Has anyone gotten tired hearing about Siri? I mean people are just going on and on about it. People are even interviewing the phone for crying out loud. The funniest thing about it is that some are looking at these interviews with Siri and claiming this is proof that Apple has developed some form of new AI. Ugh… the things some people will believe. Once and for all; Siri is a VERY cool product which can be fun to tinker with, dangerous if you are not careful and an extremely simple concept.

We have said this before, but it bears repeating. Siri is a speech to text engine that takes the input and then searches through a series of commands and responses. These are preprogramed and Siri cannot make decisions of judgment calls. If it cannot find it in its internal database as a command or a pre-programed response it will attempt to find it using an online search engine (Google, Bing, Wolfram Alfa…) Once it has a response it then converts that from text back to speech. The algorithm for this is not that complicated and is not much more than an extension of traditional voice commands. In fact I have a remote control sitting in my lab from Amulet Devices that is capable of understanding my commands and looking for the proper responses. If I want to watch an action movie it will search through my collection or in an online catalog for that genre. It can do the same thing with music. I have had this for over a year now, so really Siri is cool but not ground breaking.

This leads me into a rather ridiculous comment made by one of the principal investors in Siri before Apple bought it. Gary Morgenthaler, has said to Cnet that Siri represents a real danger to Google and Microsoft.  He also goes on to make a claim that Siri is capable of “understanding” that is simply not true. Siri takes the natural speech and converts that to text that it can respond to. It does not understand anything more than the pre-programed responses. If Siri truly understood it would be able interpret what you are saying and then respond with questions for clarity or with real information. When I asked Siri if it liked Doctor Who, it responded to me with a listing of Doctors within 10 miles all pulled from Google.

Even funnier is that Cnet comments that Siri must be popular because it has spawned a popular blog called Sh** that Siri Says. If this is the case then I guess that the auto correct function on Android and iOS is very popular as well. After all there are multiple sites that are dedicated to just how badly these products screw up what we are trying to say and do… oddly enough, just like Siri does sometimes.

In reality, we have someone riding the popularity of a novel API that is truly in its infancy as far as technology and application. Microsoft, Google and others are all working on similar APIs. Apple just did what they do best, they got to market first with a workable product, but if you look closely you can just make out the duct tape holding parts of it together…

Source Cnet

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Thermaltake America wants to share some of their sucess with the people that have helped them get where they are. To do this they are going to cut the price on the original Level 10 GT. This is the original Black Model and not the Snow Edition like we reviewed recently. This offer will only run until November 30th so if you have been looking at this case but not overly happy about the price now is the time to save some cash on it.

We have the full PR Below so we will let Thermatake tell it in their own way.


Thermaltake America – Sharing success, spreading LOVE with the original Level 10 GT
City of Industry, CA – October 19, 2011 – Thermaltake America today announces the recommended retail price of the popular Level 10 GT full-featured gaming chassis, will be reduced  from $269.99 to $199.99 for a limited time until November 30, 2011.  The Level 10 GT chassis has made a major mark in the performance gaming community with its unique design inspired by working with BMW DesignworksUSA to create a chassis that not only catches the eye but has unique lines that cannot be mistaken for any other.  The inclusion of Multiple Colorshift fans enhances the chassis ability to dissipate enough heat to handle even the most monstrous gaming rigs.  Add to this the inclusion of dual front panel USB 3.0 connections that connect via an internal 20 pin header means that users have the ability to use the newest technology with ease. 

“Since the launch of the Level 10 GT gaming chassis, [Thermaltake] has received tremendous amount of positive feedbacks from the PC enthusiasts communities,” stated Weller Chen, Director of Product Management at Thermaltake America, “and to show our appreciation and more importantly, to make this great product more accessible to everyone by offering this limited time price drop.”

The price drop is channel wide and consumers can expect to purchase the Level 10 GT gaming chassis through major retailers and e-tailers at the discounted pricing immediately until the end of November. 

