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How to get the upper hand in Bird-Watching 101

This looks kind of like the slide projector that we used in my third-grade social studies class back in...whenever I was in third grade. But it's not: it's actually a digital tool to enhance the experience of bird-watching, called the Song Sleuth Digital Bird Detector. Turn it on, and it can decipher 160,000 different bird calls in real time, thanks to audio data from Cornell University's Lab of Ornithology. It can also record sound so that you can put it on your computer later, for whatever reason.

I might be wrong about this, as bird-watching … Read more

Infiniti...and beyond

We just got back from a spin in the 2007 Infiniti M35, and we have to admit that on first impressions, we like it. After playing around with the M35's 8-inch rear-seat entertainment system, programming the in-dash GPS navigation unit, and goading the 275-horsepower V-6 in short bursts of urban driving exuberance, we were faced with the final car tech challenge: operating the voice-recognition interface. Regular readers of CNET Car Tech will know that we are hard to please when it comes to in-car voice-command interfaces. (For detailed examples, feel free to check out our reviews of the 2007 Toyota Camry, … Read more

Talk to your remote, not the hand

TiVo may be falling under the superficial spell of techno-fashion with its Glo Remote, but competing gadgets know that beauty is only clamshell deep. Take, for example, the InVoca voice-activated universal remote, which supposedly recognizes up to four voices and 25 commands for your TV, VCR, DVD player and other devices. It also has a charging base--shouldn't all products have those by now?--and a hands-free surfing function (we're not sure exactly how that works). The InVoca's name reminds us of an Italian scooter, but we've already gotten over that. If it works as billed, we … Read more

Texting software 1, man 0

Machine won out over man in a text messaging competition at a mobile-communications industry event this week in Orlando, Fla.

The John Henry of the event was Ben Cook of Utah, the Guinness World Record holder for texting, who lost to Nuance's Mobile Dictation software that converts human speech into text on a mobile phone. The losing round used the same text message that Cook typed to win his record title: "The razor toothed piranhas of the genera Serrasalmus and Pygocentrus are the most ferocious freshwater fish in the world. In reality they seldom attack a human."… Read more