Our favorite new time saver
Granted everyone here is insanely fast at typing, none of us are above talking to our computers in lieu of using our precious time to type out words. Enter Google Chrome 11 which is now in Beta. Once installed, simply add the “Speechify” extension and you’ll start seeing little grey microphones pop up all over the web.
When you see the microphone, you can click it and give your computer verbal commands for that field. For example, we titled this story by clicking the grey microphone in the WordPress backend and speaking the title.
It is mostly found in places you’re searching or short data entry fields, not necessarily places you’re writing, updating or email. It isn’t always 100% accurate with grammar, but it gets close. The accuracy of the translation of voice to text is really impressive, but remember- when you pause, it thinks you’re done speaking and although it can handle longer, complex sentences, it will cut off if you pause. And the bonus is that it doesn’t pick up background noise (we tested it with a tv on) and you don’t have to yell, just speak naturally.
You can voice search here on AGbeat, on Google, Bing, Facebook, LinkedIn and all sorts of hidden web properties. It seems silly to enjoy a minimal time saver, but those seconds add up.
Google, the belle of the ball
Internet Explorer 9 launched this week (to little Realtor enthusiasm given that the only reason most use IE is for their MLS which is not IE9 compatibale, keeping them behind the times), Firefox 4 launched, and Google is not one to be outdone, so it put on a fancy dress (in the form of a new logo) and headed off to the browser party where it stands out as the prettiest girl in the room.
Several expensive voice-to-text options are available and of those we’ve used in past years, they are not all equally accurate. We hope Google will allow us to write extended notes or even stories with our voices.
Google Chrome 11 offers “GPU-accelerated 3D CSS, which allows developers to apply slick 3D effects to web page content using CSS,” according to Google’s Satish Sampath.
Click here to download the new Google Chrome 11 beta and
click here to download the Speechify browser extension.
Sidenote: speech to text has decided “real estate” is one word, “realestate,” so always spell check if entering forms.
