A Hollywood Movie Producer Helps Develop Mobile Calendar Application

This is the VOA Special English Technology Report, from http://voaspecialenglish.com |   / voalearningenglish  

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 best 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 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.He said although he has a mobile phone, he had to stop what he was doing to put things in his calendar. In his words, "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 decided 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 Nuance to build "VoiceCal." He says when you use Voicecal, you can say any event you want to put into your calendar and it will appear there.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. "In settings, you can make it fully automatic, so I don't have to touch anything," he says." 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. He says: "In the movie business you can do all the advertising 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."It's an exploding marketplace, right now," he says. "There are hundreds of millions of devices out there right now that we can reach." Jennifer Lopez is helping 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. For VOA Special English, I'm Alex Villarreal.(Adapted from a radio program broadcast 06Aug2012)