The latest buzzwod word from the official Google Mobile blog: voice activation

Instead of rehashing what Google has to say about their latest app for the iPhone, we've decided to just repost the main chunk of the message from the Google Mobile team.

Just in time for the holidays, LaCie announces U.S.  availability LaCinema Rugged multimedia drives

Back in January, the company extended its line of media-playback drives with the LaCinema Rugged. Built in a tough black version of the same rubber-coated chassis as LaCie's standard rugged drives, the new unit comes in capacities up to 500GB and features 1080i HDMI output of a variety of codecs, including XviD. The LaCinema remote appears to have been redesigned, and the menu system is apparently graphical and intuitive, which is always helpful.

Now last month, LaCie announced its availability in the UK and most of Western Europe. Sadly, no announcement was made on U.S. availability at that time.

All that changed today when LaCie announced that LaCinema Rugged will now be available in North America with prices starting at $199.99, with sizes including 250GB, 320GB and 500GB. Not Bad.

New digital music device to play on the success of MySpace Music?

Popular online social network MySpace pulled out a small surprise at yesterday's web 2.0 summit in San Francisco:
It is considering the idea of developing a digital music player to compete with the ubiquitous Apple iPod.
 
MySapce co-founder and Chief Executive Chris DeWolfe revealed the idea while speaking to reporters Oct. 6, but indicated that there is no immediate plan to build or sell the device.

"It's possible" that MySpace, which recently launched a music joint venture with major music labels, could eventually build a device for listening to music, DeWolfe said in response to a question from conference host John Battelle.

MySpace, the largest online social networking site, launched MySpace Music in September, aiming to become the top one-stop for music fans. MySpace Music is a joint venture between MySpace and major music labels which include Sony BMG Music, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group. MySpace Music lets people access a range of new music services, including streaming, music and ringtone downloads, videos, ticketing and merchandising. And users have been hitting it big with more than 1 billion streams in the just first few days of service. The avid community have created over 80 million playlists since the launch, DeWolfe said. Five million bands upload their music to the site.

The experimental device, unveiled Friday, is designed to support bodyweight, reduce stress on the knees and help people get up steps and stay in crouching positions.

Honda envisions the device being used by workers at auto or other factories. It showed a video of Honda employees wearing the device and bending to peer underneath vehicles on an assembly line.

Engineer Jun Ashihara also said the machine is useful for people standing in long lines and for people who run around to make deliveries.

Follow this AP story by Yuri Kageyama.

Canadian pilot project will test consumers' willingness to use mobile phones as method of payment

When wireless industry experts consider the challenges of adding an electronic wallet to our mobile phones, the biggest issue they face is no longer the technology.

It's people — and specifically how we will react to having the power of a credit card folded into the circuitry of our favourite voice, e-mail and multimedia handset.

Next spring, three companies are launching a mobile payments pilot in downtown Toronto to examine how consumers will use cutting-edge technology that lets them wave a cellphone at the cashier rather than opening their purse or wallet.

Follow this story by Simon Avery / Globe and Mail