I’ve heard many times that one of the disappointing features missing from the iPad is the lack of a phone. While I disagree with this notion, Line2 corrects it. Today Line2 turns your iPad, “into a full-featured desktop phone,” according to the press release, shown below. It will add a VoIP phone line, texting, and full access to your contacts all from within the application itself. Founder and CEO Peter Sisson boasts, “I’ve completely replaced my office deskphone, using the iPad 2’s built in speakers and mic as a speakerphone and a Bluetooth headset for more private conversations.”

At $9.95 a month for the basic plan that gives you unlimited phone calls and texting to the US and Canada, this is a pretty good deal. There is a Pro plan that tacks on, “auto attendant, call screening, ability to route calls to multiple phones simultaneously, caller-specific call forwarding, after-hours settings, and Mac/PC-based calling for just $14.95/month.”

A free seven-day trail is also included with the free app download.

View Press Release »

SuperTooth is a French maker of Bluetooth accessories and SvenOnTech already has a couple of its products in the labs for testing. Reviews are coming real soon. But today, we learn that SuperTooth pulled an HD and now has a speakerphone that goes beyond the phone! It will let you send SMS, E-mail, Facebook, and Twitter messages all from your voice. Dude, hands on the wheel the whole time. “No officer, I was not texting and driving. Seriously.” The gadget works with Blackberry and Android for the extra cool features and the iPhone and Windows Mobile for speakerphone only. (I thought there would be an App for that. Mmmm.) Deets below in the press release.

Press Release
SuperTooth, creator of the concept of a Bluetooth speakerphone that could be clipped onto a car’s sun visor, is launching the SuperTooth HD this year – the most advanced Bluetooth speakerphone on the market, with three times more power than other models and the ability to communicate on social networks all via voice commands.

“Using wireless devices in the car has been identified as the leading source of driver’s not paying attention on the road, with cell phone use increasing the likelihood of crashes fourfold,” said Yves Le Reun, Vice President of Sales & Marketing. “The SuperTooth HD gives consumers a hands-free solution to talk and text on their phones so they can abide by the law and focus on driving.”

Boasting Twin Speaker V Array Technology, the SuperTooth HD features two speakers with a 5 watt audio output and a 5.4 watt amplifier, making it three times more powerful than any other speakerphone. The built-in dual microphones pick up voices more clearly. Together, these advanced audio features produce unrivaled audio quality in both emission and reception.

State-of-the-art voice commands are designed to provide a hands-free solution for phone use to make the driving experience safer. Using just voice commands, drivers can answer incoming calls, select pre-dialed phone numbers, check battery level or retrieve voicemail. The SuperTooth Handsfree Assistant feature allows drivers to compose and send Facebook, Twitter, e-mail and SMS messages all via voice. The SuperTooth HD can also read incoming SMS and e-mail messages on Android and Blackberry phones via the specific application. The SuperTooth Handsfree Assistant is powered by Dial2Do.

The SuperTooth HD is compatible with all Bluetooth-enabled phones, including iPhones, Blackberrys and other smartphones with an Android OS or Windows Mobile operating system.

No installation is required – just clip the SuperTooth HD onto a sun visor, pair it with the phone and enjoy comfortable and safe phone calls while driving. A USB cable and in-car charger is also included.

The SuperTooth HD will be available in April 2011 for MSRP $129 at department, specialty and mobile phone stores nationwide.

MetroPCS Communications (NYSE: PCS), the nation’s leading provider of unlimited, flat-rate, no signed contract wireless communications is the first national carrier in the United States to utilize fully automated voice mail-to-text service. This feature automatically converts a voice mail message to text message and sends the content as an SMS or email – eliminating the need to dial in and listen to voice mails or write down details.

“Customers are keenly interested in the latest wireless innovation combined with the greatest value,” said Roger D. Linquist, president, chief executive officer and chairman of the board of MetroPCS. “Automated conversion of voice mails to text is the biggest innovation to voice mail in decades. By converting messages to text and sending along as email or SMS, MetroPCS voice mail becomes a convenient real-time communication tool akin to instant messaging and email itself.”

MetroPCS is one of the first carriers in the U.S. to take advantage of advances in automated speech recognition, offering a service that ensures privacy and much faster conversions than human-assisted solutions. The feature is powered by Yap, a leader in automated voice mail-to-text services.

