Filed under: Cellphones

We've already seen the idea of data-to-voice translation passed around, but NEC's latest software is far beyond the drawing board. Reportedly, the firm has developed a system that can understand around 50,000 Japanese words and translate them to English text on the mobile's display in just a second or two. The software was made compact enough to "operate on a small microchip mounted in a cellphone," and was designed especially to help users convert common travel phrases. Notably, it would be technically possible to make the English translation vocal, but according to NEC spokesman Mitsumasa Fukumoto, the firm isn't looking into that possibility at the moment. No word on when we'd see this technology hit the masses, nor if any other language combinations were in the works, but this would certainly make touring English-speaking locales a lot less strenuous for Japanese speakers.

[Via Physorg]

 

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

This is a pretty neat mod from ShakerRacer that uses the N95’s accelerometer via Bluetooth. Are our recent N95 winners willing to rig an RC with Bluetooth and test this out for us?

Perhaps in response to the campaign by MoveOn, perhaps just because they have always tweaked new features in the weeks following their launch, Facebook announced last night changes to its much-maligned (in the press) Beacon advertising system. According to a statement, participation in Beacon, while still controlled site-to-site, is now explicitly opt-in -- ignoring a Beacon notification will no longer be taken as passive acceptance to publish stories to your news feed. Users will have to explicitly tell the system they are okay with the information being passed to their profile before any info is posted.

MoveOn is calling this a victory, even though the system still operates site-by-site, and Facebook has said there will be no global opt-out, which we pointed out was apparently in an earlier, pre-release version of the system, and which MoveOn later picked up on.

As we suggested last week, and as VentureBeat also intimated, the size of the reaction from Facebook users seemed overblown -- i.e., the tech media and blogosophere echo chamber was more upset by Beacon than the majority of Facebook users. That matters little, though, since better privacy controls for users is a win for them whether they care to have them or not. We can't help but think, however, that MoveOn has actually missed the important issue.

The MoveOn campaign focused exclusively on Beacon's tendency to share purchases with friends (or total strangers in your network via your mini-feed, as MoveOn's Adam Green pointed out to me via email last week). But what we haven't heard from MoveOn is a word about the information Facebook is gathering on your purchases. Whether or not you opt-in to let the stories be published, Facebook still likely knows what you bought and is gathering that information. Which is the greater breech of your privacy?

This is, of course, nothing new. Google, DoubleClick, Microsoft's Atlas, any just about any other ad network on the web uses cookies to watch where you go and build a profile of your behavior. It's all supposed to be anonymous, of course, but privacy advocates have long been unnerved by this practice (the US Senate is looking into DoubleClick now). The difference with Facebook, is that the data they gather on your purchases (and potentially on your web browsing) is linked to a profile of additional information specifically about you. Even if they promise the data is kept anonymous and not sold to third-parties -- and they do -- doesn't that seem just a bit creepier than the potential for your friends to find out which game you bought for your Wii from Overstock?

While users can count it a victory that they have greater control over what information gets published to the news feed about their behavior outside Facebook, that they still have no way to opt-out of the data collection on Facebook partner sites at all is somewhat disconcerting. Data collection on the web by advertisers is something that many of us have grown used to, and some of us have grown jaded and simply accept it as a fact of Internet life. But the real privacy issue here has not been resolved: Facebook still has access to detailed information about your purchasing and browsing habits on partner sites that you can't opt-out of.

Xing, often referred to as “The European LinkedIn,” will be launching its own version of the Facebook News Feed on Monday. Called “What’s New in My Network,” Xing’s new feature will keep you posted on profile updates your connections make, as well as new additions to their networks. According to the company, there are around 10 million such events occurring on the site every day.

Like Facebook, Xing will give users control over what updates they see and what information about them will be published.

News feed functionality is becoming a pretty standard social networking feature – LinkedIn added it just a couple weeks ago while on the consumer side, MySpace rolled out their own feed just yesterday and Hi5 recently made similar updates.

