Transcripts

"Tech Talk"-Tuning Into Digital TV

SUSIE GHARIB: And finally tonight, an update on the conversion to digital television, a new version of a popular computer program and a surprise from Microsoft. Scott Gurvey has that and more in tonight's "Tech Talk."

SCOTT GURVEY, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT CORRESPONDENT: Microsoft just released the second test version of its upcoming Internet browser, Internet Explorer eight. The program shows a surprising new feature named in- private- browsing which lets you limit the amount of information collected about your web surfing. It is surprising because advertisers covet that kind of information and Microsoft is among the sellers of Internet ads. The action is being applauded by privacy advocates. Google is another seller of Internet advertising and a collector of browsing data. It is said to be near a deal to become the primary search supplier for Verizon. The hold-up, sources say, is not about the privacy of customers' data, but about which company will own the lucrative information. Stay-tuned. And speaking of staying tuned, several of you wrote in with questions following my recent report on the digital television conversion, now just six months away. The FCC reported today that 96 percent of the nation's full power TV stations will switch to digital by the deadline, February 17. But most of the questions we received come from viewers in rural areas who watch signals from low-powered booster transmitters, sometimes called translators or repeaters. The FCC currently has no requirement that they be converted. If that affects you, be sure you buy a converter box which has what is called analog pass-through. That will let you watch both types of channels after the conversion. Or you can add a splitter or a/b switch to get both signals. You should check local information sources and your local stations for more information because circumstances vary in different communities. Frankly, the government doesn't have much information on these rural markets either. Check out its web site at dtv2009.gov. Every few years Nuance Communications updates its Dragon naturally speaking dictation product and I rave. The just released Dragon 10 continues the tradition. Nuance VP Peter Mahoney says new technology improves out-of-the-box speech recognition accuracy by 20 percent.

PETER MAHONEY, VP, DESKTOP DICTATION UNIT, NUANCE COMMUNICATIONS: We actually for the first time support something we call automatic regional accent selection. So, we've got eight different accents that Dragon understands in the U.S. including Hispanic accented English, Indian accented English, UK English, southern English, you-all and what we do is we automatically detect the accent model that's going to work best for you.

GURVEY: The new version also has simplified commands which make editing much easier. There are also new commands to control your desktop and even to search the web. Now, if only it could read my mind and type what I'm thinking. Scott Gurvey, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, New York.

GHARIB: Wish you could read his mind.