TellMe, which Microsoft bought two years ago, is rolling out an upgrade to its call center automation software which should improve its speech recognition rates. It is also adding Global Crossing as partner for reselling its VoiP carrier service, along with AT&T and Verizon. TellMe handles 2.5 billion calls a year for customers such as American Airlines and ETrade. Even a one percent improvement in automated call completion rates translates into millions of dollars a year for large call centers.
TellMe will be deploying a new text-to-speech engine with an almost-sexy female voice called Zira. She only sounds slightly robotic. Another set of technologies can break up sentences into their constituent parts so that if the software doesn’t understand something it can ask for only the piece of missing information instead of repeating the entire question. or instance, if you say you want to fly from New york to San Francisco on Wednesday, and it got everything but the day, it would only ask you what day you want to fly instead of making you repeat your entire itinerary. → Read More
Apple announced today that its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) has already sold out. That’s pretty incredible considering two things. First, tickets went on sale only a month ago, and are anything but cheap — even the early-bird special was well over $1,000. (And remember, this is a recession, and plenty of other conferences are struggling to move tickets.) And second, last year’s event was the first one ever to sell out — and that only happened a couple weeks before the actual show.
Clearly, anticipation is high for this year’s event for a number of reasons. The first is that developers and presumably the audience at the keynote (which we’ll be at, so that means all of you will get to follow along as well) will get a major glimpse at OS X 10.6 “Snow Leopard.” The new OS is currently being tested by developers, but most of the expected user interface changes have yet to be unveiled. WWDC may be the first time anyone gets a real look at those. → Read More
It’s now just about May and there’s still been no official word from Palm when it comes to an official launch date or pricing for the Pre. All we know is what we’ve known for a long time — it’ll launch the first half of 2009; a window that is quickly closing. But a few pieces of new evidence today point to an actual specific date. And it’s a very intriguing one — June 7: The day before a likely Apple keynote address at its WWDC conference.
That is of course interesting because Apple could very well use that keynote to unveil the next version of the iPhone, just as it did last year for the iPhone 3G. A public launch of the Pre the day before could suck some of the wind out of Apple’s sails. But it’s also pretty risky, as it means Palm only has one day to convince everyone that its product is better then the latest version of the iPhone which is likely to have some substantial improvements. And no one knows for sure what all those improvements are — it could very well blow the Pre right out of the water, one day into its young life. → Read More
Over a period of three years, fantasy author Peter Brett wrote 100,000 words on his HP iPaq during his long subway commute. And here I get all excited when I manage to post a new word I learned to my blog, while sitting at a bar. Given the length of most epic fantasy novels (or cycles) I would have thought it an impossible task to thumb out more than, say, 5-10% on something like a smartphone. But this guy seems to actually thrive doing it. → Read More
In a bid to retain its role as a pop culture staple, MTV has announced plans to a launch a show that taps into the power of social media, tightly integrating with Facebook and Twitter to maximize fan interaction. The show will be hosted by British celebrity and model Alexa Chun and begin airing this summer, with plans to move it to the network’s coveted after-school timeslot depending on its performance.
Back in the late 90′s, an MTV show called Total Request Live was a staple in dictating what was hot in popular music. That show gradually lost steam over time (it was finally canceled in late 2008) and while MTV has maintained some succcessful properties, it’s lacking a flagship show that its audience tunes into on a daily basis. According to this AP report, viewership is down 18% for the first three months of this year. → Read More
Man, they’re just cranking these things out. Just two weeks after iPhone OS 3.0 Beta 3 (which was, in turn, two weeks after iPhone OS 3.0 Beta 2), we’ve got another Beta. Beta 4 of iPhone OS 3.0 is now available for developers, as long as they’ve downloaded the brand spankin’ new iPhone 8.2 pre-release. It just went live, so we’re not quite sure what’s new here. If you spot anything, let us know – we’ll do the same. Also, it’s starting to look like we can expect Betas every 2 weeks until release. Next one ought to be on Tuesday, May 12. Update: Details are still incredibly sparse, but here’s what we’ve heard so far: MMS now working on more carriers without modified carrier bundles (Only one report – still working on confirming this.) General performance updates, far less crash prone than the past builds. The “Store” settings pane now functions, allowing you basic control over your iTunes account API Change: “SKErrorPaymentNowAllowed allowed and was replaced with SKErrorPaymentNotAllowed” More as we hear it. → Read More
Ethanol may not be the solution for the fuel crisis, but is it the solution for the social fireplace crisis? Ask yourself this: when was the last time my friends and I gathered around a fire at a bar and clinked glasses over the flames? I’m guessing never. But these EcoSmart fireplaces may change that, since there’s no wood. At least, I hope so. Been a long time since my last weenie roast.
