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Voice Recognition in the Work Place

John Cunningham — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 15:24:30 +0000

If I could have three wishes, one of them would surely be 100% accurate voice recognition with every electronic device that I interact with. I don’t mind typing but given the choice, I would much prefer to speak my commands rather than have to type them into a keyboard or hammer them out on an iPhone or iPad.

Voice recognition is obviously in its infancy but it is becoming quite good considering the tools we have to work with. In fact this blog post is being dictated into an iPad with the headphones that come with the iPad and so far it has been 100% accurate. I agree it could get confusing for a computer to decipher commands if you’re in a crowded room or there is loud music playing in the background or any other number of situations that might not be applicable to voice recognition.

That said how nice would it be to wake up in the morning and say, “turn on shower”. Or if you’re laying in bed at night and you want the lights off, instead of getting up to walk across the room you say, “turn off the lights”. How about you say, “did I remember to lock the doors” and the computer says “no, the back door is unlocked, would you like me to lock it for you now”.

It almost sounds a little like being lazy on the surface but I think it goes much deeper than that if you really ponder the possibilities. Steve Jobs seemed to be headed in the right direction before his untimely passing and I suspect that in the not-too-distant future, keyboard will go the way of the eight track.

Imagine how much we would save on hand sanitizer and carpal tunnel syndrome treatments.

Disconnecting in a Connected World

John Cunningham — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 16:16:19 +0000

To a large percentage of the world’s population, the Internet couldn’t be more irrelevant or any lower on the totem pole of life’s necessities. However, I happen to live in the group that relies heavily on the Internet to conduct business, perform research, communicate with friends, family and of course, waste time.

If you are like me, you are plastered with Internet access 24/7 in your day-to-day life, especially at work or at home. While I’m out and about, I’ve always got my trusty iPhone which can do 90% of the things that I need to get done with relative ease. If my iPhone lets me down, I can use my iPad to tackle the other 9% percent. The last 1% are probably things I could do without anyway, so they can wait.

I’ve been traveling this past week so I have experienced a fairly consistent lack of Internet connectivity and as a result, have had to travel a short distance (less than a mile) to a local café with free WiFi or maybe I got lucky and bummed free WiFi off someone with an unsecured network.

When I’m thoroughly disconnected and have no Internet resources whatsoever, something strange happens to me. I tend to notice things that are around me more because I’m not bumping into them while checking the weather on my iPhone. I also find myself engaging in conversation with more people because I’m not busy deleting spam out my inbox or replying to a text message. Does any of this sound familiar?

Yes I need the Internet and no I don’t need the Internet. Let me try this another way.. if I had to choose between never having access to the Internet again for the rest of my life or.. well, I can’t think of anything that would be applicable for a trade. You can’t say television because the Internet provides television. You can’t say the music or radio because the Internet provides both of those. We pretty much can’t say anything that you can’t physically put your hands on because the Internet provides all of that too. But you can say anything that you can touch, feel, taste, and smell. I left “see” out because as we already know, you can see everything on the Internet. Especially the stuff you have no interesting seeing.

What I’m trying to say is that I/we forget too often that the Internet is just a tool to help us do things and it’s not really very good at anything else. Have you ever tried to have a conversation with the internet? How about asking the internet on the date? Maybe go to dinner with the internet or make friends with the internet? Sure you can see the great pyramids on the internet but let’s be real, that’s no substitute for standing in front of them, smelling the air, feeling the sun reflect off of them or touching the stones. So I suppose it’s okay to be disconnected and in some cases, even therapeutic. It’s sad to say but I know people who would have a complete meltdown if they lost their Internet connection for a week or two. If you’re reading this blog post it’s very likely that I don’t know you, but it’s also very likely that he might be one of those people.

Not that you asked for it, but my recommendation would be to pick one day on the weekend to not use the Internet. That means disconnect the data portion on your phone as well because that would be cheating. You’ll survive an entire day without Google maps and even though your “real friends” on Facebook might be scratching their heads at your sudden absence, they too will survive. Just do it as a test and think about that day as it progresses. If you’re not an Internet junkie already, sorry to have made you waste another five minutes of your life on the internet.

Being Disconnected in a Connected World

John Cunningham — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 18:16:50 +0000

I’ve been traveling internationally the past couple weeks so I have experienced a fairly consistent lack of Internet connectivity and as a result, have had to travel a short distance (less than a mile) to a local café with free WiFi or maybe I got lucky and bummed free WiFi off someone with an unsecured network.

