Voice activation is very common in today’s electronics world that can ease the activation of certain applications without the need to physically touching on it. Especially in mobile devices that always has constraint on tiny keyboard, voice activation has almost becomes one of the must-have features while driving on the road. If you are looking for one need for home PC or laptop usage, Responding Heads v3.5 is the right Windows based software utility that can help you.

Responding Heads is able to launch programs, execute commands by listening to users’ instructions. The interface is very simple with just a small character face (configurable) on the desktop screen. Right click on it will bring users to the setup menu such as ‘Edit Brain’, or option to configure for the initial setup. It may looks confusing for the start but once you get around with it, there will be more fun than just a purely voice activation machine that you can expect. That is not all, Responding Heads features with additional text to speech conversion, keyboard commands and pre-defined keystrokes as extra benefits to end users. For those that are familiar with visual basic programming language, there is a way to write some visual basic scripts to execute them as well. To simplify the whole setup process, users can refer to comprehensive setup guide that comes together when you download the application here. 

Home PC or laptop may not see the significant usage yet, but since it doesn’t involve additional cost or hardware (expect a merely 17MB of your hard disk space including the setup guide), no harm to download one at Responding Heads 3.5 free for immediate use. It is compatible with all Windows OS such as XP and even Vista system.

The worldwide technology and design leader in mobile communications, LG Electronics has announced the availability of its new slim 8 megapixel slider phone - LG KC780, which features 8 megapixel camera (Schneider-Kreuznach certified lens) with smart technologies that make it ideal for shooting portraits.

“We found that most of the time people use the cameras on their mobile phones to take pictures of themselves, their families, friends and significant others,” said Dr. Skott Ahn, President and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company. “With this in mind, LG developed the LG-KC780 with a number of face-enhancing features to augment its high quality 8 megapixel camera.”

Highlights Of LG KC780 Portrait Phone:

Large 2.4-inch widescreen LCD display

8-megapixel camera with auto-focus, SmartLight, Face Detection and Smile Detection technologies

Built-in Image Stabilizer ensures that photos come out clear and sharp, even in shaky situations

Beauty Mode removing spots and imperfections on people’s faces

Recording D1 DVD resolution video footage at 30 frames per second

High ISO up to 1600

According to the company, “The LG-KC780 is a full featured handset and includes the latest in mobile phone technology, including Smart Bluetooth, which opens up a number of new options when the phone is connected to a personal computer. For example, the phone’s camera can be used as a webcam for use in online conversations. Unlike USB webcams, this world’s first feature means that the camera can easily move with the user, as long as the phone stays within Bluetooth range.”

The new slim LG KC780 8 megapixel camera phone which measures just 13.9mm thin is expected to hit European market first in coming November 2008, but its price has yet to be announced.

It is pretty interesting and funny to change your online voice into something completely different, e.g. changing a female’s voice to male’s and vice-versa. Your friends or chat room’s friends definitely will not be able to recognize you and you can fool them. To change your voice or manipulate your voice to different tones and pitch for particular reasons, you can try the AV Voice Changer Software (AV VCS). You can use this application to hide your identity while chatting to somebody in a chat room, make internet or PC-to-Phone call, etc.

AV Voice Changer Software (AV VCS) is a professional voice changing software that offers various voice changing related tasks. Besides converting your voice to other voices, this application can also create voice-over, voice dubbing and voice messaging. Users can use it for making voice messages, voice mails, video clips, presentations, e-Cards, etc. Users who would like to record conversations can use the built-in Voice Recorder to record and capture voice and audio. Other than that, another useful function in AV VCS is the built in MP3 included in this application which plays audio files in many formats and morphs songs to gain new styles and experiences in the digital music entertainment.

The latest AV Voice Changer Software version 6.0.31 is available for free trial. It works well with many common VoIP programs, e.g. Skepe, Net2Phone, Vonage, etc. It is also compatible with most of the instant messenger programs such as Yahoo Messenger with Voice, Skype, Windows Live Messenger, AIM, etc. Users who want to fool their friends or for some reasons need to change their voice can download it via the link here for a trial. 

