Click here to see the index of Craig's columns.

Although I usually write about products and services that are currently available, from time to time I like to alert my readers to interesting and useful upcoming technologies. And InternetSpeech.com's netECHO definitely falls into that category. netECHO is a service that lets you access the Internet, surf the web, check email, buy online and more and do it all without a computer.

Using an ordinary telephone, subscribers call a toll free number and are prompted to speak a user ID and password. Once you are in, netECHO uses speech recognition technology that understands your spoken commands. Just say "Yahoo" for example, to search for a web site or "email" to hear your messages read aloud. Using a computerized phonetic voice, netECHO reads aloud the information back to you over the phone.

What makes netECHO even more unique is that web sites don't have to be special ly prepared for all this to happen. netECHO can access most any web site. Using artificial intelligence techniques, it determines what text to read aloud while skipping over banners and unrelated graphic images. It integrates the different technologies of text-to-speech, speech recognition, telephone interface, multimedia and intelligent agents that seek out all the relevant data. Examples of how you might use netECHO according to InternetSpeech are checking a stock quote, booking a flight, renting a car, checking for traffic updates and the weather, buying groceries, in short most anything you can do online via computer you can do with netECHO over the phone.

It doesn't take much insight to realize that netECHO is ideal not only for mobile professionals but for those who are visually impaired and want access to the Internet. It's also a nice alternative for those who just don't have the time nor inclination to learn how to operate a computer just to get their email or have Internet access. If you can use a phone and can speak, you should have no problems with netECHO.

netECHO is currently slated for release in the first quarter of this year and will be available on a to-be-determined flat monthly fee basis. For more information, check out their web site.

InternetSpeech.com
www.internetspeech.com
(408) 360-7730

Update your programs automatically

Is your word processor the latest version? Has that utility you recently purchased really the latest available? It's great to see that software publishers are constantly improving their products by fixing bugs and adding new features. But how do you know there's an update being offered in the first place? Chances are that you have amassed quite a bit of software on your hard drive and trying to keep up with the latest of everything could be a full time job. You might want to give that responsibility to UpdateAgent. from Insider Software. Once installed, just click on one button. UpdateAgent first goes online to Insider's web site and gets the company's rather extensive list of all known latest versions. Next UpdateAgent scans your hard drive for any and all programs, compares what you have to the list and then displays a status window. You can see all the latest versions for everything you have. From there, you can pick and choose what items you want and UpdateAgent proceeds to download your requests. Then it's a simple matter of installing the newer versions. UpdateAgent also keeps a record of items you skipped if you change your mind later on. A one year subscription for unlimited access and downloads is $29.95. Or buy a one time update for $9.95 if you don't plan to do this on a regular basis. Available for Macintosh only.

Insider Software
(800) 700-6340 or (760) 804-9900
www.insidersoftware.com