Yes I need the Internet and no I don’t need the Internet. What I mean is.. if I had to choose between never having access to the Internet again for the rest of my life or.. well, I can’t think of anything that would be applicable for a trade. You can’t say television because the Internet provides that. You can’t say music or radio because the Internet provides both of those. We pretty much can’t say anything that you can’t physically put your hands on because the Internet provides all of those too. But you can say anything that you can touch, feel, taste, and smell. I left “see” out because as we already know you can see everything on the Internet. Especially the stuff you have no interesting seeing.

What I’m trying to say is that I/we forget too often that the Internet is just a tool to help us do things and it’s not really very good at much else. Have you ever tried to have a conversation with the internet? How about asking the internet on the date? Maybe go to dinner with the internet or make friends with the internet? Sure you can see the great pyramids on the internet but let’s be real, that’s no substitute for standing in front of them, smelling the air, feeling the sun reflect off of them or touching the stones.

So I suppose it’s okay to be disconnected and in some cases, even therapeutic. It’s sad to say but I know people who would have a complete meltdown if they lost their Internet connection for a week or two. If you’re reading this blog post it’s very likely that I don’t know you, but it’s also very likely that he might be one of those people.

Not that you asked for it, but my recommendation would be to pick one day on the weekend to not use the Internet. That means disconnect the data portion on your phone as well because that would be cheating. You’ll survive an entire day without Google maps and even though your “real friends” on Facebook might be scratching their heads at your sudden absence, they too will survive. Just do it as a test and then think about that day as it progresses. You might surprised at what you experience.

Apple’s new iPad

John Cunningham — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 22:48:47 +0000

“Last time there was this much excitement about a tablet, it had some commandments on it.” – The Wall Street Journal

This long awaited tablet has been speculated since the first waves of netbooks swept the world in 2007, leaving Apple and their intrepid leader, Steve Jobs, with no answer to the mini notebook domination.

Today, Apple finally announced their answer to the netbook call, officially named The iPad.

The Hardware – Almost a Macbook
With an iPhone-esque interface, the iPad will sport the same look and feel as a flattened iPod Touch. At 9.7 inches and a familiar capacitive multi-touch screen, the overall viewing size is significantly smaller than the smallest Macbook, but noticeably larger than the iPhone. The silver finish bevel also mimics the iPhones, a mistake in my opinion. Be prepared to buff out scratches for the entire short life of your device.

Much like the iPhone/iPod Touch, screen orientation auto adjusts to portrait or horizontal using the built-in accelerometer. More of a 4:3 aspect ratio than 16:9, a widescreen would have been nice, but understandable for the various types of media it will be equipped to handle (pdfs, e-magazines, e-books, etc).

At 1.5 pounds and a half-inch thick, this tablet will be quite easy to carry. And with a battery life of 10 hours during constant use (says Apple), I feel this will be an appropriate hybrid for students and business people alike.

Apple touts that the 1GHz A4 chip will process HD video seamlessly. Okay, but 16gb, 32gb, and 64gb are the only options? This sounds very familiar. Apple has the capability of going bigger, but delaying the size bumps for a couple months to reignite interest in July Apple? Dirty. Very dirty. This won’t be replacing my iAnything anytime soon : \

Data – the iPhone pitfall
The 3G equipped models, have both 3g and WIFI, unlike their sans-3g counterparts. How much is connectivity worth to you? $15/ month for 250MB or $30/month for “unlimited” data via AT&T. The upside? No contracts. If you’ve sold your car and engagement ring to get your geek fix, you can cancel your service whenever you want – right after apologizing to the spouse and weeks on the couch.

The Software – An iPhone on steroids Vitamins
With a beefed up iTunes, browser, and OS, the iPad will be a middle-of-the-road device placed in between a full fledged notebook and the ultra portable iPhone. Even the Email adds a couple of neat features like message previews and pull-down menus.

The touch screen keyboard is almost life size, but only time will tell if it is tactile enough for the power users out there. The iPhone did a decent job with predictive type, but a real keyboard seems to be a deal breaker for most netbook users. Naturally, there will be a keyboard dock to add to your purchases during your next Apple store visit.

The Apps are really what makes this device robust. With plans to develop specifically for the iPad, this tablet will come to life because of the power of the people, not Apple. The original iPhone SDK has been expanded for tablet development and can even run current iPhone apps, though crudely expanded to fit.

Ebooks will continue to flood the market and has now entered the iTunes arena. iWork will be updated and designed specifically for tablature. Expect new versions of the entire suite to hit stores soon.

Things I would’ve liked to see:
- Front facing camera
- Smaller bezel
- Flash?!
- Multitasking
- Live music performance by The Roots featuring Steve Jobs

The iPad ships in 60 days for the WIFI only version, and 90 days for the WIFI/3g version.

Watch the official iPad video at Apple.com. (Notice how they use their index finger to hit the space bar. Weird)

1-800-HOSTING Blog » iPad

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