Software

I must say out of all the Windows operating systems that I have used thus far (starting from 3.1…I was too young to use 1.0 when it was released), Windows XP was the one that held my attention the most. Even the notebook that I purchased last year runs on Windows XP, as I politely declined the Windows Vista option after hearing horror stories about it. Microsoft has clearly seen the stranglehold Windows XP has on the world, and they have finally relented to let Windows XP Home Edition hang around for another two years, which is a welcome reprieve considering the fact that Microsoft planned to pull it away from shelves in less than three months from now. Windows XP Home shall be made available to OEMs at least until June 2010, where Microsoft might pull the plug then. The main reason behind this turnabout is due to “incredibly strong demand” on various devices such as the Asus Eee PC, Intel Classmate PC, and the OLPC. This has also caused Microsoft to post design guidelines for manufacturers looking to build low-cost laptops which are powered by the Windows XP platform.

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We have all become too comfortable with the idea of performing searches by entering a query in our favorite search engine, but Yahoo! is about to introduce a paradigm shift to the world by enabling users to use voice commands to search the web instead. Boerries, executive vice president of Yahoo’s Connected Life unit mentioned that “This is really a sea change. This is not about simple Web links any more.” Guess with more and more people surfing on their cell phones, it makes perfect sense to increase accessibility to web links on these handsets. Yahoo!’s latest oneSearch service will be the latest thrust from the Microsoft target in order to further gain market share that have eroded sharply since the emergence of Google. The idea of using voice commands to perform search is certainly novel, as it enables publishers to provide highly categorized information which enables them to have a greater say in what they want users to see, including greater control on its presentation.

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Communicating with your family and friends over an instant messaging program is one of the cheaper (or even free) ways to keep in touch across a few thousand miles. Unfortunately, technology hasn’t exactly caught up with the high definition craze that is sweeping across living rooms in Europe and the US - until now, at least. Quanta and ooVoo have teamed up to offer high-quality, real-time video communication over the Internet, as long as you have a HDTV or notebook . Guess girlfriends who are talking to their boyfriends over this new technology will have to put even more foundation on their faces in order to hide the zits that seem to sprout up like nobody’s business.

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Are you an avid golfer who wants to fill up your head with everything golf, including golf course data from all over the US? If so, then the Never-Search for Golf software is perfect for someone like you.

Never-Search for Golf is a golf course location guide, containing a complete and comprehensive array of golf course contact information, course data and location information… all mapped with unprecedented accuracy to verified coordinates. Designed to appeal to travelers desiring to locate and qualify a golf course in an unfamiliar area, and to golfers who want to expand their area of play.

What makes this great is you don’t need an Internet connection to keep it going, and it features the following :-

• All 18,475 Golf Courses in the US
• 1,600 Driving Ranges
• 3,500 Off-Course Golf Stores
• 9,000 Golf Instructors

The Personal and Business editions retail for $19.95 and $495, respectively.

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So you don’t have an iPhone, and neither have you made provisions in your monthly expenses to save up for one. What happens if you’re envious of your friends’ iPhones, and want a somewhat similar input system on your regular handset? This is where Dasur’s touch screen text input software for cell phones and PDAs come in.

Whereas in a standard reduced size keyboard, the user must be very accurate in touching a specific micro-area representing the key, with ThumbKey the user simply presses in the vicinity of the required key and need not be concerned if the thumb touches other keys simultaneously. Due to its unique algorithms, ThumbKey is able to identify the intended keys through a combination of characteristics of the keystroke (size and position of the finger). The algorithm processes the typed letters and its disambiguation feature suggests the intended word and additional candidate words, conveniently displayed next to the keyboard. Powerful word recognition enables you to enter only the first few letters of a word and then to make your choice from options conveniently offered on screen.

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Will robots take over the world in the future? It sure sounds like it. They might be docile servants for now, performing domestic tasks such as vacuuming our homes while clearing out gutters and cleaning swimming pools, but surely they will one day decipher the secrets of the human mind and take advantage of our weaknesses the more room and space we give them. Take the MindMentor for instance - this online robot psychologist is the first of its kind in the world, and clients will pay a minimal €4.95 per hour. Developed by a couple of Dutch psychologists who specialize in Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP), the system has gone through its baptism of fire with tests on 1,600 clients all over the world, and 47% of them have responded positively that they are satisfied after only one session. I wonder whether the troubles of these satisfied folks are too simple to solve, or the MindMentor is THAT good.

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At CeBIT, one of the biggest Information Tech events in the world, a text-to-speech program named IVONA made quite a splash.

IVONA is made by IVO Software, and the demonstration at CeBIT had four voices in three different languages. “Ewa” and “Jacek” spoke fluent Polish, and “Carmen” was Romanian. One of the most popular speakers was “Jennifer” who spoke fluent US English.

This demonstration is still going online. If you go to www.ivona.com, you can have a chance to try IVONA in the aforementioned three languages. The best part is you can type in any text you want, and then have it spoken back to you. I tried typing a few select phrases on Jennifer, and I found that “she” was able to speak with some interesting tonal inflections. Read the rest of this entry »

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A couple of years ago (it doesn’t seem that long ago…) I waxed lyrical about the advantages of using a modded Xbox with XBMC as a living room media adapter.

Unfortunately technology moves on and my trusty Xbox just didn’t have the horsepower to play back high definition content. The next gen consoles can do it but they still aren’t as flexible as I’d like (although kudos to Microsoft for finally enabling DivX playback on the 360).

So what do to? The Mac Mini stepped in to fill the gap nicely; the new Core Duo models are fairly powerful, it’s tiny and it’s almost silent running. It’s also surprisingly good value for money - I can’t build a PC that ticks all those boxes for the price of a mini.

It seems like the developers of the original XBMC software had the same thought and they’ve been porting the media player software to OSX. Over the past month or so I’ve been watching the OSXBMC project with interest and it looks like it’s finally become solid enough for general use.
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