Download: AV Voice Changer Software v6.0.31|12.93MB

Download: AV Voice Changer Software Gold v6.0.31|11.82MB

Download: AV Voice Changer Software Diamond v6.0.31|16.02MB

Description:

Monitor and record everything your employees do!

Use any USB web cameras for office and room monitoring.

Real time and off-line modes.

+ Microphone monitoring

+ Off-line work time counter

+ Remote control tool

How to know that your employees are doing the correct things?

What if they are looking for adult pictures or chatting with numerous friends instead of preparing urgent documents or writing an important code?

What if they sometimes send confidential materials to your competitors?

Or, what if some novices can’t use internal software in a proper way?

Would you like to control all computers remotely?

Would you like to see your office or rooms via web cameras?

Would you like to hear that your employees say?

Would you like to send messages to single employee or group of employees

All you need is to install the «manager» part on your computer and the «employee» part on each computer you want to monitor. After this, you will be able to control all the computer screens and office through webcams in real time and off-line modes. The program can capture either entire desktops or only active applications (up to 250 employees per each manager computer !!!). You can record voice via microphones and then play any mp3 audio file anytime.

(OS: Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista)

Homepage:

Mio Knight Rider GPS, a Knight Rider-themed portable navigation device (PND), is a product of GPS manufacturer partnered with Universal Studios. It uses actual voice of William Daniels for audible directions.

It is an easy-to-use and solid entry-level PND that comes with a pretty reasonable price tag of $269.

Design

Aside from the Knight Rider logo above the display, the system is just like a number of other in-car GPS with slim profile and black chassis. One of the cool thing is the flashing red LEDs that flank either side of the display once it is turned on. It simulates the “scanner” lights on KITT and pulsates with any audible instructions.

The unit measures 5.5″(wide) x 3.1″(tall) x 0.7″ (deep) and weighs 6 ounces. It comes with a 4.3-inch touch screen with a 480×272-pixel resolution. You can choose a number of map colors, and day/night option that will automatically change the map colors once the sun sets for better nighttime viewing.

The user interface is very intuitive with the menu pages feature large and clearly marked icons. The unit has predictive text

that automatically come up with a list of possible results as soon as you start to enter letters.

There’s a power button and an SD card slot, and a mini USB port at the bottom. The unit comes with a car charger, a USB cable, a vehicle mount (dashboard and windshield), and reference material.

Features

The unit is equipped with 20-channel SiRF StarII InstantFixII receiver with preloaded with TeleAtlas maps of the United States and Canada. You can search location by entering a specific address, an intersection, a zip code, or city center. It also allows storage of the location in favorites list, recent destinations, or navigate straight to your home address.

The GPS supports multidestination trips. The device has more than 4 million points of interest (POI) includes all the major categories as well as more specialized interests.

There are several routing options, such as from shortest distance or fastest time, with or without freeways, toll roads, and so forth. It also supports automatic route recalculations, route simulation, and has a detour function. However, the real-time traffic updates subscription is not free.

Maps can be presented in 2D or 3D view, and is toggle-able with the arrow icon on the lower-right side of the screen. When driving, the bottom displays current street name, while the top shows your next turn (name, direction, and distance) and estimated time of arrival. A list of text-based turn-by-turn directions is also available if you want to review it before or during your journey.

Specification

Manufacturer : MiTAC Industrial Corp.

Part Number : MIO-KITT300 GPS System

Receiver : SiRFstarIII - 20 channel

Connectivity : USB

Voice : Navigation instructions

Antenna : Built-in

GPS receiver : 20 channel

Features : Built-in speaker, Preinstalled POIs

Built-in Memory : 1 GB

Software Included : TeleAtlas United States and Canada, MioMap 2008 Maps

RAM : 64 MB

Display Type : LCD - Widescreen

Resolution : 480 x 272

Diagonal Size : 4.3 in

Display Features : Touch screen Display

Slot Provided : SD Memory Card

Battery Run Time : (Up To) 2.5 hour(s) Lithium ion

The world leader in mobility, Nokia has announced its new touchscreen-enabled mobile phone for music that brings innovative new features to the mass market, named as Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, aiming to deliver great music experience.

