voice

Google's new Google Voice has a few rough edges but for many users, it could be a life-changing experience.

The service, a relaunch of GrandCentral, which Google bought in 2007, allows you to choose a local number, which will simultaneously ring up to six phones such as your cell phone, home phone, office phone, and the phone at that vacation home that most of us can only dream about.

In addition to forwarding your calls, it also takes voice messages that you can listen to on the Web, from a phone, or read, thanks to a new feature that … Read more

I recently trashed the third-generation Shuffle in a blog post, saying it was "a disaster." Well, I meant it. A button-less, tiny, entry-level MP3 with special "VoiceOver" features just seems so unnecessary. But then a reader made an interesting point to me. What if the lede got buried in Apple's Shuffle announcement?

While everyone was harping about how the thing's really small (I say too small), requires an adapter for you to use your own headphones, and has a voice-over feature that doesn't seem to really add much (we know what our favorite … Read more

In 2007, Google acquired GrandCentral and just re-launched it as Google Voice. The service, which gives users an incoming number that can be forwarded to as many as six phones, allows you to screen calls and record them, and transcribes your voice mail into e-mail and text messages. I spoke with GrandCentral co-founder and now Google executive Craig Walker about the service's features as well privacy issues and whether Google will ever make any money from it.

Google on Thursday unveiled a service called Google Voice, which has the potential to make the search giant a middleman in an important part of people's lives, telephone communications. What does it do? CNET News intern Erik Palm asked reporter Stephen Shankland.

Plus, what went down during the Palm Pre Webcast? Unfortunately, not so much. That, and more of the day's headlines, on Thursday's CNET News Daily Podcast.

Listen now: Download today's podcast

Today's stories:

FBI raids former offices of Obama's choice for CIO

A new spin on battery technology

Live blog of Palm Pre Webcast… Read more

I recently trashed the third-generation Shuffle in a blog post, saying it was "a disaster."

Well, I meant it. A buttonless, tiny, entry-level MP3 with special "VoiceOver" features just seems so unnecessary. But then a reader made an interesting point to me. What if the lead got buried in Apple's Shuffle announcement?

While everyone was harping about how the thing's really small (I say too small), requires an adapter for you to use your own headphones, and has a voice-over feature that doesn't seem to really add much (we know what our favorite … Read more

Apple said it would have third parties developing accessories for the new third-generation iPod Shuffle, and sure enough, they are. First out of the gate: Klipsch and Scosche. And by the end of the week--if not the end of today--we should be hearing about more.

As Engadget notes, Klipsch's press release was pretty weak--the company only said that it would have VoiceOver-compatible Shuffle 'buds by summer and that they would cost $99.99.

Scosche was a lot more specific. It plans to have three earphone models--the IDR350M, IDR450M, and IDR650M--that feature an integrated control surface and range in price … Read more

SAN FRANCISCO--Google plans to unveil a service called Google Voice on Thursday that indicates Google wants to do with your telephone communications what companies such as Yahoo have done with e-mail.

Google Voice, the new version of the GrandCentral technology Google acquired in July 2007, has the potential to make the search giant a middleman in an important part of people's lives, telephone communications. With the service, people can pick a new phone number from Google Voice; when others call it, Google can ring all the actual phones a person uses and handle voice mail.

The old version could let people centralize telephone services, screen their calls, and listen to voice mail over the Web. But the new version offers several significant new features, though. Google now uses its speech-to-text technology to transcribe voice mail, making it possible to search for particular words. Gmail's contacts now is used to instruct Google Voice how to treat various callers. And Google Voice now can send and receive SMS text messages and set up conference calls. … Read more

Larry takes a listen to the sounds of the new iPod Shuffle with its VoiceOver feature that announces songs and artists and lets you select songs and playlists by listening and clicking. For some reason, people who sync from a Mac hear a male voice while Windows users get a female announcer.

Sound from iPod recorded from Apple.com

Apple releases a new iPod Shuffle that looks curiously like something you would use to take care of constipation. It looks as if "SNL" wasn't that far off though when it suggested the iPod Peque?o. But hey, this one talks to you!

In more Apple news, Chinese hackers figure out how to crack the iTunes gift card system. Apparently, it's just a key code generator, and for a mere $2.60, you can get yourself a $200 gift card. We don't know if it works, and even if it does, it won't be for long. If you do know, tell us by calling 1-866-404-CNET (2638). Along those same lines, we find out that "Full frontal nerdity" is already taken for a show motto. Please send in more suggestions.

In depressing news, grammar is apparently becoming horrible on Twitter. No surprise given the 140-character limit. Let's just hope @replies don't wind up in some kid's term paper. Also more depressing, "Star Wars" is coming back as a television show. If the new J.J. Abrams-directed "Star Trek" movie becomes a hit, they may make restart the television franchise.

We've got a whole slew of guests coming on the show in the coming days including Erica Boeke, Dr. Michael Breus, debbiefromtoronto, and Jonathan Coultan. And our very own Justin Yu makes an appearance on the "Bore Out Loud." Keep listening to "The 404!"