Archive of thenextweb.com
Written on 25th June 2009
19 COMMENTS 
Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.
The long awaited Google Voice invites are finally being sent out reports Lifehacker. Now, according to an Google Blog post twitter account, invites are going out to people on its reservations list. If you want in and haven’t signed up, request an invitation.
For those who aren’t aware, Google Voice is like having your very own personal switchboard. It assigns a unique phone number to each user and calls to that number can then be directed to any other phone line. The service also provides a hub for all messages. The online command centre also enables a user to customise greetings for friends and family or ward off unwelcome callers. Amongst other things, Google Voice also converts voice messages to text – making life easier all round.
The feature list is feature rich: (more…)
Written on 3rd December 2008
2 COMMENTS
Zee, Editor in Chief at The Next Web, Principal at WeDoCreative.
Voice Dialer is FREE iPhone application which, as the name suggests, enables voice dialing on the iPhone. The app is developed by the wonder-kids at Midomi who also developed the song recognition engine that lets you identify a song by simply singing, humming or playing the actual song.
Voice Dialer is innovative in it’s own right, it also lets you search your contacts without necessarily calling them. For example you may say “James Bond” and it will simply search your contacts and pull up his details where you can then email, SMS, or use maps for him. If you search for “Call James Bond” however it will auto-dial James’ number.
To view a video demonstration of the apps features click here. To download the app (which is free) click here.
via LH
Written on 14th November 2008
5 COMMENTS
Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten, Serial Internet Entrepreneur
Some time today Google will launch a Voice Search App for the iPhone. Check the iPhone App store now to see if it is ealready there. According to John Markoff over at the New York Times “Google researchers have added sophisticated voice recognition technology to the company’s search software for the Apple iPhone.”
With the free app you will be able to ask Google any question you can think of, like “Where’s the nearest Starbucks?”, “How tall is Mount Everest?” or “What weather is it in Amsterdam, The Netherlands?”. The app will send your digitized audio to Google services where the sound is analyzed, translated, queried to the database and then replied to in text form. The whole process shouldn’t take more than a second or two on a fast connection.
No news right now on availability outside of the US but I assume they will do a worldwide launch right away. The voice recognition is english only for now though. Read the original article for more background information and do let us know when you have downloaded the App to your iphone.
Send us your screenshots and experiences!
Written on 11th November 2008
7 COMMENTS
Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten, Serial Internet Entrepreneur
Okay, Google has added Voice and Video Chat right into Gmail. Read all about it here, here and here or log into Gmail and see if Google has activated your account or just watch the video:
With no desktop app and having to install a plugin to get everything working, I can’t help but feel this won’t take off. We’re still waiting for Google to enable voice for gtalk on the desktop!
What do you think?
[poll id="9"]
Written on 23rd April 2008
4 COMMENTS
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
We love scoops and we know you do as well. So here’s one: Swiss RSS service Dixero is going to launch tomorrow. Yet another RSS service, you ask. Yes! But this one is doing something new. It allows you to aggregate your favorite feeds and moreover, it transforms posts into audio by using different computer-generated voices. That means you can put the latest post of this blog on your iPod and listen to the audio version while traveling or working out. How time-saving and efficient is that?
Luca Mascaro (ceo Dixero.com) & Dafne Gobbi
One little doubt here though: will the technology behind Dixero manage to recognize names, especially the weird 2.0 ones like blurb? I mean, the idea of the service sounds good, yet if I only get non-understandable audio files I won’t use Dixero.
So according to chief strategy officer Lucas Mascaro and Dafne Gobbi we can test that out tomorrow. They’ve traveled all the way from Lugano, Switzerland to launch the service under the eyes of the Web 2.0 attendants. For now, watch this informative video featuring Luca:
Update: Frederic Martin left a comment saying this kind of service already exists. Check it out.
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