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Ask Juan: Why is Google Text-to-Speech a separate app now?

Screenshot_2013-11-07-10-38-28Starting today you’ll start seeing an app to update you’ve probably never seen before: Google Text-to-Speech.

This is Google’s software engine which drives all of the speech capabilities on your phone. Every time your phone talks to you, it’s using some kind of software library to translate text into that helpful robotic voice which gives you turn by turn directions in Google Maps or answers your questions in Google Now.

This is a service which until now was built into Android and only updated whenever an update for the OS was pushed to phones and tablets. Like the  Google Keyboard, now this service lives on its own in the Google Play app store.

Google has had issues with device and feature fragmentation, and other companies often install their own TTS engines, which is why Samsung and LG phones have a slightly different “personality” than their Nexus counterparts.

Let’s take a look at the what the service does, and what it sounds like!

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Can Los Angeles light up Fiber for the whole city? Free broadband internet for all?

Los Angeles winterDamn I hope this can work.

LA City Council officials are working on a Request for Proposals. They want companies to offer bids on an extremely ambitious project, namely lighting up fiber optic broadband internet for every business and residential area in the Los Angeles city limits. No piecemeal, staged, “testing” of the viability for the potential, to maybe, some day, consider, trying a starter market in one corner of a McMansion in Beverly Hills. They want to go whole hog, all or nothing.

The plan for the proposal so far would be to offer up a baseline low level service for everyone for free. It could be ad supported to offset costs, and most likely speeds would top out around 2Mbps, yet it would be available for everyone. This could be a huge boon for those in lower income neighborhoods, areas not often well supported by current ISP’s, and tremendously helpful in an economy where many have to choose between home internet and low cost cell phone service to remain competitive in the job market.

For those who can afford it, higher tiers of service will be made available, most likely topping out at gigabit bandwidth, resembling services like Google Fiber. This backbone could also be used to power WiFi hotspots in public areas.

The implications of such a move could be remarkable.  Continue reading “Can Los Angeles light up Fiber for the whole city? Free broadband internet for all?”

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App Review: Trivia Buff for Windows 8 and Android phones.

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Whether you are going to the DMV to register your new car or waiting patiently for your flight, you have a multitude of options to occupy your time on your cell phone while waiting. You could read some news, grind away at a game, or you could expand your knowledge of a subject through fun trivia bits. The Trivia Buff app from Dapper Panda may just be the cure for you!

The Trivia Buff app let’s you search for favorite topics. Just out of curiosity I searched for BMX as I used to race BMX bikes here on the east coast and I found out that Slash from GNR used to race BMX back in the day! How cool is that! With the Trivia Buff app you can start training your brain to collect all the info necessary to crush the next trivia night at your local pub.

The app pulls info from a variety of sources (though you will see a lot of wikis), so it’s only really limited by your own curiosity.

The Trivia Buff app is a no frills, straight forward app for your Windows 8 phone. There are no dark or light theme options. You can opt to buy the ad free version for a mere $0.99 to help support the fine folks over at Dapper Panda.  The options of the Trivia Buff app are few but very useful. You can change the font size, you can choose to show or not show the logo on the live tile and speaking of the live tile, you have 3 sizes, small, medium and large, and the last option is that you have a choice of browsers to use.

You really cannot go wrong with this app especially if you love to learn!
Trivia Buff is available for both Windows 8 phones and Android:

Trivia Buff Windows 8 phone

Trivia Buff for Android Continue reading “App Review: Trivia Buff for Windows 8 and Android phones.”

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UPDATED: Twitter sets IPO stock price at $26

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The speculation can end.

In true social media fashion, Twitter announced their stock price in a tweet. Of course there was a lot more info to announce than could be contained 140 characters or less, so they cheated by posting a picture… full of text…

At $26 a share, Twitter could drop more than $1.8 Billion into its coffers, and you too could own your very own piece of “TWTR” when it goes on sale this Thursday.

All that’s left is to see how the market responds…

***UPDATE***

In morning trading the stock opened at $45.10, and has held to around $46 so far. It’s estimated that Twitter will receive over $2 Billion, and there’s been far less drama today than during Facebook’s shaky public offering.

