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Business professionals who spend a substantial amount of time behind the wheel will find a helpful dictation secretary in MyCaption. A simple interface mirrors the application's ease of use. Click to record an e-mail up to 3 minutes in length, or a memo, task, or calendar item. You can opt to review the e-mail message before sending it out. MyCaption then uploads the content to secure, Amazon-hosted servers, where it's transcribed using a combination of machine-based speech recognition and human transcription, and rerouted.

Thanks to human interception during lengthy dictation, e-mails were accurate during our tests. More complex … Read more

An industry insider recently admitted to me that only 30 percent of AV receiver buyers ever bother to hook up all seven channels to their receivers. That guesstimate seems a little high to me; the standard 5.1 channel setup: Left, center, right speakers upfront, and a pair of surround speakers to the sides of the main listening position can supply a truly immersive sound experience.

Seven-channel home theater adds two more speakers, placed behind the main listening position. That's tough to accomplish in rooms where the couch or chairs are up against the rear wall. There's no "rear" there, so some folks mount the rear speakers up high, or bounce the sound off the ceiling.

Still, the rear surrounds typically contribute little, so it's pretty hard to justify the added expense and hassle of running the extra wires for a marginal sonic improvement. The one exception might apply to very large rooms where the side and rear surround speakers are further apart from each other. The extra coverage may produce a more complete sense of surround envelopment. … Read more

Web Data Extractor promises to give users the power to remove any important data from a Web site. Whether seeking URLs, phone numbers, or more complicated information, this is a program that impresses with its scope and ease of use.

This program may overwhelm some users at first glance. Web Data Extractor has a complex interface full of options that took a little trial and error to get the hang of. The screen consists of a large blank window with several tabs labeled for URLs, e-mail, fax, meta tags, and more. In addition, there are icons that allow users to … Read more