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Following on the speech given earlier this month by the head of the Associated Press, where it was made clear that the AP and news organizations still think that they can be gatekeepers of news, a bunch of publishers along with the AP are now trying to revise robots.txt so that they can hide content on a more selective level. Now, it is true that robots.txt can be rather broad in its sweep. But it's rather telling that it's the publishers who banded together and are telling search engines what changes are needed, rather than working with the search engines to come up with a reasonable solution. In the meantime, there really are some simple solutions if you don't want content indexed by search engines -- but we've yet to fully understand why publishers are so upset that Google, Yahoo and others are sending them so much traffic in the first place.

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Filed under: Portable Audio

Got a third-generation iPod nano? Looking for a new set of earbuds, preferably with noise-canceling abilities? If so, look no further than Radius' new set, which plug right into the dock in order to extract all the juice they need to block out extraneous clamor. The radStrap canalphones are expected to ship in black, green and silver, and feature a neck strap, on / off switch for the noise-cancellation, an aluminum housing and frequency response of 20Hz to 20kHz. Check 'em out next month for ¥8,980 ($82), but don't get your hopes up for a bonafide US release.

 

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Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!

For a group that’s so concerned about the money it loses due to illegal music downloading, the RIAA sure spends a hell of a lot on lawyers. Money that could be better spent on innovation instead of protecting a broken, backward, expensive distribution system.

It’s nice to see the Oregon Attorney General stand up to the RIAA, calling into question the legality of some its data-mining tactics. Some points of contention include how much personal information the RIAA has already gathered on various defendants and, perhaps more importantly, what types of information — user names, passwords, credit card numbers, etc.

The University of Oregon, in particular, has some questions for the RIAA in light of recent subpoenas involving the school. It’s proposing that the RIAA provide specific economic damages including "the date the damaged occurred, the amount, the entity suffering the damage, and how the damage was caused," according to Ars Technica.

All of this extra work on the RIAA’s behalf is going to cost a pretty penny. It’s gotten to the point where rumors have started that "EMI was considering cutting its funding to the RIAA and IFPI" due to how expensive these legal proceedings have become.

The moral of the story is that you shouldn’t F with Oregon. They are a proud people that have overwhelmingly voted against a state sales tax time and time again. They don’t like being told what to do, especially by outsiders. I should know. I’ve been there 10-15 times. Don’t get them all riled up, trust me.

Oregon Attorney General criticizes RIAA’s conduct in P2P cases [Ars Technica]

This morning, Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures discloses to the world his failure rate as a venture capitalist of 17 years (20 percent over 32 investments, which is enviable in VC circles). He’s also had 11 deals (40 percent) with 5X+ returns, so it more than balances out.

Wilson is more at ease talking to the world (through his blog) than most VCs. But all venture capitalists should have to disclose their personal failure rates. After all, measuring performance should go both ways between VCs and entrepreneurs, not to mention venture investors. Sometimes, you can learn a lot more from failure than from success. Wilson shares what he’s learned from his failures. Either a business turns out to be a dumb idea, he says, or, more likely:

It was a decent idea but directionally incorrect, it was hugely overfunded, the burn rate was taken to levels way beyond reason, and it became impossible to adapt the business in a financially viable manner.

. . . Of the 26 companies that I consider realized or effectively realized in my personal track record, 17 of them made complete transformations or partial transformations of their businesses between the time we invested and the time we sold. That means there a 2/3 chance you’ll have to significantly reinvent your business between the time you take a venture capital investment and when you exit your business.

So it’s pretty clear to me that most venture backed investments don’t fail because the business plan was flawed. In my experience at least 2/3 of all business plans we back are flawed.

Most venture backed investments fail because the venture capital is used to scale the business before the correct business plan is discovered. That scale/burn rate becomes the cancer that kills the business.

We’ve all heard variations of that be-nimble-or-die philosophy, but it bears repeating.

What have you learned from your business failures? Comments, as always, are open.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

Nobody likes cable companies, but now you have a reason to loathe Comcast a little less. New England Comcast customers can pay $2.95 a month to get the TiVo interface in their cable box in addition to the normal $16.94 a month charge for a DVR, ratcheting the cost up to about $2.95.

This is a good move for Comcast because it makes them look less like backwards Neanderthals and it’s a good move for TiVo because now their R&D team can eat again and build up some energy to produce an HD product that people actually will buy. It’s just not win-win for that $2.95 burning a hole in your pocket every month, but you don’t count.

Comcast to Charge $2.95 Extra for TiVo DVR Service [Mulitchannel]