As you can see from the picture, they’ve even put a nice sneeze guard in this new model. Or is that so hot grease doesn’t hit you in the face? → Read More
I doubt this sort of behavior is approved by the Bay Area Transit Authority, but it sure as hell looks like a lot of fun. I can imagine that the acceleration and deceleration of the trains makes for some weird swing antics… maybe I’ll try it on the Monorail. → Read More
Creative Japan today announced the ZEN MX [JP], a portable media player that will be available in Nippon starting at the beginning of next month. The company plans to offer an 8GB (ZN-ZMX8G-BK) and 16GB (ZN-ZMX16G-BK) model, both featuring a 2.5-inch LCD screen with 320×240 resolution. → Read More
Wow, interesting to see someone actually quit their job nowadays but a game developer for 2K Australia did just that. And he went out with a bang, too, creating a browser-based Mario-inspired game with several short levels with thank you’s, reasons for quitting, and so on. → Read More
Ah, the Chevy Volt. Will it ever make it to market and/or will it save GM? That’s a another post entirely. Anyway, GM-Volt.com founder got behind the wheel of a Chevy Volt prototype and seemed impressed. This mule drive was a battery-only demo and didn’t show off the engine generator switchover, which is what many of us onlookers are curious about. That point and how a $40,000 vehicle will save the nation’s largest automaker during a recession and a period of relatively inexpensive gasoline? Video after the jump. → Read More
No fair! I wish I had a broken arm with a bionic LEGO cast that allowed me to accessorize with several wonderful gadgets like flashlights and voice recorders. Lucky! → Read More
My G1 just rang with an unfamiliar 1-800 number. Uh oh, I thought, one of those singles lines I spend so much time on is trying to collect. I answered and after a second, a recorded voice said “Hi! This is a free call from T-Mobile to thank you for your loyalty.” It then repeated this message in Spanish and hung up.
Seriously? → Read More
Over a period of three years, fantasy author Peter Brett wrote 100,000 words on his HP iPaq during his long subway commute. And here I get all excited when I manage to post a new word I learned to my blog, while sitting at a bar. Given the length of most epic fantasy novels (or cycles) I would have thought it an impossible task to thumb out more than, say, 5-10% on something like a smartphone. But this guy seems to actually thrive doing it. He talks about his experience, and why he went with an HP iPaq of all things, in this interview. He’s pretty bullish about the Kindle, much more so than I am, but it’s true that it is a breakout device; authors and publishers need to start working with e-books early or risk ending up like the recording industry. My question is, if he knew he was going to be doing so much typing, why not get something with a really sweet keypad like a Sidekick or Blackberry? Update: If you’re curious, the book has been uploaded to Scribd, so you can get an idea of just what one can write from a moving subway train, on a device I’d be afraid to compose an email on. Check it out below. → Read More
I don’t usually like the squat little portable cases you see around that are made for portability, but this one does it right. iBuyPower has used NZXT’s Rogue case and filled it with things you probably wouldn’t expect in a LAN-going box. Liquid cooling, room for 4-way SLI and a huge amount of RAM, and even two optical drives if you want. I guess the Rogue case isn’t exactly micro, but it is of a more portable form factor than, say, the Whisper. With the carrying strap included with this system, it’d be pretty easy to hump over to the car and toss in the passenger seat. It’s pretty configurable, so specs wouldn’t really serve a purpose here. Go check out the configurator and see what you can get. It starts at $1000. → Read More
Online publishing platform Associated Content has closed a $6 million, Series C financing round funded by SoftBank Capital, Canaan Partners and AOL CEO Tim Armstrong. Associated Content secured $10 million in Series B Financing from SoftBank, Canaan, and Armstrong in 2007. The company also closed $5.4 million in Series A funding from SoftBank in 2006.
