Big news: Google has just released Voice Search for the iphone. Erica Naone, who blogs at Technology Review, has taken it for a test drive and likes it. Her brief article and a video are here.

While you're giving it a whirl, you can, of course, Google other reviews, also positive.

But there's a tradeoff if Google Voice Search works well. You miss out on entertainment--as when a colleague of Erica's ordered "Find pizza" and got back a restaurant named Flying Pizza. Reading this, will pizza places from coast to coast get the bright idea of changing their names to lure more customers?

Google Mobile with voice search is available now through iTunes or the App store on your iPhone. For the iPhone only, for now.

Some jobs you really need someone there to hold a flashlight for you.  However, there isn’t always someone around to help out with odd jobs like that.  That’s where these bracelets come in.  Yes they do look a bit like something that belongs at a party or something along those lines.  However, they also would be great to illuminate whatever it is you’re working on.  Which would be far more convenient than trying to hold a miniature flashlight in your teeth.

These are sold in sets of two, so you could wear one on each wrist or two on one wrist for extra lighting.  Each bracelet features four LED lights, which should put off a nice strong glow.  Each bracelet measures 3 and 1/4” in diameter.  I doubt any guy could get away with wearing these without a little friendly teasing from friends.  Yet, if it’s effective then it’s probably well worth it.  You can purchase these in sets of two on Computer Gear for $19.99.

Source: BookofJoe

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It was a three gadget race for last week’s coolest gadget crown and laziness won out with the winner being: Robot Legs.

They will reduce the load on your legs by supporting your weight as you walk. You just sit on the unicycle-type seat and the leg frames bend like knees. They run on two motors which are controlled by signals from the sensors inside the shoes. It all sounds great but I must say that when I first saw those pictures, I did wonder how the boys might fare…

I preferred my mates response on Twitter:

robots legs cause I’m lazy.. too lazy to comment as well see you sunday

Congrats to Decide What to Buy for again submitting a coolest gadget winner.

In a very close second place we have the water slide simulator

Imagine going to a water park with no lines, slides that last more than a few seconds, and being able to create your own slide before you ride it. Well hopefully you will be able to in the future. If you saw this week’s episode of Prototype This that’s exactly what they ended up creating.

Finally in third place we have the obligatory robotic entry, the solar powered lawn mower.

Capable of mowing 3/4 acre, the 18 volt, 4 amp Auto Mower 230 runs 90 minutes on a single charge and cuts 1300 square feet per hour. The Auto Mower even returns to its own charging station when its power is running low!

Thanks to everybody who voted, submitted, commented or told a friend (and if you did all 4 you’re an absolute star). As a thank you the following 2 people win $50 Amazon vouchers:

Voting and leaving a comment: kirk.justin

Telling a friend: Jessica (who told Beth)

Thanks again everybody and good luck with the next CGOTW contest on Friday.

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Do you or your kids have some valuables that need stashed away and kept safe?  Well Discovery has a safe that can only be opened by the sound of your voice. Which would be handy for hiding things away from either your spouse or your siblings.  Hopefully though this safe offers better voice recognition than the diaries that get released every so often that claim the same things.  To crack those diaries all you have to do is hear the person say whatever it is to open it.  Then match the ups and downs in their voice and you’re in.

Not that I would ever do that to my younger sister or anything.  I don’t see this safe being much better, but it would be a great toy for a younger child.  Once it recognizes your voice it will automatically pop open.  It has a shelf inside as well as a drawer to keep you valuables in.  If someone tries to physically crack the safe it will set off an alarm.  The Discovery Voice-Activated Biometric Safe will cost you $24.99.

Source: Gizmodiva

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CNN has put up a sneak peek at the fascinating technology being developed by creative geniuses around the world - technology having the potential to offer products that will soon become the coolest must-haves. All of the featured designs are either working prototypes or are expected to become actual products in the next five years.

The well-rounded list includes gadgets that not only suggest great utility and impeccable design, but possess great looks as well. Some of the gadgets that have made it into the list: the Voicestick - a portable text-scanning device that can convert any text on paper into voice information, the iBangle - a portable mp3 player that doubles up as a bracelet, the Lego-James - a GPS bracelet that allows parents to keep track of their children even as it entertains, the Origami phone and DVD - technology that uses the art of origami for the display screens of phones and DVDs. Superb stuff, this.

Lap it all up at CNN Technology.

Barack Obama may have to relinquish his ever-present blackberry for security reasons when he becomes U.S. President in January, but no way will he give up exploiting the digital technology he built his election campaign on. Obama has launched brief weekly talks and will be posting them on YouTube. Among his promises in the first chat: putting $150 billion toward creating 5 million jobs by creating a new green energy economy.

Your response may depend on your politics. You can look at this reaching out as transparency in government - or as plain old politicking, notes Lidija Davis on ReadWriteWeb. Find the video and a link to the transcript of the 3 1/2-minute talk there too.