According to Nokia, the 5800 XpressMusic will be among the first mobile devices to support Nokia’s groundbreaking service - Comes With Music.

“With the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, we set out to connect people through the one thing we all feel a universal connection to - music,” said Jo Harlow, Vice President, Nokia. “The way in which people enjoy music is different around the world. With that in mind, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic gives people the freedom to experience music they love in the way they prefer.” 

Highlights Of Nokia 5800 XpressMusic:

3.2-inch touchscreen display with tactile feedback (640 x 360 pixels ; 16 million colors)

3.2 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens, LED flash and video recording capability

Dedicated Media Bar touch key for access to music, gallery, share on-line, Video Center and web browser 

Stylus, plectrum and finger touch support for text input and user interface control (alphanumeric keypad, full and mini QWERTY keyboard, handwriting recognition

Integrated GPS for pedestrian and car navigation 

Integrated stereo speakers with surround sound (crystal clear hi-fi sound quality with dedicated audio chip) 

Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP

8GB internal memory 

“As Nokia’s first mass-market device with a touch screen, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic turns a ‘user interface’ into a ‘human interface’ by truly putting people first. For example, we’ve introduced the Nokia Contacts Bar, which is like a digital RSS feed on your life,” added by Harlow. “By adding the benefits of touch screen technology to S60, the world’s leading smartphone interface, Nokia is taking the familiar and giving it a human touch. We have used touch technology where it really adds value such as the Contacts Bar, Media Bar and clever shortcuts from the homescreen to menu items such as calendar, profiles and clock.” 

The new Nokia 5800 XpressMusic cellphone which supports all main digital music formats is expected to be available worldwide starting Q4 2008 for about $400.

Perhaps you are tired of listening to local radio stations which play the same songs over and over again and seem to be saturated with commercials. If you are hungering for independent worldwide radio broadcasts, you can opt for Screamer Radio, an internet radio player that can stream audio data to your computer via internet connection.

Unlike the traditional radio player which can receive radio signals from local radio stations, Screamer Radio cannot receive this signal directly, but users can use this internet radio player to listen to radio stations which support online radio streaming. There are more than two thousand radio stations all over the world in the radio directory in Screamer Radio. Thus, users can use this application to listen to their favourite radio station. 

Screamer Radio is a freeware and it is free of commercial ads. While listening to your favourite music, this program also allows users to record their favourite songs/music into MP3 or OGG format. Users can record and play them in the future. The latest Screamer Radio version 0.4.2 is available for downloading. Users can download it via the link here: 

Download: Screamer Radio v0.4.2 for Windows 2000/XP/Vista

Download: Screamer Radio Portable v0.4.2 for Windows 2000/XP/Vista

Download: Screamer Radio v0.4.2 for Windows 9X

Download: Screamer Radio Portable v0.4.2 for Windows 9X 

Some amendments to this latest release:

• Upgraded BASS to 2.4.1.1

• Upgraded BASSWMA to 2.4.1.1

• Added a lot of language files and converted all of them to UTF-8

• Refactored a bunch of code

• Fixed UTF-8 bug on non UNICODE-build

• Peakmeter didn’t update properly, required a restart to turn on or off

• Statusbar only updated when switching languages if you were currently playing

• Merged changelogs, now there is only one

• Resolved long path bug when recording

• Updated manifest file with Vista privilege properties

• Tray icon now recreated on explorer restart

• Tray icon now indicates if you are recording (when custom icon is off)

• Tray icon menu now has a quicker option to enable/disable recording

• Preset menus now split into columns of 35 items each

• Upgraded BASS to 2.4.0.1

• Upgraded BASSWMA to 2.4.0.1

• Upgraded BASS_AAC to 2.4.0.1

• Added manifest file and adjusted GUI a little, slightly prettier dialog

• Fixed internal string bug

• Screamer now fades out on stop

• Windows Desktop Heap bug adressed, but not fixed… will require new way to select radio stations, preset menu is simply too large

Continuing with our series showing different ways to watch television and other video programs online, this week we bring you Miro.  Think of Miro as a TiVo for your computer which will download and save Internet programs.  Miro is available for all three major platforms, OS X, Windows, and various Linux distributions including Ubuntu.

