Breaking: Google Adding Free Voice Search to the iPhone

Google has created an app for the iPhone that will give the handset advanced voice recognition, reports John Markoff from the NY Times. The app can answer location related questions (Finding the nearest Starbucks), give driving directions, respond to generic questions, and even search local data from the address book.

It works by recording a soundbite, uploading it to Google's servers, which will crunch the data and return an answer "within seconds on a fast wireless network". Saul compared the function to that offered on Yahoo's, and found Google's to be more accurate, but still return junk results sometimes. AT&T and Microsoft also have handset voice recognition beyond simple dialing that many other phones offer. The app will be free and might be available to download as soon as Friday. [NYT]

gizmodo.com

American Airlines getting in on that cellphone boarding pass fad

American Airlines has joined its peers at Continental in offering boarding pass barcodes that you can download to and display on your BlackBerry, iPhone, G1, or whatever have you. Presently the airline is only offering the option on domestic, non-stop flights departing from O'Hare -- LAX and Orange County will start on the 17th. Some eastern yanks might be asking, "What, no JFK or Logan? Where's the east coast love, AA?" Don't get too bent out of shape, boys and girls -- tech-savvy business travelers love their BlackBerries, so we could see this pop up just about everywhere before long.

[Via Mobilitysite]

engadget.com

Microsoft debuts Microsoft Store in apparent attempt to sell stuff

Hard to believe that a company the size and stature of Microsoft hasn't had an online store to call its home -- not even a quirky collection of "Bill Gates is my homeboy" CafePress t-shirts and mousepads. The newly launched Microsoft Store solves that, however, with its many store-like properties. Therein you can find all sorts of Microsoft products, like software, peripherals, games and professionally-printed "Bill Gates is my homeboy" t-shirts.* What's particularly notable is that Microsoft is jumping into electronic software distribution here, meaning in addition to traditional physical purchases you can buy a bit of software and download it right there on the spot. Downloaded software can be re-downloaded for as long as Microsoft provides mainstream support -- about 5 years in most cases. We'd prefer forever and always, but we suppose that will have to do. The store is live now, and we'd suggest you head on over before we make some drastically ill-advised enterprise software impulse buys.

*This isn't true.

[Via ZDnet]

engadget.com

ASRock's Instant Boot: 0 to Vista in 4 seconds

ASRock has a ploy to sell more of its motherboards: Instant Boot. The BIOS update for select MoBos promises to boot XP or Vista systems 10 times faster than standard PCs -- in other words, about 3 to 4 seconds from a full shutdown. ASRock achieves this minor of miracles through manipulation of the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface that Microsoft manipulates for its sleep and hibernate modes. At the risk of oversimplification, ASRock appears to add the processing baggage to the backend of the shutdown process, essentially rebooting the OS and then dropping it into a suspended state ready to instantly pop on the next time you hit the power button. Pretty smart actually. Here's the catch: the system you're using must be limited to a single user account without any password protection -- a definite no-no for corporate environments. See what happens when Hugo and George steal Dad's camcorder after the break.

[Thanks, Daniel]

engadget.com