Bill Dyszel

While no one fears a Weblogging shortage any time soon, a new platform will tempt even more uninitiated civilians to enter the blogosphere when Six Apart releases its public beta of Project Comet in early 2006. The new platform, which was shown at Demo Fall today, in Huntington Beach, Calif., boasts streaming video, voice, music […]

Microsoft released two new add-ins for its MSN Search toolbar, one aimed at fighting identity theft and the other designed to help people find their favorite MSN online games more quickly. The phishing add-in is reportedly the first technology of its kind. It responds to growing reports of identity theft that result from bogus e-mails […]

Creative Labs upped the ante in the digital music game Tuesday, announcing that the company has been granted a U.S. patent on the interface for portable digital music players. The announcement takes clear aim at the iPod, pointing out that Apple was recently denied a similar patent claim connected to the immensely popular digital music […]

Intuit Inc. has announced the latest installment of its popular business bookkeeping program, QuickBooks 2006. One of the best-known small-business software programs since its creation in 1992, QuickBooks is being tailored to fit larger businesses and is getting a new focus on the distinct needs of specific market segments, such as product-based businesses and accountants. […]

Googles ability to generate buzz is nearly as great as its ability to search the Web. Within hours of launching the new Google Talk service, third-party developers are announcing products to improve the security and functionality of Googles new offering. Facetime Communications announced a security application for Google Talk, an issue that will be critical […]

NEW YORK—The people who make those maddening speech-enabled call center systems met this week at the New York Marriott Marquis hotel, where the management just installed an even more maddening and irrational elevator dispatch system, to the constant annoyance of SpeechTEK 2005 attendees. Appropriately, one of the shows first panels featured a group of industry […]

NEW YORK—Speech recognition is becoming widely adopted by business with wildly variable results, but one productive use of the technology is speaker verification—the use of a voice print to replace typed passwords and PIN numbers. A panel of experts at SpeechTEK 2005 described ways that speaker verification systems can add simplicity and security to the […]

Speech applications with adaptive interactivity are becoming a profitable tool for upselling and extending relationships with current customers. At SpeechTek 2005 in New York, a panel of executives described how many traditional businesses are taking advantage of new applications to realize new revenues from old customers. Richard Rosinski, vice president of Professional Services for VoiceGenie […]

NEW YORK—Consumer acceptance will be critical to the success of DRM, but consumers are unlikely to accept digital rights management schemes that force them to wrestle with multiple, incompatible systems. DRM technology leaders put their heads together at this weeks DRM Strategies Conference & Expo to lay out a path to a better end-user experience. […]

NEW YORK—While DRM vendors aim to protect the rights of content creators, some of them seem to spend more time and money protecting their own rights. Microsofts settlement with Intertrust over DRM patents this year clears up only one of several digital rights management patent disputes that are currently hindering the growth of the market. […]