TVs notched a starring role at the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas instead of the flashier smartphone, tablet or Ultrabook thanks to a new crop of innovative and high-tech sets.

Consolidating the rapidly growing market for voice recognition systems and services, Nuance Communications is in the process of acquiring Vlingo, a provider of mobile voice recognition and analysis software, the two companies announced Tuesday. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Mindscape in Australia has had a long and convoluted history. It started out as SoftKey International – a business started by of one man, Kevin O’Leary, and is very much the ‘from the basement to superstardom’ story. O’Leary took a $10,000 investment from his mother and turned it into a billion-dollar company by 1994 that had acquired over 60 companies – including the likes of SSI games, Brøderbund and The Learning Company (which the group later took the name of).

Rumor has it that Apple is engaged in serious negotiations with Nuance. A potential deal between Apple and Nuance suggests that Apple is aggressively pursuing new voice recognition capabilities for iOS 5.

Nuance buys automated customer service provider, iTa

Speech dictation software distributor, Voice Perfect Systems, has gone into liquidation.

Nuance Communications has announced T9 Trace software that lets users input text on a touchscreen phone by gliding their finger from one letter to another on a virtual keyboard, the company said on Tuesday.

Software vendor, Nuance, has added another distributor to its stable. Addcom has been brought on-board to target telecommunications.