voice

SayHi Translate is a surprisingly accurate voice translation app that could be the tool world travelers have been looking for quick translations. Using the app is easy. Simply touch the wrench icon to choose your language, then the language you want something translated to, then return to the main interface. From there you can either touch your language button to speak or touch the smaller keyboard icon to type a sentence and SayHi Translate will translate the sentence and speak it back to you (or whomever your trying to communicate with). It doesn't get everything right, but if you … Read more

Things I didn't know existed until just recently: the Obihai OBiTalk, a gizmo that plugs into your router and pairs with SIP-based voice-over-IP services like Google Voice; and GVJack App, a Windows utility that links a MagicJack to your Google Voice account.

Why are these products significant? Simple: Google Voice offers free local and long-distance calling -- through the end of 2012, at least. After that, it's anybody's guess. Google might continue the free-phone goodness, or it might start charging for service. (If the latter happens, it's a good bet it'll be cheap.)

Whatever the … Read more

If you're an avid online gamer, it's likely that you and your friends show up at your computer desks for scheduled events. By scheduling a time to show up, everyone can enjoy the company of people they know, instead of always relying on random players from the Interwebs.

While playing your game of choice, you also are likely to use some form of voice chat, since it is much faster and more efficient than typing. One of the most popular choices for this type of communication is Ventrilo -- a real-time voice client. The ability to chat on … Read more

Yesterday I wrote about the Ooma Telo phone system, which for $109.99 allowed you to ditch your landline and make nearly free phone calls for life. (Your only obligation: a few bucks' worth of monthly taxes and fees.) Alas, it sold out quickly.

More than a few commenters suggested an alternative: the Obihai OBi100, which can pair with Google Voice (among other services) for totally free calls. And talk about a cosmic coincidence: today the sucker's on sale.

Specifically, Amazon has the Obihai OBi100 VoIP phone adapter for $39.99 shipped. That's $20 off the regular price … Read more

Want to use Google Voice on your mobile phone? Google has apps for Android, the iPhone, and BlackBerry.

But a year-and-a-half after Windows Phone launched, Google still has no plans to support Microsoft's mobile platform.

"We're focusing our Google Voice efforts on Android & iOS and don't have a plan to extend this to the Windows Phone," Google told me via e-mail, when I asked recently about the lack of support. "This may change if we start to see greater demand from Windows Phone users for Google Voice."

Why bother? Let me count … Read more

NEW YORK -- Today, more than 200 startups, most from the Big Apple, came together for the first NY Tech Day, their chance to show off their wares to a gathering of more than 1,000 press, investors, and members of the public.

While the companies' offerings were diverse and rather uneven, there were some that stood out, and CNET did its best to pull together a list of the best that were on display:

FoundIt FoundIt is a useful service with an analog approach. The idea is to help you recover lost belongings. By signing up, you receive a sheet of stickers, each with an ID number assigned to your FoundIt account. Affix a sticker to your phone, your wallet, or anything worth recovering, and the finder can contact FoundIt via a phone number or by entering your code number on FoundIt's Web site. FoundIt then notifies the owner via text message or e-mail that the item has been located.… Read more

Voice Assistant is a handy little app that accurately converts your words to text for use in e-mails, SMS messages, and social network status updates. It is not a Siri replacement for older iPhone users (you can't ask questions), but it does a surprisingly good job translating your words into text.

You start by choosing your language from 22 available, then the app brings up the sparse interface of a microphone button to record and a gear icon in the upper right for settings. From there, you simply hit the button to start recording and begin dictating. When you'… Read more

At CES this year one of the most interesting announcements involved Samsung's Smart Interaction, a new feature on its 2012 TVs that utilizes a built-in camera and microphone to enable you to control the boob tube just by speaking and/or gesturing to it. I've spent the last few days doing just that, much to the amusement of my co-workers, and boy are my arms (and at least one finger) tired.

My takeaway? Smart Interaction has promise but feels half-baked and more like a gimmick than a compelling upgrade. Once the novelty wears off, its usefulness is limited (at best) to those times you don't have a remote in-hand. … Read more

Barely a month after the mobile browser Dolphin debuted Sonar for Android, a feature for browsing by voice command, it has introduced the feature to iPhones without the help of Siri.

Dolphin representative Darren Weiss explained that the Dolphin Sonar (download) partnership arose out of a limitation of developing for the iPhone. "Since there is no native voice API available for iOS, we decided to partner up with Nuance, leaders in the the voice-recognition space." Nuance is best-known for making Dragon Dictate, a PC-based speech recognition program. It also now owns several Android apps including Vlingo and Swype, … Read more