a browser of sorts?

Talk (and Listen) to TalkRadio

Conversa's desktop audio player pulls in Internet radio--and listens
to
you, too.

by Cameron Crouch, PC World
October 25, 1999, 6:12 p.m. PT

First, Internet radio carried the sounds of the world to your browser.
Now,
Conversa's voice-driven player brings searchable
radio to your desktop--and you can tell the player what to do.

Conversa's voice-driven Web browsing technology lets you speak your
music
search and CD/MP3 playback commands. Available Monday
for $39.95, TalkRadio combines RealNetworks' RealPlayer G2 with a
database
search engine that can scan Internet radio stations
by country or region, music style, or language.

"One of the basic issues with streaming audio is the inability to find
content," says Barry L. Smith, senior product producer
at Conversa. "TalkRadio is an audio player that uses speech and adds
search
capabilities."

TalkRadio is driven by a searchable database of Internet radio and
music
sites. Like the Internet radio database site Kerbango,
Conversa claims that it constantly revises its warehouse of stations
so
users avoid hitting dead links.

The user interface on TalkRadio resembles that of a CD player with
play,
pause, forward, backward, and stop buttons/voice
commands. It also lets you jump back and forth between streaming
audio,
MP3, and .wav files.

To get you started with Internet audio browsing, TalkRadio has a
premium
folder with links to Bloomberg Radio, Tunes.com,
and Cartalk. Beyond that, you can search by country, state, or music
style
for stations to add to your collection.

Getting Conversational

Obviously, TalkRadio won't understand just anything you mumble. You
must
use certain phrases to direct the database. The program's
"What can I say?" list tells you exactly how to phrase your searches
and
commands.

Basically, you can say anything you see as text or a label in
TalkRadio,
Smith says, though you can also use the old-fashioned
point-and-click method for a pure listen-only experience.

For example, you can tell the on-screen globe to "start spinning," and
it
will turn until you say stop. Say "zoom in" and
the view closes in on a specific country or region.

TalkRadio will work with most sound cards, Smith says. "In some cases,
you
may have to turn off the speech while listening
to music."

For a hands-free listening and talking experience, TalkRadio comes
with a
headphone/microphone headset from Labtec that plugs
into both the headphone and microphone jacks on your PC.

Combining music listening with spoken commands, TalkRadio "literally
lets
you have a conversation with the database," Smith says.

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Received on Thursday, 28 October 1999 19:26:30 UTC