Dialing for bloggers. The latest Web-log trend is audioblogging, the posting of audio clips instead of or alongside text entries, which is inspiring software developers to raise a new crop of tools. [CNET News.com]
Is this the start of the process that will eventually make the words - "Captain's (b)log star date ..." become a reality for everyone?
Is voice really the final frontier? Thus far voice interaction with computers has failed to pass the Turning Test. Microsoft and IBM have done well thus far to provide some dictation capabilites but in many cases it is still quicker to type your thoughts.
My Orange SPV - Smartphone- has given me glimpses of the future or should that be the past? The grainy {camera} images, postage stamp video clips, cumbersome email, limited storage, poor battery life alongside the worldwide wait web browsing remind me of the early days of Windows on portable PCs.
Although less than 3 years ago this tri-band phone/PDA/MP3/IM/browser was everything I hoped for and imagined when I owned one of the original Compaq iPAQ's.
As with the early laptops things are set to improve. We are promised improved battery life with fuel cells and better storage. New compression technologies for video (MPEG4) and audio (AAC) combined with better bandwidth (3G or UWB) and faster Intel X processors. At the same time plans from companies such as Casio include combining a mini-TV into the phone. It is not inconceivable to see satellite and digital radio also being included once UWB arrives along with a PVR solution (TiVo) to pre-record our personal viewing habits.
And yet one problem still remains - inputting data. Txt msgs r ok 4 a while but quickly become annoying especially when trying to decrypt and make sense of some elses abbreviations.
Voice then is the final frontier and with VoiceXML 2.0 steps are being taken to make it easier for man and machine to communicate. I still remain unsure as to the value of audio weblogs but it is an exciting development.
And then there are Nanotech advances ...
2:25:48 PM 
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