Singing accent research is underexplored compared to speech accent studies, primarily due to the scarcity of suitable datasets. Existing singing datasets often suffer from detail loss, frequently resulting from the vocal-instrumental separation process. Additionally, they often lack regional accent annotations. To address this, we introduce the Multi-Accent Mandarin Dry-Vocal Singing Dataset (MADVSD). MADVSD comprises over 670 hours of dry vocal recordings from 4,206 native Mandarin speakers across nine distinct Chinese regions. In addition to each participant recording audio of three popular songs in their native accent, they also recorded phonetic exercises covering all Mandarin vowels and a full octave range. We validated MADVSD through benchmark experiments in singing accent recognition, demonstrating its utility for evaluating state-of-the-art speech models in singing contexts. Furthermore, we explored dialectal influences on singing accent and analyzed the role of vowels in accentual variations, leveraging MADVSD's unique phonetic exercises.

From the approachable Geordie dialect to the instantly recognisable Liverpool lilt, many of England's most distinctive accents are from the north. But a new study has warned that northern accents could all but disappear in just 45 years. Using physics modelling, researchers from the Universities of Portsmouth and Cambridge predicted how accents are likely to change across England by 2066. Their findings suggest that northern accents could be replaced with'posh' south eastern pronunciations. However, certain north-south differences are predicted to remain - we will continue to disagree about the pronunciation of bath', according to the researchers.

Beeb, the BBC's voice assistant, has been released to early adopters for testing on Windows computers. The voice assistant, which uses Microsoft technology, is in the beta phase - a period when not all features are present or working properly. Its synthesised digital voice is based on that of a UK voice actor with a northern England accent. And the team behind Beeb have been "working hard" to ensure it can understand other regional accents. When a user downloads the beta version, they will be asked what accent they have - so their voice can be used to train the assistant too. Back in August, we first announced #Beeb, the new voice assistant from the BBC.

Jamie Heinemeier Hansson had a better credit score than her husband, tech entrepreneur David. They have equal shares in their property and file joint tax returns. Yet David was given permission to borrow 20 times the amount on his Apple Card than his wife was granted. The situation was far from unique. Even Apple's co-founder Steve Wozniak tweeted that the same thing happened to him and his wife despite having no separate bank accounts or separate assets.

The BBC is preparing to launch a rival to Amazon's Alexa called Beeb, with a pledge that it will understand British accents. The voice assistant, which has been created by an in-house BBC team, will be launched next year, with a focus on enabling people to find their favourite programmes and interact with online services. While some US-developed products have struggled to understand strong regional accents, the BBC will this week ask staff in offices around the UK to record their voices and make sure the software understands them. The BBC currently has no plans to launch a standalone physical product such as Amazon's Echo speaker or a Google Home device. Instead, the Beeb software will be built into the BBC's website, its iPlayer app on smart TVs, and made available to manufacturers who want to incorporate the public broadcaster's software.

Britons with regional accents are having to change the way they talk so they can use voice recognition devices such as Alexa. A study found those fed up with repeating requests to devices – including Google Home, Amazon's Alexa, and Siri on the iPhone – have to use a more'standard' form of English instead. Some 79 per cent of those with regional accents regularly alter the way they speak just to be understood by their devices, according to the poll by the Life Science Centre museum in Newcastle upon Tyne. A study found those fed up with repeating requests to devices – including Google Home, Amazon's Alexa (pictured), and Siri on the iPhone – have to use a more'standard' form of English instead. Of the 444 visitors who completed the survey, 33 per cent said they changed the way they spoke'a lot', while 48 per cent expressed concern that use of voice recognition could'stamp out' regional accents.

Contact centres have given a big thumbs-down to speech recognition, according to an IVR survey carried out by Call Centre Helper. Only 18% of contact centres (that fronted their calls with an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system) used it in combination with speech recognition. The IVR survey was carried out on the Call Centre Helper website in February 2012 and had a total of 425 respondees. This seems to tie in with the latest figures kindly provided by Steve Morrell of ContactBabel from the latest Contact Centre Decision-Makers' Guide, showing an average of 10% of contact centres using speech recognition. The big problem seems to be the overall accuracy – particularly with regional accents.

Which is the best iPhone voice control technology? And which is the best Mac voice control? Which mobile platform - or speaker setup - offers the best voice control technology: Siri, Cortana, Google Now or Amazon Echo's Alexa? Siri has made a lot of progress in the last couple of years, developing into an impressive digital assistant that can handle all sorts of tasks on your iOS devices, on the latest Apple TV and - once macOS Sierra launches in the autumn - on Mac as well. This last step is long overdue: Siri's absence on the Mac has been a glaring omission for years, especially as Microsoft has had its own Cortana voice-tech running on Windows PCs since the launch of Windows 10 last year.