Posted on January 29th, 2018 by Bob and Joy Schwabach
In its never ending struggle to conquer the world, Amazon is moving Alexa into your car. Well, maybe not your car, but a lot of cars. We have a couple things to say about that. Okay, maybe three things. For those who came into the movie late, Alexa is this know-it-all device you can ask about anything and it will often come up with the right answer and play music too. But it chops up classical pieces. (It’s best to imagine that somewhere in the middle of the Emperor Concerto, Beethoven dies, and that’s all he wrote.) Coming out in early February, the car version will plug into your cigarette lighter and all will be well with the world. The […]
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Filed under: Amazon, apps, gadgets, graphics, voice recognition | Comments Off on ALEXA IN THE CAR
Posted on November 13th, 2017 by Bob and Joy Schwabach
We just played “Animal Trivia,” “World Foods Trivia” and “What’s Your Nickname” without touching a phone, computer or board game. We used Google Home, the digital assistant. We paid $130 when it first came out but now there’s a new version called the “Mini,” which you can get for $49. This matches the price for Amazon’s “Alexa.” Holiday shopping is on the horizon and people are going to be making decisions and price is often the deciding factor. So are there differences? You bet. Most would consider them slight, Bob thinks they’re enormous. Bob prefers Google. Joy on the other hand, thinks Alexa has lots of advantages. Whaddaya gonna do? She particularly likes an Alexa game called “Yes, Sire,” in […]
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Filed under: Amazon, apps, art, gadgets, Google, graphics, voice recognition | Comments Off on THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT
Posted on April 17th, 2017 by Bob and Joy Schwabach
“Crowd-sourcing,” also called “crowd-funding” is like found money. Instead of one sponsor, you have hundreds, perhaps thousands of strangers donating to your cause, with few strings attached. A new book, “The Crowd-sourceress” by Alex Daly, ($17 at PublicAffairsBooks.com) offers advice on how to do it. Over 100,000 projects have been funded by Kickstarter.com, one of several crowd funding services, since it began in 2009. We are talking big bucks here. It’s common to hit a couple hundred thousand and can sometimes bring in a couple million. This has even drawn the attention of major corporations, like Samsung, General Electric and Hasbro. Because after all, there’s no interest charge, unlike borrowing from a bank. Sometimes there’s also no accounting. When you […]
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Filed under: Amazon, apps, crowdfunding, education, Google, voice recognition | Comments Off on THE CROWD “SOURCERESS”
Posted on November 21st, 2016 by Bob and Joy Schwabach
Google Home plays music, brings you news, puts videos on your TV and answers questions. “Internuts:” (interesting websites) include Lighter.world and a site for writers.
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Filed under: gadgets, Google, health, news, TV, video, voice recognition | Comments Off on SOMEONE IS LISTENING
Posted on January 28th, 2014 by Bob and Joy Schwabach
Google Glass enthusiasts make it sound like everyone will soon be wearing a glasses frame able to project a tiny display. None of this is breakthrough technology; it’s dependent on massive storage capacity and ultra-fast processing by somebody’s data service somewhere, like Google, or the NSA.
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Filed under: electronics, gadgets, Google, voice recognition | Comments Off on GOOGLE GLASS COMPETITOR
Posted on January 14th, 2013 by Bob and Joy Schwabach
People love to talk. Just look at all the TV shows that are about nothing else. But here in the computer world, we want to see that talk printed on the screen and the page. So, every time we mention a program for converting talk to text, we get a lot of reader response: Is it any good, they ask? Does it really work? People have a lot to say.
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Filed under: apps, voice recognition | Comments Off on JUST TALK NATURALLY
Posted on August 17th, 2012 by Bob and Joy Schwabach
When the iPhone’s voice-activated personal assistant “Siri” came out, the reaction from reviewers was ecstatic delight. Wow, you could ask questions and the phone would answer; sometimes making wise-cracks.
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Filed under: Android, iPhone, voice recognition | Comments Off on BACK TALK FROM YOUR CELL PHONE
Posted on October 25th, 2011 by Bob and Joy Schwabach
You probably know that the latest Apple iPhone 4S has “Siri” which responds to your voice. Owners of Android phones can get something similar, called Sonalight. Both these apps are free.
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Filed under: apps, text messaging, voice recognition | Comments Off on TEXTING WHILE DRIVING
Posted on January 6th, 2010 by Bob and Joy Schwabach
A Twitter parody site and a free speech-to-text app for the iPhone.
(CLICK UNDERLINE BELOW HEADING FOR DETAILS.)
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Filed under: iPhone, social networks, voice recognition | Comments Off on FREE STUFF
Posted on September 21st, 2008 by Bob and Joy Schwabach
1If you’ve ever called for airline reservations, you’ve dealt with voice recognition software. A robotic voiceasks you if you want “reservations” or “flight status.” If you say “Cheeseburger,” the robot says, “Sorry, I didn’t get that.”
You can have this kind of fun on a regular basis, with your own voice recognition software.
(CLICK HEADING FOR MORE.)
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Filed under: business, voice recognition | Comments Off on VOICE RECOGNITION IMPROVES, SORT OF