The User Interface is very easy to navigate which allows you to easily search, save and organize your shows.

The Miro sidebar will come with preinstalled channels created of various subjects.  You can customize them to your choices.  Miro also has a neat feature that allows you to search and download content from some of the major video websites.

    

As of this writing Miro boasts 5,163 channels.  You can search them by keyword, category, most popular, etc.

 

You can keep track of what is downloading and have the ability to stop some or all of the downloads at any time.  This is very handy if you are using another application that requires additional bandwidth.

 

The viewing area in Miro is can be sized to your liking and even full screen.

Gigi yang putih tentu menjadi dambaan banyak orang. Sayangnya, minuman dan makanan yang kita makan bisa menyebabkan noda pada gigi. Menyikat gigi ternyata sering juga tak mampu menghilangkan noda membandel pada gigi. Cara termudah adalah menghindari makanan yang bisa meninggalkan noda. Berikut ini tips mudah menjaga gigi agar tetap putih.

· Mengurangi plak atau bahkan tidak ingin timbul gangguan tersebut sebaiknya gunakan sedotan untuk minum kopi, teh, cola dan anggur merah. Dengan demikian, minuman tak perlu langsung mengena pada gigi.

· Perbanyak mengkonsumsi makanan yang bisa berperan sebagai pemutih gigi secara alamiah seperti buah dan sayuran. Apel, wortel dan seledri terbukti efektif untuk ‘membersihkan’ gigi.

· Sejumlah makanan menciptakan ‘film’ yang akan melindungi gigi dari terbentuknya noda. Brokoli, daun selada dan bayam adalah makanan yang bisa mencegah terbentuknya noda gigi.

· Buah strawberry punya kekuatan tersendiri untuk memutihkan. Hancurkan buah strawberry, kemudian (dengan menggunakan jari), tempelkan pada gigi dan biarkan selama satu atau dua menit. Setelah itu gosok dengan sikat gigi secara menyeluruh.

· Di pasaran juga tersedia berbagai produk pemutih gigi. Umumnya pemutih gigi ini berbahan aktif carbamide peroxides yang akan bekerja dengan mengoksidasi noda yang menempel pada gigi. Umumnya butuh waktu sekitar dua minggu untuk melihat hasilnya dan perlakuan ini seringkali perlu diulang setiap enam bulan.

WASHINGTON —

After one spectacular failure, the $700 billion financial industry bailout found a second life Wednesday, winning lopsided passage in the Senate and gaining ground in the House, where Republicans opposition softened.

Senators loaded the economic rescue bill with tax breaks and other sweeteners before passing it by a wide margin, 74-25, a month before the presidential and congressional elections.

In the House, leaders were working feverishly to convert enough opponents of the bill to push it through by Friday, just days after lawmakers there stunningly rejected an earlier version and sent markets plunging around the globe.

The measure didn't cause the same uproar in the Senate, where both parties' presidential candidates, Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama, made rare appearances to cast "aye" votes.

The rescue package lets the government spend billions of dollars to buy bad mortgage-related securities and other devalued assets held by troubled financial institutions. If successful, advocates say, that would allow frozen credit to begin flowing again and prevent a deep recession.

Even as the Senate voted, House leaders were hunting for the 12 votes they would need to turn around Monday's 228-205 defeat. They were especially targeting the 133 Republicans who voted "no."

Their opposition appeared to be easing after the Senate added $110 billion in tax breaks for businesses and the middle class, plus a provision to raise, from $100,000 to $250,000, the cap on federal deposit insurance.

They were also cheering a decision Tuesday by the Securities and Exchange Commission to ease rules that force companies to devalue assets on their balance sheets to reflect the price they can get on the market.

There were worries, though, that the tax breaks would cause some conservative-leaning Democrats who voted for the rescue Monday to abandon it because it would swell the federal deficit.

