Google Goggles (Android)
Earlier this week Google Goggles launched to great fanfare. Yet I’m not so sure it’s currently “a huge leap forward in the field of visual search.” Basically, you snap a pic with your Android (1.6 or greater) device and Google does it’s best to identify it. Whatever it may be. However, in testing yesterday, Goggles kind of sucks. Evernote clearly beats it in OCR. ShopSavvy and RedLaser clearly beat it in product identification and research. But this is Google. And they’ve got more brain power and computing power than most. So it’s certainly worth keeping an eye on. In the meantime, Goggles supposedly does a good job with artwork and landmarks… if you happen to be lost in or near a notable museum.
AT&T Mark the Spot (iPhone)
AT&T published a Mark the Suckage Spot app for iPhone owners to report their geographical pain points. As you can expect, they’re taking their lumps in the blogosphere by releasing this utility — which seems to emphasize their network shortcomings. However, I applaud the move and will gladly report the spots where I experience issues. Hoping someone might eventually do something with the data. Although, I’m not quite convinced they will. As I previously reported my lack of coverage the old fashioned way, in corresponding with an AT&T rep, and have yet to experience any relief. Also, ironically, where I have zero coverage during most weekdays I’m unable to actually submit anything.
Dragon Dictation (iPhone)
The makers of Dragon Naturally Speaking PC dictation software just pushed out a free (!) voice recognition app. Hit the record button, and Dragon transcribes your mumblings in nearly real-time via their servers. Once complete, you can push the text to email, SMS, or the iPhone clipboard. Like most voice recognition products, you’ll want to limit background noise and it did have some trouble with non-dictionary words. Although Dragon was impressive in correctly recognizing Cirque du Soleil and TiVo when carefully enunciated. For the time being, I still prefer leaving others voicemail or leaving myself Google Voice messages when I need transcription services — fewer clicks and the speech-to-text conversions are nicely collated within my Inbox.
I missed the Dragon app. Thanks for mentioning it. We are looking at getting microphones for the iPod Touch to record classrooms and meetings.
Don’t get too excited…Dragon has excluded the app from running on the iPod Touch, whether you have a mic or not. I did manage to grab it for free but little good it did me; I was hoping to use it on my iPod Touch. I too was considering Googlr Voice as a backup–it works remarkably well!
Uh… It’s actually pretty freaking amazing. And way better than any of the four bazillion Android barcode apps, for one reason: you don’t have to hold the phone steady while it scans. You just take a picture and the software scans it.