Computer voice-to-text technology has come a long way, and every time it gets better, new applications open up. It is still not 100 percent accurate. Hell, it’s not even 90 percent accurate. But it is accurate enough for automated voicemail transcription services to become increasingly available and good enough not to have to listen through 15 voicemails to get the gist of what they are about. Of course, voicemails are often translated incorrectly, sometimes to comic effect.
In a study comparing the accuracy of four different voice-to-text technologies (Google Voice, Preview in Microsoft Exchange, Ditech’s PhoneTag, and Yap) the one which came out on top was PhoneTag, which is now part of Ditech Networks. PhoneTag showed an 86 percent accuracy rate in translating 500 spoken messages into text. Google Voice was only able to achieve an 82 percent accuracy in its voice-to-text translations. The study only evaluated purely automated voice-to-text systems. Here’s how all four fared: → Read More
Yes, Mitsubishi. We’re all very impressed with your 149″ OLED TV (even though it runs at a ridiculous 1024×640), but we also know that thing is one-of-a-kind and proves nothing. Why don’t you skip the showboating and put out a couple sweet displays people might actually want to use in their homes? I know they’d be expensive, but someone would buy them because they cost less than infinity dollars. And you can fit them through doors. The pic above is a non-real OLED display from last year, and still the only OLED in my possession is in the Zune HD. [via OLED-display.net] → Read More
Working from home can be a good gig, but as any of us bloggers can tell you, there are real challenges. Lack of regular human contact, for instance, can make a wild animal out of anyone. My neighbors can testify, having occasionally to disengage my teeth from the calves of FedEx guys who come to my door. I’d chase them outside, but it’s so bright! And with no appearance standards to live up to, hygiene can become a problem. This is the beard of a lazy man, my friends, a lazy, lazy man. But I try to keep the birds out of it, at least.
But enough of that. You know what I’m talking about, homebodies. Luckily for us, a Mr. Gordon Wu has introduced a series of products that recreate the office environment at home. Like the Eleva-door! Who wouldn’t want to wait for an imaginary elevator to come to your “floor” before being allowed to enter your work area? → Read More
Unless your whole home is decorated with weirdo technology scraps, these lamps, cool as they are, will probably look out of place. But! Do you work in an office that values design and decor? These would be perfect for the copy room. Am I right? → Read More
As is to be expected of any device that the masses get excited about prior to it actually existing, the iPad has torn the Internet in two. Some love it, seeing it as the first iteration of an eventually world-changing device; others just don’t see a point. “It’s just a big iPhone,” they say, “and I already have an iPhone!” These iPhone owners are exactly who should be the most excited about the iPad – even if they don’t plan on buying one. Even before its release, the iPad has heralded a number of changes on the way for iPhone OS – and presumably, the iPhone itself. → Read More
The iPad? What were they thinking? Didn’t they consider the implications of people mocking the name? “How will Twitter react?” Doesn’t Apple have a social media ninja on its payroll? → Read More
This particular DIY project makes sense. It’s been proven that in order to increase the MPG on your motorcycle (or scooter in this case), all you need to do it add a cowling. Cyclists use this concept in increase speed, the solar powered cars use this, it makes sense. That still doesn’t mean that you should do it, at least, not in this color. → Read More
Samsung announced recently that they will be mass producing 3D HDTVs. They are the first manufacturer to actually come out and say so, but I doubt they will be the last given the sheer volume of 3D technology we saw at CES. Samsung stated they will be producing three sizes initially, in 40-inch, 46-inch, and 55-inch screens. All three sizes will support the current 3D Active Glasses, which is currently the industry standard. → Read More
There have only been a few games that I’ve been more excited about that Command & Conquer 4: Half-Life 2, Day of Defeat: Source, and Command & Conquer Red Alert 2. That’s it. C&C 4 should launch on March 16, 2010, but follow this quick guide ASAP and you’ll be able to see a bit of the game early through the beta program. But you better hurry. There is limit to the amount of keys they are giving out. → Read More
As we noted back in December, VeriFone wasn’t just going to sit back and let Square, the new startup by Twitter creator Jack Dorsey, dominate the iPhone/iPod touch payment space. Unfortunately, their announcement of PAYware Mobile looked rushed (and Photoshopped), and Dorsey himself didn’t seem too worried. Since then though, VeriFone was nice enough to send us the hardware they are going to use to accept payments on the iPhone — it’s very real.
Today, the other key part of the equation has just gone live in the App Store, the PAYware Mobile app. This free application, when paired with the hardware, allows you to use your iPhone to easily accept credit card payments, just as Square does. Still, as Dorsey noted in the original video we took with him (second video below), Square is being aimed at a broader market of people who may not have merchant accounts but still wish to be able to accept payments. Also, while VeriFone’s hardware is clearly better designed for use with the actual iPhone, Square’s method of using the headphone jack is so that it will be able to be used with other mobile devices eventually (Square is currently working on an Android app, for example). VeriFone promises support for other platforms as well, but this particular hardware unit will only work with an iPhone 3G or iPhone 3GS. → Read More
One of the small surprises of the iPad announcement was that it was running on Apple’s own custom silicon. Well, that’s true to an extent, but it’s not like Apple actually invented the processor in-house. It’s just not OEM hardware. In fact, other guys are running with many of the same parts.
