Google has just released a version of its mobile maps program that takes voice commands, but there are a few caveats:

Using your voice to search for businesses is super useful in situations when you can’t type, when the name of the business is long, or when you’re not sure how to spell it. In other situations — when you’re in a library or a rock concert, for example — typing makes more sense. Keeping that in mind, we designed this feature to grant you to select whether to talk or type. Get it now on your BlackBerry Pearl by visiting http://www.google.com/gmm on your mobile phone, or learn more here…

This feature is experimental, which means a couple of things. First, similar to other voice-recognition technologies, the accuracy of voice recognition will improve over time as more people use the voice search feature. Second, the feature is currently only supported on 8110, 8120 and 8130 BlackBerry Pearl models in the US.

Assuming this program works, expect Google to follow up with a voice-controlled version of Google Mobile Maps for the iPhone and, reasonably soon, for pretty much all smart phones that let you download applications.

Actually, this isn’t the first voice-control program for smart phones.

The folks at Nuance already sell an impressive service that lets users surf the Web and dictate simple memos over certain types of smart phones.

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Need something to help you imagine that? A typical human hair is 100,000 nanometers across so a single transistor is to that hair as a 2.5-mile stretch is to the circumference of the earth.

Repeat: we’re talking about seriously small transistors.

But there are good reasons why Intel and other big chip makers will spend many billions of dollars to shrink chips down from the current state of the art — 45 nm — to the 10 nm level.

Smaller circuits use less power to do more calculations more quickly. The ability to cram more stuff into less space explains why today’s smartphones are more powerful than computers that used to fill entire rooms.

More shrinkage (along with some other breakthroughs) will make tomorrow’s smart phones (or whatever we call them then) nearly as powerful as today’s supercomputers — or at least that’s the word from Pat Gelsinger, VP of Intel’s Digital Enterprise Group.

Gelsinger spoke to reporters Monday to preview Intel’s plans for celebrating its 40th birthday, but according to ChannelWeb, he mixed memories of the past with some juicy predictions about the future.

Gelsinger’s remaining predictions were more abstract in nature. He said that better parallel programming for current multi-core processors and future ones would lead to “terascale computing at the level of everyone’s personal computer.” Intel’s and others’ work in simplifying tool kits for software developers to take advantage of multi-threading on multi-core processors would pay off for certain classes of workloads such as visual computing, he said.

One payoff end-users should expect fairly soon is “a dramatic restructuring of the user interface” that is immersive, intuitive and interactive. Asked whether he expectedMicrosoft (NSDQ: MSFT), Apple (NSDQ:AAPL) or somebody like to Nintendo to drive that evolution of the interface, Gelsinger again demurred, saying, “In Intel’s history, we’ve never been good at picking the next user interface or killer app.”

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I take full credit, naturally.

I’m curious how many SSD models Apple has sold since January and how much this price cut will spur sales.

Reviewers who compared both models said the SSD version booted far faster and ran a bit quicker overall, but they didn’t notice huge differences either in performance or battery life.

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UPDATE: Google has two offices in the North Texas area - one in Dallas and one in Coppell. Sources close to the company say less than 20 people are affected by the closure of the Dallas office. The employees there will be offered other positions within the company. Official Google statement below:

“Following an operational review, we are consolidating our offices in Dallas and Denver, as we currently have at least two offices in each of these markets. This reorganization is designed to ensure we are serving the needs of our customers, stakeholders and Googlers efficiently. These are the only two cities affected by this review, and all affected Dallas and Denver Googlers will be offered opportunities within the company.”

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The real point of my post was that the “trend” — while significant from Segway’s point of view — probably wasn’t huge enough to be significant to any American who doesn’t own stock in the company.

But a lot of folks interpreted my post as an attack against the Segway or a recommendation that Americans would be worse off if they switch from vehicles to Segways.

At the time, I didn’t mean to recommend any such thing, but I’ve since learned the amazing dangers that Segways pose to unsuspecting riders.

Ouch!

Want more proof that Segways are killers (or at least injurers)? Look for more disasters here and here.

Popularity: unranked [?]

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Maghound.com allows consumers to choose titles from a variety of publishers for a mix-and-match “subscriptions” where they pay one monthly fee and have the ability to switch titles at any time. Unlike traditional subscriptions, members aren’t locked in their memberships and can cancel whenever they wish…

The pricing for a membership is tiered–three titles for $3.95 per month, five titles for $7.95, seven titles for $9.95, and $1 per title for eight titles or more. Titles that have a non-discounted traditional sub rate of around $19 or more per year are considered “premium” titles and will have an extra $2 fee per month (10-15 percent of titles fall in this category). First-time users will also be eligible for a free one month trial.

Some folks have questioned the concept by asking how many people want to change their magazine subscriptions mid-year.

I have no statistically significant answer, but speaking personally, I’d love to be able to switch my subscriptions around and judging by the crawl on its Web site, Maghound has a pretty good selection.

Why do I often find myself wanting to switch from one magazine to another? Two reasons.

