Google has updated Chrome in build 27 to include conversational voice search, a feature it demoed on stage at Google I/O this year that allows you to search by voice, but also transcribes your queries in real time and lets you use natural language, asking Google straightforward questions and getting straightforward answers, both read back to you by dictation and in actual Google search results.

The transcription feature is awesome, since you can actually watch Google try to anticipate what you’re going to say and then adapt in real time to the right query. So far in my testing, it hasn’t gotten anything wrong; this isn’t the clumsy voice input of five years ago that got things wrong as often as it got them right. Having it understand natural queries is also very cool, and for the first time, you get a sense that this is what we all imagined something like AskJeeves was meant to be, but good and effective.

Questions that are easily answerable generally are. Ask about nation and state capitals and get the answer right away, read back to you by Google. Ask about a location and get a map. Ask about a person and get a brief bio. It’s a lot like having your own personal information agent or knowledge broker, and it’s so impressive that I might even eventually be able to get over my embarrassment of using it in public.

Conversational search is available in the latest stable build, and can be accessed by going to Google’s homepage and clicking the microphone icon in the search bar. So far, I haven’t run into a single connectivity issue or mistaken query, but let us know if your experience differs. Also, Chrome itself wouldn’t detect the update to version 27 on my Mac, so you may have to go direct to the Chrome website and reinstall altogether to get this up and running.

FYI: Some folks are having issues which are being reported as Internet connectivity problems, though that’s not something I’ve encountered yet.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

It’s Xbox day! Almost exactly 8 years after the announcement of the Xbox 360, Microsoft is back with another one.

We’re live on the ground at Microsoft’s Xbox campus in Redmond, where the company is about to show its next-generation console for the very first time. We’ll be bringing you the news as it breaks with our up-to-the-second liveblog. Join us, won’t you?

The event is scheduled to start at 10 am Pacific (1 pm Eastern), but be sure to tune in a bit early — lets say… 9:30 am? Connectivity allowing, we’ll be bringing you photos and commentary fresh from the scene..

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Browser maker Opera’s first WebKit browser has exited beta. The full launch for the browser previously code-named Ice adds a few addition minor updates to the meaty feature-set demoed at the Mobile World Congress tradeshow back in February.

The new updates in this full launch version of the Android browser are as follows:

• Toggle navigation bar from top to bottom
• Wrap text when you zoom
• View active tabs in full screen
• Search and navigate with a responsive address bar

The Android browser represents a huge shift for Opera as it moves its business from technical development to product-focused development, leaving its Presto framework behind and adopting the de facto standard WebKit engine, plus Chromium — a move Opera confirmed in February.

The company argued then that ditching Presto and adopting WebKit frees up its engineers to focus on product development in a bid to stand out in the increasingly homogenous smartphone browser space.

The other issue for browser makers is that they are fighting with apps for users’ eyeballs. Research put out by mobile analytics firm Flurry in April found that U.S. Android and iOS owners spend an average of 80% of their time within apps, and just a fifth (20%) within mobile browsers. Moving the needle back in the direction of the browser is Opera’s goal here.

Key features of Opera’s Android browser include a content discovery feed that can be accessed by swiping right from the home screen — a feature clearly designed to encourage users to spend more time inside the browser, and less time using social networks and apps like Twitter which also incorporates a  personalised discovery feed to try to keep users within its apps, supplementing its even stickier social content.

Opera has also leveraged its data compression expertise for the Android browser with an “off-road” mode that can be toggled on to reduce data consumption in order to improve browser performance when network coverage is poor, or lower data costs when roaming.

Gestures and a light coloured user interface round out Opera’s offering here. According to Google Play the browser has had between 10 million and 50 million downloads in the past 30 days, and appears to be sustaining users’ interest with no sign of a big drop in interest yet. Its Google Play rating is currently 4.5 stars with close to 350,000 ratings.

Screengrabs below.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

One of the most interesting product demos on display at Google I/O this year was a virtual sky diving simulation build using eight separate computers running Chrome, along with a Kinect-like motion sensor made by ASUS called the Xtion Pro. The Maps Dive experiment was created by Portland-based independent digital agency Instrument.