The A4 is a custom implementation of the ARM A9 processor, also found in Snapdragon (running the Nexus One) and Tegra (running the Zune HD). The difference is there is a GPU mated with the A9 in Apple’s design, probably to help offload the graphics work and keep the interface smooth. → Read More
So you own the New Jersey Nets and you have a few billion in assets. And you’re Russian. What do you do next? You start a line of $12,000 city cars designed to look sort of like the Smart car but more Slavic. The oligarch, Mikhail Prokhorov, is investing $141 million in the Yarovit Motors plant and will create a hybrid or electric vehicle. → Read More
Did you know that your USB cable can be used to connect your phone to the Internet and bring over ringtones? I know, right? Amazing! But unless you own pro grade cable, you might as well be carrying your data over in a feces-smeared galvanized bucket scrounged up from a burned-down rendering plant! → Read More
Everyone has an opinion about the iPad, even at Davos. Michael is there this week at the World Economic Forum, grabbing video interviews with the people he is running into (like Michael Dell showing off a yet-to-launch Android device). In the video after the jump, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff talks about the iPad (what else?). Other people might be wowed by the touchscreen or the 140,000 apps or the iBooks, but not Benioff. He’s impressed by the battery:
“The most important feature is the 10-hour battery life. That he was able to get that kind of capability in such a robust device, I think we have a game-changer.” → Read More
This week, social networking site MyYearbook launched a revamped design, changing some key UI elements to better reflect the way people use the site. One of the more interesting points of the redesign isn’t its appearance though — it’s how it was actually put together. Rather than simply rolling out a new design, MyYearbook actually polled its userbase for suggestions, then drafted some mockups that users voted on. The result? Users favor the new design by a factor of over 3 to 1, without the kind of backlash other sites have seen from their redesigns.
The most obvious change to the site is the logo, which has gone from cartoony to something a little more professional (though it still has a couple of smiley faces). The navigation bar has also been simplified. CEO Geoff Cook says that over time MyYearBook had integrated a bunch of gaming menu options into the main navigation area, without doing much to differentiate the core features that actually make the site a social network. → Read More
Intelius, a site that helps users find information about others, continues to have more bad news around its senior execs. John Arnold, a cofounder and EVP, has been indicted on a charge of lying to a grand jury about having sex with a dancer.
The company has been trying to go public despite hundreds of scam complaints, and the atrocious legal record of CEO Naveen Jain. We covered many of the issues back in 2008. Last year the U.S. Senate began an investigation into the post transaction marketing offers that drive much of Intelius’ revenue.
The new charges are somewhat ironic, since Intelius recently launched an iPhone dating application called datecheck. → Read More
A recent AT&T earnings call consisted of a lot of talk talk talk but one slide stands out: it essentially admits that 3G in San Francisco and New York sucked ween AKA were both far below their official performance objective. Although I can’t figure out what the actual “Performance Objective” truly is based on this slide, those lines do seem to be going up. While anyone can make up a statistic, for AT&T to come out and say “we suck in those areas” is big news. Good on you, lads. → Read More
For all of its stupidity, the music industry should be commended for relaxing its DRM requirements. Every single song on iTunes is DRM-free, as are the songs on Amazon MP3 and electronic music specialist Beatport. The Zune Marketplace works a little differently, but many of the downloadable songs there are DRM-free, too. But PC game publishers? They’re still bat-shit crazy, as evidenced by the DRM requirements of BioShock 2 and presumably every single one of Ubisoft’s upcoming releases. What’s it going to take for PC publishers to step back and realize that DRM does absolutely nothing to prevent piracy? Not only that, but that it encourages piracy because the pirated version of the game ends up being superior to the legitimate copy? → Read More
Remember those guys who made those nifty Google Wave movie mash-up videos? You know, the ones with Pulp Fiction and Good Will Hunting? Well, they’re at it again, with the new hot ticket in town: the iPad.
Whirled Creative has made a mash-up of yesterday’s iPad announcement and President Obama’s first State of the Union Address from last night. Those who were concerned that the Apple announcement was getting more buzz than the President’s speech can now have the best of both worlds. → Read More
TwitBit [iTunes link] is a fantastic Twitter client on the iPhone. With dozens of apps from which to Tweet, competition is stiff. Moreover, once you find a Twitter client you like, it’s even harder to understand why you should switch. TwitBit, a Twitter client from High Order Bit, has finally made me change my ways and delete Tweetie from my iPhone. And though TwitBit definitely lacks some key features of Tweetie, there’s one major reason why I am now using TwitBit instead of Tweetie: Push notifications. → Read More