Some magazines focus so narrowly on a topic that the eventually run out of new things to say about it. Long-time readers may keep getting new issues, but they’re not learning much they haven’t read before.

Men’s Health falls into this category for me.

Other magazines have the opposite problem, changing so much that they drift outside my sphere of interest or stop suiting my tastes.

GQ would be a good example here. It’s gone from being a general-interest men’s magazine to an odd combination of dubious fashion advice for would-be hipsters (near skin-tight suites) and angry political pieces.

I’d love to switch both subscriptions, but I can’t do it easily, so I’m stuck with two magazines I no longer enjoy. Maghound sounds like a good option for fickle folks like me.

Stephen Dubner, writing in the always interesting Freakonomics blog, notes another advantage that Maghound will hold over traditional magazine subscriptions:

To me, one of the biggest advantages of something like Maghound is far more prosaic: having one channel through which to handle all your magazine subscriptions, rather than having to hassle with that constant flood of mail from every magazine, reminding you 4 or 6 times that your subscription will be expiring in a mere 12 months.

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It’s all about American Gadgets, Folks

Everyone talks about American gadgets like the iPhone (notable exceptions include Nokia and Korean manufacturers like Samsung, and you can see them try their best to appeal to the American market). The top 5 trafficked websites according to Alexa (Google, Windows Live, Facebook, Wikipedia, and Gmail) were all created by Americans (and some would say for Americans). A similarity among high-profile gadget celebrities, such as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and even Walt Mossberg, is their American blood.

You can of course argue that the rest of the world is catching up, or already has. Forget Japan, let’s look at connected powerhouses like Korea and of course China. But when you limit the scope to the English language, it’s clear that the most prominent stuff continue to be American.

Let’s realize for a moment that the ICANN, a non-profit organization dedicated to making sure everyone on the Internet can find each other, is based in the US. Let’s also remember that the art of tech-reporting was created and refined in the US. Don’t believe me? Guess where websites like Engadget, Gizmodo, and The Gadget Blog are based? I also bet that tech-savvy people from other countries are quite envious of how easy it is for Americans to turn their tech ideas into paper wealth.

American Standards

And what about the standards that help gadgets interact with each other?

• USB: “The USB 1.0 specification was introduced in November 1995. USB was promoted by Intel (UHCI and open software stack), Microsoft (Windows software stack), Philips (Hub, USB-Audio), and US Robotics.”
• VGA: “The term Video Graphics Array (VGA) refers specifically to the display hardware first introduced with the IBM PS/2 line of computers in 1987″
• WiFi: “The precursor to Wi-Fi was invented in 1991 by NCR Corporation/AT&T (later Lucent & Agere Systems)” [in the Netherlands, but still under the management of an American entity

Of course, you’ve got GSM, a European cellular standard, trumping America’s CDMA. But again, can you tell me which GSM phone currently gets a lot of media mileage? (answer: the iPhone)

I apologize if I’m coming off as a jingoist. But my point is still clear: in the world of gadgets, America rules. And that’s something Americans should celebrate as part of their independence.

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Ok, I understand some people need to take cameras underwater, and I’m pretty sure waterproof flashlights would be really useful. But then again, why would you need a waterproof flash drive (it can be securely wrapped in plastic for a trip), waterproof speakers, and a waterproof monitor?

I really don’t see any practical use for some of the gadgets recently featured by PC Magazine as “Water-Friendly.” Sure, it’s probably pretty novel to look at pictures while under the water, but would it really be useful? Would any of us be able to maximize using gadgets in wet or submerged environments?

PC Magazine: 10 Water-Friendly Gadgets

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The idea is simple apparently: use an airship, take advantage of its spaciousness (compared with aircraft) and turn it into a pretty well-stocked humanitarian platform.

Instead of flying to a major airport at a huge city where supplies would have to be loaded onto trucks or helicopters to carry disaster relief, airship can fly directly to any location on earth and deliver humanitarian aid quickly to the exact place it is needed. Airships can deliver help to the most remote locations, even if roads are destroyed as in an earthquake, or flooding.

Are Airships Still a Danger?

Ever since the Hindenburg caused Herbert Morrison to exclaim “Oh, the humanity!“, people have been wary about airships. But the combustible hydrogen that helped the German airship burn so swiftly is no longer vogue in the airship world. People have long realized that Helium provides the same air buoyancy, without the flammability.

Yet the criticisms of airships remain. While they provide more cargo carrying capacity, they are slow (and supposedly require more fuel to move around at a decent speed). Still, if they have the ability to carry so much to help so many people, shouldn’t this initiative be given some consideration?

Source: environmentalgraffiti.com

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Google’s initial response was to brush off the issue with the argument that anyone could easily find the policy from the search box, so that should satisfy the one-click rule.

Now it has changed its mind - though not its self-conscious minimalism. As Google exec Marissa Mayer explains today, the link to the privacy policy is now being added to Google.com - though only after first stripping another word off the home page to make room for it. Heaven forbid the wordcount should rise to 29.

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