Welcome to the second part of my blog series on the cool software offerings at Letmebemobile.com!

In my previous blog, I talked about Tazti, the useful voice recognition software that's easy to install and use - and takes up oh-so-little space on your hard drive.  This blog is about the three other software products you can try at Letmebemobile.com - Jajah, Talkhouse, and Elephant Drive.

Jajah lets you make international calls as cheaply and easily as you make local calls.  If you have a friend in India and you live in the United States, the long-distance bills would be huge - but not with Jajah!  Create a free user account at Letmebemobile.com by dragging the Jajah icon to the Launch Pad and then start dialing all your international pals!

Talkhouse is another type of voice recognition software - but instead of always having a microphone always listening to you (as with Tazti), you hold a button and then tell Talkhouse what you'd like it to do or find.  This is such a fun tool for a MID (Mobile Internet Device) or a mobile device where you'd like to save keystrokes while using.  Download the 30-day free trial at Letmebemobile.com by dragging the Talkhouse icon to the Launch Pad.

Elephant Drive enables you to access your data anywhere you have an internet connection.  This is a must for MIDs with limited storage space!  Take your MID with you but leave your files on Elephant Drive for fast, easy access that won't clog up your mobile system.   Try it today with a 15-day free trial at Letmebemobile.com.

After you're done trying things out, make sure you let the world what you think by entering comments below. 

Welcome to the first of a two part blog series on the cool software at Letmebemobile.com. Go check out the software selections yourself and post comments below to tell the world what you thought as well!

The first software I am reviewing from the site is Tazti (pronounced 'Tasty'). It is voice recognition software that listens for common computing commands. I was a bit skeptical before I downloaded it, thinking it would be hard to use or inaccurate like some voice recognition programs I have used in the past. However, I was pleasantly surprised!

Installation was fast and painless and did not require a restart. I walked through the voice setup easily and Tazti started recognizing my commands immediately! My first thought was "this thing is cool and can save me some typing". I'm using it on a laptop, but I imagine it'd be extremely useful on a UMPC or MID device!

I easily navigated to yahoo.com and ebay.com by voice and searched for items. I closed and opened programs with voice commands. I even said "Luke and Leia" and it took me to StarWars.com! The most powerful feature of this program is the ability for you to create custom commands - I created ones like 'Goldbox' to open a browser to go to Amazon.com's Goldbox deals of the day. Let your imagination run wild and strike up a conversation with your PC!

Download it - try it - and tell me what you think!

Three of the four participating companies were submitted to CoolSW and came together in a marketing campaign which allows users to take advantage of an exclusive promotion for emerging ultra mobile applications and the possibility to win a Zune (30 GB). 

The partners are:

1. Jajah lets you make ultra low-cost global calls right off your existing phone. No contract, no headset, no computer or Internet connection needed, just big savings. Simply receive a local number for each of your international contacts - dial local and talk global. More information found HERE.
2. ElephantDrive provides easy-to-use, simple click-to-start online storage and backup capabilities. Get all enterprise-level benefits at a fraction of the cost. Delivering effective and continuous data protections tools for online backup and synchronization, you can keep your stuff within reach anywhere, anytime. More information found HERE. 
3. Tazti, a free, Web 2.0 style speech recognition application that lets you talk to your PC to navigate Facebook, Myspace & iTunes, search the Internet, create your own speech commands and so much more! For XP, Vista, and Mac via Parallels. More information found HERE.
4. Talkhouse takes speech recognition for searching to a whole new level. It's mySpeak voice search engine lets you search by keywords and phrases, just like in routine internet searches. Our next generation voice-activated music player provides users with this easy, intuitive search function. Download to give it a try. More information found HERE.

All of the participants became members of the Intel® Software Partner Program which provides a framework for collaborative solution development around Intel Architecture.  From business planning and product development to marketing and sales, the partner program drives increased business and market opportunities.

Check out the promotion at LetMeBeMobile.com and keep those "cool" submissions coming!

This is the southern edge of the Sea of Galilee. Note the Sea Level marker in the foreground

The northern edge of the Sea of Galilee, a very quiet and peaceful place.

Again, thanks to Photoshop CS3 and my Centrino Pro laptop with Core 2 Duo processor, assembling and processing the component photos was a snap.

This pair of game prototypes--a tanks game and a group jigsaw puzzle--plays with the idea of big shared screen multiplayer games. What if portable games didn't have to be small? What if you could control an avatar on an enormous screen using your hand held device? We decided to find the answers to those and other questions, and the resulting demos are quite fun and interesting. We'll be giving away the code here on ISN before long, so stay tuned. More importantly, what are your ideas for this new usage model? We would love to hear them here and see you take the code we are giving away and build them. Will you be the one to build one of my favorite ideas: a communal virtual graffiti wall for artists and others to play with?

Of course at GDC there will be the usual great keynotes, tutorials, sessions, and yes, parties. In fact Intel will be putting on a 1/2 day tutorial on PC Threading Success Stories, as well as hour-long sessions on everything from Intel Graphics to Laptop gaming. And we'll have our big booth as well, filled with cool demos and knowledgable staff. All of that will rock. But pay attention to the fringes as well...that may be where some of the most interesting innovation will be found.