The Incite features Windows Mobile 6.1, so it plays well with the MS Office docs, Outlook and the like.  It’s camera is a 3mp jobber and the 3” display has 240x480 QVGA going for it.  A bonus stylus tells you fingers may or may not be the best input device.  As a note, the Samsung Epix also offered a stylus and I found most tasks (save for clicking the close box in the upper left) were easily done with fat fingers.

Interestingly the screen is haptic (a buzzing is made so you can feel when pressing keys) and the onscreen keyboard comes in two varieties: a basic QWERTY keyboard in landscape or a 20 key keyboard in portait.  The switching between the two is automatic based on the devices orientation.

Other bonus features include aGPS, WiFi and Bluetooth; staples for any business user.  Also in there is AT&T’s video share, “the first-ever service in the U.S. that allows users to share live video over wireless devices while participating in a voice call.“  The unit has an SD memory slot that is 16GB card compatible according to the press release but the AT&T site disagrees, saying it can handle 32GB. 

Product page [AT&T]

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I’ve been using TripIt for a bit now and must say it works as promised.  It takes email forwarded from sites like Travelocity and Expedia as well as from the airlines directly and travel agents.  Entering in new trips was effortless and the data entered was spot on.  Even when JetBlue changed a flight time on me, I forwarded the email wondering if it would throw their system for a loop; nope, it changed my data just as I hoped.

My contacts could easily find my trip info and when i was on the road, accessing the data was a snap.  I enjoy the service but had some questions.  Luckily, Gregg Brockway, CEO and founder of TripIt was willing to answer my questions.  Gregg comes out of the travel industry and seems to know his stuff.

Gadgetell: Are there plans for a native iphone/android app? 

The mobile app is nice, but having the data locally or at least the commands to get the data might be interesting. Yes, this is a feature request we occasionally see.  We’re exploring options to provide this.  Native apps are one solution.  We believe that browser based apps are the future of mobile and as browsers become more powerful, new solutions to this problem are also emerging which we are exploring.  Suffice to say, TripIt will provide offline access to your travel information in the near future.

Gadgetell:. How is the site going to make money?  Will we see ads at some point?

TripIt is a free service for travelers and plans to add online advertising in the future. However, our approach is likely to be more targeted by working with relevant brands and closely-related travel services, rather than standard banner advertising. We’re also looking into developing premium services for business travelers and corporate travel programs.

Gadgetell:. What is next for the company?

TripIt is growing quickly with great support from our users and the online community. We focused our first year on building out most of the core services that our users requested. Now we’re focusing on being an open platform and working more with partners. We currently support email confirmations from more than 250 booking sites, and have partnerships with Sabre VirtuallyThere (Sabre is one of the largest travel companies in the world)  and most recently LinkedIn. With LinkedIn, TripIt was one of a few selected applications to launch to their professional network last week, and in lets their users see where their connections are traveling. These are representative of the other partnerships we’re working on to help our travelers make it easy to organize and share their travel plans online. We’re happy to share more on that in the coming months.

Gadgetell: How secure is the info in TripIt’s hands, how secure is the email forwarding?  What precautions should users take?

TripIt takes security of information very seriously and we’re constantly reviewing industry best practices.  Email as a way of distributing information has been around for decades.  Once the information reaches TripIt, we make sure that our travelers have full control over who is able to access their travel information and how much of that information others are allowed to see.  For example, I think it’s very important that my wife see all my travel plans, including flight numbers, hotel addresses, etc.  However, for my broader network, I typically only want people to know my destination city and possibly the dates I’ll be there.  In some cases, I don’t want anyone to know my plans and I will mark these trips private.  TripIt gives travelers the ability to set general rules and update these on a trip by trip basis if needed.

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Yang announced his resignation last night, saying he will remain on the board of directors and reclaim his old title of “Chief Yahoo.”  Yang has been under the microscope of his shareholders ever since he rejected Microsoft’s offer of $33 per share for being too low.  Yahoo’s shares are now trading at a mere $11 each.  He now appears to regret his decision.

“To this day I would say that the best thing for Microsoft to do is to buy Yahoo,“ he said at a conference two weeks ago. And when quizzed on if he would stick to a higher price that he demanded back in May added, “Oh no. At the right price, whatever the price is.“
But Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer didn’t bite and said a couple of days later, “We are not interested in going back and re-looking at an acquisition. I don’t know why they would be either, frankly. They turned us down at $33 a share.“

Ouch.  Yahoo has begun the search for a successor, but finding someone willing to take over the tough job of turning around what was once the net’s top search engine won’t be easy, and for now what lies in the company’s future is anyone’s guess.

Read: [PC World]

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FROM GAMERTELL - This past week several sites reported that Sam’s Club was offering a rather incredible Wii bundle deal for Black Friday but we’ve come to learn that the ad was “doctored by an as yet unknown party”... MORE »

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