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Activision announces $1Billion opening day sales for ‘Call of Duty: Ghosts’, while we wait for Next-Gen sales numbers…

IMG_20131105_224423Great news for Activision, but potentially troubling news for Sony and Microsoft.

Activision today released sales figures topping $1 Billion for it’s opening day release of Call of Duty: Ghosts, a new series to its popular shooter franchise. This obviously points to the $800 Million opening day performance of Rockstar Game’s GTA: V, even though these two opening day “sales” figures aren’t directly comparable.

Rockstar announced sales to consumers for it’s opening day, while Activision is talking about sales to retail channels. Regardless, it’s still juggernaut sales performance considering Activision somehow manages to pop out a new installment every year.

What the entire industry now awaits are CoD sales numbers for the PS4 and XBox One. Nearing the release of these next gen consoles, Activision opted to release versions of the game compatible with Sony and Microsoft’s next systems. Those sales figures could be valuable data for gauging what early console adoption might look like, and how engaged the consumer base might be.

It must be a difficult decision for the hardcore gamers out there. Play CoD immediately or wait for next gen consoles to arrive. Activision can only hope that some of their consumer base might actually motivated to buy the game twice…

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Can Smartphones REALLY compete with Point & Shoot and DSLR cameras?

phone camera vs DSLR vs point and shoot test review somegadgetguyEach generation of smartphone ushers in improvements to the cameras on the backs of our handsets, and now they’re starting to rival what we can do with traditional point and shoot cameras.

I’ve even seen some claim that our phones now compete with SLRs, so I felt it was time to take a look at one important aspect of photo and video performance: depth of field.

For this shootout we’ll be comparing the video output from the iPhone 5S, Galaxy S4, HTC One, Optimus G Pro, Lumia 1020 and comparing it to a Samsung Galaxy Camera P&S and a Canon 7D DSLR.

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Why now is the PERFECT time to diversify your Technology Portfolio, or why you should stop Fanboying and try a competitor’s product…

WP_20130728_004When I started writing about tech I made a promise to myself that I would try my hardest not to just bag on products. That I would take a second to use something, figure out who it might be for, and whether it could live up to the claims of the company who manufactured it. I can’t say I’ve always perfectly executed this regiment, but I’ve found that it has significantly changed my outlook on consumer electronics. I’m no longer satisfied with “thumbs up / thumbs down” reviews. I want to know about experience.

This opens up a whole world of discussion in that almost no product completely fails in its mission. Often, now the exploration of a gadget is better described by how wide or narrow a particular audience might be. In fact, most tech I get my hands on is actually quite good, once I figure out who it might be designed for.

There’s a particular divisiveness surrounding things like phones and tablets. As geek has become somewhat chic, people identify with certain brands, and those brands start to become a visible indication or description of that individual’s personality. Just like clothes, cars, sunglasses, etc, now our gadgets “send a message” to others about who we are. I’ve certainly been guilty of trying to size someone up by looking at what phone they use and how well they take care of it. Continue reading “Why now is the PERFECT time to diversify your Technology Portfolio, or why you should stop Fanboying and try a competitor’s product…”

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AT&T adds Unite mobile hotspot to GoPhone prepaid line up

netgear-unite-white-450x350Adding a little more data flexibility to prepaid services, AT&T is offering up a handy mobile hotspot to the GoPhone line up.

The Netgear Unite is an LTE enabled rectangle about the size of a deck of cards which shares a 4G data signal with up to ten devices. It’s controlled via a bright 2.3″ color touchscreen, and the battery life should be good for around 10 hours of sharing.

Throwing a product like this to prepay is an interesting move. For families or small workgroups who might not need this kind of functionality mainline all the time, but they can fire it up and pay for the usage when they need it.

The Unite will launch with two basic plans 250MB for $15 a week, or 5GB for $50 a month. It’ll be available starting November 12th for $99.99, and you should be able to find it online and at Walmart.

More details after the jump.

Continue reading “AT&T adds Unite mobile hotspot to GoPhone prepaid line up”

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