Developer Ben Purdy explained that they built the impressive tech demo to show what’s now possible with Chrome and how it can be used to create amazingly rendered multi-display experience that looks like you’d expect it to be powered by current-gen gaming hardware instead of just a loose assortment of lightweight Linux-based computers running essentially the kind of code that web developers are already comfortable and familiar with.

Map dive provided an experience that seemed as least as accurate and sensitive as your typical Kinect game, and Purdy said that really it’s a just an early example of things that could be built with the computers we already have, and the mobile devices as well. Considering how far Chrome already reaches, imagining this type of experience running on even low-cost Chromebooks and Android tablets does open up a lot of possibilities.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

eBay has just updated its mobile app with a whole host of new features and a revamped look. To start, the refreshed UI makes it clear that eBay wants a more heavy-duty offering for its mobile users. You can now enjoy larger photo views, a better system for auctions that are about to end, and the added feature of being able to checkout multiple items at the same time.

But all that’s just fluff when you consider the stand-out feature in the update: eBay now lets you scan your driver’s license from the app for a quick and easy sign-up process. That way, if you’re new to the platform, you don’t have to go through the never-ending clicks of typing out your information into multiple fields.

The feature works by scanning the barcode on your DL to import all the information on it. The feature is only available in some U.S. states for now, but should roll out to other areas in the coming weeks and months.

Along with the iPhone app update, eBay also updated its separate iPad app. Along with multiple item check-out, and some other features from the iPhone update, version 2.3.0 of eBay’s iPad app also bodes well for sellers. You can now attach multiple photos from your library, crop and adjust them, and the process for selecting shipping options is now much easier.

Buyers aren’t left out either. “Search By Best Offer” has now been listed as a new filter in search, along with a way to filter seller feedback by positive, neutral and negative.

Overall, it’s a hefty update with plenty of improvements that should make the entire eBay experience a bit more enjoyable on mobile. If you want to try out the update, make sure to get on iOS 5 and head on over to the App Store.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Google held a session today hosted by Timothy Jordan, developer advocate on Project Glass on how to develop for the gadget, and while most of it focused on what developers can do right now with the available documentation and Mirror API which makes use of a tethered phone’s capabilities, Jordan also spoke briefly about Google’s upcoming GDK or Glass Developer Kit, which will be a native development framework for Glass hardware itself.

The GDK will be available at a later date, Jordan said, and didn’t get more specific, but it will allow developers to access a “handful of things” that they can’t currently do with the Mirror API. While the mirror handles 80 to 90 percent of what Google has found users want in a good Glass experience, there are things like offline tasks and access to hardware features like location that require a native API. Hence the GDK.

This will enable “immediate access to hardware” and Glass’s built-in capabilities, so that Glass developers will be able to build things like navigation apps on Glass itself, so you can find your way even if you’re not necessarily connected to the web.

The GDK is in development, and we’ll likely see it before Glass gets its big consumer debut, since it seems like this is a piece of the puzzle that could contribute significantly to the final user experience.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

Vin Diesel leads this week’s list of top gainers in the People Talking About This metric for actor/director pages. The “Fast and Furious” star has achieved 1.6 million total engagements with his page, increasing by 546k engagements over the last week. With the newest “Fast and the Furious” release date nearing, the page is producing a steady stream of content.

This list of top gaining actor/director pages is compiled with PageData, which tracks page growth and engagement across Facebook.

#	Name	People Talking About	Daily Growth	Weekly Growth
1	Vin Diesel	1,631,816	0	+545,769
2	Sanaa Lathan	433,058	0	+383,159
3	Corbin Bernsen	540,030	-30,325	+304,178
4	Emma Watson	428,435	0	+236,397
5	Alia Bhatt	244,203	0	+194,985
6	George Takei	3,354,142	0	+141,652
7	Channing Tatum	321,030	0	+138,236
8	成龍 Jackie Chan	1,104,711	0	+124,138
9	Jason Statham	200,577	0	+121,254
10	Kirk Cameron	198,777	0	+116,564

Last week, “Fast and Furious” lead all movie pages in PTAT. The summer blockbuster and its star have generated a large buzz via social media. However, the most engaged post on the actor’s page was a cover photo update and not clearly associated to the film. With over 41 million total Likes, Vin Diesel’s fan page has ample organic reach which contributes to large PTAT.