“We’ve truly reached a tipping point where the accuracy of fully automated voice mail-to-text solutions rival and in some cases exceed that of human transcribed offerings,” said Igor Jablokov, chief executive officer at Yap. “We worked very closely with the MetroPCS team to deploy a service that makes their subscribers’ mobile experience more compelling. Voice mail transcriptions can be read, replied, forwarded, stored and searched, just like email.”

A key feature to the service is the inclusion of a voice file attached to a converted email message. The file can be saved as a keepsake for sentimental messages or reviewed to determine the caller’s mood and inflection when necessary.

MetroPCS offers automated voice mail-to-text service to customers as an a-la-carte add on for $3. Consumers can visit any of MetroPCS’ authorized dealer locations and company-owned retail locations or visit MetroPCS’ website at www.metropcs.com to sign up for service plans and choose voice mail-to-text.

This Independence Day should be interesting in California this year as a new law takes effect just days before the state celebrates with the rest of the Union it’s birthday. Police officers will be pulling people over for more than just possible DUI’s on this day as anyone caught talking on a phone while driving will give California’s and its various law enforcement departments reason to pull over and cite. While the fine is only $20 for being busted by the Badge, the real worry lies in that the Badge will now be able to pull you over and have reason to “check things out” because you’re talking on the phone without a headset. Yikes!

If that’s not nuts enough for you, then check this out. While California legislators agreed with a Harvard study (full report in PDF) that claimed 2,600 people are killed each year from talking on a cell phone while driving, those same legislators felt it was fine to allow drivers to do a little text messaging while navigating fossil fuel burners! In addition to that, you can take pictures with your phone, download games, surf the Internet, and be a good citizen and report accidents on Twitter. All without any fear of being pulled over and cited. Phew! I don’t know what I would have done if I couldn’t tweet while driving!

California is getting the word out and displaying warnings on its electronic signs through out the scene, as seen here on Interstate 80 Business in states capitol, Sacramento. (Note the reddish haze in the picture from the smoke coming from the nearly 900 fires currently a blaze in Northern California.) Surely many will ignore this sign because they are too busy talking on their phone but come July 1st, they’ll fine out quick enough.

Now, I wonder if all the cops I see talking on their cell phones while driving will go hands-free as well. Wonder if I can slap ‘em with a $20 fine if they don’t. ]]> http://svenontech.com/2008/06/26/california-you-may-text-while-driving-but-put-that-phone-to-your-ear-and-you-will-pay/feed/ 4 http://svenontech.com/2008/04/14/typinator-30-now-dockless-almost-invisible-but-always-ready-for-use/ http://svenontech.com/2008/04/14/typinator-30-now-dockless-almost-invisible-but-always-ready-for-use/#comments Mon, 14 Apr 2008 13:40:51 +0000 Sven Rafferty http://svenontech.com/2008/04/14/typinator-30-now-dockless-almost-invisible-but-always-ready-for-use/

Ergonis Software today announced the release of Typinator 3.0, the latest version of its highly acclaimed tool for auto-typing text and auto-correcting typos system-wide across all Mac OS X applications.

With the new version, Typinator is no longer a regular application visible in the dock and the application switcher, but rather a dockless background-only application that is acting unobtrusively in the background. A small icon in the menu bar gives quick access to Typinator’s main window.

A new search feature lets you instantly view only snippets that contain a specified search string. Particularly users with many snippets will love this feature. Typinator 3.0 also adds a number of further improvements. Visit Ergonis Software’s website at http://www.ergonis.com/typinator to learn more about all changes in the release and to download and try the new version.

“When we initially designed Typinator, we decided to make it a regular application, not a System Preference Pane, since this gives a wider scope for a comfortable user interface, and it seems that our customers like the resulting flexibility. However, it turned out that many users do not want to see Typinator as a regular application visible in the dock and the application switcher,” said Christoph Reichenberger, founder and CEO of Ergonis Software. “I am therefore more than happy to announce that Typinator 3.0 offers the best of both worlds. Typinator is now an invisible background application that is visible only in form of a menu status item. However, when you need to access Typinator’s functionality, it instantly opens up a full-fledged application window with no limitations in size, functionality, and comfort”.

Typinator is a powerful, yet elegantly simple solution that works across all applications to detect specific sequences of typed characters and automatically replace them with text snippets, graphics, URLs, dates and special characters.

For business users, Typinator leads to a layer of operational consistency and productivity across heterogeneous applications. A standard customer service response, a signature image on an email, a clause in a contract – each of these can be inserted in any application with just a couple of keystrokes. For technical users, Typinator automates typing of code and the implementation of documentation standards.