Copyright © 2008 The Seattle Times Company

Sometimes you may just want the best 1 min portion of an entire 20 min YouTube video. Of course, when you send the video to your friends, you don't want them to sit at the screen, waiting for the best part to appear!

Splicd can do the job for you. It is a free service which enables you to extract a particular portion from a YouTube video that you want and share the link with your friends. This service doesn't really edit the video just like any video editing platform.

To start, simply go to Splicd.com. Copy and paste the YouTube video url. Choose the start and end time frame which you want to extract. Click continue and you are done. You can either send the link to your friends, put it up in your blog or anything.

s announced the launch of its new attractively-priced full touch screen mobile phone - LG KP500, coming in black, Vandyke brown, Anodizing silver and Elegant gold colors.

!–more–>

“The feedback we receive from consumers around the world indicate that there’s more people who wish to try the latest touch screen phones,” said Dr. Skott Ahn, President and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company. “We want to reach out to this group and LG KP500 is our answer to deliver a high quality full touch screen phone that is easy to use and much easier to afford. Within reach of many consumers, we hope that more people will experience the joy of using the latest touch screen technology with LG KP500.”

Main Features Of LG KP500:

3-inch wide full touch screen display

Active flash UI (user interface) allowing users to attach friend’s photo for the speed dial feature 

Easy-to-use smart handwriting recognition function allowing users to send text messages without using the touch keyboard

Embedded stylus pen for advanced handwriting recognition program

Includes motion sensor games that requires eye-hand coordination to balance, flip, shift, and twist the handset to play the games, using advanced motion sensor technology

The QWERTY onscreen keyboard slides into view when the LG KP500 is held horizontally, and the auto rotating display always shifts images or documents for proper viewing no matter which way the cellphone is turned

The new stylish and slim LG KP500 handset which measures 4.1 x 2.1 x 0.5-inches is expected to be available by the end of October 2008, but its price has yet to be announced.

BitMeter 2 is a bandwidth meter, it allows you to visually monitor your internet connection by displaying a scrolling graph that shows your upload and download speed over time. BitMeter is freeware - ie. it is given away completely free of charge, there is no trial period, no time-limited features, no spyware, and no adware, guaranteed. 

This is what BitMeter looks like. The different colours on the graph represent your upload and download speeds, the display updates every second, and the current speeds are also displayed numerically in the lower part of the window. 

If you want to see historical data you can use the Statistics window to see what's been going on over the last few hours, days or weeks. 

The data shown in each of the graphs is also available numerically, and can be exported to a spreadsheet for detailed analysis 

As well as keeping a record of your connection usage, BitMeter has a lot of other handy features - for example a web interface:

 

See a demo of how you can monitor your speed remotely over the internet via an ordinary web browser 

Using the Alerts feature, BitMeter can notify you when you have uploaded/downloaded a certain amount, or if your speed goes above or below any limit that you specify. 

Does your ISP restrict how much you can download each month? Maybe the ISP Restrictions screen would be useful, just enter details of your monthly quota, and BitMeter will warn you when you approach your limit. 

BitMeter also includes an on-screen Stopwatch, which can be configured to display all sorts of information such as upload and download totals, and average, maximum and minimum speeds 

There is also a handy calculator for working out how long a download will take, or how much you can transfer in a given time 

The BitMeter graph can be set to 'float' so that it never gets lost behind other windows, and can also be made partially transparent. It also has a Click-Through mode, ensuring that it never gets in your way - you can access other windows underneath BitMeter by just clicking straight through the graph.

The InfoPane feature creates a small window that hovers by your mouse pointer showing exactly what speed each point on the graph represents: 

BitMeter has now been translated into the following languages by members of the user community: Czech, Danish, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Russian and Traditional Chinese. 

BitMeter has many other features, some of which are listed below - the Settings screen alone has more than 80 different options for you to choose from, and there is also a comprehensive 36-page help file to guide you through it all. 

