Amazon has backed down for the Guild's comfort rather than for any legal motivation, since it's pretty clear that a robotic reading isn't the same as an audio book. "We strongly believe many rights holders will be more comfortable with the text-to-speech feature if they are in the driver's seat," Amazon said.

But instead of removing the feature, Amazon has simply made it optional, so publishers can decide for themselves what's best for their property. That means it's unlikely the much-advertised (though not necessarily much-loved) feature is going to be too useful for Kindle 2 owners. We're not thrilled, since the Guild has no real legal leg to stand on and seems to need Amazon more than Amazon needs them, but then again, we're not fancy-pants authors. [CNET]

I'm a fancy-pants author and I say this is crap! -JC

AT&T is not currently planning to use this tech to manipulate current iPhone apps (Contacts? Maps? Mail?) but instead will deploy it in web services for a number of net-enabled handsets. This is a somewhat curious choice for AT&T, but it would be difficult to implement system-wide speech recognition without either modifying existing apps or running a (currently disallowed) background service to catch commands. Speech Mashups will be an interesting service for the other handsets it shows up on, but they already have simple voice commands. By building secondary voice capabilities like this for a phone without basic ones, AT&T has inadvertently highlighted one of Apple's most irritating restrictions on iPhone development. [Gadget Lab]

"Your car could know a heck of a lot about you," says Clifford Nass, things like where you go, what speed you drive, what music you listen to. And, of course, companies will pay for that info, but Nass is also wondering if your car could speak back to you, would it result in you driving more safely, or even cheer you up if you were depressed?

Nass' research is interesting to insurers, of course, because if your car could detect that you consistently drove too fast or were often angrily swearing at the traffic while you wrenched at the wheel, they might be tempted to up your premiums. But Nass also sees our future cars being like dumber versions of KITT, behaving more like a co-pilot and actually speaking back to us. Perhaps pointing out that there's a pedestrian in the road ahead, or warning you that you're driving too aggressively.

Some of Nass' results are fascinating:
•Depressed drivers drive better when their car reacts as if it too is depressed
•Cars that speak in complex sentences tend to make you pay attention, rather than zoning out
•Older drivers prefer younger voices
•The car's voice is important: BMW had to recall Series 5 cars because male German drivers didn't listen to its female voice
•Drivers feel closer to the computer if they believe it's embedded in the car, rather than a remote device.

That last one seems like an extension of our personification of cars: I've named every one of my cars, and I bet you guys do too. And while a talking, monitoring, advice-giving car may be some people's idea of a nightmare, you can see that the idea has potential for improving safety: "You can imagine how much it costs for anti-lock brakes. But what if you could simply change the voice in the car?" points out Nass. What do you think, guys? Talking cars FTW? ... or KITT-like cars as nightmare? [Physorg]

Language acquisition has long been seen as a specialty of the brain—a strength of the species, if you will. To re-create one of our most distinct qualities in a lab setting is either impressive for computers or pitiful for humans. Then again, be comforted knowing that when computers do speak, they'll sound just like Arnold Schwarzenegger, anyway. [arstechnica]

This is actually a pretty cool service, seeing as other transcription services we've seen are either expensive or strange to use. SpinVox has lined up Cincinnati Bell and Skype, and are working on some deals with major carriers now (no details yet). We know many people who don't bother listening to voicemails because it requires dialing in, pressing buttons, and listening—these are very lazy people.

Other cool SpinVox usages are sending memos and broadcast messages from your phone by calling a number and speaking. Sounds like a great way to send messages to your husband to pick up some tampons. – Jason Chen

Product Page [Spinvox]

Microsoft [Thanks Eric!]

If this feature indeed works the way they describe, this could be the best phone ever. If not, it's just another phone with a 2-megapixel camera that's available only in China. – Jason Chen

PhoneDaily [via Mobile Mentalism]