Google acquires Phonetic Arts

Google has acquired speech synthesis start-up Phonetic Arts, whose software samples human speech and tailors it for computers, for an undisclosed sum, reports eWeek.

Google is being typically hush-hush about what it will do with the Cambridge, UK-based start-up's assets and talent, which will move to Google's London office.

"The Phonetic Arts team will join Google's existing efforts in speech technology to help drive innovation in the area of text-to-speech synthesis," a spokesperson told eWeek, adding that Google will maintain relationships Phonetic Arts had with partners.

Microsoft released a beta of a new cloud-based version of a suite of productivity tools that combines the core Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) - SharePoint, Exchange and Lync (formerly Microsoft Office Communications Server) - with the Office Professional Plus desktop client, which features Office Web Apps, states Redmond Channel Partner.

Dubbed Office 365, the suite went into beta in late October, and the company plans general availability to come sometime next year.

The 2011 release will also mark the official upgrade of the back-end servers in the Microsoft Online Service data centres from the 2007 versions of SharePoint, Exchange and Lync to the 2010 versions.

IT consultancy, Dataweave, has successfully completed a major upgrade of key database and enterprise application software for Australian private hospital network, Healthe Care, and secured a contract to provide ongoing outsourced administration and support for Healthe Care's databases, and other Oracle business applications, notes IT Wire.

Healthe Care CIO, Phillip Hurley, says Dataweave was chosen to provide outsourced IT support and day-to-day administration of Healthe Care's critical Oracle E-Business Suite application and Oracle database systems.

In addition, Norman Weaver, managing director for Dataweave, says the company provides on-demand support, “giving Healthe Care the flexibility to quickly resource their changing needs, freeing up their in-house team to focus on forward looking projects.”