Availability and Pricing:

Typinator can be purchased securely on the Ergonis Software website. The upgrade to Typinator 3.0 is free for anyone who purchased Typinator in the last 2 years. For information about purchases, including enterprise licenses, volume discounts, and upgrade pricing offers, visit the website at http://www.ergonis.com/typinator.

Instead of purchasing Typinator by itself, customers can get the Macility Productivity Bundle that also contains two of the company’s other productivity tools, PopChar X and KeyCue. The pricing of the Productivity Bundle represents a saving of more than 35% over the separate purchase of its components. More information about the Productivity Bundle can be found at http://www.ergonis.com/productivity.

Typinator 3.0 requires Mac OS X version 10.4 or newer. It is fully compatible with Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard).

Ettore Software Ltd. today started shipping an enhanced version of its long-standing text expander for Mac,
TypeIt4Me, introduced at Macworld Expo in January.

Since 1989, TypeIt4Me has allowed users to set up short abbreviations which expand to words, pictures, phrases, paragraphs or indeed entire pages when typed.

New TypeIt4Me version 4.0 will now automatically correct spelling mistakes.
Unlike competing products which require the user to set up long lists of typos and their correct spelling, TypeIt4Me’s AutoCorrect uses Apple’s built-in OS X spell-checker, AppleSpell and requires no user set up.

Users can turn AutoCorrect on/off via a hotkey, which also allows changing among up to three supported languages (including English, French, German, Italian, Dutch, Swedish, Spanish and Portuguese).

Company founder and CEO, Riccardo Ettore says: “Users have long been able to define commonly mistyped words to expand to their correct spelling. With 4.0, they can now leverage the power of OS X’s built-in spellchecker and have their typos automatically corrected while they continue typing, instead of seeing it
underlined in red.”

Also new in 4.0 is Autocue, which allows users to define boilerplate text with variable parts to be typed when prompted at expansion time.

For a complete list of features, see: http://ettoresoftware.com/EttoreSoftware/TypeIt4MeFeatures.html

Available now for download from http://ettoresoftware.com TypeIt4Me 4.0 costs $27 ($14 for students/teachers). Upgrades are $9, but free for users who bought the previous version after 1 August 2006. ]]> http://svenontech.com/2008/02/19/typeit4me-40-now-shipping/feed/ 0 http://svenontech.com/2007/12/17/alltel-brings-true-visual-voicemail-with-first-voicemail-to-text-feature-using-spinvox-technology/ http://svenontech.com/2007/12/17/alltel-brings-true-visual-voicemail-with-first-voicemail-to-text-feature-using-spinvox-technology/#comments Mon, 17 Dec 2007 21:12:42 +0000 Sven Rafferty http://svenontech.com/2007/12/17/alltel-brings-true-visual-voicemail-with-first-voicemail-to-text-feature-using-spinvox-technology/

Alltel Wireless, America’s largest network, providing coverage across the country, and SpinVox, the leading provider of Voice-to-Screen™ messaging, today launched a new service called Voice2TXT. The launch makes Alltel Wireless the first of the five largest U.S. carriers to offer its customers the ability to receive voicemails in text form.

Voice2TXT is available on any Alltel Wireless SMS text message capable phone and quickly converts incoming voicemails to text messages in the customer’s inbox. This innovative service allows the user to discretely respond to voicemails in any setting without having to dial and listen to voicemail messages. Voice2TXT also allows customers to store and forward converted voicemails as regular text messages as well as retrieve the original voicemail should they choose to do so.

“Our customers will appreciate the fact that they no longer have to wait for the opportune time to listen to a voicemail” said Craig Kirkland, director of messaging and voice services for Alltel Wireless. “With Voice2TXT, our customers have an easier way to manage their voicemails via text messages when they are in a meeting, on the go or anyplace where they cannot or do not wish to use traditional voicemail.”

“SpinVox’s Voicemail-to-Text technology gives Alltel customers the opportunity to enjoy a real visual voicemail experience from coast to coast,” said Christina Domecq, co-founder and CEO of SpinVox. “As the first major innovation in voicemail in decades, Voice2TXT as delivered by SpinVox eliminates the frustrations with dialing into voicemail by offering a discreet, efficient alternative – eliminating the need to search for a pen to write down the details of a message or navigate through a voicemail service.”

