Crenk » reuters

Google’s Nexus One Doesnt Allow Users to Use Swear Words

Steven Finch — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 19:16:46 +0000

Google Nexus One’s speech-to-text function just doesn’t let you say what you want to say!

Reuters discovered that the innovative voice recognition feature converts swear words into a string of # symbols when rendered into text.

Why the censorship? A spokesperson from Google says the “feature” is less about sanitizing users’ speech and more about making sure curse words don’t accidentally appear in transcriptions erroneously, a real possibility given the early and not always accurate state of voice recognition technology.

“We filter potentially offensive or inappropriate results because we want to avoid situations whereby we might misrecognize a spoken query and return profanity when, in fact, the user said something completely innocent,” the statement said.

Tech Year In Review. The Crenk Roundup for 2008 and Whats To Come in 2009

Steven Finch — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 10:51:21 +0000

2008 has been a very interesting yer here at Crenk. Crenk was launched mainly as a hobby for me to review new startups. Since that time we have had several writers head over to Crenk and help us out with content, including Ades, Kenneth, Mike, Luis, and our newest writer Matt.

In 2008 we have written over 760 posts on various topics. Crenk has also been recognised by some of the biggest names in technology including Guy Kawasaki (who put us towards the top of alltop), Thomas Marban (placing Crenk on Popurls). Additionally, we have our articles syndicated by Reuters, Google News, Livestrong and Computer Shopper.

In terms of subscribers we have had a huge increase throughout the year, mainly because of our partnership with Blogrovr which now means we have over 20,ooo subscribers to Crenk.

In terms of advertisers who have pretty much kept this site in business we would like to thank Adphilia for their hard work in bring in at least some income for the site, as well as TribalFusion.

What can you expect from Crenk for 2009? Crenk in 2009 will be bringing you a lot more startups that are making splashes all around the web, as well as that we hope to offer startups so free advertising on the site. Crenk will also be featuring a lot more top tools posts that help our readers find startups in the same niche. Apart from that you will be able to find more helpful tips and analysis as well as more articles, more freebies and more cool stuff in general.

Thanks for reading Crenk in 2008 and stay tuned cause we will be bringing you even more in 2009.

Reuters Labs Launches Search People in Video Feature

Steven Finch — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 14:58:04 +0000

Reuters has launched a new video search product that uses facial recognition technology to find specific people within videos. This is an great piece of technology that im surprised Google hasnt implemented in its search function on sites like YouTube. Additionally, the video player features a list of all the people featured in the video and advanced searches allows you to filter results by date or search for videos only on a specific Reuters channel. The video search is powered by Viewdle.