Pete Dudchenko

Have you heard of TellMe? If not, do this (I’ll wait)...pick up a phone and dial 1-800-555-TELL (8355). You’ll be greeted by an automated voice which will start to list some of their main menu items like stock quotes, movies, sports, etc. Just say the name of the item you’re interested and it will provide more information about that item or present you with more options to pick from. It’s all voice-activated and having used it for a number of years now, I must say its pretty darn good at recognizing my voice commands. In fact for those of you who subscribe to Cingular, they currently offer this service already.

I just recently found out that they’ve started a new beta program. For those of you that have a data plan on your cell phone, you can go to TellMe’s beta site and install a java app that will allow you to voice navigate their system to find local businesses. Its kind of like 411 and Google maps rolled into one (or so they say). You start out by installing a java app onto your phone (about 130Kb) and then after starting it up and using a “press to talk” command, you speak the city you want and the business type or name you’re looking for. It interprets your words and returns the results, allowing you to select a business or navigate further. Selecting a business allows you to see the phone number and address. From there you can click to call or click to see a map of the location to get directions.

I’ve had it for about an hour and haven’t played with the maps section yet but it does seem pretty interesting. Supposedly the voice recognition system hasn’t been completely configured yet so there may be some slight adjustments coming (remember, it’s still in beta) but for those of you who aren’t crazy about using your thumbs to type, this may be an alternative solutions. I think this product’s ultimate success however will be determined by it’s ability to handle directions and maps should a user want to actually find the location of the business they just looked up. A list of supposed phones is provided.

Anyone else using this yet? I’d love to hear some feedback.

All, Geek, Weblications | No Comments »

The evening news out here is quite different from other parts of the country. For instance, we’re probably all familiar with the “teaser” scenario; where you’re watching an episode of 24 or Heros and right before the commercial brake ends and the show resumes, there’s a 5 second pitch on the latest news coming up that night. Something like, “Find out which stocks are on the rise, news at 10:00.”

Makes sense right? It’s supposed to grab your interest and make you want to tune in. The funny thing out here though is that it’s taken to an extreme. Instead of interesting teaser items, the promos I’ve seen are a little more aggressive. Items like “Sewage leaks make some tap water unsafe to drink, is your neighborhood affected? News at 10:00” have seriously been shown.

Also there are random stories that I just can’t see being news elsewhere. They recently had a teaser for which porn stars won’t work under the new high definition DVD technology (sorry I missed the actual story since I didn’t tune in). And the one that kind of did it for me was the recent coverage to coincide to some recently cold weather here in San Diego. Yes, it does happen where the temperature drops below 70 and to help us San Diegans cope, the news gave us suggestions on where we might consider vacationing to get “somewhere warm.”

Perhaps its just me and my “back in my days…” attitude but I find it quite amusing to see the differences between here and Chicago for what makes the air at 10:00.

Life | No Comments »

“Hey Pete, what’ya do over the weekend?”

Oh you know, just flew to New Orleans to watch the Saints play the Eagle in the first Saints playoff game in 40 years, just like any other weekend…(what a game!)

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