Founded by Luke Beatty and originally funded by Tim Armstrong in 2005, Associated Content operates a proprietary content publishing platform that enables individuals and media companies to publish content (text, video, audio etc.) on any topic. Associated Content says that it will use the new funds for consumer, platform, publisher, and advertiser growth. The company has an archive of more than one million pieces of content, and is expanding its network of 250,000 professional and amateur content contributors. → Read More
Center’d, a local activity guide headed by former Yahoo Local GM Jennifer Dulski, is getting a major upgrade today. Alongside a completely revamped homepage, the site is launching a reworked search engine that it says should outperform the keyword searches found on most other local sites.
Center’d has compiled a database of around 1 million entries for various activities, each of which is categorized into a number of intent-based classifications. To do this, the site has spidered through the web analyzing ‘conversations’ taking place around each entry, taking context into account to determine if a review or comment is positive or negative. It then maps out the results in bar graphs, as seen below. Dulski says that this kind of semantic analysis is better than standard keyword search, and it helps eliminate inaccurate matches – for example it would prevent a review that said “this place is not for kids” from appearing under a query for restaurants “for kids”. → Read More
Senseg.com is a haptic interface company based in Helsinki, Finland. I met with the CEO, Ville Makinen, who showed us two simple implementations of the system.
Instead of using vibrating motors, the device surface is completely motionless. Instead, the Senseg system stimulates your fingers or hand with an electrical field to simulate the feeling of friction or texture. The only way I can describe it as being a cross between rubbing soft sandpaper and getting a static electric shock whenever you touch an active point on the screen.
One obvious implementation would be for something like the iPhone. Because it uses no motors you can’t hear it and it doesn’t run down the battery. A small module – about as big as two sugar cubes – controls the sensation by connecting to a thin film that can be placed on any device. The film can even go around curves. The video you see here shows two demo products. One is a UI test with three distinct systems – a slider, a notched slider, and a rotating arrow. When you move your finger on each UI element you feel a different thing. → Read More
DDR3 as a premium RAM technology has been around for a good while now, but the price of setting up a DDR3 system has been less than cost-effective. The benefits of DDR3 haven’t been great enough to justify the huge price gap between common DDR2 and the newer standard. But the changeover has to happen sometime, and it looks like Samsung got a little impatient. They’re offering really tempting pricing on their basic memory modules to memory assemblers, who then will have the choice of passing on the savings to you, the consumer. → Read More
Today was supposed to be a big coming out party for stealthy search engine Wolfram Alpha. Computer scientist Stephen Wolfram gave the first public demonstration of his knowledge mining search engine at Harvard. But to be honest, not too many people were paying attention because A) who wants to sit through a two-hour Webcast and B) Google decided to tease its own efforts at adding structured data to search during the demo.
Not long after that, we received the screenshot above from an anonymous “benefactor” of Wolfram Alpha asking “which one is computing about the future?” The Wolfram screenshot shows a search for “ISS” and the results show the flight path and current position of the International Space Station, along with its altitude, velocity, inclination, orbit type, and other useful stats. Google population search, in contrast, plots basically one data point over time (although, you can easily add others). The suggestion is that Google quickly ginned up its public data search feature to undermine Wolfram’s debut. And it worked. Nobody really paid attention to the two hour snorecast (except Larry Dignan at Cnet—thank you Larry for sitting through it so the rest of us didn’t have to). → Read More