A recent submission on CoolSW, PropertyMaps serves the Real Estate industry and is a searching tool that combines complete Multiple Listing Service (MLS) access with the easy-to-use interface of Google Maps.  I’m not a licensed Real Estate Broker, but I did sit down over a latte and briefly tried out the software/service.  I found it easy-to-use and it seemed well integrated with the MLS.  I found a lot of homes that had been placed in foreclosure, but I didn’t look up the addresses in the MLS to confirm if it was a “short sale”.  In my unscientific comparison of PropertyMaps coverage to other services it looked like they had about twice the listings in any given market where they had data.  The company reports they update the data daily and their not as susceptible to errors and inaccuracies of sites that “screen scrape” for listings. 

I’m not advocating anyone navigate a complex real estate transaction without professional assistance because Realtors with specific market knowledge are more likely to know the local factors affecting the sale of any home.  However, for many of us who are into casual home searches or curious about the market in other regions, the site offers a large database of property listings with detailed maps in 3D.  In the latest addition to the service it offers features allowing users to search not only for homes but also for criminal offenders who may live nearby. 

As a casual observer I found the software/service interesting and cool.  Searching for homes online may no longer mean visiting a dozen Web sites.  If you are an expert in this space then take a look at the service and give me any feedback.

Speaking of SPAM, my relatives were happy to learn that after drperspty’s post, no harm was bestowed on my family for not passing on his chain letter web site. And for yulok, I didn't think I would actually get money deposited into my account every month just for viewing your page. Sure it was easy… I was born at night, but not last night!

The point is we've developed and deployed systems to help combat this fraud/spam in various ways. In fact, we have automated fraud control methods being deployed and rolled out all the time. However, it occurred to me that one of the more powerful ways to combat this fraud is to leverage, the users, to help.

I'm interested in your viewpoints about releasing more features that give administration of this SPAM to you, the users. I'm working with the engineering team on a couple of ideas and in the future, you may have the ability to join together and ban inappropriate content site wide (we'll also have systems to prevent this power from being abused).

There will be more news on this coming soon, but I wanted to let you know we're aware of the increased attempts of fraud/spam and "on it".

In most cases they don't even let you know that they've ask! Let me explain. On the web, a "cookie" is a small text file that contains a string of alphanumeric characters. The tracking cookies tell companies what you are doing online, even though they don't typically record your name or other personably identifiable information. The cookies are used by companies to try and match merchandise ads to a user's interests and in the above mouse example, they will "ask for a glass of milk".

There are two types of cookies used on most websites: a persistent cookie and a session cookie. A persistent cookie gets entered by your Web browser into the "Cookies" folder on your computer and remains in this "Cookies" folder after you close your browser. Persistent cookies may be used by your browser on subsequent visits to the site. A session cookie is held temporarily in your computer's memory and disappears after you close your browser or shut off your computer. There are websites that use Web beacons (also called "clear GIFs" or "pixel tags") in conjunction with cookies. Web beacons are small strings of code that are placed in a Web page.

For example, if you arrive at website by clicking on a banner ad for a product or service, a session cookie may be used. This cookie will contain an identification number for the ad that you clicked on, or will contain an identification number for the site that you were visiting when you clicked on the banner ad.

Most web sites tell you nothing upfront about tracking cookies, or how to get rid of these tracking cookies assuming that you want too. Cookies are used all over the Web, but in most cases, their presence is only disclosed deep inside privacy policies. When was the last time you read a privacy policy? Some of the more reputable web sites want you to know how to get rid of these tracking cookies or opt out of the cookies set by any ad-placement or analytic contractor they might use and will provide the information. For example, here is a link to a page where you can opt out of the cookies set by an ad-placement or analytics contractor of Omniture.

I'd prefer a totally opt-in system, but, as far as I know, the ad industry doesn't have a practical one yet and not enough consumers have complained about tracking cookies to make an impact for the industry to change.

If you want to clean out all tracking cookies from all your Web sites the following links take you where you can download three "cool" applications that can help clean out tracking cookies:

• Lavasoft
• Spybot
• Webroot

I've used a couple of these applications and been satisfied with the results, but give them a try and let me know your results.

You can also change the preferences or settings in your Web browser to control cookies. In some cases, you can choose to accept cookies from the primary site, but block them from third parties. In others, you can block cookies from specific advertisers, or clear out all cookies.

I've recieved cookie questions about CoolSW. For purposes of web traffic reporting SiteCatalyst is used and is a persistent cookie. We increment a visit number in the cookie to track repeat visitors, but we don't keep track of any personally identifiable information in the cookie. The registration cookie is also persistent if you choose the "remember me" option, if not it is a session cookie. This cookie doesn't track behaviour only access to the site features and capture of actions related to a users account.

I'll take warm milk with my cookies, thank you.

But, I'm not talking about that kind of cool. I'm talking about the newly uncovered software applications that are revealed by the CoolSW community as to just how "cool" they are.

Here are a few examples and comments from the users:

Peter Cook commented on a CADD tool: A very good and powerful cadd program, can do all that other 2d cadd programs can do and more. I have used this program for last 3 years and had no problems. Cost is very reasonable, and support excellent. For comparison, I use both General Cadd and AutoCadd professionally, General Cadd beats AutoCadd Cadd hands down on price, speed, ease of use on a scale of 5 to 1. Only thing that is lacking is an industry specific command interface, but they are working on that.

Mike Hoffman commented on a converter tool: Interesting tool. It's another holiday season and greeting cards again.

Claudia Schmidt commented on a Grammar tool: This is a great tool. Is this software for free??

It's great to see all the comments and real experiences from the CoolSW user community. Keep them coming!