[ti:A Hollywood Movie Producer Helps Develop Mobile Calendar Application] [ar:Steve Ember] [al:Technology Report] [00:00.00]This is the VOA Special English Technology Report. [00:09.74]Smartphones, tablet computers and e-readers [00:14.22]have become a part of everyday life for many people. [00:17.76]They have also led to an explosion [00:20.87]in the number of mobile applications. [00:23.92]There is an app for just about [00:25.91]anything you can think of. [00:30.82]And more and more apps are being created every day. [00:35.32]Robert DiNozzi is a Hollywood movie producer. [00:39.74]He is perhaps most well-known as the executive [00:41.79]producer of "Flight Plan," [00:43.97]the two thousand five movie [00:46.70]starring actress Jodie Foster. [00:50.81]His most recent claim to fame is as [00:53.73]co-developer of a brand new app [00:58.71]called "VoiceCal." It is a mobile calendar app [01:01.76]that uses voice recognition software. [01:05.43]Users are able to enter appointments [01:08.60]into their iPhone calendar without [01:11.03]having to type in the information. [01:12.33]ROBERT DiNOZZI: "I have a mobile phone [01:13.89]but in order to put anything in my calendar, [01:15.75]I had to pull over, stop what I was doing [01:17.68]or wait until I got somewhere to remember to do it [01:20.11]because it was such an arduous process of [01:23.16]hunting and pecking and typing in with my fingers. [01:24.96]And it got to the point where I just wasn't using [01:26.20]the calendar on my iPhone and [01:28.20]neither was anybody else that I knew." [01:31.80]Robert DiNozzi decided there had to be a better way. [01:35.47]So he teamed up with a friend who is a developer. [01:39.08]The two used voice recognition software [01:42.88]from a company called Nuance to build "VoiceCal." [01:45.05]ROBERT DiNOZZI: "When you launch VoiceCal [01:46.98]you can speak any event that you want [01:48.23]to go into your calendar and [01:49.66]you can speak it in a natural way. [01:52.64]For example, you can say ¡®on Tuesday at five p.m. [01:54.70]pick up Dad at the office.' [01:58.07]And that will appear instantly on your iPhone's calendar." [02:01.31]If you have two or more events to add to the calendar, [02:04.48]you separate them by using the word "also." [02:09.45]Mr. DiNozzi says all of this can be done hands-free. [02:11.63]ROBERT DiNOZZI: "In settings you can make it fully automatic, [02:13.90]so I don't have to touch anything. [02:16.51]I launch the app, and I can speak an event [02:18.44]and I can see the event show up and [02:19.38]it confirms automatically. [02:20.81]I don't have to touch a single thing. [02:23.49]That's huge for people who don't have assistants to call [02:26.85]and who are walking down the street or driving their car." [02:30.02]Robert DiNozzi says there is a great need [02:34.50]for an app like "VoiceCal" among busy businessmen like himself. [02:38.54]He hopes the app will be successful over the long term. [02:39.91]ROBERT DiNOZZI: "In the movie business [02:41.47]you can do all the advertising in the world [02:43.21]and that can get you a great opening weekend. [02:45.45]But, if the movie's not good it will die off. [02:48.00]So really what supports a film, [02:49.93]just like what supports an app, is word of mouth." [02:54.84]Matt Kozlov is the head of a start-up technology company called [02:58.20]"Moonshark" in Los Angeles, California. [03:02.25]The company makes game apps for mobile devices. [03:05.23]MATT KOZLOV: "It's an exploding marketplace, right now. [03:07.97]There are hundreds of millions of devices out there right now [03:11.08]that we can reach. And these devices have really turned [03:14.56]eight-year-old kids, forty-year-old moms into gamers [03:16.37]in a way that we've never seen before." [03:19.79]Jennifer Lopez is helping Moonshark with [03:23.65]a finger break-dancing game called "Dance Pad." [03:26.01]The company is also working with [03:29.80]film director John Woo on an action game [03:33.16]expected to be released at the end of this year. [03:38.33]And that's the VOA Special English Technology Report, [03:43.43]written by June Simms, with additional reporting by Elizabeth Lee. [03:48.34]Transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our reports [03:55.31]are at voa.com. We're also on Facebook and Twitter [03:59.92]at VOA Learning English. I'm Steve Ember.