers, cell phones and wearable PCs, that demand voice-recognition capabilities. IBM is also betting there will be big demand for voice-recognition server software essential for other devices, such as set-top boxes and in-vehicle Web appliances. Although IBM has a head start on competitors and a good vision for enabling voice-recognition technology in new places, analysts warn the company still has a long way to go. Big Blue's latest effort "points to future successes in this space," Technology Business Research analyst Bob Sutherland said. "I don't know how many clients will adopt it at this point, but it will be interesting to see." Until 1997, IBM focused more on the shrink-wrap ViaVoice product as it tried to create more interest in speech recognition. "The last few years we have been driving it toward the enterprise as a technology," said W.S. "Ozzie" Osborne, general manager of IBM Voice Systems. "What we're trying to do is build an end-to-end distributed platform and tools for people to create speech applications." In the same way that Microsoft worked to get software developers to standardize its tools for writing new applications, IBM is positioning its "tools and technology as a framework for others to use, whether (through) telephony or any other way of doing it," Osborne said. Sutherland praised the strategy, even if many solutions are a ways from reaching the market. "A large task" "IBM is more focused on incorporating voice recognition through the enterprise, whether it's going to be in (your) car or your desktop or your palmtop," he said. "IBM is taking on a large task. They have the capabilities to do it, and some of their competitors don't." As part of the strategy shift, Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM is introducing seven new products, all positioned for other companies to enable speech recognition in their products. While IBM is trying to make a big splash with the new products, many won't be ready until September or October--and some potentially later. Planned for autumn release is WebSphere Voice Server with ViaVoice Technology, a suite of tools for helping call centers better use the Web. The product supports VoiceXML and other emerging technologies, such as Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). The Voice Server software, initially available for Windows NT, will start around $15,000. Supporting its continued thrust into Linux, IBM later this month will begin selling ViaVoice Dictation for Linux, which will sell for about $60 retail. One of the more important products in IBM's broader voice-recognition strategy is Embedded ViaVoice, Multiplatform Edition. The software-development toolkit, which supports Java standards, is the backbone of a plan to get embedded voice-recognition technology into as many handhelds, cell phones and other wireless devices as possible. Osborne predicts that this kind of product could be a boon for companies developing Web devices for cars, as in the partnership between IBM and Motorola. But he admits that for now, drivers will have to keep reaching for the dial to tune in to their favorite radio stations instead of using voice commands. No guarantees "Depending on the device, it could be 12 to 18 months before you see a product. Particularly in the automotive industry, the product cycles tend to be long," Osborne said. "But the after-market sales for automotive are much shorter, so it depends on where you are and what you're looking for." Another product more immediately available will be CallPath Enterprise Foundation 6.3, a call center application that, when integrated with some Siebel Systems applications, integrates incoming telephone calls and Web transactions. The final three products to be unveiled tomorrow are versions of DirectTalk: Speech Recognition and Text-to-Speech for AIX, and Beans for Java. Despite its impressive tool set, there is no guarantee IBM can make its speech-recognition technology and tools the standard that everyone uses, Sutherland said. But in a market expected to reach $30 billion by 2006, that may not matter, Osborne said. "If you think of voice where the Internet was in 1994, you can see the kind of infrastructure IBM can assemble to take advantage of this explosion," he said.