THE TECH-LICIOUS

Schiller is peddling a bike designed for pedaling on the water

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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><img alt="The Schiller X1 in action " height="358" src="http://images.gizmag.com/hero/schillerx1.jpg" width="640" /></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 22px;">Last year, US entrepreneur Judah Schiller </span>crossed San Francisco Bay on a bike<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 22px;"> – and no, he didn’t ride that bike across the Golden Gate Bridge. Instead, he mounted it on a Shuttle Bike kit, which adds pontoons and a propeller to a user-supplied bicycle. Since then, Judah has been working on designing an all-in-one "waterbike" of his own. The result, the Schiller X1, was officially unveiled this month.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Unlike the <a href="http://www.gizmag.com/go/2505/" style="background-color: transparent; color: #1e8dd7; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Shuttle Bike kit</a> (which is designed to be carried in a backpack while the rider is cycling on land), the X1 has the "bike" built into it – it doesn’t require the addition of an existing bicycle. That said, it still does disassemble for transport in a car, or for storage in a closet.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Its frame is made from anodized aluminum, with much of its hardware being constructed from stainless steel. The saddle, handlebars, cranks and pedals are of the type found on regular bikes, while the inflatable dual-chamber pontoons, not surprisingly, are rubber. It also features LED lighting.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.gizmag.com/schiller-x1-water-bike/33596/pictures#3" style="background-color: transparent; color: #1e8dd7; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><img alt="The saddle, handlebars, cranks and pedals are of the type found on regular bikes, while th..." src="http://images.gizmag.com/inline/schillerx1-1.png" style="border: 0px; vertical-align: bottom;" width="" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Power is transferred from the pedals via a Gates Carbon belt drive to a continuously-variable NuVinci 360 transmission, and then used to turn <em>two</em>propellers mounted on flexible shafts. In an arrangement that's unique to the X1, steering is achieved not through a rudder, but by turning the two props to the left or right.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The whole thing weighs about 45 pounds (20 kg), and can reportedly travel at up to 10 mph (16 km/h) "depending on rider ability."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">And no, the X1 is not cheap. The basic version will set you back US$6,495, while the limited-edition chrome-plated Founder’s Edition goes for $8,775. Shipping of the first units is expected to begin next month.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Should you not be feeling quite so rich, you might instead want to check out the similar <a href="http://hydrobikes.com/" style="background-color: transparent; color: #1e8dd7; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Hydrobike</a>, which is priced at $1,999.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">SOURCE-<a href="http://www.gizmag.com/schiller-x1-water-bike/33596/" target="_blank">GIZMAG</a></span></div>
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Schiller is peddling a bike designed for pedaling on the water

Last year, US entrepreneur Judah Schiller crossed San Francisco Bay on a bike – and no, he didn’t ride that bike across the Golden Gate Bridge. Instead, he mounted it on a Shuttle Bike kit, which add…

30 Aug 2014

Google Now Detects Accents & Mimics

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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Google Now is still a half measure for many Android users, the cards look like the most potent part of the program, but the voice recognition service still needs a bit of work. A new feature looks to make it easier for multiple language users to swap over on the fly.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><span style="color: black;">The new system allows users to add more than one language, swapping from one another on the fly. This could allow localisation for user’s who move country often. Google Now can even detect accent change, as </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqYBuS0jM5o&channel=shadow321337" style="color: #0068cf; font-weight: inherit;" target="_blank">one video shows</a><span style="color: black;">.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Moving from English (UK) and English (US) is completely impractical for anyone, but does show the voice recognition service has a good understanding of accent, something Apple’s Siri has not been great at detecting, especially stronger English accents.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><img alt="Google Now" height="419" src="http://news.filehippo.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Google-Now.jpg" width="640" /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Accents are a hard thing for programmers to understand, voice recognition naturally works with one voice, but Google is looking to add multiple languages and accents. This means Google needs to take more real world accents and voices, to get the practical information needed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Google Now and voice recognition in general is still a questionable service, but there are some uses like taking notes, setting dates and asking for travel times. Google, Apple and other voice recognition services just need to fan out some of the clutter in their services.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The secondary language option is available now, but not to everyone. Google is restricting it to some countries and it may take a while for them to update it on all Android devices.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">source-<a href="http://news.filehippo.com/2014/08/google-now-detects-accents-and-mimics/" target="_blank">tech beat</a></span></div>
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Google Now Detects Accents & Mimics

Google Now is still a half measure for many Android users, the cards look like the most potent part of the program, but the voice recognition service still needs a bit of work. A new feature looks to…

30 Aug 2014