Other BitMeter features: 

Audio notification at regular (configurable) time intervals - different tones are played according to your current upload or download speed (tone boundaries are also configurable)

Audio notification each time a certain amount of data is transferred (uploaded, downloaded or both)

Animated System Tray icon shows upload and download speeds

Check for new version (with auto-check option and proxy support)

Select any combination of network cards to monitor or ignore

Configurable graph scale - set to any value, or set to auto-adjust according to your speed

Connection Speed Helper

Option to display current graph maximum on screen

Change units used in readout (Kb,KB,Mb,MB)

Change graph type (bar or line graph)

Interval bars with adjustable time period

Adjustable scroll interval (anywhere between 1 and 60 seconds)

Save favourite colour combinations for later use, or use one of the preconfigured colour-schemes.

Configure System Tray tooltip information (including speeds and days totals)

Show or hide readout area, or adjust its font-size.

Auto-start option for current user, or all users

Manual and automatic backup options of configuration and traffic history information.

.... and many more 

Bitmeter 2 requires version 1.1 or later of the Microsoft .NET framework to be installed. This can be downloaded directly from the Microsoft web site, via the link on the right of this screen.

Description:

Simply Create, Rip, Burn, Copy, Share, Backup, Play, and Enjoy! Nero 9, the easy-to-use yet powerful multimedia suite, gives you the freedom to create, rip, copy, burn, edit, share, and upload online. Whatever you want – music, video, photo, and data – share and enjoy with family and friends anytime, anywhere.

Nero 9 is the next generation of the world’s most trusted integrated digital media and home entertainment software suite. It features new cutting-edge functionality that makes enjoying digital media content simple. This easy-to-use yet powerful multimedia suite, gives you the freedom to create, rip, copy, burn, edit, share, and upload online. Whatever you want – music, video, photo, and data – enjoy and share with family and friends anytime, anywhere. With easy-to-use Nero StartSmart command center, your digital life has never been more flexible, feasible, and fun.

Nero 9 Highlights:

• Fast and easy rip, burn, Autobackup, and copy functions

• Backup files to CDs, DVDs, and Blu-ray Discs*

• Create professional-looking DVD movies with integrated 3D menus

• Copy, burn, share, upload, and create music mixes like a DJ

• Convert music, photos, and DVDs to play on your iPod® and other mobile devices

• Quick photo and video upload to My Nero, YouTube™, and MySpace

• Watch, record, pause, and customize your live TV experience

• Play AVCHD and other HD formats

Creative Projects Are Easier than Ever

Using the intuitive Nero StartSmart command center of Nero 9, your digital life has never been more flexible, feasible, and fun. You directly access features and perform one-click functions such as Audio Ripping, Burning, Copying, and AutoBackup, with optimized performance for Windows Vista® with Nero DiscCopy Gadget and Nero Live (TV) for Windows Vista Sidebar.

Fully Enjoy Your Content at Home, Online and On-the-go

Whether it’s video, photo, or music, you can convert and share everything your imagination creates in your digital world. Convert & share multimedia files to play on iPod®, PSP®, and upload online your coolest photos and videos to share with online communities like My Nero, YouTube™, and MySpace.

Make Your PC a Dynamic Home-Entertainment Device

Experience TV from the comfort of your sofa with state-of-the-art TV technology, even for HDTV and DVB Radio. Pause, record, schedule, manage, and playback your TV shows.

Best in the Business Software Gets Better

The ripping and burning capabilities of Nero 9 are the most reliable in the industry. Burn and copy to CD, DVD, Blu-ray Disc – even copy movies*. With DVD-R Dual Layer and DVD+R Double Layer support, you’ll get more data on a disc than ever before!*

Trusted and Reliable – Backup, Restore, and Secure

Don’t lose your valuable memories and important files to life’s potential hazards, system crash, or risky hardware. Backing up, securing, and managing files and data is a point-and-click away.

Nero 9 is available in the following languages: Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Japanese, Korean, Czech, Norwegian, Danish, Polish, Dutch, Portuguese (Brazil), English, Russian, Finnish, Spanish, French, Spanish (Latin America), German, Swedish, Greek, Thai,, Hungarian, Turkish, Italian

This Software requires the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 to run on Windows XP.

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