A new feature in this issue is the set of "technology briefs" below which summarize interesting technology related tidbits pertinent to our industry; each brief is provided with a link for More Information....

Since this is the first publication of these "technology briefs", it starts a little further back in time. Note that all the links tested valid as of May 20, 2002.

SAE J2450 Translation Quality Metric becomes SAE Recommended Practice.

February 15 -- SAE J2450 is a 12-page document, costing $US59, which defines a simple rating system associating different categories of errors with different numeric weights, along with a rule to combine these weights to produce category scores and document scores.

The question is: Why is it the automotive industry that defines translation metrics? Is this an example of a customer need that our industry could have met? More Information...

SDL International releases Version 5 of Enterprise Translation Server.

February 26 -- Enterprise Translation Server is a machine translation (MT) system for corporate networks. Version 5 advantages include enhanced dictionaries and greater ease of integration. More Information...

SDL International releases SDLX Translation Suite version 4.

February 27 -- Translation Suite is a comprehensive set of translation tools that integrate with Enterprise Translation Server, making it possible for MT to provide suggestions to the translator in the same manner as regular translation memories. More Information...

HP launches first Arabic Handheld.

February 28 -- The HP Jordana 560, based on Windows CE with Arabic localization, is a fully functional Arabic PDA. More Information...

Interwoven introduces standard for Web Services-enabled Enterprise Content Management

March 18 -- This may ultimately mean that it will be a lot easier for translation agencies to connect to the enterprise content that needs to be translated because standard connectors will now be possible. More Information...

TRADOS releases MultiTerm iX.

March 21 -- MultiTerm is the well-known terminology manager from TRADOS. This particular release is interesting because it is not being pitched at translators but rather at the C-level of global companies. Sales pitch is maintain consistent branding and avoid lawsuits! More Information...

IBM announces more languages for WebSphere Translation Server

March 26 -- New languages are bidirectional Chinese-English and bidi Japanese-English. More Information...

LionBridge announces 10,000 downloads of ForeignDesk.

April 2 -- Four months ago, LionBridge released the source code for the ForeignDesk translation memory tool, which has now been downloaded more than 10,000 times. Releasing translation memory technology in open source fashion may not only mean lower cost tools for translators, but it also means easier integration of translation memory with other applications (which can only mean a move up for our industry since we are usually in the basement). More Information...

Washy Talky not wishy-washy.

April 4 -- Swedish appliance maker Electrolux announced the world's first talking washing machine developed in India; it speaks with a "warm female voice" in either English or Hindi. Can we get a hot voice with a cold rinse? More Information...

BASIS C2C converter now available.

April 9 -- Basis announces the general availability of their C2C converter which can intelligently convert between traditional and simplified Chinese. More Information...

First Korean text-to-speech application for the visually impaired.

April 18 -- SpeechWorks and their Korean partner HIMS today announced the deployment of Hansone, Korea's first desktop computer for the visually impaired. It can "read" textual information but also comes with a Braille training program that will help combat the 90% Braille illiteracy rate. More Information...

Bowne Global Solutions launches TranslationGateway.

April 24 -- For small to mid-size translation jobs, this web application offers convenient quotes, credit card billing and professional human translation at a flat rate per word (based on language pair). More Information...