The service is available in a variety of pricing options: $4.99 per month for 20 voicemail conversions (each additional is 25 cents); $9.99 per month for 50 conversions (each additional is 20 cents); and $19.99 per month for 100 conversions (each additional is 10 cents). For more information on this innovative new feature, please visit www.alltel.com/voice2txt.
Alltel Wireless also offers features including “My Circle,” allowing customers to choose who they call for free – any 10 numbers, any network; and Anytime Plan Changes, giving customers the flexibility to change their rate plan any time, without extending their contract.

Ergonis Software today announced the release of Typinator 2.1, the latest version of its highly acclaimed tool for auto-correcting typos and auto-typing text across all Mac OS X applications.

The new version is ready for Mac OS X 10.5 (“Leopard”) and improves compatibility with Flash, Numbers, MS Office, Terminal, You-Control, and others. Furthermore, the built-in auto-correction dictionaries have been refined to enhance smooth multi-lingual auto-correction in all applications on Leopard.

Typinator is a powerful, yet elegantly simple solution that works across all applications to detect specific sequences of typed characters and automatically replace them with text snippets, graphics, URLs, dates and special characters. 

For business users, Typinator leads to a layer of operational consistency and productivity across heterogeneous applications. A standard customer service response, a signature image on an email, a clause in a contract – each of these can be inserted in any application with just a couple of keystrokes. For technical users, Typinator automates typing of code and the implementation of documentation standards.

Visit Ergonis Software’s website at http://www.ergonis.com/typinator to learn more about the changes in the release and to download and try the new version.

Availability and Pricing: 
Typinator can be purchased securely on the Ergonis Software website. The upgrade to Typinator 2.1 is free for anyone who purchased Typinator in the last 2 years. For information about purchases, including enterprise licenses, volume discounts, and upgrade pricing offers, visit the website at http://www.ergonis.com/typinator. 

Instead of purchasing Typinator by itself, customers can get the Macility Productivity Bundle that also contains two of the company’s other productivity tools, PopChar X and KeyCue. The pricing of the Productivity Bundle represents a saving of more than 35% over the separate purchase of its components. More information about the Productivity Bundle can be found at http://www.ergonis.com/productivity.

Typinator 2.1 requires Mac OS X 10.3.9 or newer. Mac OS X 10.4 or 10.5 is recommended.

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my iPhone for the last five days and without a doubt can say it’s one the best phones I’ve ever had. I haven’t been this excited with a phone since the first Motorola StarTAC back in the mid-nineties. Apple has done a fine job with this phone.

Now it’s not to say there are some short-comings with this wonderful device. With nearly ever e-mail and SMS message I get, I find myself saying, “Why didn’t Apple put in a copy-and-paste function?” Ugh. Or a cut-and-paste or even just a select-entire-word option. When the intelligent keyboard does fail to auto-correct your typo, going back six or more letters at a time is a pain. Selecting the entire word and deleting it to start over is much easier. The problem is only more intensified when you have a sentence or more to yank out. Copying information from a note, for example, to an SMS or an e-mail would makes things much easier.

Apple needs to resolve this issue immediately. It’s very interesting that it was even omitted as a feature in the phone and hopefully with enough outcry from users, it’ll find its way into an iPhone update real soon.

CallWave, Inc. today announced the launch of its text messaging gadget (also known as a widget) for Microsoft Vista – a free, desktop-based application enabling users to send text messages to virtually anyone, anywhere from their computer whether their handset is nearby or not.

For mobile phone users who also use the web each day, the CallWave Free Text Messaging gadget delivers invaluable ease and efficiency – making the PC a natural companion to the mobile phone.

By making it easier to send text messages worldwide, CallWave Web 2.0 widgets and gadgets can dramatically increase text daily usage and adoption. While text messaging continues to grow in popularity, many consumers find it difficult to text on a phone’s small interface. CallWave solves this problem – using the familiarity and ease of the computer for text messaging. Additionally, users who are in front of their computers everyday may prefer the convenience of communicating in that environment.

During the beta, subscribers can send an unlimited number of text messages to phone numbers in the United States and Canada. The service also supports international SMS. With the gadget running on Microsoft Vista, users can view a list of contacts and select who to text. Replies to the message are routed to the subscriber’s handset. Subscribers will be given access to their messages stored in a permanent, searchable archive, accessible from a personal web page.

The CallWave Free Text Messaging gadget is free and available at http://www.callwave.com and the Windows Live Gallery.