The second fastest growing actor page this week belongs to Sanaa Lathan, best known for “Love and Basketball.” The actress takes a personal approach to her profile page, using the first person and sharing pictures taken by herself. Her most engaging post for the week took place on Mother’s Day where she shared a photo with her mother. These types of holiday themed posts can provide increased engagement due to increased relevance to the audience.

Visit PageData to see more about the top talked about actor and director pages as well as other categories. Now only $19.95 a month.

Article courtesy of Inside Facebook

VERSUS IO, the natural language-styled comparison engine backed by Dave McClure (amongst others), has closed a $2.8 million Series A round led by Earlybird Venture Capital. McClure’s 500 Startups also participated, as did Hightech-Gruenderfonds, Lars Dittrich, and Dario Suter.

This brings the Berlin-based startup’s total funding to $3.8 million, having already received seed backing from Hightech-Gruenderfonds and JMES Investments, followed by 500 Startups putting in $100k last December — McClure’s first investment in the Berlin startup scene.

Launched in July as a way to compare smartphones, VERSUS IO has since expanded to let consumers also compare tablets, cameras, and mobile apps, in addition to city comparisons, its first non-product vertical.

In fact, the startup claims its engine is able to compare just about anything using natural language processing, frequently talking its plans to expand to 640 verticals and the potential to even add people to that list, which is an ever so slightly creepy (but fun) thought.

VERSUS IO says there are now 25 million comparisons available via its site, which for a European startup gunning to be global has rather smartly been localised in 18 languages. Furthermore, it’s seeing 2 million unique visitors each month, claiming to have grown 35% month-on-month on average since launch in July 2011.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

After weeks of teasing, endless itty-bitty leaks, and about a zillion radio plays of the one track they’d released so far, the entirety of Daft Punk’s new Random Access Memories has just hit iTunes, days before the official release.

The catch: it’s streaming only right now. You can find the link right here. Hit the “View in iTunes” button, then just tap the “Listen Now” button. Enjoy your early taste of the album you’ll be hearing all summer.

While a few sites are declaring this a “leak”, that’s almost certainly not the case. Apple did something similar to this leading up to the recent release of Justin Timberlake’s 20/20 album, and the promotional text of the stream specifically suggests that you “pre-order the album” — which isn’t something they’d say if it wasn’t intended to go up a bit early.

“Why would they do this?” you might ask. “Isn’t this just giving pirates a hi-fi copy to spread around?”

Yes — but that’s very much not a worry at this point. We’ve got just four days before the album’s official street date. The album is almost certainly on trucks around the country. Once it’s on the trucks, it’s being ripped and uploaded to the Internet, almost without fail.

Streaming your album early, on your terms, is the new “accidental” leak. It’s fighting piracy with the only tool that can really fight it: convenience. A massive chunk of people who download leaks do it just to get a taste; to say they heard it early. By giving those people the taste they want through a sanctioned, official, high quality means, you’re nixing the need for them to download a bootleg copy.

Will it eliminate piracy of the album? Of course not — but it’s one small nudge upwards in a hugely uphill battle.

(Plus, artists make most of their money by way of touring these days anyway — and if there’s any show worth seeing live, it’s Daft Punk)

Article courtesy of TechCrunch

As a parent of three technically savvy kids I find it disturbing that we haven’t even “scratched” the surface of Scratch, an amazing, object-oriented programming language from the MIT Media Lab’sLifelong Kindergarten Group. That may change, however, as it’s much easier to get started in Scratch thanks to a new release of the platform that lives entirely in the browser.

You can try the programming language here and the new version allows for webcam interaction with the on-screen sprites and you can now add vector-based graphics that will scale without losing resolution. You can also create your own programming “blocks” and add new logic to your programs or games.

The new interface is similar to the old, desktop-based system except it’s a bit simpler and you can store your programs on your computer and then upload them anywhere. A “backpack” will hold objects from one project to the next so you can bring sprites and backgrounds with you to new games. Everything runs smoothly right in the browser. You can see a Scratch-generated tour of 2.0 here or you can just start playing.

The platform is great for kids of all ages and it’s a far sight better than most early computer education which consists mostly of typing tutorials and Microsoft Office lessons. If you’re looking for a STEM star and not a cubicle drone, this is the platform for you.

Article courtesy of TechCrunch