“sharing another of Thermaltake’s success of the Level 10 GT series gaming chassis, we want to do something that is rarely done by companies these days by sacrificing our bottom line in order to reinstate our enthusiasm for the promise of delivering the ultimate user experience both from purchase decision to the process of putting together a high-performance PC,“ commented President of Thermaltake America, “today, we are putting our words into action.”

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One of the things that we always keep an eye on is new technologies (or old ones that get a refresh) that make connectivity in the home easier. We first saw wireless streaming of video (not Internet Streaming) back in the late 90s with the technology so immature that 640x480 was a big deal. Don’t get me wrong at that time 640x480 was pretty good resolution, it was DVD resolution after all (420i) and you were not pushing game video, but usually power point or other informational video. Still the technology was expensive and problematic.

When we next encountered streaming technology video technology, it was in mid-2007. Now we were stepping up. We had 1024x780 resolution and much better range, but we still had some issues. For one the interface was still 15-Pin VGA D-Sub. But there was good news, by the end of the year we saw DVI and then in 2008/2009 we got HDMI. The resolution was still terrible with the first HD capable being only 720p (at a time when 1080p was the standard). There were also some issue with what you were able to stream. Again it was no good for gaming as the frame rate was simple too much for the technology.

Now in 2011 we find the device that we may have been looking for all along. Produced by Power Color it is capable of streaming 1080p video at ranges of up to 25 Meters (about 75 feet) as long as you can maintain line of site. While not specifically covered we have a feeling that you can stream to non-line of site if you are within 10 meters (30 feet). The product has the improbable name of SlingIt and in addition to being able to stream 1080p video but also 1080p 3D content. The SlingIt has HDMI and USB ports and but still requires wall power to operate (so no disconnected streaming).   This is a great product for anyone thinking about building an HD-HTPC system and should be available soon we hope.

When it does finally launch Power Color will start off with a kit which will contain both the transmitter and receiver. But Power Color says that they will release single receivers so that you can stream to more than one screen if you want.  There is also still no word on pricing yet, but you can be these won’t come cheap.

Source PowerColor

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Asus had some great news during the AsiaD conference today. Not only did they finally show off the next generation Transformer (now called the Transformer Prime) but they also announced Ultrabooks, the Padfone and gave us a rough idea of when we can expect to see Ice Cream Sandwich for their line of Android Tablets. Now that we have set the table let’s dive in and see how each one of these tastes.

To kick things off Jonney Shih brought out the new Transformer Prime. This is the one that everyone has been talking about since rumors first popped up about a new Quad Core tablet in early September. Then just yesterday Asus dropped a nice teaser video on the internet that again ran around like mad. Now we are finally getting to see this new device. Although not a complete launch (that is on the 9th of November) Jonney showed use a 10 inch tablet with an 8.3mm thick slate. Under the hood is a Quad Core Tegra 3 SoC which should be more than capable of handling just about anything you throw at it. Although the amount of memory has not been fully disclosed we are betting on 2GB as that is in keeping with the typical 512MB per core that nVidia likes to have. Other items of interest on the Prime are a mini-HDMI, an SD Card Slot… pretty much the same thing you find on the current Transformer.

Next up is something that we have been wondering about since we saw a video explaining Asus’ direction for the coming years. This is the Padfone, at the time it show it was all concept art and not much else. However now we find out that it is going to launch in Q1 2012 and should ship with Android 4.0. For those of you that are no familiar with this it is basically a “super phone” with a 10.1-inch tablet that it can dock into. Think of the Atrix with quite a bit more style and class.

Last on the list of cool things coming from Asus was an announcement of Ultrathin Netbooks that will look something like the Zenbook, only smaller. According to Shih the netbook is not dead but does need to evolve to survive. We will try to get some more information about these items (especially the Transformer Prime and Padfone) in the next few weeks and get this out to you as soon as we get it.

Source and Image Credit Engadget

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